Since the introduction of the electronic book, I have had a strong aversion to the idea. It's not that I'm against technology. I love technology. It allows me to have access to my family and friends via telephone and computer while I'm living in a less developed nation. It's wonderful. However, being born in the 80s makes me apart of this weird generation that has always known computers and cable television, but did not have a cell phone in middle/high school and grew up having the majority of my interactions with my friends be face-to-face rather than electronic. Thus, I do not understand the attraction of staring into a computer screen that masquerades as a book rather than cuddling up with a real one that physically allows me to turn pages and will never decharge on me. But since starting my new volunteer position at FAVL and seeing the need for a wider variety of books in Burkina, even in villages fortunate enough to have libraries.During our last round of library visits, there were students at each library requesting different books based on their school and class level. FAVL (or any organization for that matter) could not possibly physically provide all of those books in any library. And even if they could, it would only be one or two copies. Definitely not sufficient enough for an entire population of people. So what if there was a different way? What if kids in these villages had access to electronic books? What if they could just download all the required books for that school year? They could find the works of Nazi Boni, Suzy Nikiema, Plato, Norbert Zongo in just a few seconds instead of having to wait years. And the books would never get worn out from over use. While I know the technology and the variety of books is not yet available for these electronic devices for this to be a reality, but this question still intrigues me. Burkina skipped over the whole landline thing right into cell phones, saving a lot of valuable resources and money that might have otherwise been wasted. What if one day they can do the same with books? Just skip right over paper copies into electronic books? One organization, World Reader, has conducted an interesting pilot project exploring this very question. Maybe one day soon these electronic books will be available to our readers at FAVL libraries...
Photo courtesy of www.teleread.com
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