Dear Marsha,

My name is Paula Lindsay and I’m writing from Langley, British Columbia. I volunteer  with a non-profit organization called Hearts and Hands for Haiti, based out of Raleigh, NC. For the past two years I have been fundraising and collecting French children’s books in efforts to provide two schools in Gonaives, Haiti with libraries. Working in partnership with Brenda Herb from Raleigh, we have gathered a sizeable collection, currently stored in the basement of her home. After a very difficult summer in which both of her parents passed away, Brenda is not able to give the same amount of time to the project. What we need help with is the cataloguing and labeling of the books. I thought this might be a job that a library student would benefit from as they would be able to practically see the processing of library books from the ground up. The schools in Gonaives have no access to computers so we will need to rely on Dewey and the trusted old card and envelope system. I am confident that if Brenda could have three or four students to help with this project it would take at the most two or three days. We were hoping to have the first library completed at the end of December but I think it will be realistically closer to the spring. If this is an opportunity that sparks enthusiasm, please let me know and we can work on the details. If you know of anyone else in the Raleigh area who may be a good fit, please feel free to forward them this email.

Many thanks,

Paula Lindsay

Library Information & Technology Programme

University of the Fraser Valley