Page 172 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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development is open to the community. The second is to increase the languages present in the library and promote oral expression, multiple literacy, logical reasoning, hands-on learning, play, research and collaboration between teach- ers and pupils.
It is based on the concept of libraries as instru- ments for developing key skills and multiple literacy – a concept that broadens and updates reading and entails the comprehension, use and critical assessment of different types of informa- tion including texts and images, print and digital.
Experiences of promoting reading in unconventional places
Selecting and recommending reading materials is an essential activity being carried out in libraries and schools. It has evolved from traditional print reading guides and centres of interest in the physical spaces of public and school libraries to recommendations on the Internet through web- sites in a variety of formats and even specially designed applications. This transition to the digital realm has unquestionably greatly helped guide readers and recommend reading materials, and this task is gaining visibility and fame.
Influencing has always existed, but it is very widespread and highly effective in the digital environment; its development has marked a rev- olution equivalent to that of the search engines in the 1990s when they set out to bring order
to the chaos the Internet had become. These platforms offer users a broad range of material in digital format, which is presented appropriately and attractively to give readers all the informa- tion they need to decide on the reading material in which they have shown interest.
The emergence of digital has spawned a host of spaces offering guidance and recommendations and going beyond the bounds of traditional me- diation in schools and libraries. The systems for influencing people's choice of reading materials
available on the Internet are incorporating all kinds of technologies to optimise their objective, from emotions to artificial intelligence. They are gradually spreading with the aim of adapting more to readers’ tastes. Through these recom- menders, readers can find all kinds of reading materials, both print and digital, in eBook for- mat, audiobooks and apps – a broad offering for reading with all five senses.
It is appropriate to monitor these developments to work out how to fit them in with the dynamics of mediators (teachers, librarians, booksellers...). Indeed, they are useful tools for improving recom- mendation tasks, as the examples provided show.
Oh!Libro. Recommended literature based on other readers’ emotions
Oh!Libro199 is a platform started up by Grupo Planeta and recommends reading materials based on readers’ emotional assessment. To make use of this service, anyone interested has only to register and provide details of the type of books they enjoy reading, from subjects to places or periods in which they like a story to be set. The platform uses this information to connect the reader with the catalogue (250,000 books published in Spain by Grupo Planeta).
Figure 30. Screenshot of the platform Oh!Libro. Source: https://www.ohlibro.com
When users find a book they are interested in, they can read an excerpt to decide whether to
PLACES AND GOOD PRACTICE
Readers in the digital age