04 Jul 2013

A library is by nature a place stacked with all sorts of books, at times video tapes plus several other research material. Moreomaoto Community Library has gone miles beyond just that. It has carved itself a niche as the nucleus around which communal activities of Moreomaoto revolve.

Located between Motopi and Kumaga villages in the west of Rakops, it is not just your ordinary conventional library but a focal point of about 500 inhabitants of Moreomaoto as well as a beacon to researchers particularly tourists. It simply knits the community together.

On arrival, one may think they are lost due to the conspicuously unusual and distinguishing characteristics of the library but the emblem at the gate bears it all. It is Moreomaoto Community Library.  An epitome of the modern buildings, the library is built of the in demand and fashionable brown face bricks.

A donation from Robert and Sarah Rothschild Foundation in partnership with Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (National Archives Services) and the community, the library boasts unique features and operations.

It is reportedly the seventh library to be built by the Robert and Sarah Rothschild Foundation. The eighth library of this nature is in Shakawe while the ninth is currently under construction in Sebina.

The Moreomaoto Community Library is a beacon that attracts hosts of people amongst others tourists, kids and researchers. Consequently, one may be excused to demand complete silence in an area where there are kids, a theatre stage albeit located outside the main library with book section. However, these events are timed.

The community library has focused on providing essential services that otherwise could not be offered in the village such as crèche amongst other things. The crèche caters for 0-11 years kids since such a facility is not available in the village. It offers classes every weekday from 9am to 12am.

The young ones are provided with facilities that suit their learning, from books to the play arena.

When revelers in Gaborone and other developed areas throng places like Maitisong and Thapong Visual Arts Centre to feast on artistic talents, Moreomaoto residents knows no other place than their face brick constructed theatre stage which is one of those unusual spots in a conventional library.

At a glimpse one may mistake it for a parking garage but a closer look will reveal a stage, the curtains and those lights popularly used to create those wow effects when performers are unveiled.

The theatre is there for youth especially, to harness their artistic potential since entertainment in the village is almost non-existent as compared to the well-off areas where many inhabitants have financial muscles to flex.

On the revelers side are popular concrete park seats and below them is a grey quarried concrete to thwart dust.

As if the unusual occurrences are not enough, the library hosts a culture centre run by the library committee on the east of the theatre. The culture center possesses the village history, culture and customs inter alia.

Researchers and tourists need not rely on the written word as village folks are readily available for a verbal interaction.

To add to a plethora of activities is a backyard garden which exists for nutritional value addition to the community. It is located on the north of the culture centre and east of the library itself.

Notwithstanding the delay in internet connection, though still in the pipeline, the library offers computer training to the members of community for free.

The library also offers conference facility services for those holding meetings and workshop since it is deemed ‘the only decent place’ in the absence of established conference facilities.

Those holdings meetings and workshops are required to consider local empowerment and give preferential consideration to the villagers for catering purposes.

To add more vibrancy into the unique facility is the business hub where cultural artifacts from the community are sold. Unlike conventional libraries, the Moreomaoto community library’s hours of operation have been stretched to allow for much utilization of the facility.

Librarian Ms Neo Mosweu is driving the initiative to afford researchers ample time to engross themselves into literary works of their choice. As such the library opens from 730am to 630pm.

Though it runs with only two permanent employees, the enthusiasm of the temporary and volunteer staff is amazing. There is a librarian and an assistant, ten years volunteers, a cleaner and a gardener.

Virtually everyone could dissect the operations of the library with ease to the extent that this reporter got convinced that the cleaner who took us through the tour of the library was a librarian. No, she was not. She was a mere cleaner whose grasp of their daily operations was beyond doubt.

Volunteers were identified through their enthusiasm and regular visits to the library. Some of the volunteers are unemployed college graduates while others were those who could not make it past Junior Certificate and Botswana General Certificate in Secondary Education.

“It doesn’t run like any other library because we identify the needs of the community and try to address them through it,” Ms Mosweu explained. Such needs are but not limited to home work and revision, crèche inter alia.

The library is run by the library committee that is made up of civil servants, some members of the community as well as dikgosi.

Though the library managed to be invited to pitch a proposal for a potential partnership with Beyond Access, an organization that aims at helping libraries to build partnerships and develop communities, Ms Mosweu reveals that they failed to convince organization to fund them in Washington DC.

However, they did not despair as they managed to strike a partnership with ACHAP’s Project Innovation Fund and garnered P40 000 which will be used to purchase furniture and food for crèche amongst other things. Ends