Global Digital Library

Information for USAID Education Staff

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THE GDL IS A DIGITAL COLLECTION OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Global Digital Library is a web platform where high quality early grade books can be accessed for use in the classroom or at home, as well as printed, or translated for use in other contexts. Funded by Global Book Alliance (GBA) partner the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), many of the resources on the GDL have been contributed by USAID and other donors. All content and illustrations are openly licensed and free for use by anyone, anywhere, on any device. GDL content can also be translated into any language or adapted to fit different audiences.

THE GDL SUPPORTS 72 LANGUAGES - WITH MORE TO COME

There are currently materials in 72 languages on the GDL. USAID Education Officers may find that quality reading materials already exist for their target country or language, while others can be easily translated or adapted.

In 2020, the GDL also took part in a global translation sprint where 4500 books were translated and added to the GDL collection. An expanded translation sprint will take place from World Book Day (April 23) to World Literacy Day (September 8), 2021.

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR COMMERCIAL PRINTING

In addition to the 4000+ eBooks available online, the GDL has a growing repository of print-ready design files in Adobe InDesign format. InDesign files contain information necessary for commercial printing allowing Ministries of Education or projects to print professional-quality books. There are currently 500 books in 23 languages available.

COVID RESPONSE: REPOSITORY OF INTERACTIVE AUDIO INSTRUCTION PROGRAMS

GDL Radio features quality interactive audio instruction from USAID projects in 19 countries. These are free to download and use by projects, ministries, and individuals.

Seventy-two Languages and Counting - Do You See Yours?

AFRICA

• Afaan Oromoo

• Arabic

• Bukusu

• Gusii

• Hadiyya

• Hausa (Nigeria)

• isiNdebele

• isiZulu

• Kamba (Kenya)

• Kenyan Sign language

• Kinyarwanda

• Kiswahili (Kenya)

• Lingala

• Pedi

• seSewula

• Sesotho

• Setswana

• Shona

• Sidamo

• siSwati

• Somali (Ethiopia)

• Tigrinya (Ethiopia)

• Tshivenḓa

• Wanga

• Wolaytta

• አማርኛ(Amharic)

OTHER

• English

• French

• Portuguese (Brazil)

• Spanish (Spain)

Submitting Materials to the Global Digital Library

The GDL is the ideal location for project-produced materials, ensuring they are accessible to Ministries of Education as well as teachers, parents and learners. Contributing to the GDL also allows the books to be used or repurposed beyond the life of the project.

If your projects have developed, translated or adapted reading materials, please consider submitting them to the Global Digital Library. USAID’s Global Book Alliance in Action team can help project staff gather the information needed to make a complete submission. Submitting to the GDL requires some preparation and setup and consists of three phases.

1. Convert materials to e-Book format – this involves accessing the original design files and converting to a format that can be viewed digitally, ePUB.

2. Provide information about the books in a spreadsheet – required information includes title, description, creator, language of the book, and others.

3. Upload the materials and spreadsheet to Google Drive, Dropbox etc.

The Global Book Alliance website contains details of the necessary steps. The Global Book Alliance in Action project can help and provide guidance with every phase of this process as well as provide more information on the Global Digital Library.

Please reach out to admin@globalbookalliance.org to learn more.