Pratham Books is Hiring : Print Production Manager

Posted by Remya Padmadas on May 09, 2017

This position has been filled. Keep following us on Social Media for other openings in the team.

Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India.

In the last 13 years we have published over 3000 books and printed over 14 million copies and 16 million storycards. In 2015, Pratham Books' increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content in now available onStoryWeaver, our digital platform that hosts stories in 59 languages. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. With both the print and digital initiatives being scaled, Pratham Books is looking for a Print Production Manager to take the lead of its print, production and digitization processes.

Job Description:

As a Print Production Manager you will be driving the management of a busy studio that can change from a quiet environment to one full of freelancers and multiple projects all running at the same time. Your job will be to manage the studio and production schedules as well as the day to day administrative responsibilities of running the studio of a reputed publishing house.

This is a job that requires attention to detail, organisation and time management. Clear communication and multitasking skills are a must.

We require an individual who is motivated, knows how to manage the requirements of book production that can require multiple cycles of reviews and adaptations for different platforms. Ability to prioritize workload to manage the studio schedule within the budgetary requirements.

You will work closely with the Editorial team to ensure timely delivery of all aspects of production for print and digital books - from layouts to pagination, optimizing image quality and proofreading to readying artworks, uploading digital books and QC (quality checking).

Key Responsibilities:

  • Coordinate with editorial groups to create the final files for production of both print and digital formats of our books
  • Upload the digital books on StoryWeaver
  • Prioritize and manage timely output
  • Supervise the design and production team
  • Develop work procedures, establish quality standards and be responsible for releasing the final files
  • Schedule daily studio workload, coordinate approvals from different teams, manage version control etc
  • Train and monitor studio staff in all relevant skill areas.
  • Liaison with cross functional teams
  • Maintain an efficient archiving system
  • Maintain accurate records of work in progress for billing 

Must have:

  • 7-8 years experience of working within a creative agency / publishing house
  • A working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite
  • Experience in leading a mid-size team consisting of layout artists, DTP, Photoshop and artwork people
  • References to previous work

Salary: Subject to level of previous experience

Location: Delhi

Write to us: Interested candidates are requested to send in their resume to careers(at)prathambooks(dot)org

P.S. - If you are shortlisted, you will hear back from us within 15 days of applying

 

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“Linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40 per cent of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.” - UNESCO International Mother Language Day website

Since 2000, the United Nations has observed February 21 as International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. This year, StoryWeaver marks the occasion by opening a gateway to digital libraries in 100 languages for children across the world and thereby addressing the scarcity of books for children in their own languages. 

To achieve the milestone of 100 languages, StoryWeaver has collaborated with a global network of organisations and individuals who are helping create this vast resource of children’s storybooks, as part of its ‘Freedom to Read’ campaign. 

                                                                  

Our partners encompass national and international organisations, as well as language champions who share our passion for creating reading resources for children in their mother tongue languages. Partners like Azad India Foundation, AfLIA (African Library Information Associations and Institutions), Darakht-e Danesh Library, Little Readers' Nook, North East Educational Trust, REHMA, Right To Play, SNS Foundation, Suchana, Unnati Institute for Social and Educational Change and language champions like Agnes N.S. Nyendwa, Amit Dudave, Ana Jovic, Ankit Dwivedi, Kaye Suscang, Maharani Aulia and BE Priyanti, Nguyen Dac Thai Hang, Priya Bhakthan. The languages are varied - from mainstream languages like Afrikaans, FrenchGerman, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, TamilTelugu and Urdu, tribal languages like Gondi, Korku, Kora and Santali, endangered languages like Occitan to indigenous languages like ChatinoMixe and Triqui and underserved languages like Assamese, Basa JawaBasa Sunda, BhojpuriBundelkhandi, Igbo, Marwari, Sindhi and Surjapuri,

Collaboration has been the cornerstone of the StoryWeaver community, and the high quality of the translations - endured by a rigorous system of peer review - stands testament to the commitment of every contributor to "Freedom to Read".

These partners will take these digital reading resources even further - to serve children around the world, and help them read in their mother tongue languages. AfLIA (African Library Information Associations and Institutions) will roll out their continent-wide reading promotion ‘Read Africa Read’ with the same storybook titles in different languages across Africa. The Ghana Library Authority has already downloaded a book translated into Ewe in the e-readers in the Library and read it aloud to children on the World Read Aloud Day. The SNS Foundation in Rajasthan is working towards building a hyperlocal library of 100 Marwari books which will be used in 1,500 schools in Rajasthan. 

The troubling statistic of 40% of the global population not having access to education in a language they speak or understand translates to over 2 billion people who would benefit from having books in their mother tongues. 

“Through StoryWeaver, increasing access to quality reading resources for children has been made possible like none other. We are also grateful to collaborate with like-minded partners whose primary mission -- like ours -- is to get every child to read,” shares Suzanne Singh, Chairperson, Pratham Books.

Click here to take a look at a short video on the Freedomto Read journey. 

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StoryWeaver Turns 4: Thank you for being with us every step of the way

Posted by Remya Padmadas on September 09, 2019

Here’s a post by Purvi Shah, Director – StoryWeaver, to mark a special time in StoryWeaver’s world: Our 4th birthday

Say hello to Manisha, a young girl from the Mudia community that lives in Central India. The Mudia community speak Gondi, an indigenous language with 2 million speakers. Despite the large population, surprisingly, this is the first book Manisha has ever read in her own language! 

 

The world has made an ambitious commitment to the goal of universal literacy by 2030, where all children will be able to read. For this to be achieved, having high quality reading materials in languages that children use and understand is essential. But the global book gap means that millions of children like Manisha lack access to these critically needed reading resources. 

 

StoryWeaver was launched 4 years ago on International Literacy Day to address the inequities that exist for children’s books: not enough books, in not enough languages, and  very poor access. 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 believe this will have a multiplier effect to address the scarcity of multilingual reading resources that exists in India and globally.

 

The book that Manisha was holding was created on StoryWeaver by a group of 20 educator volunteers who translated  300 books into Gondi, reviewed and published them on the platform in just a few days. The books were then printed locally and distributed in Manisha’s village as part of a community literacy programme.

Today, the platform hosts 15,500 books in over 200 languages of the world. This scale would not have been possible without the power of collaboration:

Publishers like Room to Read amd Pratham Books, who have open licensed their content at scale. Linguists and translators who have introduced us to new languages. Educators in every nook and corner of the world who have welcomed us into their classrooms and the hearts of their students

With millions of users from over 150 countries, StoryWeaver is harnessing the power of open licences, collaboration, and technology to create a societal platform that is providing open access to thousands of  books in local languages to nurture the next generation of readers and learners. 

None of this would  have been possible without your support. Thank you. Times 4!

 

 

(We would love for you to join the conversation by leaving your thoughts in the Comments section, or on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

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