Bibliotecas y Bananos

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By F2F Volunteer Felice Maciejewski

The last few days at Banelino were spent reviewing the existing material in the library and weeding material that did not meet the collection development criteria that I had developed. Once I was done with reviewing the material,  I created several sections including: Reference, agricultural science, fair-trade and organic, Dominicano, and student/education. Because Banelino disseminates many public-service type handouts to the Banelino community I also created a handouts section.  On Friday, I will be reviewing all of my recommendations to get the library up and running, with the Banelino staff. This is an exciting project that will have a wonderful impact on the Banelino community.

The Banelino Library "stacks"

On Thursday we drove to the Banelino headquarters in Montecristi. Banana producers and workers, Banelino staff, and family members were invited to a training session that I had prepared on finding the right and reliable information on the internet.  I showed them sources about banana production, statistics, maps and other pertinent information from the FAO, USDA, UN, and other international organizations' websites. In addition, I covered topics such as climate change, water management, fair-trade and organic certification websites. I demonstrated how to create a Banelino community page in Facebook  and also how to tweet on Twitter.  The following day I gave a similar training session at the Banelino headquarters in Mao.

I will miss working with my colleagues at Banelino. They made me feel welcome, listened to my suggestions, and were a joy to work with. I look forward to seeing the progress they will make on the library. ¡Hasta pronto!


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