Books for a Nation to Grow on : Literacy: An Ojai woman is collecting materials and money to expand Chile’s understocked public library system.

Joline Godfrey wants to be the Andrew Carnegie of Chile.

Like the American philanthropist who built more than 2,500 libraries across the English-speaking world during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Godfrey is passionate about bringing books to the masses in Chile.

But unlike Carnegie, a steel magnate who spent more than $56 million of his massive personal fortune promoting reading, Godfrey is an Ojai-based author who is relying on corporate and personal donations in her campaign to stock Chile’s 300 public libraries.

Godfrey hopes her project, called Libros Para Chile (Books for Chile), will promote economic and political development in the South American nation.

“It is a farce to pretend we are doing anything toward helping developing countries without doing something to get them more books,” Godfrey said. “Development won’t happen there if people can’t develop their minds.”

Godfrey’s passion for the Chilean library system was born two years ago, during a tour of the country. She found that private school and university libraries were well-stocked, but the country’s public libraries generally had minuscule collections.

“Although Chile is one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, we saw libraries that were virtually storefronts,” she said, adding that some had no books at all.

Seeing children without access to books gave Godfrey, 41, the inspiration for her project. She recalled that as a child in a remote Maine town, she traveled 50 miles with her mother to obtain books from a Carnegie library.

“I realized these children had no chance without access to books. Books are the basic building blocks of society,” she said.

While her campaign is not as massive in scope as Carnegie’s work, Godfrey hopes it will eventually ship 250,000 books to the South American nation. This would provide a 20% increase in the number of books at public libraries.

“It is not going to take that much to make an impact on people who live in tiny communities around the country,” said New York-based television producer Jane Lytle, Godfrey’s partner in the program.

Chilean officials wholeheartedly support Libros Para Chile . It has become a joint effort between Godfrey’s Ojai-based Knowledge Network foundation and the National Library of Chile, which has determined what types of books are most needed.

“The assessment of needs was made by officials in Chile,” said Patricio Powell, secretary for cultural affairs in the Chilean Embassy in Washington.

“We have a very good library system in Chile, in terms of the areas that are covered. But our problem is really a problem across the developing world: Books are very expensive,” Powell said.

Libros Para Chile is focusing on getting corporate donations of Spanish-language technical books, textbooks and other teaching devices, as well as fiction, Lytle said.

“The idea that any books are better than no books is not true,” Godfrey said. “That is why we are trying to get books that are specifically requested.”

Lytle spends much of her time in New York lobbying publishing companies and corporations with operations in Chile to donate books or money, but it is not easy, she said.

“The biggest problem we run into is that people say, ‘The problems are so great in this country. Why are you bothering to spend so much time and energy on a country that is so far away?’ ” Lytle said.

Lytle’s answer centers on her view of a linked future between North and South America. “We need to be more farsighted,” she said. “The future will be one of a greater American community, one massive trading bloc (that) will lead to a very important set of relationships between the Americas.”

Godfrey’s response was more personal. “I felt I had made no great global contributions and I just decided it was time.”

To date, Libros Para Chile is far from its 250,000-volume goal, Godfrey said. But a distribution system is in place. Two shipments totaling 1,500 books have been sent and a third shipment of at least 15,000 books is planned in May, Godfrey said.

“No one has taken on this type of effort in the Spanish-speaking world,” Godfrey said. “It’s all very good for us to work on policy down there, but without books to expand people’s minds, none of that is much good at all.”

FYI

The Libros Para Chile group is working with the National Library of Chile to stock the country’s 300 public libraries. Donations of Spanish-language books, textbooks, technical manuals or money may be made by contacting Joline Godfrey at the Knowledge Network in Ojai, 646-1215. The Knowledge Network is a private, nonprofit corporation created to facilitate the book drive. Donations are tax-deductible.