One professor’s mission to deliver books to children in Vietnam and Cambodia
Published: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
 "Photo: Sean Belk")
Sean Belk
 "Photo: Sean Belk")
Sean Belk
Jocelyne Guzman, liberal studies major, signs her name on the sticker of a children's book after donating a dollar to the cause.
 "Photo: Sean Belk")
Sean Belk
Cal State Fullerton faculty librarian/instructor will be leaving for Southeast Asia this Thursday as part of a six-week research field study where he will deliver children's books to elementary students in Vietnam and Cambodia.
 "Photo: Sean Belk")
Sean Belk
Cal State Fullerton faculty librarian/instructor John Hickok sorts through his plethora of children’s books he will be donating to poverty-stricken schools in Vietnam and Cambodia.
 "Photo: Courtesy of John Hickok")
Courtesy of John Hickok
Here is a photo of an what a school in an urban area of Southeast Asia looks like.
 "Photo: Courtesy of John Hickok")
Courtesy of John Hickok
Here is a photo of what a rural school in Southeast Asia looks like.
Come this Thursday, Cal State Fullerton faculty librarian/instructor John Hickok will be carrying a little more luggage than normal.
He will be boarding a plane to Southeast Asia with one suitcase full of clothes and another suitcase filled with an assortment of brightly colored children's books, carrying stories of Elmo, Spiderman, dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse.
Hickok, who has taught information literacy since 1997 and has a master's degree in library science from UCLA, will be carrying the collection of thin paperbacks overseas, not for himself, but to hand out to children of the developing countries of Vietnam and Cambodia.
There, Hickok discovered, children's books are hard to come by, as many elementary schools in rural and poverty-stricken areas often lack the funds to provide a source of fun reading materials.
During a sabbatical in 2006, through the university's exchange and partnership program with foreign universities, he found that a majority of the books children were provided with were government issued textbooks.
"They had extremely limited conditions," he said. "I went to an elementary school that had one tiny shelf of some leisure reading books. There were only like 10 children’s books, everything else was textbooks."
Despite a few gusts of wind Tuesday, Hickok, and members of the Vietnamese Student Association and the Cambodian Student Association, stood out in front of the Pollak Library at CSUF, asking students if they would like to make a $1 donation to sign a sticker, placed in each book that would later be given to a child.
Due to a weight limit for luggage, he was only able to fit about 150 books, which he purchased, in his suitcase. After the outpouring of generosity from CSUF students, Hickok said he will try to make the book donation an annual event.
Jocelyne Guzman, liberal studies major, donated a dollar and said she wanted to give more.
"It's good our school is going around the world to try to make a difference," she said.
Hickok's outreach, however, doesn't stop there.
Before he begins his six-week field research throughout Cambodia and Vietnam, he will first be the keynote speaker at the Congress of Southeast Asian Libraries conference held in Hanoi April 21-23. The congress of over 700 library professionals from all 15 nations of Southeast Asia, sought out Hickok due to his extensive research on library development in Asia — very few U.S. experts exist in this area, he said.
"I will be speaking to them on inspiring case studies of libraries overcoming the odds ... lack of funding, lack of training ... to make incredible progress," he said.
Another honor for Hickok, was that he was asked by the U.S. embassies in Vietnam and Cambodia if he would be an expert outreach speaker during monthly guest lectures. There he will be lecturing to assembly halls of local library communities in Hanoi, Saigon and Phnom Penh, training on the latest developments and innovations in libraries.
CSUF currently has partnerships with nearly 40 to 50 universities around the world, he said, including Vietnam National University and Pannasastra University in Cambodia, where Hickok has worked on library research training.
Melinda Ung, president of CSA, said the club has recently tried to reach out to more exchange students on campus. She said she worked on another project with Hickok by making pen pals with students from Pannasastra.
"We try to reach out to active members," Ung said.
Hickok said many Vietnamese and Cambodian elementary students aren’t struggling in literacy since many often learn English at an early age, but it’s the type of books that Hickok wanted to open their eyes to.
“Reading started the same way for all of us,” he said. “…With our ABCs.”
He will be boarding a plane to Southeast Asia with one suitcase full of clothes and another suitcase filled with an assortment of brightly colored children's books, carrying stories of Elmo, Spiderman, dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse.
Hickok, who has taught information literacy since 1997 and has a master's degree in library science from UCLA, will be carrying the collection of thin paperbacks overseas, not for himself, but to hand out to children of the developing countries of Vietnam and Cambodia.
There, Hickok discovered, children's books are hard to come by, as many elementary schools in rural and poverty-stricken areas often lack the funds to provide a source of fun reading materials.
During a sabbatical in 2006, through the university's exchange and partnership program with foreign universities, he found that a majority of the books children were provided with were government issued textbooks.
"They had extremely limited conditions," he said. "I went to an elementary school that had one tiny shelf of some leisure reading books. There were only like 10 children’s books, everything else was textbooks."
Despite a few gusts of wind Tuesday, Hickok, and members of the Vietnamese Student Association and the Cambodian Student Association, stood out in front of the Pollak Library at CSUF, asking students if they would like to make a $1 donation to sign a sticker, placed in each book that would later be given to a child.
Due to a weight limit for luggage, he was only able to fit about 150 books, which he purchased, in his suitcase. After the outpouring of generosity from CSUF students, Hickok said he will try to make the book donation an annual event.
Jocelyne Guzman, liberal studies major, donated a dollar and said she wanted to give more.
"It's good our school is going around the world to try to make a difference," she said.
Hickok's outreach, however, doesn't stop there.
Before he begins his six-week field research throughout Cambodia and Vietnam, he will first be the keynote speaker at the Congress of Southeast Asian Libraries conference held in Hanoi April 21-23. The congress of over 700 library professionals from all 15 nations of Southeast Asia, sought out Hickok due to his extensive research on library development in Asia — very few U.S. experts exist in this area, he said.
"I will be speaking to them on inspiring case studies of libraries overcoming the odds ... lack of funding, lack of training ... to make incredible progress," he said.
Another honor for Hickok, was that he was asked by the U.S. embassies in Vietnam and Cambodia if he would be an expert outreach speaker during monthly guest lectures. There he will be lecturing to assembly halls of local library communities in Hanoi, Saigon and Phnom Penh, training on the latest developments and innovations in libraries.
CSUF currently has partnerships with nearly 40 to 50 universities around the world, he said, including Vietnam National University and Pannasastra University in Cambodia, where Hickok has worked on library research training.
Melinda Ung, president of CSA, said the club has recently tried to reach out to more exchange students on campus. She said she worked on another project with Hickok by making pen pals with students from Pannasastra.
"We try to reach out to active members," Ung said.
Hickok said many Vietnamese and Cambodian elementary students aren’t struggling in literacy since many often learn English at an early age, but it’s the type of books that Hickok wanted to open their eyes to.
“Reading started the same way for all of us,” he said. “…With our ABCs.”
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