However you slice it developing a worldwide library collection or digital libraries in developing countries is being seen as a way to provide access for people who are under serviced by libraries. Programs for providing infrastructure in the developing world abound such as Global libraries through the BIll and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others. All over the world cellular technology is putting cell phones in the hands of people faster than land lines. According to water.org more people have cell phone than have a toilet.
Oraganizations such as UNESCO are attempting to create digital collections “in multilingual format, [of] significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”
http://youtu.be/xhBYGI6Tfzo
see their site: http://www.wdl.org/en/
Another resource is the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/ founded by Brewster Kahle.
Kahle states: “It’s not that expensive. For the cost of 60 miles of highway, we can have a 10 million-book digital library available to a generation that is growing up reading on-screen. Our job is to put the best works of humankind within reach of that generation. Through a simple Web search, a student researching the life of John F. Kennedy should be able to find books from many libraries, and many booksellers — and not be limited to one private library whose titles are available for a fee, controlled by a corporation that can dictate what we are allowed to read.”[12]
There are digital collections for young people like the International Children’s Digital Library which is particularly interesting because part of their mandate: “The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world.” The site is available in English, Spanish, French, Mongolian, and Russian. Books are often available in more than one language, and their stated goal is to have all their books translated into 100 languages. They even have a training manual for teachers to use the digital library. The training manual contained this interesting definition of digital libraries:
Digital Libraries
William Arms, creator of D-Lib Magazine, gives a simple yet effective definition of a digital library. He defines a digital library as a “managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network” (Arms, 2000, p. 2). Digital libraries are considered extensions of the physical library, not replacements. They have benefits such as being “open” twenty-four hours a day at a relatively low cost, bringing the library to the user, allowing for powerful searching and browsing, being able to share unique collections, and providing access to up-to- date information (Arms, 2000).
One of the concerns our group, which has been discussing equity and access related to BYOD, brought up while discussing the issue in class was that much digital content available is in English. How then can it be accessed by non English speakers? This is another issue around BYOD that I have been contemplating. If your students are doing inquiry based learning, do we care if ESL students are reading all of their materials in English? If our purpose for the activity is for that student to learn English then yes but if our purpose is to decide which french speaking country they would like to visit if they were given $3000 dollars to go on an adventure holiday, then maybe not. Is it more important to have students learn and understand about the content, than that they use English to do every single task? Having the option of completing some tasks in their first langauge can enable ESL students to complete learning tasks in a timely manner. At any rate if we want tasks to be authentic and if we want students to practice their 21st century skills we are going to be looking at how that student interacts with the internet outside of school and I am sure that will involve them using Google Translate and accessing content in their first languages. Having their own devices with their own apps would help facilitate this.
As a TL this means that we need to create our own libraries digital presence in such a way that it acknowledges and takes advantage of these resources. Teacher Librarians need to draw peoples attention to digital resources just as they promote new print books, and should be mindful of how their materials are being accessed to ensure positive user experiences. Does your school library website have a mobile app?