UIL CONFINTEA Scholarships Support Knowledge Exchange on Creating Literate Environments

Ms Sanjana Shrestha

(Country Director, READ, Nepal, Scholar in May 2013)

Ms Sanjana Shrestha (left) conducted in-depth research and prepared, together with UIL’s Head of Library Lisa Krolak (right), the draft for a scholarly article on community libraries as key agents for establishing literate environments and sustaining literacy skills. To write the article, she relied on international good practices and her experience in setting up 53 sustainable community libraries during the last 21 years in Nepal. The article was submitted to the International Review of Education and was published in a special issue on literacy.

As a follow-up of her scholarship at UIL, she assisted the UNESCO Kathmandu Office in setting-up an Adult Learning Resource Centre in the Non Formal Education Centre for the Nepalese Government. READ Nepal is also continuing to work with UNESCO Kathmandu to improve the coordination between Community Learning Centres and community libraries in Nepal. During her stay at UIL, Ms Shrestha shared her expertise with Ms Chinwe Anibeze from Nigeria in preparing a strategy to set up a resource centre and satellite libraries for the Nigerian National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC).

Download: Shrestha, Sanjana ; Krolak, Lisa. The potential of community libraries in supporting literate environments and sustaining literacy skills. In: International Review of Education, December 2014