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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