Two women, worlds apart, with a belief that libraries can change the world.
Our Stories - Cherie Lanto"No man becomes rich unless he enriches others."
- Andrew Carnegie
Lanto and I met through our online Master's degree courses. We soon realized that although we came from two very different worlds, we where kindred spirits, with like ideals. Over the last year Lanto and I began to e-mail each other on a regular basis, outside of class. As we talked about the differences in our lives, we discovered that what we've both always wanted was to help others through our library work. Lanto discussed the fact that Madagascar's people do not have access to libraries or pretty much any reading material. I have always felt blessed to live in a country that believes in the importance of libraries and I really wanted to do something to give the people of Madagascar access to libraries also.
Having worked in libraries for over 22 years, I know how important libraries can be to those who are trying to gain a better life. Libraries truly are the "people's university". Anyone can visit a library and transform themselves through self education. It's what our country is built upon. I want to share this concept with the people of Madagascar.
I live in southeastern Ohio, on the edge of Appalachia with my husband and daughter. I started working in libraries at the age of 19. Since then I have run through the public library ranks, later becoming a high school librarian and I am now an academic librarian with Muskingum College. I'm a person who knows the value of educating yourself to bring about a better standard of living for my family. Libraries and the people in them, have had a huge influence on my ability to believe that I can achieve my goals.
It has been a whirlwind, but after finishing my associates in 2005 and my bachelor's in IT in Jan 2006, I decided to wrack up more debt and took on grad school and graduated with my MLS in May 2008.
I've discovered that you don't have to be rich to make difference or to improve your quality of life. Anyone with the will to help other's can. I am an ordinary person in a an ordinary rural town. I would have never imagined that I could earn a Master's degree and I certainly never imagined that I would become good friends with Lanto, let alone that she and I would have the confidence and drive to make our dream into reality.
My Story- Lanto Rakotoarison
My name is Lanto Rakotoarison and I work as a Librarian at the American School of Antananarivo, Madagascar. I am halfway through my Masters’ degree in Library Science at Texas Woman’s University. Back in my childhood, even though I was privileged to study in a French school, we did not have access to any libraries, but my parents bought me a few books in French, which I treasured very much and read over and over again. I got my first library card when I grew up to be a teenager and could borrow some books from a French Cultural Center. That was where my “love of libraries” journey started. I began to visit other libraries like the Municipal and the National Library, the American Cultural Center library*, but was not really satisfied because either I did not have direct access to the shelves, or because they were academic collections. Was it because they did not have any reading books or maybe because I did not know how to use the library and could not figure out where other types of books were located? The first time I saw the American School Library, I had a secret wish of offering the same privilege to the Malagasy children, knowing that it would not be easy to have my wish granted. Yet, God heard my wish and enabled me to study at TWU and especially to meet Cherie, who also had the same vision.
( The American Cultural Center does not have a library anymore. The municipal and national libraries have books for researchers, and academic materials but not accessible to children, and cannot be checked out. The French Cultural Center has a library which is not accessible to everybody because you have to pay fees. There are no public school libraries.The American School library is only for students who pay tuition. These are mostly international students.)
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