Books in the barrios.

CLOWNS HUMORED onlookers, stilt walkers wowed them with nimble footwork, and world music singer Guillermo Anderson hit all the right notes in the working-class Tegucigalpa neighborhood of Flor del Campo on November 15.

But it was the written word that was front and center when the barrio got its first community library, courtesy of the Washington, DC-based Riecken Foundation. Over the past seven years, the nonprofit organization has opened more than 60 such libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.

Flor del Campo's lending library, the foundation's first urban library project, is now inviting area residents to browse in its open stacks and take advantage of free Internet access as it joins its counterparts combating illiteracy, which remains stubbornly high in much of Central America. Each library is run by a local board and features the likes of reading promotion, youth leadership workshops, and computer classes.

"Libraries in Central America don't have a great reputation," concedes Mary Alice McCarthy, executive director of the Riecken Foundation. "People think of them as dark, boring spaces where kids are sent off to do homework. More often than not, they are filled with out-of-date books that fail to spark much interest and have old, barely functioning computers--if any at all. Riecken libraries, by contrast, are bright, open spaces. All the books and computers are new."

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The libraries are the brainchild of Allen Andersson, a US business executive who fell in love with Central America nearly four decades ago when stationed in the region with the Peace Corps. Andersson is using the Tegucigalpa library to expand the foundation, which has a regional office in the Honduran capital and another in Antigua, Guatemala.

Each library must be accessible to and free for all area residents. Books can also be checked out, unusual in much of Latin America.

But the Riecken Foundation isn't just about reading. Libraries may serve as community centers, offering the likes of prenatal or carpentry workshops, kite-making contests, and health seminars. A local newspaper was planned and launched from one library, while others sponsor teen debate teams and chess clubs, activities that are hoped will steer participants away from youth gang activity. One library even staged a joke-telling contest in an indigenous language.

Books themselves are chosen by the local librarian, and almost half the initial collection is made up of children's books, with youngsters in library communities often eager for reading material that traditionally may have been hard for them to get. Storybooks are particularly popular, and each collection also features reference books such as dictionaries and atlases.

All Honduran libraries have a copy of Prision Verde, a controversial novel that recounts the harsh life experienced by those who worked on the country's banana plantations. Guatemalan ones have books in indigenous languages that familiarize readers with the country's Maya legacy, while others tell of the civil war that plagued Guatemala for decades.

McCarthy promises that the Riecken Foundation will have a long-lasting impact on the communities in which it has established a presence. "Many organizations have built libraries in developing countries," she points out. "What makes us different is that we maintain a strong relationship with the community after we build the library. We continue to provide training to librarians and library boards of directors, and we help communities fundraise so they can expand their book collections and replace old computers.

"Building the library is easy," she continues. "We stick around for the really hard work that starts the day after the library is opened."