President Obama and Osman Yaya
At a visit to Washington, DC’s Anacostia Neighborhood Library on April 30, President Barack Obama announced two new initiatives that promise to rally America’s libraries, publishers, and nonprofit organizations to strengthen learning opportunities for all children, particularly in low-income communities. The plan, dubbed the ConnectED Library Challenge, will engage civic leaders, libraries, and schools to work together to ensure that all school students receive public library cards. Commitments from 30 library systems are already in place.
As part of an effort to provide broad access to digital content, the Open eBooks Initiative has secured a promise from the “Big Five” publishers and a number of independent presses to provide $250 million in free ebooks to low-income students. Some 10,000 popular titles will be made available over the next three years, and libraries have joined forces with nonprofits to create an app to deliver the content, as well as material from the public domain.
The new programs are an outgrowth of the president’s original ConnectED initiative, announced two years ago with the goal of transforming teaching and learning through digital connectivity and content. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is investing $5 million in support of the ereader app, as well as tools and services to help the public more easily access ebooks and other digital content.
STRONG PARTNERSHIPS
The American Library Association (ALA) and Urban Libraries Council (ULC) have committed to working closely with the White House in order to help the initiative realize its goals. Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA’s Washington Office, described the initiatives as natural outgrowths of work already in progress in a number of libraries across the country.
For the Library Challenge, ULC and ALA reached out to 30 library directors, who in turn got commitments from their school superintendents and local political leadership to design a library card program for their districts. IMLS created a platform for all the communities involved to discuss the issues they encounter, Sheketoff explained, “so that all libraries would have the opportunity to move forward with a plan, with some best practices, and some ideas of how they can implement it.” IMLS plans to convene these working groups later in 2015, with ALA and ULC publicizing the information through their respective channels.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) will play an important role in the new effort through its development of the Open eBooks app. The app, which will allow users to seamlessly browse and read ebook titles on a variety of devices—including tablets donated as part of the ConnectEd initiative and smartphones, which are increasingly used by Americans at all income levels—will be released later this year.
Sheketoff noted that she hopes some of the $100 million worth of devices that Apple has promised to donate as part of ConnectEd will go to libraries as well as schools. “We know that children don’t take books from school for reading for pleasure,” she told LJ, “so if he really wants people to be reading for pleasure those devices should be going to the library.”
In a statement, NYPL president Tony Marx said, “The New York Public Library is proud to participate in this important program, which will have tremendous social benefits in terms of literacy, and will mark a groundbreaking shift in how publishers provide ebooks to the public. The program is certainly in line with the Library’s mission to make information—and by extension opportunity—available to all, and we look forward to working with the White House on this and other projects in the future. We also look forward to continuing our work with publishers, as we maneuver the relatively new, ever-changing world of e-content.”
NYPL will also partner with Firstbook, a nonprofit that coordinates book donations for children in need, to help make sure that ebooks reach students in low-income families.
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will work closely with IMLS, NYPL, and Firstbook, mobilizing its national network of librarians to help coordinate public domain books for inclusion in the program, and to help connect children with books that match their reading levels and interests. Librarians will work with publishers to create recommendation and suggestion lists.
“We view this initiative as a critical next step in DPLA’s overall mission to maximize access to our shared culture,” said DPLA executive director Dan Cohen in a statement. “With the centrality of books in our culture and the importance of encouraging reading both for learning and for pure enjoyment, we felt it was essential to find creative ways to increase that access.”
President Obama at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
IN PRAISE OF LIBRARIES
President Obama has been working to highlight the importance of lifelong learning and the crucial role of America’s public libraries. The president visited the ImaginOn branch of the Charlotte Mecklenberg Library, NC on April 15, and recently paid public tribute to his fifth-grade teacher, adding, “This is a story that every single kid in this country, regardless of background or station in life, should be able to tell. Sharing stories like these helps underline the vital importance of fighting for that reality.”
At his visit to the Anacostia Neighborhood Library, in one of the district’s poorest neighborhoods, Obama stated: “I really want to talk about how we can harness the amazing technological revolution going on to help people read and be able to get great jobs and start their own businesses and do great things.”
Obama stressed the value of reading, and told the assembled crowd of middle schoolers, “We’re going to provide millions of ebooks online so they’re available for young people who maybe don’t have as many books at home, don’t have access to a full stock of reading materials.”
While he mentioned that libraries around the country were taking part in his initiative, he said, “The New York Public Library in particular is taking the lead” on the collaboration with book publishers.
Osman Yaya, a sixth-grade student at Wicomico County Public Schools’ Bennett Middle School in Salisbury, MD, interviewed the president and asked questions that had been submitted beforehand. Viewers submitted thousands of questions, said Yaya; one was, “Did you enjoy reading [when you were a kid]? What types of books sparked your imagination and interest?” Yaya also asked Obama about his own books.
The President said that he enjoyed Dr. Seuss, the “Hardy Boys,” and The Lord of the Rings. “I’m still a big Dr. Seuss fan—The Sneeches, Horton, and all that stuff,” he said.
“I also enjoyed reading science books,” he told Yaya. “I loved reading about planets and dinosaurs.” In high school, he read Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby, and later was motivated to think about becoming president by the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King. ”The people who really inspired me were people who were bringing something back to the community or making something better.” Obama added, “I used to love libraries and reading I still love reading, but I don’t get to read for fun as much as I do for my work.”
For more on ConnectED, see:
http://www.slj.com/2014/02/literacy/oreilly-media-and-safari-books-online-pledge-100-million-to-connected/
http://www.infodocket.com/2014/02/04/fcc-will-increase-investment-in-broadband-for-schools-libraries-by-2-billion-over-2-years/
http://www.slj.com/2014/11/schools/dynamic-librarian-gets-apple-connected-grant-for-west-harlem-middle-school/
http://www.slj.com/2013/06/budgets-funding/iste-hopes-connected-stirs-political-will-to-fully-fund-e-rate/
http://www.slj.com/2013/08/opinion/connected-will-bring-faster-connections-to-schools-and-libraries-so-lets-think-big-next-big-thing/
