Interlibrary

Bhutan has one municipal public library and a lot of rural isolation, as well as increasing migration from rural to urban areas. It also has people working hard to make libraries a big part of national development. In this episode of Interlibrary I interview four people: Sonam Wangdi, academic librarian at the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment in Bumthang; Laxmi Subba, school librarian at a school in Gelephu, in the south of the country; Tshering Phuntsho, municipal public librarian at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck Public Library in the capital Thimphu; Karma Lhazom, country director of READ Bhutan, an NGO that builds libraries across Bhutan. Produced and hosted by Craig Varley. Visit interlibrarypod.com to learn more. Or follow the show on Twitter @interlibrarypod.

Guatemala has no library system, a low literacy rate and geographically remote communities. I interview four library organizations to find out how they're approaching the problem. I speak to William Cartwright, President and CEO of international NGO Rieken Foundation, that builds community libraries in remote communities in Guatemala and Honduras; to Rigoberto Zamora and Myrna Ortiz of Guatemala NGO PROBIGUA that began its work with a bibliobus and now builds libraries and schools; to Cecilia Dougherty, President of PAVA, a Guatemalan NGO that builds vibrant 'communitecas' libraries in extremely remote highland communities; and to Valentina Santa Cruz and Regina De La Vega of the Guatemala Library Association of the problems of organizing and educating libraries across physical and digital divides and their lobbying efforts to get government money into libraries. Produced and hosted by Craig Varley. Visit interlibrarypod.com to learn more.