Life

Library lends more than a helping hand

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-27 08:18

Clockwise from top: A young reader relaxes with a book in The Bookmark; Amanda Powell (left) and Deborah Lukic, founders of the library; some books on display at the library's base in Piazza Cafe. [Photo/China Daily]

In a city of almost 20 million people, having a positive impact on people's lives usually starts small with the local community.

For Amanda Powell and Deborah Lukic, affecting the community means sharing the wonder of words.

Starting with a small personal collection of books, Powell and Lukic managed to amass more than 16,000 multilingual titles to create The Bookmark, one of Beijing's non-profit English-language lending libraries.

The community project started in 2006 after Powell, an English lady who has lived in Beijing for more than a decade and a half, realized that her bookshelves could no longer support the weight of a growing collection.

After talking with Lukic, from the US, the two decided to give back to their community by providing Shunyi district with its only give-and-take library at the Piazza Cafe. Now, the group's 100-plus members can borrow and return books for a small membership fee.

"Books are like friends or family members," said Lukic.

"Even though you've read them several times you don't really want to see them go."

The library's crowning jewel is their huge selection of children's books, Powell said.

"We get a big mixture of expats that live in the area and lots of Chinese residents that speak English or want their children to speak English," she said.

The 250-yuan annual fee for individual membership and 500-yuan for a family helps maintain the library's upkeep.

"We're not in business to sell or buy books, we just wanted to provide a good community service where we saw there was a need," Lukic said.

"None of the money we have ever taken in has gone into our pockets."

Beyond books, the library also acts as a classroom, a theater and a social focal point.

With both co-founders having spent time home-schooling their children, the two then decided to host Saturday morning story time in which they blended educational activities such as art projects while giving an animated reading of some of their collection's best children's books.

"We've been sort of a haven for home-schooling groups, girl scouts and boy scouts meetings," Lukic said.

Shunyi resident Cindy Lor has been going to The Bookmark with her two daughters for more than two years and has often volunteered her time to help visitors check out books.

"It's been a fantastic resource for us," she said.

Lor added that before the library was around, the pickings for adult literature and English cookbooks were slim.

"Before The Bookmark was there, the only place you could go to borrow books was the schools, but they didn't have a selection for adults," she said.

Starting from scratch and with almost no knowledge of library management, The Bookmark has seen a transformation since its founding in 2006.

As the size of the library continued to grow, the space to contain it needed to be expanded. Currently, Piazza Cafe donates a snug corner of their restaurant in what Lukic describes as a mutually beneficial partnership.

"There was no blueprint that we followed or a how-to manual, we just wanted to start small and grow," she said.

With 16,000 books in English, French, Spanish, Swedish and Mandarin, they have implemented a modern computer coding system to keep track of their collection.

"One of the biggest challenges is getting people to return the books as we don't charge late fees. But the honor system has worked great so far," said Lukic.

As the collection continues to grow, so does the passion from those involved.

"We are just two literature lovers trying to service our community," Lukic said.