The camel library is like no other library. It is unique to Kenya. Like traditional libraries, books can be borrowed and returned. Unlike traditional libraries, the books are carried to people by camels.
The camel library was started in northern Kenya, where many people live in remove villages. Their nearest town, called Garissa, is hundreds of kilometers away. Many of the villagers have never learned to read. They cannot afford to buy books, let alone have access to the Internet. Until 1996, the only library in the area was in Garissa. The distance meant villagers could not get to it.
The problem was solved with the creation of a mobile library. However, while mobile libraries in other places use trucks, this one uses camels to take the books to the villages. Camels are often the most efficient form of transportation in Northern Kenya, as the poor road make driving difficult. Trucks, buses, and cars often break down. Camels can carry heavy things and travel long distances without water. And, unlike trucks, they don't need good roads.
The camel library uses three camels. They carry more than 200 books to ten villages in northern Kenya. Four people travel with the camels. one of them acts as a guard to make sure no one tries to steal the books - or the camels - along the way. the camels walk from one village to another, five days a week. The Camel Library spends one day in each village, and then goes to the next small town. It visits each village once every two weeks.
The Camel Library is very popular. At each of the ten villages, the children eagerly wait for the camels to come. The Camel Library is their only source of reading material. Everyone in the village helps unload the books from the camels. The books are spread out on the ground, under some big trees. At the end of the day, everyone helps load the books onto the camels and thinks about the next visit in two weeks.
The books are in English, which the children in the villages are learning as a foreign language in school. Swahili is the national language of Kenya, but there are not many books written in Swahili.
Books can be borrowed for only two weeks at a time. If someone finishes a book quickly, he or she will have to wail until the Camel Library comes again before getting another one.