Mobile Library

The mobile library are four big wooden boxes that roll on wheels to the four corners of Lebanon, to bring books and films to NGOs working in camps and marginalized areas, where there are few or no libraries at all. NGO Facilitators use the books to stimulate creative expression, read to the children and organize activities based on the stories and subjects found in the books.

The children who benefit from the Mobile Library usually have no books to read at home, which makes the exposure they get to books through the mobile library not only special but important.

Children can also take books on loan at the various centers in the camps the Mobile Library goes to and enjoy the stories at home.

The categories of the mobile library are: dictionaries, religion, stories, albums, science fiction, folklore, tales, drawings, caricature, history, arts, cinema, English books including novels and poetry. All in all there are around 1000 books in English and Arabic in the Mobile Library that is used for the children from 6 years to 10.

Children in the camps, researchers from universities, trainers that work with   children and youth, NGOs and even ARCPA/AL-JANA’s neighbors make use of the library.

Since inception, AL-JANA’s librarian has been cataloguing and indexing and also buying books to keep the Mobile Library up-to-date and topical. AL-JANA tries to choose books of good quality in terms of content and illustrations and books that serve its mission and vision.

According on our librarian’s insight and experience, storytelling is so important because it connects us with the community, it takes children to a new world and shows their personalities, allowing them to express themselves when discussing books or being involved in activities related to a book or story. Other benefits of reading are to recharge your mind with power like knowledge, writing and vocabulary skills and learning to analyze and think more.