During Christmas holidays, when I visited central library in Cambridge, I was quite surprised to know that the libraries in the UK are suffering from inadequate funding.
I got home and found out bit more about it. I was shocked that by March 2016, 343 libraries have been closed in the UK including libraries with mobile services. According to the forecast, another 111 libraries are about to shut. Around 8,000 jobs have wiped out from UK libraries from 2010 until 2016. The BBC has compiled data and it shows that the number of paid staff in libraries have cut down from 31,977 in 2010 to 24,044 in March 2016. Libraries are hiring volunteers as the local authorities don’t have enough fund to pay the staff. If we see the data for Cambridgeshire Local Authority, none of the libraries have been closed but the opening hours for some of the libraries have been reduced for example Milton Road Library is open now for part-time only. I still do remember when we moved here from Manchester, it was the only library which used to sell books focused on children’s handwriting, literacy and numeracy for minimum price. Now this facility is no longer available. It indicates that parents need to go to commercial book shops, spending a lot on books. In 2010, in Cambridgeshire, there were 282 paid staff in libraries, compared with 190 now. The numbers of volunteers have been increased since 2010 from 879 to 990. If we see the overall picture of the libraries, in UK, 4,290 libraries were there, run by council, in 2010 and this number has gone significantly down by 3,765. We all know that libraries provide a safe, engaging and encouraging environment for our community. It is also one of the best place for teenagers to be engaged. However, the numbers of the libraries are declining, in that case, who will provide us face to face information. We can’t be on internet all the time to get information, particularly for vulnerable people of our society need some spaces - libraries can provide that safe and informative atmosphere. History of library: a glance The idea of the public library was brought into the UK by Charles Dickens, the author of beloved classic novels Oliver Twist and many more. Britain’s first public library was opened in Manchester in 1852. The library in the Campfield, in the centre of the Manchester, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2002. The "father" of the public library movement is Edward Edwards, who is the first chief librarian of the Campfield library. As we are all aware that readers’ habits are increasingly changing and they want everything up on the move.
In addition to that, from my experiences through my role, it indicates that majority of the customers want their content to be available on mobile devices. For example, by receiving enquiries from worldwide, most of them are related to app enquiries, such as, whether content available to read on mobile or how can a student download this app on iPad/iTunes/Android devices. It demonstrates how consumers want their content to be available. It is estimated that using mobile apps will grow and this number will increase up to 4.4 billion users globally at the end of 2017 (According to the Avatar generations). In 2015, the worldwide mobile learning market was $8.7 billion dollar and this number will increase by $12.2 billion by the end of 2017. (elearningindustry.com) From Ofcom, UK reveals that 2/3 of UK adults use (66%) smartphones, the vast majority of youngsters (16 -24 years) own one smart phone but also 55-64 years old are also taking part in technological revolution. Google play and Apple – both provides apps alongside with other things. More than 130 billion apps were downloaded from Apple Store by the end of summer 2016. On the other hand, by May 2016, 65 billion apps were downloaded from Google play. (www.statista.com) It is predicted that this habit will kick up and more apps will be downloaded in future. Cambridge University Press has been pioneering in developing English Language Teaching materials since many years and it is the world’s foremost English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher.
When I started working as a technical support analyst, I became fascinated by different types of products and the platforms used worldwide to teach and learn English. Here is an overview, what I have been doing since last few months. Although, it is sometimes confusing how to differentiate workbooks and student’s books but if we further investigate, it is probably easier to see that both books have different purposes and different audiences. Anyway, let’s talk about the platforms or web applications, we use, where all the products are located. You might have heard some of the famous products such as Empower, Touchstone, Prepare or Face2Face. Cambridge Learning Management System: This system is split into two categories: Main and Primary. Few products are available on Primary and some of them are on the CLMS Main system. L2 Bookshelf: Bookshelf has e-books to teach and learn English. Each product is unique and would be available on the platform but it depends which platform, the product belongs to. The products are either self-study or class-based. To access the class-based course, students need to be in the class, class is created by the teacher. Products are affiliated to the universities, language schools and libraries. Teachers and Client administrators have the right to add the products, to create classes in the products, and send requests to the admin staff to change the profile or reset the password for the student, teachers or client admins. Mostly, all products have various levels- which define beginner level to higher level in terms of learning English language. Apart from teaching English, Cambridge University press has developed a unique and magnificent product, which teaches surprisingly not English, but instead, Spanish language in the United States. The platform, where all Spanish products are available, called Electeca. |
AuthorWorking at Cambridge University Press, who likes to write about publishing key trends and about children. Archives
May 2018
Categories |