Bookmobiles Around the World

Related link: http://www.archive.org/bookmobile/

PRESS RELEASE

For Release: April 23, 2002

Contact: Richard Koman

415-561-6767

richard@archive.org

In San Francisco, India, and soon Egypt, Internet Bookmobiles Take Books to the People

New nonprofit formed to facilitate bookmobiles around the world

Somewhere near Delhi, India, two vans are on the road, stopping at villages and providing local schoolchildren and teachers with books. But these are not traditional library bookmobiles carrying a limited selection of expensive commercially published books that must be returned in a few weeks. These "digital mobile libraries" have more than 10,000 books in languages from English to Telugu, all available via the Internet. Even valuable medical knowledge captured only on palm leaves is now being scanned and made available to the public domain. A laser printer, a desktop binding machine and a paper cutter are all that's needed to turn those files into books. And those books don't have to be returned; they're not lent, they're given. In addition, each mobile library has a scanner, so individuals can offer their personal documents and creations to the world.

These two mobile libraries are the beginnings of a fleet of 30 vehicles that the Indian government plans to send out across the vast country, one for each state. The Indian digital mobile library, a project of India's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, was directly inspired by work done by Brewster Kahle, digital librarian at the Internet Archive in San Francisco.

Last fall, Kahle created the Archive's Internet Bookmobile, a used minivan equipped with a Motosat satellite Internet connection, several laptop computers, an HP color laser printer, Fastback desktop binding system, and a manual paper cutter. Using public domain works freely available on the Internet, Kahle was able to produce perfect-bound paperback books for a cost of about $1 a book. The total cost of the vehicle was less than $15,000. On a cross-country tour of the U.S., the Internet Bookmobile stopped at schools and libraries giving away copies of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." The Internet Bookmobile continues to make books at events around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The original idea was to show the value of the public domain -- in a word, free books. But the Indian initiative is showing that it's an idea with the potential to attack problems of illiteracy and lack of education in one of the world's most populous and impoverished nations.

The Library of Alexandria in Egypt -- which hosts a complete copy of the Internet Archive's collections -- has also agreed to deploy its own Internet bookmobile later this year. "Countries like India and Egypt are realizing that by using the Internet and scanning their own books they can use this technology to put books in kids' hands incredibly cheaply," Kahle said.

To help move forward the movement to deploy Internet bookmobiles, the Internet Archive today announced the creation of a new nonprofit organization, Anywhere Books. The mission of Anywhere Books is to facilitate the deployment of Internet Bookmobile technology around the U.S. and the world, through financing systems, collective fundraising and equipment purchasing, consulting and support.

"The technology demonstrated by the Internet Bookmobile can have a substantial impact on illiteracy, education and poverty," said Brad deGraf, director of the new organization. "We see this as a way to help span the Digital Divide. Even in communities well beyond the 'last mile' of the Internet, bookmobiles can deliver books. In addition, these units can serve as scanning stations to make new material from a variety of cultures and languages available over the Internet." Anywhere Books is actively seeking funding from individuals, foundations and the international development community.

Anywhere Books is organized as a project of the Rudolf Steiner Foundation. The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) corporation based in San Francisco. For more information on Anywhere Books, the Internet Bookmobile, and the Internet Archive, visit http://www.archive.org/bookmobile

If you have international connections interested in bookmobiles, drop me a line: richard@archive.org