Libraries Role in Making a Better World Agenda 2030
what’s the first thing that comes to
your mind when you think of a pubic
library some of you may say it’s a quiet
space where you can borrow books
but you cannot make new friends
because if you talk a grumpy librarian
will appear and go
orders might remember a situation when
their dog ate a book by
accident and until today they’re afraid
to return it
because of the librarian’s reaction
or why do physical libraries exist today
if it’s possible to find
any information on internet
i know this notion of libraries is very
present in people’s minds
but be honest how long has it been sized
away into a public library
society has changed and libraries too
to show you why libraries are important
to make our world better and contribute
to a more sustainable society
i will tell you a story of a little girl
from brazil
when she was a kid she started in a
public school
and she had a hard time to learn how to
read and write
in her school there was no library only
a tiny room with some books that was
always locked the students almost never
used this room
and when it was open it was used
as a place of punishment for misbehaving
kids
and what do you think the punishment was
yes reading
clearly this kind of experience doesn’t
motivate any readers
and it was no different for her she
didn’t like to read and she started to
associate
reading with punishment
so how did she overcome this problem
by chance she had a lot of contact with
libraries
because in front of her school there was
a youth library
which had several playful activities for
example
storytelling with puppets she was a big
fan of it and there she developed
her interests in reading
not only this library helped her but
when her grandmother couldn’t take care
of her after school
she had to go to her mother’s work in
the university library
this permanent contact with libraries
and with the help of her mother who is
librarian
her interesting read increasing even
more
as a kid she wasn’t aware of the
positive impacts that the libraries
would have in her life
however few years later she finally
understood its importance
and decided to become a librarian
well she is right here in front of you
speaking about
libraries
that story was in early 90s
but until today millions of brazilians
are struggling to learn to read and
write
according to the brazilian literacy
indicator
about 29 percent of people aged
15 to 64 are functionally illiterate
that’s about 38 million people
and it means that they have difficult
image use of
reading and writing in everyday life
situations
you might ask is that be a problem only
in developing countries
this question also facing my mind so i
started to research how libraries are
working to change
people’s lives today i live in germany
and hear the literacy situations better
than in brazil
i study by a humble university shows
that 12 percent of
german speakers between the age of 18
and 64
have lowly terrorist levels they have
difficulty reading and writing
that is nearly 6.2 million people
as the number shows poorly terrorism is
an issue
in both countries and i want to talk
about
how libraries do not only help in this
regard
but also to achieving all the
sustainable development goals
now you might ask yourselves what are
the sustainable development goals
this was the first question that i asked
in my survey that i
sent to libraries in germany
i was really impressed with the result
because
53 percent of the librarians replied
that they are aware of
that and i thought that amount would be
smaller
the united nations established in 2015
on agenda that aims to create a better
world by
2030 this agenda has 17 sustainable
development
goals also known as the global goals
guided by this agenda it’s now open to
all of us
including libraries to work together to
build a better world for everyone
the idea here is not explain each one of
them
but to show you how libraries contribute
in fact many of these goals have worked
so far a long time in libraries
even without librarians knowing about
them
now let’s look at the 17 sustainable
development goals
looking at these goals which ones of
them would you say
are the ones that libraries can
contribute to
surely you have thought of to go for
quality education
possibly because of the story that i
told you
or the goal 10 reduce inequality since
public libraries belong to everyone
without distinctions
leaving no one behind but
believe me libraries contribute to
achieving all these goals
an example of library’s contribution to
achieving the goal 10
in reducing equality is the state
library of rio de janeiro
this library is located in downtown
africa
and every day before the library opened
prior to the corones pandemicy
there used to be a queue of people
waiting to use the library
some of them were homeless and they see
the library as a safe place
where they can seek shelter from the
heat and the rain
but also as a place to educate
themselves
one of them was a girl who used to hang
out every day in the library
she grew up in the orphanage but ran
away
because she was picked on by other
children
she also didn’t go to the school for the
same reason and today she’s living on
the street
the first time she visits the library
she was very scared
because she thought that she might not
fit in
but after she made friends with
employees
and she started to feel at home
when asked her why she was in the
library every day
she answered it’s better to me to occupy
myself in the library because i won’t
stay away from the streets problems like
drugs and negative influence
here i construct myself
using computers watching movies playing
games
and chatting i came to the library
to learn and i already learned a lot
here
i learned to respect the rules to be
polite with others
to use the toilets i like to come here
because here i made friends
i just don’t know to read but i know
that one day i will learn
this story show how important the
library is as a public space
and how it was necessary for her
unfortunately the library’s current
closed
and we don’t know what’s happened to her
but at least the library sparked her
interesting
reading another example to achieve the
goal 10
is i would like you to imagine that you
move it to a country where you don’t
speak the language
this is my case and believe me it’s not
easy
but the libraries can also help you
in hamburg libraries there is a
volunteer project that offers
conversation groups for adults who want
to improve their german
from my own experience i attend this
conversation group and it was wonderful
first because when you take a language
course you usually learn a lot of
grammar but you have no chance to speak
and in the library you can really
practice speaking
second because it’s not only about
improve the language but also about
social integration it’s possible to beat
people from
all over the world and besides that you
end up
making friends which is fundamental for
integration and reduce the isolation of
these people
these projects also contribute to
achieve the goal 8
because if you improve your german you
have more chance to get a job
and the goal 3 well-being because you
will feel more integrated
after having been given these examples i
hope you’ll agree that libraries can
change people’s lives
but what about this argument that one
day physical libraries are not exist
because you can find everything online
it’s not possible to generalize that
everyone has
access to it according to the brazilian
institute of
geography and statistics 25
of the brazilian population 10 years or
older
did not have access to internet in 2018.
that is almost 46 million brazilians and
half of
them don’t know how to use it
libraries can help in this case as well
that is a volunteer project
at home book library that offers
training course for people who are more
than 60 years old
this project enables seniors to use
mobiles and tablets to communicate
digitally and to better information
online
this is amazing projects because
nowadays when you don’t know how to use
smart technology it’s really difficult
to communicate with your friends and
family
from my own experience before moving to
germany
i tried to teach my father to use a
smartphone
to chat with me and it was really tough
for him
i had to write a big manual explaining
step by step
how to turn on the phone open the chat
app
and how to answer and make video calls
at one point i felt oh my god but in the
end it was a fun experience
and today i’m happy that we can see each
other by camera
another important point is faking news
who has ever shared faking news because
it didn’t check it out or because you
really believe it was true
this is a serious problem because
nowadays anyone can create false
information spread it on the internet
libraries also offer workshops on how to
search
and check fake news for people who don’t
know how to look for relatable source of
information as a consequence
this action contributes to the goal 16
peace justice and strong institutions
because fake news often spread hate
speech
and try to destroy the habitation of
institutions
all these examples are focused on social
aspects
but what about the goals related to the
environment
libraries should be exemplary let me
illustrate by bringing some examples
look at the goal 12 sustained
consumption some librarians are
concerned about the consumption
and waste production of libraries buying
more sustainable products
and avoid wasting the library service
the waste separation is also fundamental
and all the material collect is sent for
recycling
including books that are no longer in
use
these simple actions contribute not only
to legal 11 sustainable cities
and to the go 12 but also to the goal 14
conservation of life in water and gold
fifteen conservation of life on earth
by saving new natural resources that are
no longer used
in recycling and mitigating the waste
pollution
in rivers and on land
another point is that many libraries
providing parking areas for bicycles
these don’t only encourage physical
activities but
also give an incentive to leave the car
at home
and reduce the emission of co2 let’s
accelerate
global warming this way
live responsible to both go 11
sustainable cities
and goal 13 climate action public
libraries are also space for environment
education programs
which aim to make users aware of
sustainability
but this is a topic for another talk
to conclude when the library contributes
to all the 15 sustainable development
goals finally it will be possible to
achieve the goal 1
no poverty and the goal 2 0
hunger to make our world better and now
what’s the first thing that comes to
your mind when you think of a pubic
library i hope that i have been able to
change our perception of pubic libraries
and
show you how they are important to make
our world a better place
thank you for listening