From Allister Chang, Executive Director at Libraries Without Borders

As the Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders, I have been privileged to work with a dynamic team, alongside passionate partners. It is with heartfelt gratitude to the entire Libraries Without Borders community that I announce my resignation as the Executive Director, effective January 1, 2019.

Over the past 4 years in this position, I have often been asked why we “still” need libraries in the 21st century. With Internet access, many people assume that libraries are archaic or redundant. I disagree. In an age of rising inequality and increasing misinformation, I believe we need libraries and librarians more than ever.

Today, only around half of the world’s population has access to Internet. Libraries around the world are working to expand the reach and quality of Internet connectivity. Libraries Without Borders’ Ideas Box, for example, provides Internet access (with educational and cultural programming) inside refugee camps in the African Great Lakes and the Middle East,

If we think about the Internet as a highway, it’s important to also put thought into the on-ramps and bridges that people use to get onto that highway. Often, community partners have told me that they are disappointed by the limited reach of their free-access online resources: “We put so much money into creating educational videos, but nobody is watching them.”

As my first project as Executive Director, I led an experiment in the South Bronx in partnership with The New York Public Library. We set up pop-up media centers in dozens of spaces, ranging from public parks to Subway stations. We learned how out-of-reach many online  resources felt to people. Illiteracy, digital illiteracy, scheduling inflexibility to use public access computers – there are many barriers preventing people from getting onto the Internet. With these experiences, Libraries Without Borders began to partner with the Coin Laundry Association, Too Small to Fail, and various library systems and community-based organizations to provide literacy programming, public access computing, and digital literacy training inside laundromats. By meeting families where they are, we have increased literacy rates, community engagement and the participation, retention, and completion of online courses  by double, triple, and even quadruple.

False or misinterpreted information may lead to laughable gaffes, or life-threatening miscalculations. At the core of its mission, Libraries Without Borders works to strengthen the supply chains of information in order to reduce barriers for people to connect with reliable and relevant information. As technologies are developed at an ever-rapid pace, I predict a greater and greater need for Libraries Without Borders’ work to contextualize and humanize new information technologies.

I am grateful to the Libraries Without Borders board of directors, staff, volunteers, community partners, and sponsors for the opportunity to work, learn, and grow together. Thank you.