Attendance to the three respective community libraries during the month begun well as reported earlier with an encouraging number of library’s users being recorded. Despite the torrential rains recorded in the month, a good number of people saw the libraries as the only serene places that is conducive for reading and learning.
At the Sumbrungu community library, patronage to the library for the month was very good both day and night times. Students from St. Charles Lwanga and Kolgo Junior High Schools, and a good number of the primary pupils who were on vacation were the frequent users of the library during the day. Students from the far away Junior High Schools such as Dazongo, Anateem and Yebongo schools always joined their colleagues in the night time at the library to learn. Some students of the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) also visited the library with their books (handouts) to learn and prepared for their exams.
Some of the activities that took place in library during the month were; individual learning or reading, group reading, summary reports of story books read, games among others. Some story books read were; Pot of Wisdom, Anansi Starts a library, Teen Princess, the Clique and the Notorious Three, Courtesy for Boys and Girls, Where is my Chicken among others. The night time were mostly used by the young adults and adults, the form three students in the Junior High Schools are serious preparing for their BECE exams and so in the night times, most of them visited the library to study their notes, worked mathematics on individual basis and also with colleagues sometimes.
A patron came to the library one evening with a very good art work and gave it to me that could paste it in the library. I was impressed about her drawing, a little girl with such skills in drawing should be encourage to go higher, I thanked her and encourage her keep the good job on.
At the Sherigu community library, attendances to the library were good. The librarian during the month was at post making sure that everything worked well for the library to function well. She held some group reading with patrons and also assisted patrons in identifying and pronouncing difficult words, also she sew some books that were wearing out. The leaking problem in the library was addressed. During one of my visits to the library, I read in group with students of St. Peter and Paul Academy the story of Amoako and the forest, we also learned some tricky riddles. Some of the riddles learnt were;
What belongs to you but people use it more that you? Ans. Your Name.
What invention have human beings put in place that allows people to able to walk through a wall? Ans. Door.
Your parents have six sons including you and each son has a sister, how many people are in the family? Ans. Nine (9)
A certain five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to the word, what is the word? Ans. Short.
These and many other riddles were learnt, it was very interesting and brain cracking for the students as they sometime tried without getting the riddles right. Honestly I also tried without getting the answers right at first, but as I keep learning some of the riddles, I get better in knowing the answers to some of them.
At the Gowrie-Kunkua Community Library, patronage to the library was also encouraging and quite good. I met with students of Kunkua Junior High School in the library during one of my visit and encouraged them to keep patronizing the library to read the books and also share with friends whatever they read or learn as these will encourage some of them to also come and read. As part of the government of Ghana policy to get the country green, some officials from the Bongo District forestry department came around the library and the clinic and on the streets and planted some acacia trees. We hope the trees will be well care for by citizens.
During the month, I visited some Junior High Schools in Sumbrungu and supervised the school libraries. Some of the schools I visited were making good use of their school libraries, there were few schools that I encourage the teachers to help the students to read the books, I also met with the students and spoke to them about the importance of reading and encourage them to read the books in their school libraries, I told them they can normally borrow some of the books to the house read and returned them the next day or after two days depending on the volumes or size of the books. The school libraries have indeed helped the students who are distance away from the community library, we are grateful to Biblionef for collaborating with CESRUD/FAVL in supporting the schools. We are hoping there will be further collaboration in the future.
We are planning to organize a reading competition for some selected Junior High Schools in September, so as and when we would be organizing it, I will convey the information to you for your say. The purpose of the reading competition will be to encourage reading that sparks the imaginations of the students to do critical thinking.
In conclusion, CESRUD/FAVL Ghana libraries are running quite well.