A day of celebrations: StoryWeaver turns two this International Literacy Day

Posted by Remya Padmadas on September 08, 2017

September is a special month for us at Pratham Books, especially September 8th! International Literacy Day, not only marks our annual storytelling event One Day, One Story, but it is also the day StoryWeaver was launched. 

When we launched, our goal was  to create a participatory framework where content creators and users could collaborate with each other to create joyful reading material in multiple languages. We believed this would have a multiplier effect to address the scarcity of multilingual reading resources that exists in India.

The last two years have been an amazing journey. When StoryWeaver was launched, we offered 800 stories in 24 languages. Today, the platform is a buzzing hub of over 4700 in 91 languages. What makes StoryWeaver a truly special place though is our community. The authors, illustrators, translators, editors, art directors, teachers, librarians, literacy organisations and parents who are helping Pratham Books strive towards our mission of 'a book in every child's hand.'

It's the stories, videos and photographs from these passionate and committed folks that keep us going. Non-profits like Suchana and the Azad India Foundation, translating stories to tribal languages and dialects for the children they work with. Organisations like Pragat Shikshan Sanstha, Tamarind Tree and Akanksha curating reading lists and creating digital libraries for teachers and students. Edtech companies like mGuru who gamify our content for mobile learning apps, and Bookshare who is creating audio and braille books for print impared students. These are just a few examples of  the amazing things openly licensing content can achieve. And how can we not mention the many individuals who are creating magic on the platform every day with the stories they create and translate?

To each of you who are a part of our community, a big, big, big THANK YOU! 

Here's to more stories, in more languages, reaching more children! 

 

 

 

 

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World Book & Copyright Day 2020: Celebrating the wonders of open licensing and collaboration with a very special new book

Posted by Pallavi Kamath on April 23, 2020

World Book & Copyright Day is an international initiative to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. By championing books and copyright, UNESCO stands up for creativity, diversity and equal access to knowledge.1

Aparna Kapur, Editor at Pratham Books, writes about the making of ‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ - made possible through an amazing collaborative effort.

‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ is a book aimed to help children better understand what they can do to stay safe during this pandemic. The book isn't just special because it was created in ten days, or because it's available in five languages. What makes this book remarkable is that it involves thirteen of India's best children's book writers and illustrators, and characters from seven of Pratham Books' most popular books - all released under the CC BY 4.0 license, and free to read on StoryWeaver.

Above everything else, artists define themselves by their work. Their words, their pictures, their design -- these are closest to their hearts. So when creators agree to release their work under Creative Commons, it is their way of showing their trust in the publisher, and a commitment to a common goal. In our case, that goal is 'to see a book in every child's hand'.

For the last 15 years, Pratham Books has been working towards this goal by publishing affordable openly licensed picture books, and making them available for free on StoryWeaver - ensuring they can be accessed and enjoyed by children all over the world, some of whom may not otherwise have had access to books. This has helped us create a sense of community with our creators. Which is why when we asked them to be a part of this project, nearly everyone responded within minutes, telling us that they would be happy to.

In the current state of things, when everyone needs to stay indoors as much as possible, the value of digital content is hard to ignore. The internet is helping all of us stay connected to each other, but also to things that give us joy and comfort. By openly licensing content, we aren't just removing the locks from our doors, we are throwing the door wide open and welcoming everyone in.

The book is already available in five languages. And with the CC BY 4.0 license, and the community-based StoryWeaver platform, people all over the world will be able to translate it, or use the images to make their own posters or books, or download a PDF and share it with people.

Multilingual. Generous. Collaborative. Worldwide.

When open licensing is done right, it can do wonders.

Read, download, translate ‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ on StoryWeaver here.

A big thank you to the wonderful team of creators and experts who made this possible.

The book is written and illustrated by Bijal Vachharajani, Deepa Balsavar, Jayesh Sivan, Lavanya Naidu, Maegan Dobson Sippy, Meera Ganapathy, Nimmy Chako, Priya Kuriyan, Rajiv Eipe, Renuka Rajiv, Sanjana Kapur, Sheena Deviah and Sunaina Coelho. Thank you to Anirban Mahapatra, Dr N S Prashanth, Shambhavi Naik and Dr Tanya Seshadri for their help with fact-checking.

 

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This World Environment Day, #DonateAPhoto, Empower a Story.

Posted by Remya Padmadas on June 04, 2017

Pratham Books has always believed in the role books play in connecting children to the world around them. From the Chipko movement to flamingoes, from seasonal eating to conservation heroes, over the years Pratham Books has published numerous books that bring the wonders of the natural world into the lives of young readers.    

Today is World Environment Day and this year’s theme is ‘Connecting People to nature – in the city and on the land, from the poles to the equator’. Words and images can play a powerful role in helping forge this connection between children and their surroundings.

This World Environment Day, Pratham Books StoryWeaver is joining hands with the good folks at NatureinFocus to bring you #DonateAPhoto, Empower a Story: a campaign to crowdsource 100 environment-related photographs. These photographs will be uploaded to StoryWeaver, and join over 6,000 other openly licensed illustrations on the platform. Through the #DonateAPhoto campaign, we hope to add to the diversity of our image bank, and offer our community of users, stunning photographs with which they can create multilingual stories, flashcards and more.

How to enter

  1. Select an environment related photograph YOU have taken. It could be flora, fauna… anything.

  2. If you have a StoryWeaver account already, click here, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'Upload your own illustration/image' to upload your image.

  3. If you don’t have a StoryWeaver account, click here to create one. It won’t take more than a minute.

  4. Fill out the form and upload your images. Remember to read the note on CCBY 4.0 if you're unfamiliar with the license.

  5. Add tags to describe your image, so that people can find it easily on the repository. For. eg if you’re sharing an image of a barn owl use tags like ‘owl’, ‘barn owl’, ‘birds’. Don’t forget to add the tag DonateAPhoto too!

  6. Sit back and feel super happy that you’ve contributed to our image bank. Go back to step 1 to repeat, or tag your friends on social media to join in too!

Campaign Guidelines

  1. Campaign runs from June 5 - 12, 2017

  2. All images uploaded must be taken by you.

  3. Photographs uploaded must should be a minimum of 300 dpi and the file size should not be exceeded 2 MB.

  4. By uploading an image you agree to the terms and conditions of CC-BY4.0

Click away, shutter bugs!

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