Worldreader – books for everyone

The final talk this year at the Tools Of Change conference in Bologna, one day before the start of the 49th Children’s Book Fair, was about neither fancy apps nor cutting-edge technologies.Elizabeth Wood, a representative of Worldreader, a non-profit organisation, presented her vision for how books will reach schools in developing countries. By developing partnerships and securing donations from major organisations such as Amazon, Penguin and Random House, Worldreader has placed hundreds of e-readers (Amazon Kindles) in schools across Africa, which, via the GSM mobile network, receive free books in English as well as in the local language.Over 75,000 books have been distributed to 1,000 pupils, with the results already evident in their reading and English language learning. The pupils spend many hours reading, even outside school, whilst a pilot app for downloading and reading ebooks was also presented, which will work on the basic mobile phones that are widespread in these areas.Notably, Wood predicted that, in the same way that people in these regions moved straight to using mobile phones without going through the landline phase, so they will learn to read exclusively in digital form, without ever experiencing the printed book.