Page 168 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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#iPÄD. Media literacy in the libraries of Frankfurt
Since 2015 the network of Frankfurt libraries has been working on boosting the media literacy
of children and teenagers in association with several school libraries. The #iPÄD project192 is
a pedagogic approach to working with tablets and apps. It springs from the conviction that digital devices and content are attractive to children and teenagers, but also from awareness of libraries’ responsibility as places of informal learning for twenty-first-century readers. And they consider themselves strategic partners of formal learning institutions, that is, schools, as well as wishing to help narrow the digital divide between their users.
One of the central aspects of this project is work based around various creative concepts with
a pedagogic-didactic approach. Many of these concepts furthermore combine digital content with books and with the library’s physical spaces and keep them constantly updated. Another
key aspect is activities with children aged from two to sixteen, ranging from digital treasure hunts to filming booktrailers, putting together audio-images, digitally drawing posters of book characters, producing animated films and creat- ing digital audiobooks, among others. The main aim is to get them to have fun by using digital devices creatively. For this reason, many of the apps they work with help users create their own content.
The programme has wide coverage. All the public libraries of Frankfurt are taking part in it, as well as 13 associate school libraries. Between January and October they carried out 140 activi- ties in which 2,250 users took part, even though they only have 56 iPads to go round. In addition, they held learning sessions and seminars for librarians and teachers. This intense activity is constantly analysed to improve the results.
Cloud reading clubs, a clear example of the combination of continuity and innovation in efforts to promote reading
The rise of face-to-face reading clubs as meeting places where readers can share and exchange reading materials is being mirrored by the emergence of similar clubs in the cloud. All these places, both physical and virtual, provide new opportunities for readers to talk to each other and with the books they comment on and they are often a means of establishing direct contact with the authors.
This activity not only takes place in the realm
of public and school libraries; it is also being promoted by new agents in the book value chain and by publishers too, sometimes with
the involvement of the author. But libraries are the most influential hosts owing to their vast experience, as they seek quality and depth in the conversations encouraged by reading and aim to provide an example of a social reading that goes much further than a “like”, an RT, underlining or a large number of passive participants. These clubs have proven to be a meeting and learning place for peers and for building readers’ loyalty to the library.
A recent example is the Plataforma de Clubes de Lectura Virtuales de Castilla-La Mancha (Plat- form of virtual reading clubs of Castile-La Man- cha),193 which has set up the regional government’s Library and Reading Service. This platform draws on the lengthy experience the network of libraries of Castile-La Mancha has in the field of in-person reading clubs.
This platform provides all users of the region’s public reading network with a gateway to virtual communities of readers, as well as access to downloading reading guides and other resources related to the clubs’ activity.
Whether the works that are chosen to be shared are read on paper or digitally depends on each
PLACES AND GOOD PRACTICE
Readers in the digital age