07.06.10
Posted in Reflections on Life in General at 8:40 pm by Administrator
How appropriate that in the July 4th online edition of the LA Times, an article was posted about reprinting several American classic stories for children in Arabic. Really? I mean, what in the world about an blond orphan girl in the Swiss Alps could a little Lebanese boy in the desert relate to? I don’t get it. Apparently, Scholastic thinks it’s a great idea. Maybe it is.
Carol Sakoian, a vice president of Scholastic Inc., spearheaded a project to get many titles translated and published in Arabic countries around the world. Through her efforts, the State Department agreed to fund half the printing costs of the project in order to get the ball rolling. After countless hours of meeting with Arabic dignitaries and examining in minute detail several children’s classics, a list with thousands of titles was whittled down to 80 books. Some of the books thrown into the reject pile?
- The I-Spy series because a tiny dreidel appeared in one of the pictures.
- Clifford was axed. Clifford?? How could that lovable big red dog be offensive? In the Muslim world, dogs are unclean. Sorry Clifford. No syndication on Al-Jazeera TV I guess.
- Anything with overtly independent or religious children was also chopped off the rapidly diminishing list.
However, some titles did make the cut. The Arabic group liked books that talked about honesty, respect and cooperation among children. But if a US flag or a pig was involved…whoosh! Here comes the axe. Talk about censorship. As I read through this article, I began to wonder, “Is there anything redeeming about this project?” My conclusion? Yes, I believe there are several factors.
First, books in the Arabic world used to be reserved for the wealthy elite. The lower classes didn’t have the leisure time required to sit and read a book, much less the funds to purchase one. Books were (and still are) pricey treasures. Through this project, free books were given to schools where children in lower-class neighborhoods are now learning about other cultures, learning how to think critically and experiencing things in true “Magic School Bus” fashion that has opened their eyes to a world previously hidden from them.
The next thing I love about this is that parents are getting involved. One Jordanian father read every single title given to his child’s school before allowing his son to read the books. Not only are kids learning, but the parents are suddenly getting a new perspective on education as well.
Finally, I would hope that through this exposure to children’s books, an entire generation of Arabic writers will rise up in the future and develop their OWN classic children’s literature which can be read and enjoyed by the masses, thereby creating another generation of writers, and another, and another.
So in spite of my initial misgivings, I say kudos to Ms. Sakoian for making this project a reality. Because of her commitment and vision, who knows how many lives will be positively impacted?
Forget Heidi…let’s hear about “Asima” or “Salma!”
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Posted in Reflections on Life in General at 8:13 pm by Administrator
Remember the book mobile? The precursor to today’s school book fairs, it used to come by my school and magically open the sides of the bus to allow perusal and, yes, even touching, of its beautiful insides. The smell…the feel…just being in the midst of those books made my happy place even happier…for now it moved!
Apparently, this idea, or something similar, is coming to the web. On July 3, the Wall Street Journal (online) published an article about a company with a “novel idea.” Just as itunes created a sort of virtual “song-mobile,” Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library, is forming a coalition with several libraries to provide access to millions of ebook titles. The goal of this group is to create a “one-stop shop” for users to “borrow” out-of-print books, scanned public domain books, and even contemporary titles for those readers hoping to find a current title on the shelves.
The website, http://openlibrary.org/ allows anyone to “check-out” any title within its collection for a period of two weeks. At the end of the loan period, the software intrinsic to the ebook copy renders the file obsolete and the user can no longer access it. Internet Archive hopes to give access to thousands upon thousands of books sitting on shelves, long forgotten, covered in dust, mold and various other fungi, by using one of 20 scanning centers it operates worldwide. If openlibrary.org does not have a particular title, they most likely are linked with a library that does have a copy, either in print or digital form. Through a subscription to openlibrary.org, you can link to that library, and follow the same procedures for borrowing the book as previously mentioned. Sounds great, right? It is great, but as usually happens when one stumbles on a good thing, there is a catch.
How do the libraries in question handle the issue of loaning copies of in-copyright, yet out-of-print, titles in digital form? As Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild stated in the WSJ article, “I am not clear why it should be any different because a book is out of print. The authors’ copyright doesn’t diminish when a work is out of print.” So what is the solution?
One option is to get permission from every author of every title in the collection. Ugh. A more feasible, and less time consuming option, at least until the copyright issues are resolved, is to loan out a digital copy of a title, but refrain from checking out the print form of the same title while the scanned copy is on loan. The idea is fantastic…I will be interested to see how this plays out, especially with the advent of ebook readers such as the Kindle and now the ipad.
In the meantime, I might just throw some books in my car, whip open the doors and be transported back to that magical time in my youth.
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Posted in Reflections on Life in General at 7:45 pm by Administrator
I don’t know what this title has to do with my topic, but it seemed like a good one at the time. Actually, I did mean it as a reference to that fact that it has been over a year since my last blog entry. I blame this partly on Facebook. Since I became a FB junkie, I have completely forgotten the thrill of writing and posting on my blog. And if it weren’t for the fact that I am now a Graduate student at IU, and am required to complete several entries, I would probably still be cruising through FB land! But, instead, here I am, cramming, as it were, to complete my assignment, and suddenly remembering why I started a blog in the first place!
Today, I learned something new, which a good thing, considering the amount of money I am spending to work towards earning my Master’s degree in Library & Information Science. I discovered a site called bloglines.com. Many people use this site, I am sure, so it is with no small amount of trepidation at the ridicule I might receive that I admit to never having heard of it before.
What, pray tell, does this website do? Simply put, it manages blogs. It has a user-friendly interface which can track current blog postings for any number of sites you may subscribe to. It also provides the opportunity for you to create your own blog. Since I have this lovely experience already established, I chose not to go that route. Clearly, one blog is more than enough for me. Bloglines.com also manages news’ websites feeds, keeping you up-to-date on all current events at the click of a mouse.
Some additional features offered on bloglines.com is a list of the top 1000 subscriptions, tips on the best search functions and how to manage your account, and import/export subscriptions from other feed/blog managers. All in all, this site is a useful tool for the average user who sits in front of her computer all day reading Facebook posts and playing Bejeweled Blitz.
At least now, with bloglines.com, I can pretend to know more than I actually do AND have the headline information to support my claims. Check it out…you, too, can play!
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05.01.09
Posted in Reflections on Life in General at 1:30 pm by Lynette
Yesterday, I opened my 3-day garage sale. It poured down rain. I still managed to sell a few items. The highlight of my day, however, was the little old Asian couple.
They wandered in huddled under an umbrella, in the midst of a downpour, and proceeded to pick up and discuss almost every object in my garage–in rapid Chinese, no less. At one point , they crossed the “barrier” of tables into the garage sale world equivalent of the DMZ: The “not for sale” zone. The man started picking up my garden tools. He seemed rather taken with a hoe. I tried politely to let them know that the garden tools were not for sale and pointed to the rest of the items for sale in the garage not in this zone. They both smiled and nodded at me, then picked up the rake. At this point, I realized we had another sort of barrier with which to contend: the language barrier.
They should have had a sign that said “No English Spoken Here” for I would have saved myself a lot of foolish gestures and explanations. I even think (shudder) that I started to speak loudly to them as if they were deaf instead of simply not speakers of my language.
In spite of my repeated actions and shaking of head, the man pulled out the hoe again and, I am not lying, started to hoe some dirt in my yard! I guess he needed to test drive it before purchasing. At this point, my brother, who lives in Florida but was getting a blow-by-blow account via AIM, said to me “Just give him the dang hoe!”
After about 30 minutes of this interaction, they left. It caused me great amusement and my family and I chuckled over the whole experience.
This morning, I put the kids on the bus and was talking to some neighbors when I saw two Asian gentlemen riding bikes pull into my driveway. I could not believe my eyes…it was the same man! This time he brought along what I presume to be his interpreter….a younger man of Asian decent who actually said the word Hello.
The first thing the older man went for? THE HOE. I thought, “OK. This time I will sell it to him, but for what price?” Well, they soon left without asking about it again, so I decided I had escaped a second potential international incident. That is, until 2 pm.
I looked up and saw my friend, the old Asian man, standing in the garage, holding in his hand…..???? Yup.
THE HOE…
AND…
One quarter.
I thought, “Oh no, old man. You are not going to put me through this three times and get my hoe for a measly quarter.”
I smiled and shook my head, held up a $1.00 bill and said “One dollar.”
He smiled and pulled out a 2nd quarter, offering 50 cents.
I smiled and shook my head. I held up 4 fingers and said “4 quarters.”
He laughed and pulled out two more quarters.
I had won! I negotiated with a little old Asian man who didn’t speak English and held out for more money. That, I think, was the hardest earned dollar I’ve ever made!
Oh well…at least we are still friends with China…at least in my neighborhood!
Although my neighbor pointed out to me that now I am a marked woman: they will come back every time I have a garage sale and try to buy all my garden tools…one at a time for a quarter a piece!
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04.29.09
Posted in Reflections on Life in General at 3:14 pm by Lynette
I guess banks are hurting more than I realized. They seem to be hoarding their small bills.
Today, I went to a bank right next to my house, to save time, and withdrew money from that bank’s ATM. I paid $3.00 for that convenience. Then I went through the drive thru and asked if they could please change the 5 twenty dollar bills into ones and fives for my garage sale. This is how the conversation went:
Me: Can you please change these twenties into ones and fives?
Teller: And what account is this associated with?
Me (with stupid look on my face): Excuse me?
Teller: Do you have an account with us?
Me: No. I just want to exchange cash for cash. I’m not asking you to cash a check.
Teller: Well, we do not normally do that.
Me: You cannot give me cash for cash?
Teller: Not unless you are an account holder with our bank. But I will do it for you today.
Me (still with stupid look on my face): You are kidding me, right?
Teller: No, I am not.
She proceeded to exchange my money, but under clear duress. I had no idea that it was such big ordeal for banks, who have on hand usually more than $100 in cash, to trade one denomination of currency for another denomination.
When she returned and sent my money to me, she assured me that this was a common practice for ALL banks. This piqued my curiosity. I came home and called my bank. The woman who answered the phone seemed as dumbfounded by my experience as I. So I’m not sure where the original bank teller got her information.
I just know I will NEVER bank with that bank.
Do you see me trying to exchange my money and you won’t let me? Rude!
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