eBilim Mobile Digital Library Project

The concept of a travelling bus as a vehicle for information dissemination is a tool for reaching marginalised and remote communities and connecting them to locally relevant and up-to-date information. The eBilim vehicle travels on a regular schedule to 10 villages in Naryn and Ak-Talaa districts for one full day each month. The database contains information on a broad range of subjects, including agriculture, education, entertainment, local governance, health, and literature as well as learning resources for teachers and children. This information is available for printing and downloading to USBs, DVDs, cell phones, and MP3 players. In its first year of operation (2014), the eBilim project reached out to 4,646 users (adults and children), a majority of them being high school students, teachers or staff employed in village and sub-district administration.

UCA is also using the eBilim project as a coordinating platform, involving organisations specialised in agriculture, education, local governance, and health in hands-on activities tailored to increase access to practical knowledge and information in remote mountain communities. Through the development of tools for an innovative approach to information and knowledge dissemination, the project intends to test and increase the availability of replicable approaches for engaging remote communities in interactive learning experiences. To that end, eBilim is conducting "information in action" tours in cooperation with partner organisations. The core topics for these tours are: environmental education (energy and climate), farmer field courses and innovative agricultural extension services, and information tour to Jailoo summer pastures.

Specifically, as an example of the latter, by taking into account nomadic traditions of indigenous people in the Naryn region, the eBilim project was adapted to the needs of people and conducted additional extended tours to the Jailoo summer pastures during summer 2015. These tours offered herders and their families access to information and learning opportunities. Open-air film screenings of Kyrgyz movies also took place. By visiting the summer pastures, eBilim extended its access, gaining a new audience, with different information needs.

Education, Environment, Natural Resource Management

In Kyrgyzstan, socio-economic disparities between urban and rural areas are considerable, particularly with regard to access to knowledge, information and communication technology (ICT). These disparities are exacerbated in remote mountain areas because of their isolated location. Residents of remote mountain areas have limited access to media, books and other information resources.

Despite the fact that almost all remote mountain communities of Kyrgyzstan have schools and libraries, they are mostly poorly equipped with books and information resources and lack modern technologies. Due to a lack of funds for maintaining buildings, infrastructure, and acquiring new collections, the libraries are poorly visited and hardly perceived as a resource for learning and access to knowledge.