Bibliotecas improváveis / Improbable libraries

Each library boat for Lao children on the Mekong and Ou rivers carries around 1,000 titles. At stops, staff run games and children can borrow books overnight and return them before the boat moves on to another village. 

"Does your library arrive at your home on an elephant? Perhaps it floats down the river? Is it in your local telephone box, railway station – or even your back garden?

Librarians have a long history of overcoming geographic, economic and political challenges to bring the written word to an eager audience. They continue to live up to that reputation, despite the rapid and sweeping changes in how we read and share books in the 21st century.

Part of the change is architectural. Instead of the stately structure in the centre of town with which we are usually most familiar, your local library might now be anything from a pop-up to an imaginative architectural masterpiece resembling a shelf of books or the inside of an iceberg. The shift is also technological, reflecting the increased use of mobile apps and digital technology to bring books to a wired world, although many of the libraries in this book still rely on people lugging traditional print books around".

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