Libraries Without Borders - USA
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OUR EXPERTISE
The Lab, innovation at our fingertips.
What is The Lab?
For twelve years, Libraries Without Borders has worked tirelessly to strengthen the capacity of the most underserved populations to design and create their own futures. Our goal: to give each and everyone the means to make informed choices and to understand the world in order to better inform it in return. To do this, the research and development of innovative tools and technologies have always been at the heart of our approach: The Lab is its embodiment.
In 2014, we created the Ideas Box, a media library in kit form designed by Philippe Starck, followed in 2015 by the Ideas Cube, a stand-alone server that brings the Internet to disconnected areas. In order to give everyone the means to access information, we have additionally developed the Internet Offline: a technology that allows local access to digital content and regular updates to its content. We are also exploring artificial intelligence as an opportunity to provide secure access to information and promote cultural diversity.
A library of 30,000 references in 24 languages
With help from many partners, our team selects content, such as videos, books, and podcasts, and creates diverse activity sheets for our projects around the world daily. Selected based on the objectives of the programs as well as the needs of the community, the content and activity sheets are systematically discussed and approved by our partners before they are released. Additionally, a magazine is available and is constantly enriched by new creators and distributors. According to their needs, the content can also be specifically curated by the partner organization.
BSF Learning: a training platform for facilitators and librarians
In 2018, Library Without Borders designed an online training platform, BSF Learning, intended for our project facilitators in order to supplement the in-person training provided by our team.
BSF Learning helps strengthen the skills learned from in-person training to drive facilitators towards new activities and to allow them to self-train at their own pace and over time. Our team has worked to develop these various courses – from welcoming audiences to mediating conflict with games, from using Khan Academy to setting up photo projects with a refugee audience – in French and in English thanks to our volunteer translators.
In line with reinforcement needs that have been expressed by the facilitators, new training courses are coming soon and will enrich the existing ones.
Our objectives
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Education
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Health
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Strengthening libraries
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Literacy & the fight against illiteracy
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Digital literacy
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Strengthening social cohesion
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Welcome & integration of migrants
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Psychological support & protection
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Information to populations