Literacy Information

The IFLA Literacy and Reading Section's 2nd session at the World Library and Information (IFLA) Conference had some short presentations about successful literacy programmes. I will blog these briefly together. Firstly, Christina J. Nel talked about Library competitions promoting libraries, reading and literacy in a rural African environment. There were annual competitions for children, which involved having a standard form each year for children to work with or complete. They tried different things each year. For example, one year had a comic strip with speech bubbles (see example above), another year children had to illustrate the idea that "books take you anywhere". The children who won certificates were very proud and encouraged by them (see 2nd photo, below), and children enjoyed the competitions. There is a full paper here http://library.ifla.org/1173/

Libraries, literacy and technology: A new training module for public librarians in developing countries targeted at integrating libraries into literacy projects was presented by Ari Katz. He was describing an initiative, Beyond Access, supported by the Gates Foundation. There is a lot of information on the website and a paper here: http://library.ifla.org/1205/

Reading aloud as intangible cultural heritage: A German initiative to support literacy, reading and libraries worldwide was presented by Klaus U. Werner. He was advocating the value of live reading aloud as something to be preserved consciously as cultural heritage, to be added to the UNESCO official list. The paper is here: http://library.ifla.org/1177/

Library for all: Also for the print disabled was about a Finnish initiative concerning talking books (they reckon that about 5% of Finns are print disabled, and 11% of the population are poor readers). It was presented by Rauha Maarno. The initiative took talking books to the local level, and now covers 144 libraries: loans of talking books increased 50% in 2014. They included other stakeholders, such as users and disability organisations, in planning the service. Specific examples of  services were a talking book club for those with intellectual disabilities, and collaboration with a prison for talking books for prisoners. The conference paper is here http://library.ifla.org/1175/ and there is an article by the presenter here:
Maarno, R. (2014) A library for all – including people with print disabilities. Scandanavian library quarterly, 47 (4). http://slq.nu/?article=volume-47-no-4-2014-7

Finally, Atlanta Meyer talked about Technology classes for senior citizens: Creating an environment where senior citizens can develop technology skills to actively participate in a strong society (this is in Australia). These include classes e.g. in "using your android" and "using an ipad". The paper is here http://library.ifla.org/1176/