Library Project Update: Book Buying and Organization

The last time I mentioned my library project on here I think I had finished painting the inside walls, tables, bookshelves, and shutters, as well as painting the world map and shutters outside. Well, it’s now six months later and I just now have some new things to say…

The thing about doing a project in Cambodia is it’s never going to go according to plan. Deadlines will come and go with minimal activity, there will be periods of complete stagnation and then fleeting bursts of productivity. You have to be flexible and patient, and if you’re not naturally those things (i.e. me), you have to try to learn to be if you don’t want to go crazy.

Once all the aesthetic stuff was finished, I was feeling sort of overwhelmed with the prospect of addressing the actual technical issues at hand (but that's hard!). Since the librarian was filling in for a teacher who was in Korea from October until just a few weeks ago, the library was never open to students, or to anyone for that matter.

After lamenting about this conundrum to various people for some time, and talking to my friends Diana and Emma- both PCVs who’ve undertaken library projects- I realized I just needed to take charge to get things moving and not worry about the circumstances being perfect. If I waited around for everything to be in its right place, nothing would ever happen.

So, I decided to go to Phnom Penh to buy books. I invited my three student helpers from this summer to come with, but one of their dads wouldn’t let her go, so the other two didn’t want to go without her. Garrett agreed to come help, with the promise of pizza and DQ as the reward...

We started at IBC— International Book Center. There’s a good selection of Khmer fiction here, as well as some good reference books about English grammar, dictionaries, books of Khmer proverbs in Khmer and translated into English, etc.

receipt from IBC

nom

After lunch, we continued on to Monument, another bookstore which also has a great selection of fiction, cookbooks, and history books, but which is a lot more pricey than IBC.

a favorite from Monument

Getting everything back to my site was a bit of a challenge…

When we got back my librarian met us at the school to help us unload everything.

The next day we got to work organizing the books onto shelves, and labeling sections with a color-coded and number organized system (a big thank you to Diana whose system this is!)

It works like this: the color of the sticker indicates the subject/category of the book (i.e. science). The number indicates a subcategory (biology), and a "K" indicates the book is in Khmer.

key

After getting everything organized, I was anxious to open the library up to students so they could see the new books. My librarian replied that we couldn’t open up the library to students yet since all the other books in the library still weren’t organized…

Sigh. Here’s the thing. There have been boxes of books sitting in the library for years, waiting for No (librarian) to organize them. I was struggling not to lose it at this point, but luckily my co-teacher has more grace than I do and suggested we meet to help him organize the books. After some hesitation on his part ("Friday's a holiday, though...") we managed to rope him into meeting on Thursday. And then again on Friday. And now again tomorrow...

organizing the books

We've been unloading box after box of books, stamping them, documenting their quantity and date of donation, and recording all that in a logbook.

some gems

So, there you have it! I have no idea when this project will be completed, but it seems we’re on the right track towards eventually opening it up to students, which is the ultimate goal (for me, at least). I will keep you updated on its developments and noteworthy happenings as they occur. Keep my library project in your thoughts and send positive, productive energy my way!

Hope you all are healthy and doing well.