Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (BSF),èquesSansFrontiè known as Libraries Without Borders (LWB) in English, is a charitable organisation based in France that provides access to information and education for those who need it most, whether refugees in humanitarian crises or under-resourced communities in the developed world. Founded in 2007, the organization distributes books, develops innovative technologies (including the Ideas Box), creates customized programs, and builds digital learning platforms in more than 50 countries, including Colombia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, France, and the United States. The U.S. branch, opened in 2008, is based in Washington, D.C., and listed as a non profit 501(c) organization under U.S. law. The organization received the Library of Congress' International Literacy Award in 2016.
History
French historian Patrick Weil founded Bibliothèques Sans Frontières in January 2007 assisted by Jérémy Lachal. Its early focus was to strengthen and reinforce libraries by providing books and training for librarians. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, BSF broadened its efforts to include support for culture and education during humanitarian emergencies. After building libraries in relief camps throughout Haiti, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières developed best practices to promoting access to information and cultural resources in post-disaster contexts.
In 2013, BSF partnered with Philippe Starck to design a kit that would make it easier to set up libraries in disaster zones and areas affected by conflict. Thus was born the Ideas Box, a mobile, pop-up library equipped with books, e-readers, tablets, laptops, cameras, a digital library, and web-based content, including Wikipedia and Khan Academy videos. The Ideas Box breaks down into tables and chairs, and provides its own internet access and energy source. It has been used in a variety of contexts, including refugee and IDP camps, demobilization zones, inner cities, rural areas, and anywhere that people are without access to information and resources for learning.
Objectives and Activities
Bibliothèques Sans Frontières' operations encompass three principal axes of intervention.
Humanitarian Aid and Peace-Building
The first intervention of Bibliothèques Sans Frontières in an emergency humanitarian context was during the natural catastrophes in Haiti in 2010. The principal objective of the organization is to allow the communities made vulnerable by natural catastrophes to stay in contact with the rest of the world, to strengthen education, and to provide psycho-social support.
In the same spirit, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières intervenes in refugee situations around the world; thus following the Syrian crisis of 2012, BSF was active in Germany, Italy, and Greece, but also Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. The organization is also present in the African Great Lakes region, which has witnessed years of bloody conflicts. BSF has worked in Colombia following the armed conflict of the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In this post-conflict situation, the organization in partnership with the government of Colombia, the Colombian Ministry of Culture and the National Libraries of Colombia, installed 20 mobile libraries in demobilization camps.
Education and Tools for Cultural Expression
The second principal axis of intervention includes both education and resources for cultural creation. Bibliothèques Sans Frontières works, in France as around the world, to reduce inequality in several contexts. BSF claims to offer access to cultural resources, to education, and also to information. This work is done in opening real and virtual libraries around the world. In so doing, the libraries become fundamental tools in this reduction of inequality, and also serve in the development of democracy and citizenship.
Social Entrepreneurship
Bibliothèques Sans Frontières’ third and final axis of intervention concerns the social transformation of communities in structurally precarious situations and the development of social entrepreneurship. The goals of these interventions are to rethink libraries such that they become financially sustainable and socially meaningful (supporting shared values, proposing activities for communities in unfavorable conditions, etc.). Beyond that, BSF seeks to rethink the vision of the profession of librarian. The organization offers training for young librarians.
Tools and Programs
To carry out its projects, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières uses different technologies, tools, and programs including the Ideas Box, the Ideas Cube (formerly the Koombook), the Digital Traveller’s program, as well as the online learning platform, Khan Academy.