BiblioTaptaps: book mobiles for Haiti

BACKGROUND

The earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 damaged many of the libraries in the metropolitan zone of the capital Port-au-Prince and made them inaccessible to the public. Outside of the capital, the availability of cultural spaces and access to information is structurally weak and has experienced significant pressure following the earthquake with the influx of people who left Port-au-Prince.

In order to bring access to culture and reading to these hard-to-reach and underserved locations, Libraries Without Borders and its partners launched three Haitian bookmobiles, the BiblioTaptaps, starting in July 2012.  The BiblioTaptaps borrow their name from Haiti’s taptap’s—the term used for the local shared taxis— commonly found on Haiti’s roads and who have become a mainstay of Haitian culture. At every stop, the Taptap’s two facilitators (one for adults and one for kids) organized a wide variety of group activities (public readings, debates, workshops, etc.) and allow beneficiaries to borrow books and enjoy personal reading time.

ACTIVITIES

• Construction and customization of 3 BiblioTaptaps covering Port-au-Prince, the North and the Center Departments.
• Creation of a book collection for the BiblioTaptaps
• Training BiblioTaptap personnel to cultural facilitation

OBJECTIVES

• To promote access to culture, education and information for remote populations who lack access to books and libraries
• To accompany the decentralization of basic public services in a country where everything is concentrated around the capital.

BENEFICIARIES

500 children and adults per month from hard to reach zones in Haiti

Financial partners

Executive partners