The Arabooks initiative

From 2005, Next Page began tackling fundamental problems and deficits in Arab publishing that were identified and described in the Lost and Found in Translation Report. Based on this report, a year of pilot work and input from many organizations, publishers and cultural institutions, Next Page launched projects in the following areas:

1. data on Arab readership: readership survey
2. support for translation and publication of Arabic books: South-South translation grants
3. addressing the deficits in young adult books: Read Write Now
4. assessing publishers’ IT usage and habits: IT Tools for Publishers Survey
5. convening and mobilizing organizations around the issue of promotion of Arabic literature abroad
6. development of projects to increase on-line access to books

REPORTS The first two initiatives, the Readership Survey and South-South translations projects are well into the implementation stage. Phase one of the readership survey is completed, and the report Read Write Now can be downloaded below. Phase two, covering an additional 5 countries is now underway and the results will be available in fall 2007. The South-South grants program has been fully operational since January 2006 and has awarded fourteen grants to six publishers during four rounds of grant-giving for titles from Iran, India and Turkey. The first of these books can already be found on the shelves in their respective markets.

Readership Survey "What Arabs Read"

Pilot work along with the 2004 report on the state of translations in the Arab world commissioned by Next Page, highlighted the virtual absence of empirical data on Arab readership, a void that directly impacts both the state of publishing and translation and in a broader sense has widescale implications on civil society development in the Arab world. In response, Next Page is commissioning nationally representative surveys (of the literate population) on readership in 9 Arab countries. This survey represents not only the first multi-country comparative work on readership but also the starting point for empirical data collection on readership in each of the 9 countries.

Click here for a copy of "What Arabs Read Phase 1" readership report in English

Click here for a copy of "What Arabs Read Phase 1" readership report in Arabic

Click here for a copy of "What Arabs Read Phase 2" readership report in English

Click here for a copy of "What Arabs Read Phase 2" readership report in Arabic

Expert commentaries of the survey outcomes - Hany Hanafy, James Wile, Ramy Hadeeb

IT Tools for Publishers’ Survey During late 2005 to early 2006, Next Page, in collaboration with the OSI Tool-sets program, conducted an IT Tools for Publishers Survey with over 30 individuals involved in various aspects of publishing in 12 Arab countries. The survey aims were:

1. To understand awareness, availability and usage of IT tools (hardware, and software)
2. To understand the IT gaps and needs
3. To assess the status and prospects for e-publishing

Click here for the IT Tools for Publishers’ Report

Lost and Found in Translation provides a comprehensive, historical view of translation activities, policies and players in the Arab world.

Click here to download a copy of Lost and Found in Translation

South-South Translations

To date, Next Page has supported translation and publishing of over 200 titles in over 35 countries in the humanities and social sciences. In principle, the Foundation aims to support underdeveloped regions and/or languages where grant-giving is needed to make publishing of a given work financially feasible. As part of the Arabooks initiative, Next Page will support “South-South” translations, an initiative to translate and publish works from countries with linguistic, cultural and historic ties with the Arab world, into Arabic. During 2007, an additional 15-20 translations from Turkey, Iran and India will be supported.

Click here for a detailed description of the South-South translation project.

Read Write Now - An initiative to develop young adult books and reading

Read Write Now is an initiative to promote reading and writing for Arab young adults. It tackles an issue crucial to the development of healthy civil societies in the Arab world, the lack of quality original Arabic books for young adults, by stimulating interest in reading (via literature festivals) and supporting the development of new content (via authors’ workshops and grants for books). The project is founded on the principle that books provide access to information and ideas which are vital to engaging young people in dialogue and enabling them to actively participate in the societies they live in.

In October 2006, Next Page, in collaboration with a network of local partners launched Read Write Now a three phased initiative aimed at stimulating interest in reading (via literature festivals) and supporting the development of new content (via authors’ workshops and grants for books). The project is managed by a network of local partners – Tamer Institute in Palestine, Biblioteca Alexandrina in Alexandria, and Mawred Culture Resource in Cairo with support from Next Page, the British Council and Escuela de Traductores de Toledo. Activities commenced in January 2007 when the first literature festival was held in Ramallah. A second festival was held in Alexandria in March 2007. Phase 2 was completed in March 2007 with a 5 day workshop of training and story development for authors aspiring to write for young adults. Read Write Now is now in the third project phase, which comprises of competition for grants eligible to authors who participated inthe workshop. The titles, authors and publishers of these books will be announced in August 2007. Read Write Now is generously supported by a grant from Anna Lindh Foundation and OSI-Budapest.

In 2006, Arabooks began work on two distinct new areas – triggering the establishment of an institution to promote Arab literature abroad and exploring digital access for books and alternative licensing models. On the former, a series of panel discussions coinciding with existing conferences are scheduled. The first was a panel discussion at the Arab Thought Foundation Annual Translation Conference which took place in May 2007 in Amman, Jordan. The international panel titled “Prospects for Promotion of Arabic Literature Abroad – models and experiences,” addressed the demand side of the translation equation and explored successful experiences and strategies transferable from other countries and regions in promoting national literatures. A second panel discussion is planned for the 2008 London Book Fair where the Arab world will be the guest of honor. For digital access is now forming partnerships to contribute to size and quality of digital collections.

Book Review Supplement In collaboration with Cambridge Book Review, Next Page plans to support a project to produce a weekly two broad-sheet supplement of book reviews and book-based features in Arabic, to be simultaneously published in ten daily Arab newspapers. The supplement will include reviews on books from many languages and will include information about book related content and events.

Objectives

1. Believing in the role of books as a bridge of civilizational dialogue, the supplement will provide Arab readers with continuous knowledge and information about books from the world over.
2. It will also introduce Arab publishers to the latest publications around the world in various fields, with the view of encouraging and helping them choose titles for translation into Arabic.
3. The supplement will help create a network of Arab and non-Arab publishers by making published works and addresses of publishers available and diverse.

This initiative is currently open for co-funding and interested parties should contact Natasha Mullins.

Other Initiatives

Creative Commons - Developing Nations Licence

Next Page Foundation and Creative Commons are discussing collaboration in order to establish and promote adoption of the Creative Commons Developing Nation’s License. This license allows authors (and other content developers) to protect their interests and the integrity of their work while allowing for certain pre-agreed uses and conditions for royalty free use of the work within developing nations. This initiative will facilitate the spread of knowledge, information and ideas in the developing world by:

  giving authors and publishers greater flexibility regarding the usage of their work (eg providing a legal tool to designate different rights for their work depending upon the country of distribution)
  standardizing and simplifying the copyrights designation process
  decreasing costs associated with copyright ownership
  providing author’s with an expanded readership base

Expert Committee

At present the Arabooks expert committee comprises of 4 members:

Sadik Al-Azm: Professor Emeritus at the University of Damascus, Honorary Visiting Scholar at the University of Hamburg and 2004 recipient of the Erasmus Prize

Georges Khalil: Coordinator for the Working Group of Modernity and Islam at Wissenchaftskolleg zu Berlin

Khaled Hroub: Director of the Cambridge Arab Media Project in association with the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge and host of the weekly Al-Jazeera book review program

Jihad Al-Shuaibi: Chairman of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Jordan. Dr. Shuaibi, has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Universita’ degli Studi di Padova in Italy.

New Programs and Partners

In addition to the above listed initiatives, we are actively researching new programs that address identified needs within the sphere of Arab publishing and translation. If you are interested in learning more about our Arabooks activities or becoming a Next Page partner, please contact Natasha Mullins, Project Coordinator at nmullins@npage.org.