Publications and Presentations
Beyond Creating Initiatives and Developing Projects
Evergreen Education Foundation is not only project-focused; we are also dedicated to research, impact assessment, presentations, and publications. We collaborate with rural teachers and librarians to ensure their voices are included in global educational conversations. This partnership leads to co-authored papers presented at international conferences such as IFLA and IASL, and published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals like Library Trends. By empowering local educators to share their experiences and insights, we contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of education challenges and opportunities in rural communities. Our approach bridges practical project implementation with rigorous research, ensuring that the impact of our work is thoroughly documented and shared. This model enhances the visibility of rural educators, promotes sustainable knowledge exchange, and strengthens our collective commitment to educational equity and innovation. Through these efforts, Evergreen Education Foundation not only transforms local education but also shapes the global conversation on learning.
Noted Work
Library Trend:
A Tale of Two Counties: How Two School Libraries in Rural Western China Serve Local Needs
Wei, Zhipeng 魏志鹏, Guodong 蒋国栋 Jiang, Tuowen 牛托稳 Niu, Tim Zou 邹际平, and Elaine Dong 董小芬. “A Tale of Two Counties: How Two School Libraries in Rural Western China Serve Local Needs.” Library Trends 62, no. 1 (2013): 205-233.
This report presents a case study of school library programs in two rural counties in Western China. Since 2002, the libraries of Tianzhu and Tongwei high schools have undertaken a series of outreach initiatives to improve local residents’ access to information and to address their cultural and educational needs. Over the past decade, both school libraries have played a leading role in improving the quality of life and enhancing the information literacy of local residents. Tianzhu No. 1 High School Library 天祝一中图书馆—which serves a large Tibetan and other minority populations—has gained a reputation for its oral history of local culture program. This program trains students to conduct interviews with folk artists and scholars and then post their audiovisual recordings on websites. Tongwei No. 1 High School Library 通渭一中图书馆 is known for providing health care information through both in-person workshops and online. Recently, it implemented a tutoring service aimed at teaching residents to use online resources. These programs have been successful and sustainable in part because of the sponsorship and funding of the U.S.-based Evergreen Education Foundation (EEF) 美国青树教育基金会. This report analyzes the results of these major initiatives, both of which do a great deal to reach out to rural residents, particularly farmers and the elderly.
Library Trend:
Social Capital, Digital Inequality, and a “Glocal” Community Informatics Project in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province
Yan, Hui 闫慧, Wenjie 周文杰 Zhou, and Shenglong 韩圣龙 Han. “Social Capital, Digital Inequality, and a “Glocal” Community Informatics Project in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province.” Library Trends 62, no. 1 (2013): 234-260.
This article examines a “glocal” community informatics project that is transforming villages in Western China. Funded and initiated by the U.S.-based Evergreen Education Foundation (EEF)—an organization that makes public computing resources available to the digital poor and digital extremely poor communities—the project supports the establishment of public computing sites in primary and middle schools, thereby improving villagers’ digital consciousness and digital literacy. This study uses a digital inequality model—organized around a pyramid of five classes comprising the digital elite, the digital rich, the digital middle class, the digital poor, and the digital extremely poor—to assess the impact of this project. The authors found that, on the whole, the EEF’s training programs helped people move up the pyramid of digital inequality.
