Enablers for New European Bauhaus Transformation
BookTruck - a mobile library
BookTruck - a mobile library for children in Romanian rural areas
Can you imagine a house, a village, a world without books, any books? Or a childhood without stories? Unfortunately this is a reality for a lot of children and teenagers from the rural underprivileged areas of Cluj county, Romania. The mobile library BookTruck is a van transformed in a library with over 1500 books the children can borrow, that brings beauty and enriches the lives and minds of rural communities.
Romania
Regional
Around 30 villages from Cluj county + 1 village in Sălaj county.
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It involves other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
2021-05-01
No
No
No
Organisation
The solution proposed by our project are vans converted to mobile libraries (3 vans at present) with a collection of around 1500 books each, that make monthly visits (a different school every weekday ) and borrow books to children, teenagers and teachers in rural underprivileged areas of Cluj county.
The visits are made with the help of a team of 3 to 8 participants, core members + volunteers that ensure the borrowing process directly from the van, as well as participate in reading/literacy workshops with the children.
Along with the mobile library we are also introducing the concept of "Human Library" by inviting to join our visits
and talk with the children about their carriers and lives: writers, artists, athletes, people working in various
companies, psychologists. Only this year, since January we lent 2553 books to children in over 30 villages out of 75 that are in Cluj county. We've involved children in over 100 reading/literacy workshops out of which in 15 participated writes, actors, sportsmen as part of our Human Library concept that aims to expose children to various life stories. We also started creating little libraries in the school we visit, shelves brought by us with books, where children can also leave the borrowed books so that other colleagues can read them until our next visit.
The visits are made with the help of a team of 3 to 8 participants, core members + volunteers that ensure the borrowing process directly from the van, as well as participate in reading/literacy workshops with the children.
Along with the mobile library we are also introducing the concept of "Human Library" by inviting to join our visits
and talk with the children about their carriers and lives: writers, artists, athletes, people working in various
companies, psychologists. Only this year, since January we lent 2553 books to children in over 30 villages out of 75 that are in Cluj county. We've involved children in over 100 reading/literacy workshops out of which in 15 participated writes, actors, sportsmen as part of our Human Library concept that aims to expose children to various life stories. We also started creating little libraries in the school we visit, shelves brought by us with books, where children can also leave the borrowed books so that other colleagues can read them until our next visit.
The Books on Face Cultural Association emerged in 2014 as an initiative group to promote reading, when several
people started "putting their books on their faces" on Facebook in a campaign initiated by Victor Miron. A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "You know a man by the books he reads", so the initiators of the campaign took "bookselfies" with a book covering their face, thus turning the book, and reading, into the main characters of the
campaign.
Since founding, its mission has been to encourage people to read wherever they are, at home or in public, and
become ambassadors for reading and of a Lifelong Learning lifestyle.
During the pandemics the founder, Victor Miron while being isolated in a small village near Cluj Napoca, tried to borrow books from the local library when he finished his and found out there was none. After a little research he discovered this was the situation in an almost all villages in the Cluj county and inspired by the Bibliomotocarro, a famous Italian mobile library created by retired teacher Antonio La Cava to bring books to children in remote villages of the Basilicata region he created the first BookTruck that started its journey in 2021. Now there are 3 vans and are needed a total of 6 to cover the entire Cluj county and start expanding to other areas as the project can easily be replicated with few resources all over the country.
people started "putting their books on their faces" on Facebook in a campaign initiated by Victor Miron. A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson says: "You know a man by the books he reads", so the initiators of the campaign took "bookselfies" with a book covering their face, thus turning the book, and reading, into the main characters of the
campaign.
Since founding, its mission has been to encourage people to read wherever they are, at home or in public, and
become ambassadors for reading and of a Lifelong Learning lifestyle.
During the pandemics the founder, Victor Miron while being isolated in a small village near Cluj Napoca, tried to borrow books from the local library when he finished his and found out there was none. After a little research he discovered this was the situation in an almost all villages in the Cluj county and inspired by the Bibliomotocarro, a famous Italian mobile library created by retired teacher Antonio La Cava to bring books to children in remote villages of the Basilicata region he created the first BookTruck that started its journey in 2021. Now there are 3 vans and are needed a total of 6 to cover the entire Cluj county and start expanding to other areas as the project can easily be replicated with few resources all over the country.
Free acces to books for people in rural underprivileged areas
Teach love for books and dreaming
A human and cultural ecosystem, designed to enrich the local communities by broadening the horizons of children, young people and even adults.
Reduce functional illiteracy and the rural-urban education gap
Circular economy - books recycled, reused over and over again
Environmental: 80% of the books are received from donations, the mobile library being thus a beautiful and efficient solution to recycling and reusing books;
Social: BookTruck lends books for free, creates free small libraries in schools so that children can have acces to books between the mobile library visits;
Economic: borrowing books creates a sharing economy that cuts down on consumption and the waste it causes; the mobile library books are used over and over again, by multiple people.
Cultural: BookTruck offers free acces to cultural events for children in rural areas. We have partnerships with the Cluj Napoca National Theater as well as various cultural institutions that offer free tickets for children to various theatre plays and concerts. Actors from the Cluj Napoca National Theater come with us when we visit the schools and have acting/improvisation workshop with the children bringing them closer to the theatre world.
Social: BookTruck lends books for free, creates free small libraries in schools so that children can have acces to books between the mobile library visits;
Economic: borrowing books creates a sharing economy that cuts down on consumption and the waste it causes; the mobile library books are used over and over again, by multiple people.
Cultural: BookTruck offers free acces to cultural events for children in rural areas. We have partnerships with the Cluj Napoca National Theater as well as various cultural institutions that offer free tickets for children to various theatre plays and concerts. Actors from the Cluj Napoca National Theater come with us when we visit the schools and have acting/improvisation workshop with the children bringing them closer to the theatre world.
A world without books and stories is barren, grey, one day similar with the next. Close your eyes and try to imagine how your childhood would have been without books and stories and imagination..... Like that is the life for a lot of children in the rural areas of Cluj county. Life difficulties, low financial resources, family problems plus no acces to libraries, bookshops or cultural events bring down to 0 the interest in books and reading.
BookTruck brings beauty and color through books, stories, fantasy, tries to rekindle creativity and bring back their childhood stolen by too many worries. By teaching them to love books we give them means to evade in other worlds, to travel the imagination realm, meet all kinds of characters, experience their lives and think everything is possible. By bringing them to cultural events in the city we expand their horizons and enrich their lives.
BookTruck brings beauty and color through books, stories, fantasy, tries to rekindle creativity and bring back their childhood stolen by too many worries. By teaching them to love books we give them means to evade in other worlds, to travel the imagination realm, meet all kinds of characters, experience their lives and think everything is possible. By bringing them to cultural events in the city we expand their horizons and enrich their lives.
BookTruck offers frees acces to books to all members of the rural communities disregarding age or ethnicity. The schools we visit have a mix of Romanian, Hungarian and Roma children, and we have books for all of them. Also, members of our team speak all three languages making it thus easier for us to interact and include all children in our activities. During the BookTruck visits and workshops children are encouraged to work together and we bring them together by means of books and stories.
An important part of the BookTruck team is made of volunteers that come from all Travel with the BookTruck team whenever a visit is made to the villages schools and assist in helping children to
borrow the books from the mobile library; . Reading workshops with the children assisted by our team members; . Various workshops with the children depending on the volunteers hobbies as well as career guidance for the
teenagers; . Organise visits for the children to the Alstom Office in Cluj Napoca and present them the company activity
borrow the books from the mobile library; . Reading workshops with the children assisted by our team members; . Various workshops with the children depending on the volunteers hobbies as well as career guidance for the
teenagers; . Organise visits for the children to the Alstom Office in Cluj Napoca and present them the company activity
The stakeholders are mainly involved in the implementation of the project as they actively participate in the activities. Book Truck has partnerships signed with the local schools we visit, the teachers and mainly the children are involved in the workshops as well as in the lending process. We have designated local teams of children to take care of the little libraries we've created in their schools. Local authorities are involved each time the children need to travel for a cultural event in the city to better ensure their safely arrival.
At national level we often organise campaigns encouraging the companies (local and multinationals) to suport the project. Last Christmas we proposed companies to change the clasic Christmas tree from the office with a Christmas tree made of books donated by the employees. The campaign reached companies around the country and we received from all over hundreds of books.
At national level we often organise campaigns encouraging the companies (local and multinationals) to suport the project. Last Christmas we proposed companies to change the clasic Christmas tree from the office with a Christmas tree made of books donated by the employees. The campaign reached companies around the country and we received from all over hundreds of books.
Education is the core of the project. Arts & design helped transform the vans in attractive, full of color mobile libraries that invite children to discover the wonderful world within.
At present the distribution of revenues is based mainly on corporate (local and multinationals) and individual donations + a grant won during a financing program launched by Raiffeisen Communities. We encourage companies to adopt the school from a village and make thus a partnership with them that allows us to lend books to the chosen community for a year, every month, while employees from the company come with us as volunteers and the children come to the city and visit the company office.
The entire project can be easily replicated as it needs a van converted to a library, 5000 books (1500 books for the van + 3500 to cover the borrowed books until returned), a team of min 2 people (driver+librarian - to ensure only the lending process without workshops). It can also be downsized and use a smaller car. However, the beauty of the project is that children can enter the van and can choose by themselves what books they want. We are already piloting leaving one of the vans for a month in a school yard so that children can have acces to books until we visit them again. We aim thus to encourage local players to transform old vans, old school buses in libraries in the school yards(just in concept phase, continuation depending on the response children have to our van being left in their courtyard).
