Dr. Robert Ouko had a lifelong passion for reading and knowledge enhancement which he passed on to his family. We in turn would like to introduce and promote this culture of reading and information literacy within the local community. We are therefore embarking on a project to introduce a community library to this area. In the interest of long term sustainability, the project will be carried out in partnership with the Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) Board.

The Vision

To establish a high quality library and ICT resource centre for the local community that will contribute towards an empowered and informed.

The Inspiration

The library will be inspired and guided by Dr. Robert Ouko’s values of excellence, continuous learning and self determination, and will preserve his memory by providing access to records of his life’s works and achievements.

The Beneficiaries

All learners: children, primary, secondary and tertiary students, school leavers, adults, retirees, families, and corporates in the region.

The Project Concept

The library will be located just off the main Koru / Muhoroni road, equidistant from the two towns. Given that the nearest libraries are located in Kericho and Kisumu both approximately 60 kms away and also taking into account the population of the area and the number of nearby schools, the location is considered ideal by the KNLS.

The immediate beneficiaries of this community library will be the many schools in the area who currently don’t have the benefit of varied and diverse reading and educational material. We will be forming partnerships with them and arranging for rotational schedules for them to have access to the library.

In addition, a multimedia/conference room will be available to the community to allow for maximum shared use of the library. Retired teachers/educators will be recruited to conduct literacy and Adult Basic Education or other such services.

The information resources will include all available media to meet the diverse needs of the community at large. It will accommodate the needs of illiterate and newly literate users and cover topics of relevance to the community. Special attention will be given to the reading needs of the school learners in the community in order to create the habit of using the library for information, education, and recreation.

In addition the library will provide computer facilities with an aim to increase basic computer skills and encourage computer education in the community.

Voluntary library workers will be used to assist the librarian with marketing the library and its services to the community and thus will play a proactive role in ensuring its use by the community. The community itself will determine the level of services of the library through use of questionnaires and ongoing feedback collected from library users.

Role of the KNLS Board

The community library development initiative is part of the KNLS long term strategy of establishing, developing and maintaining libraries in Kenya by actively involving local communities in such projects through partnership agreements.

Some of the key roles that the KNLS board will play in this partnership agreement are:

• To educate the community on the benefits of a community library
• Advise on the formation of the local Library Development Committee
• Lobby the government and other entities to obtain resources to support the community library
• Have absolute administrative control in the day to day management and running of the community library
• Meet the recurrent expenditures which include electricity, water, library staff salaries etc
• Provide trained personnel
• Provide the initial book stock of 4,500 books ( Adult - 2,000, Junior - 2,500) and to continually replenish the stock
• Maintenance and repair of the community library infrastructure

Role of the Library Development Committee

The Library Development Committee acts as a link between the local community and the KNLS Board, and constitutes the following:

• Patron - Ambassador Betheul Kiplagat
• Deputy Patron - Christabel Ouko
• Chairman - Martha Joseph
• Vice Chairman - Caleb Oguya
• Ag. Secretary - Ezekiel Okeyo
• Treasurer - Japeth Olwal
• Secretary - KNLS Area Librarian
• Assistant Secretary - Wilfrida Olali
• Members - James Ogare, Pamela Odera, Netia Odhiambo, Charles Odhong'

Among its important functions are to:

• Plan, prepare and implement a schedule of development activities for the project
• Monitor and evaluate the development and completion of the project
• Solicit for funds, donations and materials for the continued development of the library project
• Represent the libraries interests on behalf of the community in any development forum