Librii: A New Kind Of Digital Library For The Developing World

This new library-in-a-shipping-container plans on using growing Internet access in Africa to create a new model for making available both electronic information and physical books. It’s a conundrum that library advocates have struggled with for years: in many areas in the developing world, libraries run on donations, which means they often end up with irrelevant books that never even get removed from their boxes. People still come to libraries in these places for a quiet place to read and study, but certainly not because of the resources they provide. Recently, a crop of initiatives have launched that aim to make libraries more relevant again. Librii, a project from Libraries Across Africa that’s seeking $50,000 in funding from Kickstarter, is one of them. The project, which began as Librii director David Dewane’s thesis idea at the Rice School of Architecture, bills itself as "a digitally enhanced, community-based, revenue-generating library on the frontiers of broadband connectivity." In simple terms, the founders envision low-cost libraries (a single library in Ghana to start) that take advantage of the burgeoning fiber optic infrastructure in Africa to provide Internet access, curated content, educational programs, and of course, physical books.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2013-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #educational programs

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