The value of handwritten letters
A recent study done by the University of Texas at Arlington shows that “exchanging handwritten letters strengthens children’s literacy skills and family ties.”
Read more about the study on Phys.org
Book vending machine
If you’re in Germany and want to get rid of an unwanted gift, publisher Bastei Lübbe and bookseller Hugendubel can help. This duo set up book vending machines where you can give away an unwanted Christmas gift in exchange for a brand new book.
Read more on Publishing Perspectives.
The Corner Bookshop
The Corner Bookshop has been in business since 2007. We spoke to Rizana Gani about this Johannesburg bookshop. Read more
Books & Books
Books & Books has been in business since April 2006. We spoke to Janine O’Connor about this special Durban bookstore. Read more
Global Kids Connect Conference
The Global Kids Connect conference, organized by Publishers Weekly and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and held December 2 in New York City, offered a wide-ranging look at the impact of digital media, physical books, trends, and the future of reading in a global children’s and young adult book market – Calvin Reid. Read more on Publishers Weekly.
SA’s first Story Bosso announced
Seven-year-old Athandiwe Sikade of Khayelitsha in Cape Town has been announced the winner of Nal’ibali’s storytelling competition, Story Bosso. The competition, designed as a nationwide talent search to get people of all ages excited about reading and telling stories, invited members of the public to send in audio or video clips of themselves reading or telling their favourite stories. Read more here.
Open Book Festival 2015
The Open Book Festival (OBF) ran from 9 to 13 September and attracted just over 9 800 people and 166 participants to the core programme. There was a strong international presence this year, with 26 participants from all over the world, including the UK, USA, Ukraine, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, China, Nigeria, France, Switzerland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Festival goers experienced true Cape Town weather with a day from every season, but come heat, rain or wind, the OBF was set to be a success. Read more
Open Access on the World Wide Web
Open Access Week – celebrated internationally during the third week of October – is a highlight on the LIASA calendar. Libraries have always been and still are about providing access to quality information for a better educated nation, which in turn leads to an empowered society with a higher life expectancy. Information needs to be kept open, for people to remain informed and to engage in self- and lifelong-learning, and to empower themselves.
Nal’ibali drives literacy change with Story Bosso
Reaching over 18 000 people and collecting over 2 000 stories from South Africans across the country in just one month, the Nal’ibali storytelling competition, ‘Story Bosso’, has helped drive literacy change in homes and communities throughout the country by reviving the lost era of storytelling. Read more
The classroom of the future
The Classroom of the Future was a much talked about theme at this years Frankfurt Book Fair. The Fair was open to the public on the last two days and youth, dressed up in their favourite literary or comic book characters flooded into the Fair. The classroom of the future was a key point of interest. The installation portrayed a vision of the future where small groups of children worked together on nine explorative tours in five different subject areas where they created machines out of LEGO, scanned seashells to be printed in 3D, and told their own stories using sound. The whole installation was led by a hybrid textbook of the future, and it is this small detail that is most exciting. Read more
