Last week, I had the opportunity to demo our SPELL Solar Digital Library to Elizabeth Karr, a Technical Information Specialist (librarian) at the US Peace Corps. We had already spoken and exchanged emails about SPELL prior to this, but it was wonderful to meet her in person. In fact, two-and-a-half hours flew by before I even noticed what time it was!
We met at Inveneo’s offices in downtown San Francisco, and were also able to discuss the various—and numerous—relevant projects that Inveneo has done and is doing, both related to this project and to educational technology and connectivity in resource-constrained locations more generally.
We got to describe in greater detail our work in the Pacific Islands over the past few years that has led up to this project, as we gear up for our deployment of the first 50 SPELL libraries to Peace Corps volunteers in the Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu in the coming weeks and months. We also discussed how the project could scale in the future, particularly to additional Peace Corps volunteers. Among other much appreciated insights, Elizabeth gave invaluable tips on getting productive feedback from PC volunteers in the field, so that we can keep improving the design and content on the libraries in the future.
Elizabeth is extremely supportive of the SPELL library, and we are thrilled to be able to work with such an enthusiastic ally! We certainly look forward to working together with her and with the Peace Corps, as we continue to improve the library and hope to expand its implementation.
