Africa: Cell Phone Libraries Offer Books To Every Ugandan Home And School
South Africa-based telecommunications company MTN Group teamed up with ad agency MetropolitanRepublic Group to increase access to books in Uganda, using just print ads and regular mobile phones, in a campaign called ‘The Everywhere Library.’
Full page print ads in the most popular Ugandan newspapers featured an image of bookshelves, with a unique code on the spine of each book. To access a book, users simply entered this number into any mobile phone, and they would immediately receive the full text of the book on the phone, for free.
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From The Gentlemens’ Log:
Via USSD, a simple cell phone technology accessible by feature and smart phones, people could type in a books unique code and download a free copy of the book.
Filed under: Libraries, News, Patrons and Users
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
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