[HN Gopher] An 8-year-old slid his handwritten book onto a libra... ___________________________________________________________________ An 8-year-old slid his handwritten book onto a library shelf Author : TruffleLabs Score : 172 points Date : 2022-02-02 05:08 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com) | RappingBoomer wrote: | considering all the laws in america and the current | misinformation 'controversy," the wrong sort of book could bring | legal trouble | tacLog wrote: | This reminds me of how instrumental just going to the library was | as a kid for my love of reading. It was the only place that was | like a store to me at the time where I could have anything I | wanted. It felt like a fun challenge to find as many books that I | might want to read as possible. | | I wonder how we can create this experience more easily remotely. | There are tons of library eBook apps that are all pretty awesome, | but discovery of new content just isn't the same. I find myself | going to the library still. Or even to book stores to write down | interesting looking titles. | | I know this seems like a boring problem because you can just go | in person then put a hold on the eBook version while you are | there. But there has to be a way to present a curated selection | of books that inspires children to: | | - enjoy the adventure of finding a good book | | - fosters the idea that reading unlocks knowledge or stories | about anything they want | | - makes the process of sampling a book as easy as it is on | Amazon, or in person | | Why? When schools are remote, or to serve children that don't | have a local anything nearby. | | Does anyone know of services that provide this now or have any | ideas for how this would best work as an enhanced UI over say | Libby or overdrive, or even hoopla all of which are great for if | you already know what you want to read. | azalemeth wrote: | One of my defining memories looking around universities as a | 16/17-year-old was going to their libraries and being | _overwhelmed_ with how much knowledge there was there. Shelves | that showed the parallax in the rooms, where books went off | into the distance and motion-activated lights. As an | undergraduate, I worked extensively in an underground library | -- isolated from the world, isolated from anything but my tasks | at hand, and with all the knowledge one could conceivably want | if you could find it effectively (or, at least, that 's how it | felt). | | Libgen.rs may have an unimaginably larger number of titles on | offer, but it's not quite the same as walking into a cathedral- | size store of books and looking at the weight of humanity's | greatest achievements staring back at you. Libraries are | _awesome_. We should support them, and keep supporting them, as | much as possible. | tacLog wrote: | I couldn't agree more. I have 0 desire to replace or limit | libraries. They are some of few places where you can feel the | progress of humanity in a physical space. | | I just want to allow people who can't access libraries easily | to experience some of that. | wanderer_ wrote: | Now people at that age are used to having all of that | information at their fingertips and for free. | | They say that this ease of information is causing physical | changes in how our brains operate. | lukewrites wrote: | I don't think anything compares to going in person. | | I'm father of a 4 year old, and we live a couple of blocks from | the library. Seeing how his interactions with the shelves has | changed over the past couple of years has been really | interesting. At first it was enough to look at the covers and | spines, then he could pull himself up to the bins of board | books, and eventually started grabbing from the shelves | himself. | | And like you, he loads up with a little bit of everything (it | doesn't matter what he chooses, we check it out) and we take it | home to read and see what sticks. | | It's probably no surprise that one of the most exciting trips | he can make is driving to PDX to go to Powell's. | | There's probably a UI genius out there with great ideas for it, | but I don't see how anything can beat going to a library in | person. | tacLog wrote: | I completely agree. I don't think you can fully replicate | this experience remotely. | | I am just trying to imagine what you need to do to get as | close as possible. Maybe I make this a project happen if I | end up with something actionable. Maybe these ideas inspire | someone else, maybe they fade away into memories and do very | little. | | I love the it doesn't matter what you choose you can check it | out part. I think it would be really important to have a | filter where all the books the kid can see, the kid can have | right now. This of course could be disabled by older kids | that understand sometimes there is a wait but I think for the | younger kids this would be an important detail. | | I don't want to replace libraries, I want to make it so every | kid that has access to the internet on some device or gaming | platform can get 30% of that experience. Or whatever is | possible. | butwhywhyoh wrote: | This is one of those "pure HN" comments that you're almost | guaranteed to find here. | | How can we take a genuinely pleasant, analog human experience, | strip all of the magic out of it, automate it, and make it | remote? | tacLog wrote: | Your comment made me sad to read. I don't really feel like | that's a fair take at all. | | I love libraries and the experience they provide. These | memories are core to who I am today. | | For me this is about access. I want every kid who doesn't | live near a library or who's parents don't have the time to | take them there to have something more than nothing. | | I don't think that we can make it remote without taking a lot | of the magic out of it. But I don't think it's a bad idea to | talk about what we might do to try. | charcircuit wrote: | The internet is much better than a library. I've gone to the | library a handful of times and the information there typically | pales in component to the information that can be found on the | internet. The internet also has videos too which can help | explain concepts. Books in a library are typically old too. | Good luck finding a book about some new piece of software that | came out. | brimble wrote: | I've found the opposite: it's often even hard to find out | _that some piece of knowledge might exist_ on the Internet. | | I think it might(?) be better for math and things like that, | but dig into social sciences or history or whatever, and | often at a _surprisingly_ shallow level you 're going to have | to go find some real books. eBooks fill some of the gap, but | lots aren't there. Some stuff is rare (very niche) and can't | even be found in newly-printed books, let alone online--used | books and libraries are it. Some special collections--again, | without even digging _that_ deep, sometimes--become necessary | and would require international travel to pursue (depending | on where you live). | | It's not hard to poke around a decent used book store or | university library and find information that's simply nowhere | online. | tacLog wrote: | Sure, I don't go to libraries to find anything about code or | even computers. I go to find old fantasy series and enjoy the | physicality of the library. | | I would say the internet is almost always better at | everything non-fiction for adults. But I am talking about 4-8 | year olds here mostly, and by extension anyone older that | wants some of the library experience. | shuntress wrote: | Really, the libraries' contents are just a significantly more | difficult-to-search part of the deep web. | reaperducer wrote: | Why would you limit yourself to the information that is on | the internet when the vast majority of the world's | information (and music, and video, etc.) is elsewhere? | the_af wrote: | The tactile experience of a library or even a bookstore | cannot be replicated by the internet or ebooks. | | It is indeed something wondrous for little kids... and | adults. | myself248 wrote: | Take the kid to a physical library a few times. I think the | visceral experience of the vastness really has to be | experienced by our spatial-relation lizard-brains. Explain the | "anything you want, but only a few at a time" concept. Nurture | the kid-in-a-candy-store wonder. | | Then take them to the most impressive library you can feasibly | drive to. Universities spring to mind. Let that awe really sink | in. See if you can get a librarian to talk to the kid for a few | minutes about why _they_ personally think this is important. | | THEN introduce ebooks, gutenberg, archive.org, apps, etc. All | that and then some, right here in the palm of your hand. | tacLog wrote: | I think you are highlighting great ways to impress upon a kid | the: "visceral experience of the vastness." Which is the core | of what I want. That's a really good way to put it by the | way. | | I really like the idea of taking kids to really impressive | libraries as well. My parents did that for me and it really | did create lasting memories. | | But I am more thinking of something that can emulate that | experience remotely. Your focus on the space made me thing of | maybe a library on Minecraft or Roblox? Maybe it can be a | space where you can somehow see the books in a virtual space | and design something that allows you to explore the | collections. I know this would be really hard in Minecraft | and I don't know how hard this would be in roblox. But I | really like this idea because it would be easy to create, | easier to maintain, and be a really cool thing that a teacher | could say take a class trip to. | | It would be important that you where presented with a way to | checkout the books you found in this virtual library from a | real library near you that has ebooks for children. This | would also allow you to checkout the public works books from | the awesome sites you referenced instantly. | myself248 wrote: | Oh oh oh. | | I think you mean https://help.archive.org/hc/en- | us/articles/360054148012-Brow... | tacLog wrote: | This is exactly the kind of tool I was hoping to find. | Thank you! | | I wasn't really expecting to be having novel ideas here | and as usual someone built something close and someone on | hackernews can tell me about it. | | This service isn't perfect and doesn't seem very kid | friendly to me. But it exists and is free so it's | something to learn from and recommend. | indigochill wrote: | Maybe something like this (aimed more at journalism, but | the virtual space is still impressive): | https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/18/21184041/minecraft- | librar... | tacLog wrote: | This looks really cool and is exactly along the lines of | what I was thinking. I will explore it later after work. | | Thank you for linking this. | schoen wrote: | My elementary school had a unit (I think in third or fourth | grade) where each student made and illustrated a book, which was | then bound by the librarians and temporarily added to the school | library's collection, on a special shelf (for books by current | students). Other students could check it out during the school | year, and I think there was even an assignment where you were | expected to check out one other student's book and give some kind | of report or presentation about it! | | At the end of the year, you got your own book back to keep. | | This was a really great school project. | ericmcer wrote: | This is great, they should have more projects in school that | allow kids a chance to move from being passive participants in | the system to being contributors to it. I think this is a huge | mental barrier that gets reinforced in schools rather than | broken. | rambambram wrote: | Haha, so cool! If 6 year olds like it and there's already a | waiting list, he might even sell the story to Hollywood. ;) | onemoresoop wrote: | I really hope it doesn't get to money making but instead it | starts a new trend where kids make their own books and share | them at the library, a new special section. Let's leave money | outta this.. | rambambram wrote: | I knew this kind of remark was coming, hence the smiley. ;) | geocrasher wrote: | Self publishing at its finest. What a great story! | steveylang wrote: | They should digitize it and put the ebook up on Amazon. | incomplete wrote: | paywall free: https://archive.is/nyf78 | Waterluvian wrote: | I would love it if my local library had a section dedicated to | local amateur authors. I want my boys to see that being an author | is not some huge gap. You don't need a fancy book making machine | or publisher. Just write and share. | dhosek wrote: | My kids's school has creating a book a part of the curriculum | every year beginning in kindergarten. My son who's amazingingly | prolific did two books last year (he was in first grade). There | was one day when he was in kindergarten that we were both writing | at the same time. I managed to get a couple hundred words written | on my novel in progress. He knocked out a 750-word story | (dictated to his mother) that was damned amazing. | chadd wrote: | This is why I've supported 826LA (and the other 826 chapters), | started by the author Dave Eggers. Among the reading and writing, | tutoring and college essay writing programs they sponsor, mostly | focused on kids who are in homes where English is a second | language, they also help kids publish their own book. | | You would be shocked to see how proud the kids are when they have | their very own words, in _print_ - it 's whimsical and inspiring | that they can accomplish anything. | [deleted] | jimnotgym wrote: | My son used to put his books on our shelves. Imagine if I had | encouraged him rather than working silly hours for some future | that never arrived | geocrasher wrote: | The perfect parent doesn't exists, my friend. We all do our | best to provide and sometimes it works out the way we expect, | sometimes not. Count your successes, not your failures. | balls187 wrote: | Chris Rock said it best--Nobody ever says, 'Hey daddy, thanks | for knockin' out this rent.' 'Hey daddy, I sure love this hot | water.' 'Hey daddy, it's easy to read with all this light.' | triceratops wrote: | Kids shouldn't have to thank their parents for the basics. | That's what we commit to when we bring them into this world | (or adopt them). To use another Chris Rock phrase - "You want | credit for some s*** you're supposed to do?!" | [deleted] | kbelder wrote: | My son did this to a book he wrote. Something about a moose... He | slid it onto the shelf at the school library, and found a year | later that some employee had put on a library sticker and a | checkout card. A couple people checked it out; it was still on | the shelf a few years later. | IncRnd wrote: | What a nice story! | | When they create an ebook, be prepared for the next HN story to | discuss Dillon's book being the most pirated pdf worldwide. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-03 23:01 UTC)