Rural and Urban: Two Private Children’s Libraries
A report of ongoing research in China
Title
Rural and Urban: Two Private Children’s Libraries
A report of ongoing research in China
A report of ongoing research in China
Description
Project Genesis:
First experience: In 2011, a fellow Fulbright Scholar introduced Jon Jablonski to private children’s libraries in Wuhan. From 2014 to 2019, he visited 35 libraries in 14 cities.
Smiling Library introduction in 2017: while visiting Chengdu, Jon Jablonski met two women running a network of 22 libraries across the city, funded by an NGO in Shanghai. The following week Jon Jablonski met with Smiling Library founder and executive director Xu Feng.
After several meetings, Jon Jablonski and Xu Feng continue to try and see how Jon Jablonski can amplify Smiling Library’s efforts.
First experience: In 2011, a fellow Fulbright Scholar introduced Jon Jablonski to private children’s libraries in Wuhan. From 2014 to 2019, he visited 35 libraries in 14 cities.
Smiling Library introduction in 2017: while visiting Chengdu, Jon Jablonski met two women running a network of 22 libraries across the city, funded by an NGO in Shanghai. The following week Jon Jablonski met with Smiling Library founder and executive director Xu Feng.
After several meetings, Jon Jablonski and Xu Feng continue to try and see how Jon Jablonski can amplify Smiling Library’s efforts.
Creator
Jablonski, Jon
Publisher
Chinese American Librarians Association
Date
2020-06-24
Rights
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Relation
https://2020calaposter.wordpress.com/home/walnuts-and-childrens-palaces-the-smiling-libraries-of-yunnan-binchuan-county-lawu-village-and-sichuan-chengdu-city/
Format
application/pdf
Language
eng
Type
Poster
Text
Abstract
This poster presents data gathered and observations made during fieldwork partially funded by the Sheila Suen Lai Research Grant. Images and text will compare and contrast the socio-economic and geographic contexts of non-profit children’s libraries in two locations: Lawu (拉呜村) a non-timber forest product village in rural Yunnan province funded by the non-profit Smiling Library, and a Chengdu-based library network formerly supported by Smiling, but now an independent Sichuan-registered non-profit.
In Lawu, a husband and wife team of teachers who were born and raised in the village supports a library on the first floor of their courtyard house. Open whenever they are home, the library offers after school activities geared towards inspiring curiosity about life beyond the village, and life-long learning. In Chengdu, a group of upper-middle class women have taken on the role of ’story mamas’ in community centers and spare apartments across the city, organized from subsidized office space in the Chengdu Children’s Palace.
This fieldwork was completed as part of a larger, multi-year effort to document in English non-governmental children’s libraries and other early-literacy services in China.
In Lawu, a husband and wife team of teachers who were born and raised in the village supports a library on the first floor of their courtyard house. Open whenever they are home, the library offers after school activities geared towards inspiring curiosity about life beyond the village, and life-long learning. In Chengdu, a group of upper-middle class women have taken on the role of ’story mamas’ in community centers and spare apartments across the city, organized from subsidized office space in the Chengdu Children’s Palace.
This fieldwork was completed as part of a larger, multi-year effort to document in English non-governmental children’s libraries and other early-literacy services in China.
Date Available
2020-06-24
Date Issued
2020-06-24
Position: 369 (288 views)
Files
Collection
Citation
Jablonski, Jon, “Rural and Urban: Two Private Children’s Libraries
A report of ongoing research in China,” CALASYS - CALA Academic Resources & Repository System, accessed January 15, 2025, https://ir.cala-web.org/items/show/680.
A report of ongoing research in China,” CALASYS - CALA Academic Resources & Repository System, accessed January 15, 2025, https://ir.cala-web.org/items/show/680.