Applying an ecological model for library development to build literacy in rural Ethiopian communities

The recent IFLA (2013) statement on The Role of Libraries and Development asserts the key role of access to information and the work of librarians as agents for development. This paper describes a training program for community librarians in rural Ethiopia that aligns with these roles. Structured in an ecological framework of library programs (Asselin & Doiron, 2013), this one and a half year program convened fifty librarians from across all regions of the country to learn how to design their own programs, to be responsive to their particular contexts, enable inclusion, build partnerships and to serve as action researchers. Throughout the program, librarians documented ways they attained a set of seven standards to support the literacy and learning for all members of their community. A new initiative in preschool literacy and producing and using digital texts is introduced as heralding a major role for community libraries in national directives. The paper concludes with discussion of the challenges facing these progressive libraries and the need to recognize the complex balance required to establish a strong network of such community libraries, each having both an individual and regional/national identity.