Occasion to reflect

I recently had occasion to reflect, yet again, on what it means ”.. to be a bookseller.” As a group we are constantly assailed by complaints about what we sell. Some readers feel that this book is offensive, this one too prurient for the public taste. Others will tell us that a title that is missing from our shelves which, in their opinion has to be there; or that we have an incorrect edition…..the list is endless.

Regrettably, booksellers are, by definition, censors. What they hold in inventory is what they believe they can sell; they constantly make subjective decisions because, ultimately, they seek to maximize their return – on investment, on floor space. And while they are making these subjective decisions they are, of course, discarding one title for another: they are choosing for their readers.

And what makes one bookseller better than another is the critical faculty that allows better choices, better understanding of the customer, better service, better knowledge of the eclectic – indeed, better knowledge of literature and contemporary interest, whatever that is.

What takes me down this ever-narrowing road that I know will only end in a cul-de-sac where reason can find no further route through the thickets of logic or illogic, is a recent incident in one of our stores. It started harmlessly enough: the manager (who, by the way, is one of the best in the business) decided to promote books that were “so scary” they would keep you awake. This promotion was prominently displayed in the window.

All well and good, you might think…but here’s the rub: one of the titles was Mein Kampf – a masterpiece of absurd racist claptrap written by a uniquely evil man.

Now we have always stood our ground when it comes to selling this particular title. It is almost inconceivable in this day and age that anyone would wish to buy it as a handbook for racist thinking or as a manual on how to set up the neighbourhood Nazi party. We regard it as a historical document, as do our peers in London and New York; and most buyers, we believe, see it as a reference book if they have an interest in racism, or twentieth century German politics, or the rise of Nazism in what we might broadly call modern Germany.

However, there are unquestionably, still, sensitivities around this book and, for this reason, we have it on our shelves but we do not promote the title or advertise it. The excellent manager who used it rather tongue-in-cheek to highlight “horror” in a rather novel way, certainly had no intention to offend; but some members of the public certainly found it offensive. Interestingly, none of the complaints we received explicitly demanded the withdrawal of the book from our shelves – but they did object to its prominence.

If there is one lesson that any decent retailer needs to learn as soon as possible it is to listen to one’s customers; and then to acknowledge if something is wrong. So we apologized very quickly and the book went back to skulk among Sir Richard Evans’ masterful trilogy on the rise of Nazism and rest between the spines of books by AJP Taylor, Alan Bullock, Ian Kershaw and other noted academics who have written on the period.

But this incident triggered another line of enquiry for us. Is it enough that we have Mein Kampf in our inventory with a welter of counter-vailing criticism, argument to stand as a bulwark against the nonsense espoused by Hitler; is there not perhaps an edition of Mein Kampf that is properly annotated by academics, noting the half-truths, the lies, the fallacy and illogic of Hitler’s text.

Our search quickly yielded results. Christian Hartmann and his team of researchers have produced a two-volume edition titled Hitler; Mein Kampf, A Critical Edition with over 3,500 annotations. The new version has come out under the guidance of the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich. The edition became available after the 70 year ban on sales and publication of Mein Kampf in Germany expired in 2015. A spokesperson for the Institute said, on publication, that “….the discussions about Hitler’s worldview and dealing with his propaganda presented an opportunity – at a time when authoritarian political beliefs and far-right slogans are again gaining in popularity – to re-examine the ominous roots and results of such totalitarian ideologies.”

This comment seems, to me at least, to place Mein Kampf in perspective. It should be available because the common-sense reader will readily understand where racist excess leads. Just by having the book on our shelves, we highlight its absurdity.

Now all that remains is for us to find the English translation of this monumental work. I will be the first buyer.

Benjamin Trisk

Why should you consider this?

Globally, in a more commercialised environment for Higher Education, levels of student satisfaction and success are at the forefront of university strategy; offering excellent and appealing learning tools is a goal towards which every university works.

In this challenging sector, accessing the technology that can transform education is key – engaging a generation of digital-native students, helping them achieve their learning outcomes and success more effectively and more enjoyably too.

VitalSource was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1994. Now part of the Ingram Content Group, it has evolved from an e–textbook platform into an end-to-end content management system and technology partner to institutions and publishers.

MD John Donovan explains his company’s approach. “The marketisation of education” means students now have much higher expectations, he says. “Universities are looking to ways they can drive their recruitment and improve the student experience, and they’re saying that one of the ways they can do this is they can embed an e-textbook programme within the course so that students have access to materials on the first day of class.”

VitalSource places equal importance on three stakeholder groups within HE: universities and institutions, publishers, and students. “Our aim is twofold: to have the best, most interactive, high quality content on our platform – and to facilitate that process for our publisher partners – and to make the student learning experience the best it can be when they use that content and save them time and money along the way.”

VitalSource have been active in South Africa for the last 5 years. Their first customer in South Africa signed in 2012 and their growing footprint in the region has seen them invest in a Business Development representative based in Cape Town since 2017. Customers include a range of institutions in South Africa including the University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, UNISA and Milpark Education. In 2017, over 126,000 users viewed over 7 million pages in Bookshelf, the company’s reading software.

VitalSource works with over 1,400 publishers from around the world and in South Africa with local and international content from multinational publishers such as Pearson, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Cengage and with local publishers including but not limited to Via Afrika, Juta, Van Schaik Publishers and WITS University Press.

Jeni Evans, Head of Business Development for the UK & South Africa says, “We’ve seen a sharp increase in usage in South Africa, one of the factors that has led to our investment in having a local presence in the region. Also investing in the region are publishers who have historically led the charge in driving change from print to digital based learning. This has been in response to student demand for flexible, technologically driven content and institutions facing delays in obtaining print textbooks from overseas. VitalSource offers institutions the ability to integrate their e-Textbooks into their VLE system for free so that they are available on the first day of class. In addition, the availability of native applications for Android, iOS, Kindle, Mac, Windows and Chromebook means that students have flexible options to access their digital books, online and offline to suit their study and learning preferences.”

The student protests in South Africa “have often led to universities coming directly to VitalSource – as we don’t rely on bookstores to supply digital copies. The increased focus on fees and student expectations of their higher education experience have prompted many institutions to consider including content provision within the course. Our local presence means that we are more agile and able to reach and consult with faculty and students on campus.” says Evans.

Students access content through VitalSource Bookshelf®. With Bookshelf, students can download the whole e-textbook to their device and study without internet access. The reader automatically syncs the last page read, bookmarks, notes and highlights across up to four devices, and has a Read Aloud facility which means students can listen to e-textbooks on the go if they so choose. The powerful search tool helps learners navigate a title or their entire library to quickly find a concept and a new feature, Assigned Readings, allows lecturers to customise content for students, with start and end points, to help them complete assignments in a focused view to eliminate distractions.

Despite the changing HE environment in which VitalSource operates, Donovan says “what we are talking about ultimately is the acquisition of skills for the 21st century and the world of work: that’s the vision for higher education. At VitalSource we feel we’ve got a real part to play in that vision.  Through using our highly interactive content and our platform, whether it’s a single course solution or across an entire institution we provide access to data which university lecturers and staff wouldn’t otherwise have access to around the course experience.  It means that the university can help those students who are at risk of falling behind – our engagement dashboards provide invaluable data on how students interact with their assigned course materials, providing faculty with the opportunity to measure learning outcomes by correlating this data with pass and retention rates on their course and more broadly across their institution.

https://www.get.vitalsource.com/





Provoking thoughts, great inspirations and heated discussions

Literature lovers gathered at the opening night of the 21st Time of the Writer Festival which took place on Monday 12 March 2018 in Elisabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu Natal. To give all guests a warm Durban welcome maskandi guitarist and vocalist Mphendukelwa Mkhize provided the musical opening.

Prof Stephen M. Mutula, acting DVC & Head of College of Humanities, had the honour of opening the festival with a speech in which he emphasised the importance of the festival in bringing together leading African intellectuals and cultural practitioners and placing them in public events and engagements with local communities. Following this Miss Tebogo Msizi from eThekwini Municipality, one of the partners of the festival, emphasised the important role Time of the Writer has played within acquiring the title of “City of Literature” by UNESCO in 2017.

After the speeches, host Chipo Zhou, acting director of the Centre of Creative Arts that organises the event, opened the stage for the participating writers to present themselves and offer the audience a taste on their perspective on this year’s theme: “changing the narrative”.

The Zambian Jennipher Zulu shared her experience of writing her first book with the audience: “I didn’t really sit down to write a book, I was just putting down my issues.” She will be launching her book “It’s Hard to keep a Secret” on Saturday morning 17 March at Ike’s book shop.

Lesego Rampolokeng introduced himself the only way he knows how to, with a thought-provoking 4 minute poem.

Lindiwe Mabuza shared that she was encouraged by Can Themba to write, but she only took his advice years later when in 1977 she went to Lusaka to work with the ANC women authors and they published a book titled “Malibongwe”.

Another Zambian author on the program: Luka Mwango shared that he thinks stories are the metaphor of life: “We live in two worlds, in the material world and the world in our head.”

American MK Asante broke out in rap when he shared: “Take two sets of notes, the one to pass the test and the truth.”

Mohale Mashigo shared with the audience that she never use to recognise herself in the stories she used to read when she was younger: “I did not know how distant my life was to the people in the books, until I read The Colour Purple.”

Patrick Bond mentioned the importance of polital-economical critique.

Children’s author Refilwe Moahloli emphasised the importance of magic, she feels anything is possible in the world of literature.

Rapper and PHD student at Oxford, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh also decided to break out in rap, before telling the audience: “ Nobody claps when I quote from the book, but they do when I rap….”

Themba Qwabe started writing many years ago around 1994 when he first met his former lecturer Mr. Hlengwa, who forced him to write. He shared his thoughts on language in literature: “I do not know why I am called an African author if I write in English, but an isiZulu author when I write in an African language.”

Unathi Slasha shared his feeling that there is nothing of interest in this country and encouraged the audience to “engage with the text”.

Yewande Omotoso got the audience thinking with the following line: “ In order to change the narrative, we need to know what the dominant is.” She also questioned how we can make a gift of something we stole?

Lastly Durban based Kirsten Miller shared that she feels that we are all humans and the political is always personal.

All in all the audience experienced a great mix of inspiring authors and challenging opening speeches. It gave everyone something to look forward to during this coming week: provoking thoughts, great inspirations and heated discussions.

On Tuesday 13 March, the authors went out on their respective field trips, Themba Qwabe brought a visit to Phambili High School where he met a group of aspiring learners and addressed them about literature.
“The learners were very interested in learning more about writing, I adviced their coordinator to form a reading writing club at the school, so the learners to follow their aspirations.” Says Qwabe.

Another group of authors, MK Asante, Lindiwe Mabuza, Refiloe Moahloli and Yewande Omotoso, visited the Tongaat Central Library for a series of workshops and panel discussions. “It was absolutely beautiful, I really enjoyed it. There was a group of high school kids. It was a very interactive sessions, as much as we were sharing with the kids, they were sharing with us, which was really beautiful.” Says Refiloe Moahloli about the session.

Additionally Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh and Luka Mwango visited learners at Mangosuthu University of Technology and Patrick Bond addresses learners at Worker’s College.

A revolution is coming for schools in Finland in the form of a destruction of all formal school subjects.

The head of the Department of Education in Helsinki, Marjo Kyllonen, has announced that he believes that the way children are taught now is based of a style that was a benefit to students in the beginnings of the 1900s, but now is no longer relevant and beneficial to our modernised way of learning. He strongly believes that our needs have changed and so we need to adapt our teachings to match with our new way of thinking and developing.

Read more here