How Book Bunker Functions -Addressing our challenges

“A library implies an act of faith.” - Victor Hugo

Book Bunker aims to be responsive to environment, thus our functions are guided by addressing the challenges of fostering literacy in the country; in order to build a library which will fulfill our goals. From our research, we found “Nigerians do not read” for the following reasons:

1. Opportunity Costs: The proportion of Nigerians living in poverty has increased between 1996 and 2018; and currently, Nigeria has the largest extreme poverty population in the world. What this indicates is that the majority of the Nigerian population is primarily concerned with immediate survival - food and housing. In addition, children either have to assist their parents in eking out a living or taking care of the home. In this case, there is an economic cost for taking time out to read, which often times cannot be afforded. Hence, in order to encourage library utilisation, public libraries must incorporate programs and structures that encourage parents to overlook these opportunity costs. Loaning books is a means of reducing the time -spent within the library. Currently, many public libraries in Nigeria do not lend out books (due to retrieval issues), neither do they host programs specifically beneficial to parents. Book bunker aims to address this situation by leveraging on communal enforcement mechanisms to establish a loaning system; as well as prioritizing parent-friendly programs and/or structures.

2. Books are expensive: With 94 million  Nigerians living in extreme poverty, they can hardly be expected to prioritize buying a book which costs on average N1,500- N3000, over buying a mudu of garri to feed their family or a carton of Indomie; regardless of the touted future benefits.  Studies have found that poverty changes an individual’s mindset towards prioritizing short-term gains, often at the expense of the long term gains.  Thus if we - as a developing nation - desire to engender reading in the society, books must be free for the poor.

Book bunker aims to address this challenge by implementing a service-for-library card bartering system. Community members/ youths will not have to pay for a library card, rather they can barter a service to the library, such as: sweeping the compound, dusting the desks, entering the books into the system etc.

3. Books are unavailable: Another pertinent issue often ignored is the lack of selection in the Nigerian market. In Nigeria, books of different genres are not readily available even to paying customers. There are many reasons for this such as the expenses of stocking varied material, the failure of the Nigerian printing press etc. However what this means is that there is a limited scope of options available to the Nigerian reader. Thus if you do not have an interest in motivational books or James Hadley Chase thrillers, you are sorely left out. Meanwhile, Nigerian school libraries place an emphasis on books which have a teaching element, and this only entices a small sect of students.

Studies have found that reading even merely for pleasure has a massive impact on children’s educational performance. In fact, the degree of interest in the materials was linked with the vocabulary adoption. Hence, it is negligent of libraries not to recognize the diversity of taste. Book bunker aims to lure a larger sect of the population to read, through the provision of a variety of genres; from science to thrillers to philosophy.

4. Literacy:  In 2018, Nigerian literacy rate for adults and children(15-24) was 59.6 percent  and 72.79 percent (Knoema, 2019). This means that just about half of the entire Nigerian adult population and roughly one third of all children are illiterate. Thus, the battle for literacy is the underpinning of any drive to promote a reading culture. Hence, Book Bunker will implement dynamic reading programs which will be tailored to impact specific age groups from young children to adults. This is our key deliverable.

5. Lack of Knowledge on the importance of reading: Finally, after all the challenges discussed,  many Nigerians still do not read because they are unaware of the real economic, behavioural and social benefits of reading.  Parents are key to encouraging and supporting reading in society, through their influence over their children. Book bunker will also carry out outreach and disseminate information in the community to educate parents and other care-givers on the importance of reading.

Other general factors specific to operating in Nigeria which provide challenges to the effective utilisation of libraries are:

6. Transportation and linkages:

A public library should service the surrounding communities. However due to the bad roads and poverty, movement from one community to the other is limited. As some of the children we surveyed told us, when the school bus breaks down, the children from different communities cannot afford to pay the N50 for a motorcycle ride; and instead trek for one to two hours to school. The school bus breaks down often. Hence, establishing a community library is not a guarantee that it can be accessed by other surrounding communities; which is preferred. Thus, Book Bunker has addressed this issue by providing a library bus which will run a route through neighbouring communities; three times a day, on the weekends.

7. Electricity:

Libraries in Nigeria also cannot be fully utilized due to the electricity challenges. Book bunker will address this issue through the design of the library structure ensuring that it allows for a lot of natural light. In addition, we aim to install solar panels.