Putting The Whole World Library in His/Her Hands: Mobile Access to Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural Books (and so much more)

This week's topic has two components: the idea of world libraries, and
the idea of using mobile devices with world libraries.
As usual, these broad topics could take us in multiple directions. So, I will set some semantic parameters around what I mean to discuss and focus upon in using those terms.

For "world libraries," I will look at a few virtual digital libraries of books/learning resources that could potentially be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime--especially to those in developing countries (or remote areas of the developed world) where access to physical libraries and their resources is less likely. Also, I will look at such Internet/Cloud library collections that are purposefully attempting to be multi-lingual or multicultural in order to be more relevant to more people throughout the world.

In terms of using "mobile devices" to access these world libraries, I'll look at the potential of using the various portable smartphones and tablets (and even latest generation laptops) as a way of carrying a whole library in your pocket, purse, backpack, etc. It is one thing to make virtual world libraries exist, but it is another very different thing to ensure that people have the devices and connectivity to the Internet/Cloud to actually use them; so, I'll take a look at those issues as well.

The first attempt to create a world library online that I remember hearing about was
Project Gutenberg. It was, as I recall, named after the Gutenberg printing press because it was trying to emulate the explosion of access to the printed word that that invention created. I think that originally the Gutenberg project was attempting to put all of the copyright-free classics of the Western canon online for equitable access to all people; it quickly developed into a portal to find materials in many different languages. It now includes a mobile site which would greatly increase its usability by mobile device users throughout the world (most of whom do not have/use desktop computers--more on these cell users later). It is free; thus, it is a true world library resource accessible to all.

QR code for Project Gutenberg mobile site

Another valuable world library is The International Children's Digital Library.
This is an amazing multi-lingual and multicultural collection. Its focus on children's literature makes it extremely valuable for use in school classrooms throughout the world. The link I provided above is one level below the home page: its "simple search" shows how quickly and easily students/teachers can find books by length, age level, category, and so on; notice that the search and results language can be changed in two locations toward the top right. The ICDL is free; thus, it is a true world library resource accessible to all.

There are many organizations out there working to bring digital books to students in under-served developing parts of the world. Library For All is one of them. As their mission statement says:

"Library For All is a nonprofit organization that has built a digital library platform to address the lack of access to quality educational materials in developing countries. Our mission is to make knowledge accessible to every person on the planet, allowing individuals the opportunity to learn, dream, and aspire to lift themselves out of poverty." 

Their cloud-based collection of books comes from multiple publishing partners and features home-language resources; the collections they make available are purposely designed to be used in lower bandwidth environments and allow for off-line use; while they don't supply mobile devices, they do analyze what devices are available in the areas they go to so that they can adapt their platform to fit the population's equipment. All of these features make them a valuable world library resource.



Now, it is great that various world library projects are up and running, but how are people going to access them? 

Mobile devices are seen as a great equalizer in terms of putting learning resources in hands quickly and easily as these--and many, many other--news articles, blogs, etc. have touted in recent years...

Cell Phones Could Help Millions in Developing Countries to Read
in Time online, and
Cell Phones Ignite a 'Reading Revolution' in Poor Countries
online on The Verge.




However, the Pew Research Center on Global Attitudes and Trends published a much more thorough examination of which types of mobile devices were used, how many of them existed, for what purposes they were used, and whether or not they were able to access the Internet/Apps/Cloud/etc in various countries throughout the developing world:

Internet Seen as a Positive Influence on Education...

The charts contained in the study above definitely provide some reality checks in terms of connectivity issues in various countries.

[Both charts above and below from study linked above and cited in References below]

We simply need more free wifi available everywhere to truly give people equitable access to world libraries, increased literacy skills, and open learning opportunities. I did find it heartening that on page three, part way down, between 10-15% of respondents in most countries said that they had used their mobile devices to access online classes. Yet, there is still a significant issue in terms of cell phones becoming commonplace, but the more useful and interactive smartphones (and tablets) remaining uncommon and unaffordable in developing nations.

Luckily, there are people and organizations constantly working on ways to increase equity of access to mobile devices and the free wifi connections needed to make them functional and useful. Below are just a few ways that these issues are attempting to be addressed.

Innovative ways to deliver wifi Internet to where it doesn't exist:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectLoon (for various videos including the one below)

The BRCK is kind of like a backup generator for creating share-able wifi hotspots in underserved and remote areas. It is very portable and very durable, and for a cost of $250, I think it would be affordable for aid organizations or government ministries to purchase to support people. 

BRCK homepage.

BRCK TEDtalk video below

And, to conclude, Mozilla has been spending the last few years trying to develop 

a very affordable $25 smartphone that they would deliberately market to developing countries. Although their motivation is most certainly to make big money by selling to unsaturated markets, the cheap price will also help people around the world get in on accessing a wealth of digital knowledge.

With all of these efforts discussed in my blog today, we may very soon see a time when all people around the globe have an affordable world library in their pockets that is powered by freely-provided or affordably-purchased wifi connections. Fingers crossed...

References

BRCK. 'BRCK: Rugged, Portable Wifi Hotspot & Battery Extender'. N.p., 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Google: Project Loon. Project Loon: Scaling Up. April 17, 2015. Web: YouTube. 27 Oct. 2015.

H., Victor. 'Mozilla Signs A Deal To Make The World’S Cheapest Smartphone: $25 Firefox OS Device With 3.5” Screen And HTML5 Apps'. Phone Arena. Feb. 23, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

International Children's Digital Library. 'Simple Search'. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Library For All. 'Homepage'. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. 'Internet Seen As Positive Influence On Education But Negative On Morality In Emerging And Developing Nations'. March 19, 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Project Gutenberg. 'Online Book Catalogue—Overview'. 2003–2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Rayman, Noah. 'Cell Phones Could Help Millions In Developing Countries To Read'. TIME.com.April 23, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

TEDtalk and BRCK. Tedtalk: Meet BRCK: Internet Access Built For Africa. June, 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Toor, Amar. 'Cellphones Ignite A 'Reading Revolution' In Poor Countries'. The Verge. April 23, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Wauters, Stephanie. 'Smart-Phone (Icon)'. Noun Project. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

The Cult of The Book: Fostering a Reading Culture in Schools (w/ ICT Support?)

I have always been foremost occupied as a Teacher-Librarian with the goal of creating a culture of reading within the school. Volume and variety of reading is the best method for increasing student reading skills, knowledge, empathy, escapism, connection, and--of course--entertainment. Most people have heard of the many studies showing the benefits of reading and access to books as indicators of academic success, but I found a study (link embedded) that was unique in its focus on using voluntary book club-style reading, discussing, and recommendation groups as a beneficial mental health therapy (LivHIR). Instead of having to read self-help books, the participants read books of their choosing and talked about them with others.

The conclusions were as follows:

The study found that Get into Reading helped patients suffering from depression in terms of: their social well-being, by increasing personal confidence, reducing social isolation, fostering a sense of community and encouraging communication skills; their mental well-being, by improving powers of concentration, fostering an interest in new learning or new ways of understanding, and extending their capacity for thought, verbalised and internalised; their emotional and psychological well-being, by increasing selfawareness, enhancing the ability to articulate profound issues of being, and making possible a shift in internal paradigms (or the telling of „a new story‟) in relation to self and identity. The study also established what literature works, why it works and how it works. Our findings thus offer a preliminary evidence-base for the efficacy of an inexpensive and humane psychosocial intervention, which will inform the development and design of the intervention, as well as the choices regarding outcome measures, in the design of a future RCT.  (p. 81)

At any rate, in this hectic era, when self-regulation is a major educational topic, reading for extended periods certainly provides a calm and reflective period for the body to relax and for the mind to be released from worries and stresses. Fostering a reading culture is thus a very important thing for a school Librarian to focus on. But, HOW?

How do we convince more kids to read more books more often? Below are some things I've been trying over multiple years to accomplish that fundamental goal.

Of course, having a very wide variety of items available helps: something to suit every taste. That is a beginning. Making sure they can find the books that interest them is vital: you might have it, but if they don't know it, they might leave with nothing. So, good signage is important, as are occasional Library walk-and-talk tours or orientations. Kids don't always read signs with words, so using picture cue cards to catch their attention works well (as I've found since experimenting last year).

This link should allow me to share the pic cue cards I created using Creative Commons pictures and icons:

Dewey Decimal Picture Cue Cards for the shelves

Students will read so much more if they can find what they want--fast. Creative cataloguing is a technique that improves patrons' abilities to find materials. Almost all Library software will allow you to manipulate fields for Call #, Location, and Subject. This allows you to create a user-friendly OPAC. It may not be an official Dewey subject you use, but if you can anticipate a topic kids want, and then create a subject list for those items, it's just one more way to be sure the books make it into readers' hands (you can teach more effective subject searching another time). I don't want the computer search system sending kids on a wild goose chase. If you keep all the Junie B. Jones (or whatever) in some sort of easy-access bin section, don't catalogue its call number as FIC PAR; instead, input the call number as JunieB/Bin #4 (or something). Be sure as well that the location field also gives a specific spot for the searcher to go to (often, for me, this is a repeat of the special call number--if it says it twice, more chance it gets noticed). For example, since my Graphic Novels are all on two display shelves, giving them call numbers such as 741.5 KIB is useless--they aren't over in non-fiction. So, the call number says "Graphic Novel shelves," as does the location field. The Graphic Novel shelves have large prominent signs on them, and when the student arrives there, the shelf labels clearly show where Amulet (etc) normally lives.

Try this experiment: go to the Sardis Elementary catalogue via the link below and look up Dork Diaries books, and Frog Girl, and Same Same But Different to see examples of how I use the fields just discussed.    

Sardis Elementary Library OPAC

The OPAC, your catalogue search tool, isn't exactly ICT, but having online access to it can likely increase its use as an interactive communication tool. With a switch-over to the Destiny program last January, our Library catalogue is now online 24/7. Thus, students can access it from home, and once I have time to investigate it further, I believe they will have the ability to write reviews and recommendations to post for peers (does anybody out there have knowledge/experience with this?) Those peer-to-peer suggestions will help to foster reading culture. My "old-school" version of this was the use of "Book Review Bookmarks" in my former Library assignment. Kids could take a 3x5" card from the check-out desk and fill in title, author, call number fields, plus write a review on it, then hand it in when returning the book. During assemblies, several reviews were chosen from the pile and read out; the reviewers got to visit the Library afterward to choose a free book. Periodically the review pile was "retired," which meant that those reviews got slipped into book pockets inside the covers of their books for other browsers to discover. I keep meaning to bring this idea to my new Library....

Reading really engaging stories to students in fun and interactive storytimes provides them with connections to new favourites that they will later see and borrow; if they like Book A that you read, then knowing that author has more titles will create a run on that shelf. Reading with voices, occasionally using puppets or props, and other elements of showmanship can also associate reading with fun, which promotes more reading for pleasure. I learned a lot (good and bad; to do, and not to do) from the public library's storytimes in the early years of my boys' lives.

My latest endeavour to build a culture of reading started when I was back teaching in Grade 4 classrooms. A few years ago, I initiated Mr. Hunt's Reading Extravanganza Challenges. These were lists of fabulous books that students could choose to read (or not); if they completed a list, then they got their names entered into an end-of-term draw to win $25 Chapters gift card (I got administrator permission to use my classroom budget to purchase these).  Since taking over my new Library position, I've wanted to expand the Challenges to the entire school: however, at just over 500 kids, it could get insanely expensive to hand out gift card rewards. In my old (inner city) school, I always used the proceeds from the Scholastic Book Fairs exclusively for purchasing year-end books (one for each of our 250 kids) and Book Review Bookmark give-aways; in my new school (not impoverished), the book fair proceeds are significant enough to fund a fully stocked Freebie Cart that I can use as rewards for completed Challenges. 

To see the Challenge lists (that I recently Tweeted about, too) follow the link below: 

http://sardis.sd33.bc.ca/library-news   (see the downloadable files towards the bottom of  page)

Thus, in February, I unveiled the program with a wide variety of book lists: various picture book lists, special collections lists (like ABC, First Nations, etc), graphic novels, various non-fiction, poetry, and various short and long fiction Challenges. There are now 24 different lists organized into three genre binders. The lists are available, viewable and downloadable, on-line on the Library News page of the school website. PAC parents made a display about them in the foyer last spring; I'm now going to get them to add a post and links to their Facebook page to spread the news far and wide (and to catch those who haven't seen my info in school newsletters).  A key element of this program is to try and encourage family members to read with their kids in working through the lists; to at least encourage some discussion of the books, students are to get each item on the list checked of/initialed by an adult, as well as a final signature. In only four months, 76 completed Challenges were handed in, which means 76 free books were chosen! I have been meaning to sift through the pile and do an analysis of what grade levels are doing them, which genre of lists are most used, how many students completed more than one, and so on.

Also, I am now attempting to build a parent Twitter following (as a result of taking this class) in order to share news about the Challenges, to make book recommendations, and share other reading-related news. Hopefully, increasing my use of ICT tools will help to build an ever-stronger culture of reading within my school.

I suppose I shall end things here...this has gotten rather longer than I intended (again);

I'll leave out reminiscences about the Books For Babies  (a borrowed idea from a colleague, plus built on a program by the local hospital) and the adult-and-child Book Club programs I used to do and have been planning to one day start up again....

Works Cited

LivHIR: Liverpool Health Inequalities Research Institute: The Reader Organization, with University of Liverpool, and National Health Service (Liverpool),. An Investigation Into The Therapeutic Benefits Of Reading In Relation To Depression And Well-Being. Liverpool (England): The Reader Organization, 2010. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.

One of the covers of the Reading Extravaganza Challenges binders: