| Application Form to receive books in January – March 2010
Dear Applicant, If you are interested in establishing a library for your community, please write to the following address for an application. Once you receive the application, complete all of the requirements listed below, document them with photographs showing the building, the interior with at least 15 bookshelves, fans, lights, tables and benches, get the signatures of your Library Board members, and then mail the completed application with photographs of completed items. Please note: All new applicants should have Board of Directors who will manage the library. Each member is now required to sign an affidavit that she or he is willing to accept the post and the responsibilities that come with it. Your application will be reviewed and a Tentative Acceptance letter will be sent. We will then have a final meeting with you in December to confirm your acceptance. Please provide accurate and honest answers. Send overseas letters airmail. Applications should reach us by end of September 2009 to be considered to receive books in 2010.
Document One – for your records: Criteria for the recipients of books from us: Books For Africa is a non-profit organization founded by a Ghanaian woman and her American husband, Hilda and Kirt Bromley. They receive no help from the U.S. government, but rather seek donations of books and money for shipping from friends, churches and the general public. Their budget is very small, so communities in Ghana must bear part of the cost of establishing libraries. Books For Africa will provide donated books free of cost to those places which:
(Application from the website September 2009) Mail this page in with photographs Send completed application with photographs and signatures to Books For Africa Library Project. 1. Application form for: _____________________________ (name of your town) 2. Date of application: ______________________________ A. Organize a Board of Trustees for your library. Have each person state their name, address, phone number, e-mail and signature below. Try to include a board range of people who live locally. They should include a traditional ruler, a business man and woman, a male or female teacher, a member of the District Assembly and other local men and women who have an interest in maintaining a local library.
Place a star next to the person who will be the contact person to us. Additional Board member names may be written on the back. B. What are the hours of operation of the library? C. Will there be a charge to people who use the library? D. Will you use the library as a resource center and not lend out the books? E. How will you obtain the funds to pay the librarian and rent and light for the library? F. Describe your town and the proposed or actual site of the library in relation to other landmarks i the town, such as the chief's palace, town hall, market, secondary, or J.S.S. Checklist items that have been completed. ______________________ (name of your town)
Note: All the items on this list should be completed when you formally apply for books. Mail this completed and signed form with photographs showing at least 15 bookshelves, benches, tables and benches, lights and fan to:
Keep a copy of this for your records. Time-line of the application process (for your records): Step One: Write or e-mail Books For Africa for an Application Form. This registers you with us. Step Two: Fill out the Application Form, complete all the requirements on the checklist and provide proof in the form of photographs of completed shelves (at least 15 stacks of shelves), tables, benches, lights and fan (note dimensions of each stack of shelves: 6 feet 6 inches tall, four feet wide, and each shelf is thirteen inches tall). Send the application with Board member signatures and the photographs to Books For Africa before the application cut-off date. Step Three: Once we have received your application with the photographs, we will send you a Tentative Acceptance Letter. Step Four: Final confirmation of our commitment to grant you books will come after an in-service in Kukurantumi in December for those libraries invited. We will make a final review of your application to confirm all of the requirements are met. Step Five: Once you have received final confirmation at our December meeting we will ask that your Board send two members to attend the in-service for all libraries held at Kukurantumi in January. Ideally the representatives sent to the meeting should be the proposed librarian and one of the Board of Trustees of the library. In the absence of the librarian, two Board members may attend. Step Six: On the date given by the Bromleys you should bring a lorry for the loading of the books. You are responsible for paying the cost of transporting your books to your town. If your town is far from Kukurantumi, it would be a good idea to arrange with the Bromleys to come the evening before so that we load early in the morning of the day appointed to receive the books. We have a full schedule, so if you fail to appear on the date arranged, you may forfeit receiving the books in that year. Step Seven: The Bromleys will travel with your lorry to your town and help place the donated books into the correct library organization. Please have your Board Members on hand to have a short meeting with the Bromleys before they begin setting up the library. It normally takes a day and a half to set up the library depending on the number of books donated. Step Eight: The Bromleys will meet with the entire membership of your Library Board and discuss Library Operation Procedures and the Dewey Decimal Cataloguing of the books. Step Nine: We recommend that the Library Board Members have a Grand Opening of the new library in order to invite all of the schools and available adults to have a tour of the new books in the library. Making the community aware of the new resource is one of the main jobs of the Library Board as they start their work. |