UWM Students in Mongolia to Study Digital Divide

Above: A young archer takes part in a contest at a "mini-nadaam" the UWM students attended.
Below: UWM students Shana Kegley, Adrienne Wiegert, Krystina Colton, Briana Olson and Amy Ostrom enjoyed the mini-nadaam festival with Mongolian counterparts.

MILWAUKEE - A group of Wisconsin college students has headed across the digital divide this month – far across the divide.

The students, most from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies, are in Mongolia for three weeks to look at how the information age has touched some of the remotest regions of Central Asia.

The students are visiting Mongolian media organizations and libraries as well as various projects designed to help the Mongolian people get better access to information, says Catherine Johnson, assistant professor of information studies and the Mongolia 2005 Study Abroad leader. Johnson has been to Mongolia several times, lived there as a UN volunteer, and did her dissertation research on how Mongolians seek information. This trip is part of her ongoing research into the digital divide – the gap between those who have access to the Internet and other new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and those who do not,

In Mongolia generally, says Johnson, “there are internet cafes in larger cities, but most people don’t own their own computers.” Cell phones are also common in major centers, while people in the rural areas must travel for miles to get access to a telephone.

The students, who are traveling through UWM’s Study Abroad program, spent their first few days in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, visiting libraries, attending a talk by the president of the Mongolian Press Institute, and visiting newspaper offices --including a humor bi-monthly, a daily paper and a tabloid.

"One of the most interesting things we learned," Johnson emailed from Mongolia, "is that although the city of Ulaanbaatar is well supplied with newspapers, the rural areas have limited access to current news. They do not have a daily of their own -- daily newspapers are shipped out to the countryside, but their distribution depends on the schedule of the airline, which is twice per week."

Students have also visited librarians and libraries, including a panel discussion with local librarians. "One of the surprising questions we were asked was whether the librarians in the U.S. were responsible when books went missing from the library," Johnson wrote. " At first, we didn't understand what they meant, but eventually realized that Mongolian librarians have to pay for books that were lost!"

The Mongolian librarians and students were very interested in meeting their American counterparts and plan to remain in contact even after the UWM contingent returns, Johnson wrote. The Mongolian librarians were particularly interested in such services as story hours, adult book clubs and job search centers offered by American libraries, she added. "The Milwaukee and Mongolian students got along extremely well," Johnson wrote, "as they attempted to communicate with very limited understanding of each other's language." Students have also traveled to the countryside, attending a "mini-nadaam" -- a smaller version of a main festival held in July that features archery, horse racing and wrestling.

Students were also scheduled to meet with the person who established Mongolia’s first Internet service and with other local experts who will discuss the policy and financial climate that affect the development of Mongolia’s information infrastructure.

On June 7, the students began a trip to the west of Ulaanbaatar to the site of Genghis Khan’s ancient capital, Karakorum, staying at a "ger," (yurt) tourist camp and learning about the early history of Mongolia. During the week they were also scheduled to visit Erdene-zuu, one of the earliest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. The monastery was destroyed under the Communists, and is slowly being rebuilt. While away from the capital city, students will visit local radio and TV stations in the smaller towns, and look at information capabilities in local libraries. They planned to visit the small town of Tsetserleg, Johnson wrote, to visit media outlets, internet centers and libraries to get an opportunity to contrast the information services available there to those in Ulaanbaatar.

Today (June 14) the group is scheduled to start their second trip into the countryside -- to the Gobi Desert --where they will visit herders’ camps to get a firsthand look at the life and work challenges facing the nomadic people who herd sheep, yaks, camels, horses and goats across the desert. They will also visit a project that uses technology to bring vital weather and market information to the herders. The Mongolians face challenges – “vast spaces and few paved roads” – that make building an information economy difficult, but potentially rewarding, says Johnson. UWM’s School of Information Studies is looking at establishing ongoing links with Mongolian libraries and academic institutions that she hopes will eventually lead to better access to these vital sources of information. In her email last week, she noted the group was looking forward to the trip to the Gobi and "a good dose of heat," since the weather had been colder than usual -- in the 50s --early in their visit.

For some of the five graduate and undergraduate students, this learning experience is also their first trip outside the United States.

That’s certainly the case with Shana Kegley, who will be completing her coursework toward the MLIS this summer and says she’s never flown out of the U.S. Kegley, an aspiring children’s librarian, says she was fascinated by photos Johnson shared with one of her classes, showing a simple Mongolian dwelling, dwarfed by its oversized satellite dish, illustrating the diffusion of western technology against a backdrop of eastern tradition. Although internet service was slow and often affected by power outages, she emailed from Mongolia, "our visits with librarians and other education officials have left me with the feeling that there is a dedicated drive to institute the latest technology to better the lives of citizens and students of the country." Kegley said she and other students plan to raise funds for and collect easy-to-read English books to send to Mongolia when they return since the rural libraries have few books, many of which are falling apart.

“I’ve only been on a plane one other time and that’s when I went to Las Vegas,” says graduate student Adrienne Wiegert. She’ll complete her master in library science this summer, graduating in August. While she appreciates being born into a wealthy society, she says, “I have a desire to understand and appreciate different cultures.” With her degree in Information Studies, she says, “you can go pretty much anywhere. I love what I do, and I wanted a degree that would facilitate a lifelong journey of knowledge, understanding, compassion and adventure.”

Wiegert sent an email from Mongolia saying: "This has been a wonderful experience. I wish all my SOIS peers could be with me right now." While they've seen contrasts between rural and city libraries and media outlets, and certainly between Mongolian and U.S. libraries, she wrote, "I have noticed that librarians speak the same language when it comes to zeal about their jobs. Whether they have the certain resources or not, they have the desire to provide better access and service."

Amy M. Ostrom, a UW-Madison student who’s receiving her Master’s in Library and Information Studies, is also taking her first trip out of the United States, and was looking forward to experiencing another culture. “Most of the cities I’ve lived in have had fairly high technology standards and large arts communities while being fairly demographically similar.

“This three-week journey will definitely wake me up to the concerns and lifestyles of people who do not have the luxuries I am so used to. I feel studying abroad should be mandatory in the college curriculum so we, as students, understand the world better.”

"Our contacts here have been exceptionally generous with their time and are also enthusiastic about meeting us," Johnson said in her email. ""I think it has been great to have the students meet both library students and working librarians here as they have so much in common (love of libraries) that transcends language and cultural barriers."

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