Nicky Morgan, the Education SecretaryPhoto: Reuters
The Education Secretary says it is a “national mission” to improve levels of literacy levels of young children and says every junior school student in the country will be enrolled in a local library.
Every junior school student in the country will be enrolled in a local library,Nicky Morgan will pledge today as she vows to make English pupils "the most literate children in Europe".
The Education Secretary said it is a “national mission” to improve levels of literacy levels of young children.
Officials will work with schools in a bid to get every eight-year-old in the country enrolled at their local library, Mrs Morgan said.
The Government drive to improve literacy comes after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2013 found that England was 22nd for literacy and 21st for numeracy out of 24 countries, behind countries including Estonia, Poland and Slovakia.
Writing in the Telegraph alongside comedian David Walliams, who is supporting the project, Mrs Morgan warmed that “for some children, reading is, quite literally, a closed book”.
“Improving children’s literacy should be a national mission,” they said. “Whether that means teachers running book clubs, schools enrolling pupils in libraries, publishers donating books, or simply parents reading with their children.”
Officials in the education department hope that the drive could stop closures of libraries across the country.
Local authorities often close libraries and justify their decision by saying that there are not enough members to warrant continued funding.
However, with hundreds of children being signed up, it will be increasingly difficult for councils to close libraries.
Mrs Morgan and Mr Walliams added: “One in five children still leaves primary school unable to read well enough to succeed at secondary school – a figure that rises to one in three of our poorest children. And, if we don’t address illiteracy, it’s the disadvantaged who miss out most of all.
“This is a question of social justice. People with strong reading skills are overwhelmingly more likely to succeed at school, achieve good qualifications, and find a rewarding and enjoyable career. They are even more likely to enjoy good health. By contrast, those who don’t master reading in school suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives, where they may struggle to get good jobs or achieve their full potential.
“No matter where they live or what their background, every single child in this country deserves the opportunity to read, to read widely, and to read well.”
A survey in June revealed that British school leavers are the worst in Europe for the “essential skills” needed to complete entry-level jobs in business.
Four in ten of firms polled in the UK felt that candidates for junior jobs lacked "functional skills, basic literacy and numeracy", compared to 18 per cent of European firms.
Libraries lead the way to digital citizenship. They should be the first places where most advanced technologies are implemented.
Today, libraries are not only about lending books. They are creative spaces, not only for individuals, but also teams. They are economic incubators and learning hubs.
Most of all, the libraries are the entry points to the digital world. They are the way to embrace technology and avoid digital exclusion.
Therefore, to improve technological literacy of local communities, libraries should be equipped with relevant technologies.
In this articles you won’t find examples of how to use Google Hangouts for library meetings, or Pikochart to create library infographics.
Instead, I would like to go one step further and present technologies – some of them in a concept phase – that could be used in the future.
And instead of general ideas, like wearables or augmented reality, you’ll see here real examples.
Some of these technologies seem to eat budgets dozens of times bigger than a public library can afford, but it’s not the point of this article.
The article is designed to spot technologies that will be relevant and useful in the libraries as they move along their digital roadmaps.
8 technologies we would love to see in the libraries
1. Library bookmark and guide
An interesting concept from a Chinese design company Toout. This little tiny device is in the first place a regular bookmark. But on top of that it also has features that could make using the library much easier.
First of all, the device would be a perfect companion when navigating through the library, by giving turn-by-turn directions to the book the patron wants.
The device could also keep track of all borrowed books, as well as remind the user of the return dates.
Finding a book easily without knowing the Dewey Decimal Classification system? Sounds like a good idea of where the library card could evolve.
librARi is a concept of an image based augmented reality application, created by Pradeep Siddappa.
A lot has been said about using augmented reality in libraries, but there are few examples that would let us actually see it.
The video explaining how librARi works (AR in the name stands for “augmented reality”) is very decent, but it’s a benefit. It clearly highlights the best use of AR in libraries – locating the books on the shelves and navigating to them.
The app would point you to the new arrivals. It would also be able to find and point to similar books. Simple, but useful, and very probable.
To get the book from a library, you can either go and find it, or you can let it find you.
The future belongs to unmanned flying machines, and just like Amazon drones can deliver the goods to customers, libraries could deliver the books to patrons.
Library drone is not even the close future. It’s already happening. Australian start-up Flirtey has teamed up with a book rental service Zookal to create – the first in the world – textbook delivery system.
The system is using hexacopters, drones with six rotors, to deliver ordered textbooks. Now, the smart thing is that the drone can find you by the location of your smartphone, so there is no need to give a fixed address.
Just imagine. You are sitting in a reading room of the New York Public Library, in the middle of writing an essay, and want to get another book. Stay where you are, and use the app to order a book. The drone will come,just like this one. Pull out the book from the box, and put the one or ones you don’t need any longer. The drone will place them where they belong.
I would personally add an option to deliver latte from a library cafeteria.
Anyone who tried ebooks would never give up the convenience of a digital interface and all other helpful tools.
Searching the content of the book (including smart search), looking for a reference on the web, getting an instant translation, writing notes, or collecting book passages – all this can be done on the same device that we use to read an ebook.
We can obviously borrow an ebook instead of a print book, but here is a better idea – enhance the print book with a digital interface.
FingerLink is a project currently developed by Fujitsu that will let you use digital tools to work with a printed book.
It’s a stand you can put on a library desk. It includes two elements: a camera to read the info from the real world, and the projector to display digital info in the real world.
Simply, place the book on a table under the stand, and you’ll see extra options, available for the book. It’s because everything what FingerLink “sees” can be available and editable in a digital form.
Now let’s push the imagination a bit further.
Nimble is a concept of an advanced library augmented reality tool.
Designed by a London-based interactive designer and Google engineer Sures Kumar, Nimble does not only offer digital enhancement of a print book, but also incorporates the idea featured earlier in the post – the turn-by-turn library guide.
All these features can be accessed using the smart library card. An all-in-one solution to let patrons use the digital books to work with whichever content they want.
Obviously, introducing a system like FingerLink will exceed library’s yearly budget several times. There is a cheaper alternative. A library could offer patrons a variety of small utensils they could borrow to use in the reading room.
In the picture above you see Ivy Guide, a concept device, that you can put on your pen to use for translating words found in the print book.
It’s just an example showing that such concepts are being created. The only thing is to find the most useful task for the library use.
For me, it could be a simple pen that would let patrons make digital highlights. One condition – it should be done in a simplest possible way.
Here is the idea. The real-to-digital highlighter would be connected to a computer. When you highlight something – move along the text in a print book – it will immediately appear in the notepad app on a computer. All your highlights would be collected in a single text document.
When you are finished, simply send this note to your email address. The note will self-destruct the moment you close it.
Such library utensils would be useful for less tech-savvy library patrons or those who don’t use advanced apps (for instance the ones with OCR – optical character recognition) on their phones.
Sometimes, to engage local communities, or reach people in remote locations, the library would want to physically leave the library building.
The Ideas Box is a revolutionary concept developed by Librarians Without Borders, with the aim to reach people in refugee camps and impoverished countries, but could be also used any time the idea of a mobile library is considered.
The most thrilling thing about this modern library center is that it can be assembled in less than 20 minutes.
The Idea Box is a portable toolkit – standardized, easy to transport and set up. The kit consists of six boxes (including library and internet access), fits on two palettes, and creates a space of 1,000 square meters.
The library box includes 250 paper books, 50 e-readers with thousands of ebooks, and a variety of educational apps.
Bookless libraries, where you can’t find a single print book, launch regularly. They obviously won’t kill traditional libraries, just like ebooks don’t kill print books. The digital-only route has its disadvantages.
To me, every digital-only library should offer their patrons the ability to instantly make a print version of the book. Let’s put aside the question who is going to pay for this. The most important question is that sometimes the book has to be real to make use of it.
Espresso Book Machine (EBM) is a real product. Manufactured by Xerox, it’s sold by On Demand Books. It can make a paperback book while you wait, printing up to 150 pages per minute.
The machine is connected to an online catalog of over seven million in-copyright and public domain books, but institutions using EBM can also print custom titles.
This sounds like an super simple idea, but it doesn’t exist yet, and I’m not sure whether it will.
All the concepts presented above were about special devices or solutions designed for special use in a library.
Nowadays, if you want to borrow an ebook from a library you need to have a special app from a digital content provider, like OverDrive. But not all the libraries cooperate with OverDrive – and it’s where problems begin. The more special something is, the fewer people will use it.
The thing is that to borrow a print book from a library, you don’t need anything special besides the library card.
Imagine that many of the features described above would be accessible from a simple app – a browser on your mobile phone. You’d need it to browse the library, borrow a book, get notifications when it’s due, and finally, be able to read it.
Maybe there would be an option to take a virtual walk through the library. We’re close, just look at the libraries using Google Street View tours. Maybe there would be an option to make notes and highlights. Maybe there would be an option to recognize the printed text and turn it to editable notes.
Yes, all these features are available, but they are delivered by special apps, and these special apps are not meant to be used in libraries.
The idea (utopian?) is that everybody could use the library, and no extra knowledge and software would be needed for that.
Google is leading the way to unify online experience. No extra sign ups. All you need is to be signed in to your Gmail account on Google Chrome.
About Piotr Kowalczyk
Founder of Ebook Friendly. Ebook enthusiast, technology geek, iPhone artist, and self-published author from Poland.
A new literary genre that focuses on the consequences of environmental issues is striking a chord with younger generations—and engaging them in thinking about the Earth’s sustainability.
The American Southwest has been decimated by drought. Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches, deciding if it should just take the whole river all for itself. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.
Although the above might read like a slightly dramatic spin on the Western U.S. drought crisis, this scenario—at least for now—is imaginary. It’s the teaser for Paolo Bacigalupi’s new novel The Water Knife, another recent addition to the rapidly growing canon of climate fiction. Often called “cli-fi,” the genre, in short, explores the potential, drastic consequences of climate change.
It’s not an entirely new concept—Jules Verne played with the idea in a few of his novels in the 1880s—but the theme of man-made change doesn’t appear in literature until well into the 20th century. The British author J.G. Ballard pioneered the environmental apocalypse narrative in books such as The Wind from Nowhere starting in the 1960s. But as public awareness of climate change increased, so did the popularity of these themes: Searching for the term “climate fiction” on Amazon today returns over 1,300 results.
Since the turn of the millennium, cli-fi has evolved from a subgenre of science fiction into a class of its own. Unlike traditional sci-fi, its stories seldom focus on imaginary technologies or faraway planets. Instead the pivotal themes are all about Earth, examining the impact of pollution, rising sea levels, and global warming on human civilization. And the genre’s growing presence in college curriculums, as well as its ability to bridge science with the humanities and activism, is making environmental issues more accessible to young readers—proving literature to be a surprisingly valuable tool in collective efforts to address global warming.
When it comes to courting the interest of younger generations, it certainly helps that cli-fi is emerging at the movies and on TV. Last year's Christopher Nolan epic Interstellar shows the American Midwest turning into a second Dust Bowl, with a forecast so dire it drives humans to seek a new planet. In 2014's Snowpiercer, a bungled attempt to stop global warming creates a new ice age. Margaret Atwood’s popular cli-fi trilogy MaddAddam is currently being adapted into a series for HBO, whose wildly popular show Game of Thrones also flirts, if unintentionally, with global-warming themes.
The writer and climate activist Dan Bloom came up with the term “cli-fi” circa 2007, hoping to convert the dull phrase “climate fiction” into something more compelling. “I never defined or even tried to define a new genre,” said Bloom. Instead, he merely wanted to come up with a catchy buzzword to raise awareness about global warming.” The strategy worked: When Atwood used the term in a 2012 tweet, she introduced it to her 500,000 followers, according to Bloom. As the notion of cli-fi took hold, publishers and book reviewers began regarding it as a new category. In this respect, cli-fi is a truly modern literary phenomenon: born as a meme and raised into a distinct genre by the power of social media. Today cli-fi has an actively used hashtag on Twitter, two user-created book lists on Goodreads, and several Facebook groups, including one devoted exclusively to young-adult climate fiction.
Given cli-fi’s contemporary genesis, it’s no surprise the genre is gaining popularity with high school and college-age readers. In a February 2015 feature for The Guardian, the cli-fi author Sarah Holding wrote that the genre “reconnects young readers with their environment, helping them to value it more, especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world.” Environmental themes complement the current trend of dystopian narratives in YA fiction. Bacigalupi’s young adult novels The Drowned Cities (2013) and Ship Breaker (2011) show how rising sea levels reconfigure America, while the protagonists of Sarah Crossan’s Breathe (2012) inhabit a domed city because oxygen is a rare commodity.
Cli-fi is a truly modern literary phenomenon: born as a meme and raised into a distinct genre by the power of social media.
The genre offers more than escapist thrills: It’s becoming a springboard for engaging youth in the sciences. Waning interest in STEM subjects has plagued American academia for years. In 2012 the Programme for International Student Assessment found the United States ranked 20th out of 34 countries evaluated for student performance in the sciences. But colleges in the U.S. and abroad—from the University of Oregon to Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education—now offer courses in cli-fi. Earlier this year, students in a cli-fi class at Holyoke extracted DNA from strawberries to understand the genetic engineering themes of Bacigalupi’s award-winning novel The Windup Girl (2009). At Temple University, participants in the cli-fi course used their class blog to share links to science news and cited scientific articles in their book reviews. One student majoring in English admitted on the blog that “when it comes to understanding jargon specific terminology and scientific-based language I get lost and often feel stupid.” The same student went on to post a detailed review of Atwood’s Year of the Flood (2009), examining how climate change would impact various agricultural sectors and describing the chemistry involved.
This fusion of science and the humanities can have practical consequences, encouraging more serious study of STEM, which can intimidate students. With literature and creative writing as a comfortable gateway, “science would become accessible to students who think they aren’t interested in science,” said Ellen Szabo, the author of Saving the World One Word at a Time: Writing Cli-Fi. Szabo’s book discusses the genre’s ability to make environmental issues less political and more personal: Making climate change seem like less of a clinical topic can eventually engender real action. Ted Howell, who teaches the cli-fi class at Temple University, noted that the traditional means of conveying the severity of climate change weren’t effective with his students. “Once they grasped the basic outlines of the issue, they didn’t want to keep reading about 2 percent increases or 4 percent increases in global temperature—they wanted to know what they could do in response,” Howell said.
Howell’s observation aligns with findings from a 2006 working paper released through the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, which explored how different communication methods influenced people’s opinions on climate change. The study explored whether a climate fiction experience—in this case, the popular if scientifically flawed apocalypse film The Day After Tomorrow—would elicit stronger reactions from participants than simply reading a body of information about the causes and effects of climate change. Both sets of respondents reported a positive shift in their concern about climate change following the experiment. However, the group that viewed the film reported a slightly higher willingness to reform social behaviors in favor of mitigating climate change.
Not everyone is convinced of cli-fi’s potential. Last year in an opinion piece for The New York Times, George Marshall—the founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network—expressed concern that cli-fi would reinforce what people already believe rather than change anyone’s minds. “The unconvinced will see these stories as proof that this issue is a fiction, exaggerated for dramatic effect,” he said. “The already convinced will be engaged, but overblown apocalyptic story lines may distance them from the issue of climate change or even objectify the problem.”
The Tyndall Centre study also indicated that placing climate change in a fictional context might reduce the urgency readers feel about the issue in reality, or simply reduce it to a vague concern with no practical remedy. Students in the Temple University class felt a twinge of this, too. “Faced with the realization that a truly adequate response to climate change will necessarily involve significant changes to our lifestyle, and sacrifices by those with money, power, and influence, we often grew despondent,” Howell said. Despondent, but not hopeless: He noted that uncertainty also helps emphasize the vast possibilities for reform.
Therein lies the challenge. “Science doesn't tell us what we should do,” Kingsolver wrote in Flight Behavior. “It only tells us what is.” Stories can never be a solution in themselves, but they have the capacity to inspire action, which is perhaps why cli-fi’s appeal among young adult readers holds such promise. As the scientists and leaders of tomorrow, they may be most capable of addressing climate issues where previous generations have failed. Cli-fi, like the science behind it, often presents bleak visions of the future, but within such frightening prophecies lies the real possibility that it’s not too late to steer in a different direction. As Atwood wrote in MaddAddam, “People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.”
CONVERSATION ALL-STARS (Clockwise, from top l.) Internet specialist Joe Salamon demonstrates the Living Language online language-learning resource to a customer at Cuyahoga Cty. PL’s Parma-Snow Branch. A Plaza program facilitator works with immigrants, refugees, and asylees at Denver PL’s Ross-Barnum Branch. Participants in Denver’s English Conversation program are surrounded by portraits of other immigrants who have shared their stories of coming to this country.
At the start of 2014, Eric Soriano found inspiration in several of his friends’ New Year’s resolutions to learn a new language. Soriano, an e-services librarian with the Jacksonville Public Library (JPL), FL, recognized an opportunity to spread the word about JPL’s subscription to the online language-learning resource Transparent Language Online. A year later, JPL received the Urban Libraries Council’s Top Innovator Award for Customer Experience for the system’s new language-learning programs, which use Transparent as the backbone of a class curriculum.
Transparent, distributed by Recorded Books, is one of several online language-learning resources available to libraries; other such products include Duolingo, Mango Languages, Pronunciator, Rosetta Stone, Living Language, and Rocket Languages from Library Ideas. (For more information on these, see “Library Linguistics,” LJ 8/14, p. 35ff.) Libraries can leverage these tools whether they have fluent speakers on staff or not by finding ways to support online learning with in-person meet-ups, conversation groups, or fully developed classes.
THE APPEAL OF IMMERSION
After his New Year’s brainstorm, Soriano developed an instructional class that focused on how to use Transparent: creating an account, navigating the site, and briefly exploring a handful of the languages offered. This approach garnered one well-attended class, but Soriano saw a quick drop in attendance for successive sessions. Feedback from the first group of attendees indicated that customers wanted classes specifically on the language in which they had an interest. “Class pacing [in Transparent] depends on the language,” Soriano says. “We needed to specialize…in order to get something more targeted.”
So Jacksonville’s e-services librarian team planned “a three-part French course and a similarly structured Spanish course.” The programming was so popular that customers were turned away owing to lack of space, despite the addition of extra laptops to the computer lab where the classes were held. Soriano sees this success as the result of incorporating an immersive-type experience; not only do attendees learn the ins and outs of the tool, they discover more about the cultures in which the languages are spoken, such as regional cuisine and travel tips. The Spanish students even learned some dance steps.
Some patrons were surprised to find this type of programming offered free of charge; others expected a sales pitch for Transparent during the class, Soriano tells LJ. Several registrants were first-time library users, and these visitors “validated [our] belief that if we offer a program that is really relevant to the customer, they will find a way to make it to the library.” Indeed, even though JPL’s branches are spread across 30-plus miles, attendees stated in their program evaluations that they will visit libraries in new parts of town just to attend these programs.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Many librarians have increased the value of their online language-learning resources through conversation groups. Denver Public Library (DPL) approaches services for English-language learners through “integrated, holistic programs” called Plazas, according to Will Chan, program administrator for services to new immigrants with DPL. Plaza programs “provide a dedicated space and access to curated resources for Colorado’s immigrant, refugee, and asylee populations,” says Chan; programming includes conversation groups using Mango Languages and Duolingo. Plaza program facilitators are paid out of grant funding, “are often from the actual [immigrant/asylee/refugee] community, and provide capacity and enhance services provided through the library,” he says. Often the facilitators have gone through Plaza programming themselves and now want to pay their experience forward. Facilitators are trained in the use of the library’s resources to bring to their varied programming. Chan sees the informal conversation groups as an integral part of rounding out the experience for customers who also frequently attend traditional language-learning classes taught by other organizations.
Online resources offer a level of flexibility to new English speakers who may be overscheduled with multiple jobs and family care responsibilities. Finding out about Mango or Duolingo through a Plaza program means attendees are able to learn on their own schedule and without fear of embarrassment. “Mango is great for people who feel nervous” speaking up at conversation groups, says Chan. But while flexible, individual learning is appealing, Chan sees approximately two-thirds of his first-time conversation group attendees returning for additional programs to take advantage of the friendly social setting. Facilitators often help find specific information in language-learning resources that can assist with daily tasks such as banking and grocery shopping. Patrons can work one-on-one with a facilitator to cover language basics and then move on to the conversation group when they feel ready. The potential for social interaction built around library resources is what Chan sees as the future of library programming: “We want to build relationships and be relevant, to be that pillar of the community.”
CONNECTING ENGLISH LEARNERS
Many libraries see the benefit of incorporating online language-learning resources into programming that focuses on English language learning (ELL) and English as a second language (ESL). Jill D’Amico, adult services librarian, East Brunswick PL, NJ, explains that she purchased Pronunciator for the library system particularly because “I wanted it to help support more advanced ESL learners, who were often left without recourse for building on basic skills.” These customers may “struggle with speaking and casual conversation,” although they have technical skills in reading and writing.
The local public schools host their adult ESL classes at the library, and D’Amico presented Pronunciator to the students this past April. They went through the program’s features together, and the students downloaded the mobile app to their devices. East Brunswick started a new community conversation group in August and will return to ESL programming in the fall. D’Amico sees these partnerships and programs as a way to “offer a supported learning environment, facilitating casual meetings and providing support [with library resources].” While the library/school ESL partnership has existed for at least a decade by D’Amico’s count, she notes that “cooperation has grown more interactive over time, as evidenced by things like the Pronunciator programming and library tours.”
Sandy Irwin, library director at the Durango Public Library, CO, also works with a local ESL class run through the Durango Education Center (DEC). The partnership evolved after the ESL coordinator contacted Irwin about bringing ESL classes to the library for a tour. DEC had already been using Mango Languages through the library’s website, and the coordinator was ready to strengthen the connection. Irwin prepared a presentation that would inform not only the students but also DEC’s ESL teaching staff on how the resource works. This partnership also resulted in a conversation between DEC and the library’s collection development team on creating a more robust Spanish-language print collection. Irwin notes that since Durango is “a small library with limited staff, we rely on local experts to use the products we invested in to help their organizations be successful. If we can facilitate that process, then we are all in. [The DEC is] also a small organization with limited staff and funds, so the library’s subscription to Mango truly helps them with their mission.”
Community partnerships have been crucial to the ESL program at Poughkeepsie Public Library (PPL), NY. Thanks to an American Dream grant, funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and administered through the American Library Association, PPL purchased Rosetta Stone in April to supplement its existing Mango Languages subscription. Literacy Connections, a local organization, teaches weekly ESL classes at the library using the online software, bringing in volunteer tutors and local nonprofits—such as Planned Parenthood, the domestic violence center, and community health organizations—to speak about available resources. “The community component is really important,” says Peggy Sisselman, PPL adult services librarian. “It helps us…to keep the program going, because it establishes us as a place where Latino Americans can get help, and as a member of the community…. We’ve made a lot of great contacts.”
VOLUNTEER VALUE
While many language courses are taught by staff members with fluency in that language, other systems have found a wealth of experience in their volunteer pool. Shortly after purchasing a library subscription to Pronunciator just over a year ago, Carol Ghattas, branch librarian with the Linebaugh Public Library System (LPLS), TN, was approached by a volunteer, a native of France, about starting a French conversation group—which now meets twice a month. Ghattas notes that “French shows the highest usage for quizzes taken” in that resource. The volunteer, Alain Courcoux, says that while LPLS doesn’t use the tool directly in the group meetings, his members are aware of and use the resource, and he promotes it during their time together.
JPL’s Soriano also sees the potential for community partners as a way to extend the reach of its language courses. Members of the Jacksonville French Alliance have been attending the classes, and Soriano plans to reach out to them to serve as a resource for promoting the library’s language programming. He also hopes to tap them in the future to identify potential course instructors and to act as local experts for those looking to increase their knowledge of French language and culture.
At the Tualatin Public Library, OR, community librarian Lauren Furnish oversees two different kinds of language-learning programs: a conversation group called Intercambio, which is an English/Spanish meet-up, and one-on-one language tutoring. Both programs are run by volunteers. Tualatin subscribes to Mango Languages, and all volunteers receive training in the resource in order to bring it to their conversation group attendees and tutoring students.
A FANTASTIC IDEA
Not all conversational events are strictly utilitarian. Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL), OH, has partnered with Random House to offer a number of different resources connected to the publisher’s Living Language course series, a 65-year-old technique originally developed for the State Department and now revamped into an online solution. These include integrating Living Language displays into its seven-day-a-week passport services. But library staff and patrons alike are especially excited about an upcoming event with David Peterson, creator of Dothraki, one of the languages featured in HBO’s popular series Game of Thrones—Living Language offers Dothraki instruction alongside its more traditional languages. While customers may not soon be using Dothraki on vacation or a business trip, it provides yet another access point for language learners at the library. As Cheryl Herman, marketing director at Penguin Random House, points out, “Connecting patrons with engaging, in-person events raises the profile of the library’s language offerings and makes learning interactive and fun.”
BOOST YOUR SIGNAL
Curious about how to get started leveraging your own library’s online language-learning resources? Soriano recommends starting with what your system may already have in place. “You don’t need anything new,” he says. “[Instead,] look at what you have and [find ways] to present it in a more relevant way.” Prior to instituting the language courses at JPL in late 2014, Soriano tells LJ, 251 people had used Transparent that year. After the immersive programming pilot, “usage more than doubled, with 600 people using [the resource.]” JPL has since recorded a further 80 percent average increase in usage.
Soriano credits part of the program’s success to a cross-departmental team effort that includes the marketing department, which designs attractive promotional materials and runs strong social media campaigns for the courses. Finding instructors within the JPL staff was part of this team effort. “We couldn’t hire external language instructors,” says Soriano, who goes on to note that implementing this staffing model for the language courses was integral to the program. Libraries should do some community analysis in order to find out what its language-learning needs may be, he adds. At the same time, he says, “You never know until you try!”
New ESL/ELL programming may involve specific obstacles that require consideration. Pang Yang, community services coordinator at the St. Paul Public Library, notes that in some languages “there are no such words as computer or Internet access.” This can make it difficult to “navigate learners to websites that will help them learn English.” Native speakers, either from library staff or the community, will then be key to promoting and implementing successful language-learning programs.
Libraries can reach out to conversation groups or meet-ups that already exist in their area; a quick search on the site Meetup.com shows a multitude of conversation groups, depending on location. Colleges may run conversation circles through their language departments; adult education programming through local parks and recreation organizations or community colleges could also be a great way to start a community partnership with the library around language learning.
In the end, the key to boosting the signal of a library’s language resources is the social connection. Identifying the resources that will have the most impact in a given community, and repackaging them into fun, relevant programming with help from volunteers and in-house instructors, could be just what is needed to get the full value from a language-learning program—and to pass that value on to library customers.
April Witteveen is a Community Librarian with the Deschutes Public Library system in Central Oregon. She is chairing the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award committee for the American Library Association.
It’s not the e-reader that will be driving future books sales, it’s the phone; how publishers are rethinking books for the small screen
ENLARGE
ILLUSTRATION: KAGAN MCLEOD
By
JENNIFER MALONEY
Last fall, Andrew Vestal found himself rocking his baby daughter, Ada, back to sleep every morning between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Cradling Ada in the crook of his arm, he discovered he could read his dimly-lit phone with one hand. That’s how he read David Mitchell’s 624-page science-fiction saga “The Bone Clocks.”
Mr. Vestal’s iPhone has offered him a way to squeeze in time for reading that he otherwise might have given up. He reads on lunch breaks. He even reads between meetings as he walks across Microsoft’s Seattle campus, where he works as a program manager.
Before he tried it, he wondered whether reading in snippets might be dissatisfying. But to his surprise, he found he could quickly re-immerse himself in the book he was reading. “I want reading to be part of my life,” said Mr. Vestal, age 35. “If I waited for the kind of time I used to have—sitting down for five hours—I wouldn’t read at all.”
Ever since the first hand-held e-readers were introduced in the 1990s, the digital-reading revolution has turned the publishing world upside down. But contrary to early predictions, it’s not the e-reader that will be driving future book sales, but the phone.
“The future of digital reading is on the phone,” said Judith Curr, publisher of the Simon & Schuster imprint Atria Books. “It’s going to be on the phone and it’s going to be on paper.”
For now, tablets like the iPad and Kindle Fire remain the most popular platform to read digital books. According to Nielsen, the percentage of e-book buyers who read primarily on tablets was 41% in the first quarter of 2015, compared with 30% in 2012.
But what has captured publishers’ attention is the increase in the number of people reading their phones. In a Nielsen survey of 2,000 people this past December, about 54% of e-book buyers said they used smartphones to read their books at least some of the time. That’s up from 24% in 2012, according to a separate study commissioned by Nielsen.
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ILLUSTRATION: KAGAN MCLEOD
The number of people who read primarily on phones has risen to 14% in the first quarter of 2015 from 9% in 2012.
The number of people who read primarily on phones has risen to 14% in the first quarter of 2015 from 9% in 2012.
Meanwhile, those reading mainly on e-readers, such as Kindles and Nooks, dropped over the same period to 32% from 50%. Even tablet reading has declined recently to 41% in the first quarter this year from 44% in 2014.
The rise of phone reading is pushing publishers to rethink the way books are designed, marketed and sold with smaller screens in mind. It’s also prompting concern about whether deep, concentrated thinking is possible amid the ringing, buzzing and alerts that come with phones.
One reason people are reading on phones is convenience. If you’re standing in line at the deli, waiting at the DMV or riding home on the train, you may not have a print book or an e-reader or tablet. But chances are, you are carrying a smartphone. Some 64% of American adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in the spring of 2011,according to the Pew Research Center. Forrester Research, a research and advisory firm, projects that smartphone subscribers will number 80.8% of the U.S. population by 2019.
“The best device to read on is the one you have with you,” said Willem Van Lancker, co-founder and chief product officer of the subscription-book service Oyster. “It requires no planning. My bookshelf at home isn’t any good to me when I’m at the park.”
Another reason people are turning to phones is the size and clarity of new smartphone models, which make reading much easier. The average smartphone screen in 2014 was 5.1 inches—compared with a 3.9-inch average in 2011, according to eMarketer.
Since the release of the bigger, sharper iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last September, Apple has seen an increase in the number of people downloading books onto iPhones through its iBooks app. Some 45% of iBooks purchases are now downloaded onto iPhones, an Apple spokeswoman said. Before that, only 28% were downloaded onto phones, with most of the remainder downloaded onto iPads and a small percentage onto computers.
Amazon has also noted the development. Among all new customers using Kindles or the Kindle app, phone readers are by far the fastest-growing segment, an Amazon spokeswoman said, declining to disclose figures. Among those who use the Kindle app, more people now read books on the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus than on any other Apple device, even the popular iPad Mini, she said.
To engage readers, publishers are now experimenting with ways to make the mobile-reading experience better. They are designing book jackets with smartphone screens in mind. (Handwritten scripts or small fonts may not be legible.) They are customizing their marketing materials—email blasts, Facebook posts and websites—to be read on phones. And some are trying to catch people on the go, offering free access to e-books in airports, hotels and trains.
“How do I serve something up to somebody who perhaps wasn’t thinking about a book two minutes ago?” said Liz Perl, the chief marketing officer at Simon & Schuster, which has teamed up with Foli, a mobile-distribution platform, to offer free e-books at specific GPS coordinates. “The read-anywhere option is amazing. It’s an obligation for us as publishers to find those people.”
Through the Foli mobile app, Simon & Schuster in May offered David McCullough’s “The Wright Brothers” free at more than 50 U.S. airports. In June, it served up “Yoga for Life” by Colleen Saidman Yee at the Solstice in Times Square yoga festival in New York. Now the publisher offers free e-books at hotels and airport lounges in New York, California, Missouri, Florida, Texas and Hawaii. Users can read as much of each book as they like free, as long as they stay within the prescribed geographical area.
Most people who read on their phones toggle back and forth between devices, using whichever is closest at hand when opportunity strikes, according to a survey this year by the book-recommendation site Goodreads. Nearly two-thirds of respondents who read on their phones said they did so because they didn’t have their e-reader or tablet with them.
Amazon, Google, Apple and Barnes & Noble all offer smartphone apps for reading books. They automatically sync all devices linked to the same account, so a reader can open an e-book on her phone and pick up exactly where she left off the night before on her e-reader or tablet. Amazon and Google recently introduced custom e-book fonts, both designed to be more legible on smartphone screens.
Fully 55% of all Oyster’s activity is now happening on phones, and the company in June introduced a new display option called Lumin that reduces the amount of blue light emitted from smartphone and tablet screens to make reading easier on the eyes at night (its users’ peak reading time). “I think people are reading constantly now, and it’s because of phones,” Mr. Van Lancker said.
Publishers are also devoting significant resources to developing apps that complement e-books and offer additional content from authors—from smoothie recipes and diet guidelines to “Curious George” games and daily affirmations inspired by the best-selling middle-grade novel “Wonder.” All are intended to keep mobile users engaged, and coming back for more books.
The literary world is divided over whether a phone can deliver the experience of deep, concentrated reading. Scholars who study the subject note that smartphones are an important part of the effort to improve literacy in developing countries where books and computers are out of reach for many people. Reading on a phone is better than not reading at all, these experts all agree.
But there is debate about whether the phone is appropriate for long-form reading, if other options are available.
With all their ringing, dinging and buzzing, smartphones are designed to alert and distract users, notes Naomi S. Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University and author of “Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World.” Even when a phone’s alerts are turned off, your brain is still primed for disruption when you pick it up, she said. That could make a phone worse for reading than an e-reader.
“The phone is antithetical to deep reading,” said Maryanne Wolf, a neuroscientist at Tufts University who studies the reading brain. For most people, she said, a phone will make concentrated reading more difficult— though not impossible.
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ILLUSTRATION: KAGAN MCLEOD
Anna Todd, writer of the “After” series on the serial publishing platform Wattpad, argues that phones are encouraging people to read more. Wattpad has 40 million monthly users—almost 90% of whom are on mobile devices. “People should stop worrying about how other people are reading, and be glad that they are,” said Ms. Todd, whose series generated 1.3 billion chapter views and a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
Many readers report being able to concentrate just fine on their phones. (Some turn off their alerts). On Twitter, people have celebrated major feats of reading, accomplished entirely on smartphones, including “Moby-Dick,” “War and Peace,” and “Swann’s Way.”
No one expects phones to replace print books altogether. And even avid phone readers acknowledge the devices have drawbacks. Many report feeling caught off guard when they reach the end of a book. They miss the physical sense of how deep they are into a book—and the feelings of accomplishment and anticipation that come with that. Others note that it is not as easy to share an e-book with friends as a hardcover or paperback. Many still read in print part of the time.
Laura Jefferson, 59, of Concord, N.H., reads on her iPhone for convenience —on the bus to Boston, in the doctor’s waiting room and eating lunch by herself at her favorite cafe in Concord. But when she knows she wants to lend a book to family or friends, she buys it in print.
Lloyd Miller, a musician from Brooklyn who reads on his phone and in print, used his iPhone to dip into Donna Tartt’s tome “The Goldfinch,” and found himself trying to read under his jacket in a Brooklyn movie theater, where he had taken his children to see Disney’s “Frozen.”
Mr. Miller, 41, said he prefers print, but downloads books on his phone for reading on the subway. He used his phone to read Hilary Mantel’s “Bring Up the Bodies,” and parts of Robert Caro’s fourth installment on Lyndon Johnson —which was too heavy to lug around. He also has his phone stocked with Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books and Judy Blume’s “Superfudge” series. Traveling around the city with his son and daughter, ages 7 and 10, the children often clamor for his phone.
He hands it to them, saying, “No games, but you can read a book.”
