It’s been four months since we opened the tenth new libraries in Ende regency, East Nusa Tenggara. The difference between these new libraries and the other libraries in the past is in this cycle we introduced the literacy cloud, a platform which contained with children book stories, videos, and sources that related to the library management or curriculum in general.

This platform is supported by Room to Read, an organization that has been supporting us in the last five years in establishing child friendly libraries in West Manggarai and Ende regency.

Through this platform, teachers were taught to conduct the reading activities, especially in reading aloud and shared reading to use the platform and projector. The platform can be reached from smartphone and computer.

In the past time, reading aloud and shared reading were conducted with the real book. Book that you can touch and smell. 🙂
Now, the new era is coming. The physical book is changed into the e-book. Book that you can’t touch and smell.

A lot of questions came in to my mind. Is this alteration will be transforming a new habit among the children especially in reading style? Are they going to love the e-book more than the physical book? And how this new habit affect their way of thinking in the future?

I haven’t found the answers till now. Well, we still need more time to see how this technology works, especially in the remote area.

One thing that we found inspiring was the eagerness of the teachers to learn this new thing. You will be surprised to see how an old lady was excited to navigate their smartphone and laptop.

Moreover, we want to see how this new way of reading giving impact to the children at the libraries. As the person who love the physical book, I am curious to know the impact of this e-book in terms of preference in choosing between those two kind of books.

Last but not least, can we assume that this new way of reading will be affecting their way of thinking about technology? In the future that full of unpredictable things, one thing for sure is we must ready for the changes anytime needed. Or Do we?

Ahh.. lot of questions again…
Please give me some more time to think. Or maybe you want to help? 😉