Bringing 21st Century Libraries to Eleuthera Island: A Collaborative Effort

Susy Siel is an educator on a mission. This teacher librarian founded Freedom to Read Inc. (FTR), with the aim of transforming lives in The Bahamas by providing free access to literacy. Today, several FTR partner sites serve as public and school libraries on Eleuthera Island, with three new school libraries currently in development.

Siel, originally from Michigan, spent her childhood traveling to The Bahamas with her parents. Her family found a “home” with a Bahamian family in Gregory Town, Eleuthera, which she often visited. In 2002, as a professional teacher librarian in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Siel decided to give back to the community she loved on Eleuthera by setting up or renovating libraries to improve literacy rates.

In 2005, Siel took a leave of absence from her position in Kenosha to connect with existing libraries in The Bahamas. By 2012, Freedom to Read Inc. was formally established as a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Siel, now the executive director of FTR, credits much of the organization’s success to the support of Matt Follett and Don Rokusek. Matt, her sales rep in Kenosha, donated boxes of books, while Don provided laptops, scanners, barcode readers, and access to Follett Destiny® online cataloging software to create fully functional library spaces.

Establishing these libraries comes with numerous challenges, including ensuring the sites are building-ready, equipped with internet capabilities, air conditioning, roofing, working bathrooms, and other utilities. Despite these hurdles, Siel remains dedicated to her mission.

“If I didn’t have Follett in my corner, we wouldn’t be able to make this work,” Siel recalls. “We just wouldn’t.”

Siel is particularly excited about placing new libraries within existing schools to impact the entire island of Eleuthera. These include Deep Creek Middle School in the south, The Children’s Place Library in the north, and the Emily G. Petty Primary School in the central part of the island.

Freedom to Read Inc. aims to provide more than just books. The libraries offer Wi-Fi, computers, games, puzzles, and serve as meeting places for local teams and businesses.

“If you don’t have a library in your settlement, you don’t have access to literacy where you live,” Siel explains. Bringing a library to nearly every settlement on Eleuthera is crucial, as travel on the island is limited and challenging.

“If you are a literate person and have a literate society, you can do anything.”

Siel prioritizes current, accurate, and authoritative texts for these libraries. Initially relying on donations from friends and family, she now focuses on curating collections with brand-new books. Her standard is to offer books within a five- to six-year-old copyright range, maintaining the same quality as in her Wisconsin libraries.

“If I wouldn’t put it in my library in Wisconsin, I wouldn’t put it in a library in Eleuthera.”

Siel also incorporates Bahamian cataloging codes, which differ slightly from US practices. With her extensive experience cataloging books using Follett Destiny, she trains Bahamian librarians in cataloging, circulation, and managing library spaces.

The benefits of using Follett Destiny Library Manager are numerous:

• Patrons can see what is available at all FTR library sites.
• Librarians can run reports for overdue books and fines.
• Collection management is streamlined.
• Data can be used for fundraising and analyzing usage at each site.

With 12 existing sites and three new school libraries coming on board, Siel envisions focusing on maintenance, training, programming, and fostering school-library partnerships in the foreseeable future.

This mission, which began over 20 years ago, has a strong and hopeful future. To learn more about Freedom to Read Inc. or to support their mission, please visit freedomtoreadinc.org.

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