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School Library eBook Providers and Linguistic Equity: An Analysis of eBook Collections Available to School Libraries Worldwide

Dr. Andrea PaganelliDr. Cynthia HoustonWestern Kentucky University

+Linguistic Equity in ebooks: What’s the big deal?

Reading is critical to lifelong learning and cognitive development

“Encouraging children to read—in any language—is one of the best ways to enrich their lives as individual human beings, to develop insights into and understandings of their own lives, to become aware of the greatness of their cultural heritage, and to deepen their interest in reading as a leisure-time activity” - Isabel Schon (2006)

Linguistic Equity – opportunities for reading are equally available in the native and second languages

+Linguistic Equity in ebooks: What’s the big deal?

IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto – It is essential to support “all students in learning and practicing skills for evaluating and using information, regardless of form, format, or medium, including sensitivity to the modes of communication within the community”

Linguistic Equity in school libraries is critical for developing cognitive skills in the native language, a child’s personal and cultural identity, and contributes to a child’s feeling of psychological safety in a multicultural society.

+Linguistic equity and eBooks: What’s the big deal?eBook utilization is on the rise44 percent of school libraries in the United States offered eBooks (397 titles per school)Most eBooks are non-fiction High schools have the most eBook titles, while middle schools were second; elementary schools had the lowest number of titlesChildren are most likely to access eBooks on a dedicated reader such as a Kindle rather than through a networked computer. Do eBooks providers offer linguistic equity?

+eBook Providers and Linguistic Equity: Meeting the need?Children of School age as

percentage of the populationPercentage of eBooks available from Follett by languageFollett Worldwide commands 69% of eBook marketSpanish English Other

Africa 41% 3.4% 96.6% 723 (0)%

Latin America/Caribbean

28%

Asia 25%

Oceania 24%

North America 19%

Europe 16%

Most of the world’s children live in countries who do not speak English as their first language!

+Linguistic equity and eBooks: Meeting the need?

International Children’s Digital Library

English70%

Persian10%

Mongolian5%

Spanish4%

Other11%

Titles by Language

+Linguistic Divide = Digital Divide Do eBook providers offer linguistic equity – NO, most of the world’s

children if they could access eBook titles, do not have access to eBooks in their native languages

eBook Providers are adding thousands of titles to their collections daily, but not providing linguistic equity proportional to the worldwide population of school-age children needing access

There is a growing digital and linguistic divide in school-age children’s access to technology and resources available through technology in their native languages

Worldwide, the correlation between average income of primary speakers of a language and their access to technology is strong, meaning that the problem for access to technology and native language content creation is poverty

This divide significantly impacts a child’s potential for developing lifelong learning skills for the 21st century

+Do International eBook Initiatives Address Linguistic Equity?Affordable Access – Worldbank/IADP http://www.iadpnet.org

Facilitate low price, high volume distribution of eBooks and readers for educational purposes in developing countries Assumption that the lingua Franca for education is English

Worldreader.org – founded by Amazon.com executiveUse of mobile infrastructure and technology to provide local and international digital books to children, families and communities who have no books. Working to provide native language content, primarily in Africa

+Discussion/Questions

eBook Providers: “Today the ability to communicate across cultures is a key to moving up the economic ladder. Thus, like it or not, English, with all of its mixed history and linguistic weaknesses, has become the de facto lingua franca of the world.” - Richard Rowe, Open Learning Exchange CEO

Authors - “We need to see diversity within the publishing field. We need to see diversity in terms of reviewers, in terms of award committees. You know, publishing is its own complex world. So, I always encourage teachers and librarians to be leaders, to go into bookstores. And if they don't see the books that reflect their children's lives, to talk to the manager…I think we all have to be part of the change.” – Pat Mora, Latina author

Andrea.paganelli@wku.edu/Cynthia.houston@wku.edu, Western Kentucky University http://www.slideshare.net/media3693