Intro and help on public e-libraries for the under Privileged

My name is Emmanuel Barnor. I am IT trained. I am in Ghana. I also belong to a non-profit named Dream Light International. It is youth led and seeks to develop the talents of the youth and children in our community.

I have been thinking of a project which will provide e - libraries loaded with educational materials for young children . I will like to get tips on how to go about it.

Hi Emmanuel and Welcome to TechSoup!

This sounds like a really worthwhile project, although I'm not sure how to visualise an e-library - Is this a facility (computers in a building), or a service & software combination (eg a 'library' provided on CD or thumb drive to people with computers?).

What I visualised in my mind was like computers in a building which could serve children after school hours ,weekends or on holidays. It could provide other services to the children as well . That is it could serve as a meeting place for other educational activities.

But I think the e-library model of service and software combination is great idea . It will be able to reach out to more people and be more personal to them. The one on CD will be more effective than thumb drives.

Hi, Emmanuel

Will you need to teach the children computer skills, too, in order to use the resources at the e-library, or is the computer literacy pretty high?

Best wishes,

Sasha

I am somewhat confused (very normal for me) on how you are using the the term e-library.  Are you wanting to set up a computer center (room with computers and software) or e-library ( a online site that provide specific information, ebooks, and audiobooks). My definition for a e-library is what I see the World Bank doing and ProQuest.

http://titania.worldbank.catchword.org/vl=10255270/cl=16/nw=1/rpsv/home.htm

http://www.proquestk12.com/

If you want to do an e-library you need to have a library of e-books loaded on a computer. There are a number of free e-books, that make great reading to get you started. They can be found at:

http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://www.ebookdirectory.com/

Hope this helps

There will be some amount of teaching but computer literacy is quiet moderate. About 5 years ago computer literacy was low but there has been a sudden surge in the internet cafes all around that a lot of the children in the big cities have emails . The makert is now saturated with second life computers that the average teenager thinks about getting one personally for games and word proccessing . There isn't  much software available to them to make use of the full power of the computer.

I guess I used the wrong term. Computer center was what I had in mind.

Now I want to focus on the programs on CD which can be easily distributed.

emmlbarnor:

I guess I used the wrong term. Computer center was what I had in mind.

Now I want to focus on the programs on CD which can be easily distributed.

Hi, Emmanual,

To clarify so that we can help you better, a few questions:

Are you wanting to have CD's with programs to give to people to use on their own computers? Is this in addition to resources that will be loaded on to computers in the computer center? Or are you intending for the resources to be used at your computer center?

Thanks,

Sasha

The Center has not been set up yet so I will prefer the programmes on the CD for distribution. I get some down for the center too. I am thinking that they will be simillar.

Hi, Emmanual,

OK, so if I understand you correctly you are looking for tips on how to create a CD with software resources for young people. They will then take that CD and use it at home. Is that correct?

If so, do you have some specific questions that we can  help you with?

Thanks,

Sasha

No I am not a programer myself.I have taken some lessons though . I was wondering whether there were any products like that availiable already?

emmlbarnor:

I was wondering whether there were any products like that availiable already?

You are looking for a CD which has some software programs on it? Actually making a CD is not difficult, it doesn't require that you be a programmer. You need a CD burner (hardware) and CD burning software. You can find the CD burning software free. For instance, Nero .

With a CD burner and the software that will let you compile and burn things onto a CD then you can compile your own CD. Of course, you would need to make sure that there are no copyright conflicts. There are many free programs that you could put on that CD.

Is this on the right track for what you are looking for?

Sasha