Ingrid Bussmann takes us on the CHILIAS journey. At the end of October 1998, project CHILIAS finished, but Infoplanet (a Web-forum for children about books, media and the library - the result of the project) will be an ongoing service of the participating children's and school libraries.
CHILIAS - the European Virtual Children's Library of the Future - an EC Telematics for Libraries project, 1994-1998, was completed successfully in October 1998. Under the co-ordination of Stuttgart City Library, Germany, CHILIAS has created a multimedia virtual simulation of a children’s library on the Web/Internet. CHILIAS was developed between 1996 and 1998 in collaboration with partners from Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The CHILIAS Home Page in Stuttgart is shown in Figure 1. [1]
 Figure 1: CHILIAS Home Page (Stuttgart) |
CHILIAS stands for: children's library - information - animation - skills. CHILIAS has explored new Internet/WWW based children's and school library services for children aged 9-12 years.
The main challenge of the changing information and media society is not access to information, but the processing of information into useful knowledge and inspiring wisdom. Libraries have a responsibility to enable their users to find their way through the complexity of the new information world and support new ways of learning based on new technology. There are many ways for libraries to meet the challenges of the future and to serve the changing needs of their users.
The project CHILIAS has addressed the needs and requirements of children aged 9-12 years using interactive multimedia and networked information and communication systems.
Children grow up in the changing media world. They are used to computers and multimedia technology. They enjoy the technology as a kind of new tool for playing. But they need support in developing their information skills and new ways of learning. The Internet and multimedia give them new means for acquiring information and learning. These demand a corresponding range of new information-seeking and information-handling skills. Children’s libraries and school libraries have traditionally provided a stimulating environment for learning. The traditional library model must be adapted to the networked multimedia environment bridging traditional media and library access and new technology in a creative way. The European project CHILIAS has explored a new role of children’s libraries and school libraries providing a new Internet based service to enhance children’s computer literacy and the creative use of new technology.
CHILIAS has developed a new concept for European children’s
libraries and school libraries for innovative learning and creative use of
Internet technology. Chilias has explored a new role of children's
libraries and school libraries as active content provider in data networks
by publishing new content on the Web, content which addresses children's
needs and requirements and provides children adequate information.
CHILIAS has developed four complementary and integrated applications in a WWW environment:
The Infoplanet invites children to browse through a collection of Web pages with creative and playful information. To symbolise the idea of a virtual library (information - knowledge - wisdom) several symbols could have been used. The CHILIAS project has started with a User Needs Analysis and children were asked to draw their ideas of a virtual place. Very often they used images from nature and space. So the CHILIAS consortium decided to use the space metaphor as a symbol for the virtual library. Beside the attraction of space, planets and stars for children, space symbolises the infinite human thirst for knowledge, might be the limits of knowledge and wisdom as well. Planets and stars can be an appropriate symbol for information. And they stand for exploration and adventure. This is the idea of the virtual library: exploration. Children can browse through the cyberspace metaphor and click here and there. Or they can directly click to the topics provided in the main frame: the library, the author gallery, animals, music, sports, our town.
The Infoplanet has been created in six language versions. Although the idea and the general framework is common in all Infoplanets, content and materials are local because of the cultural diversity. All Infoplanets are linked together by flag symbols and a European map, so that children can easily browse through all language versions.
The Infoplanets provide common topics based on the results of the User Needs Analyses done at the beginning of the project. All sites have chosen local topics as well according to the needs of their users, e.g. 'environment' in the Portuguese version. All topics are presented with graphics, images, sound and text. They provide relevant information in a playful and stimulating way as a kind of appetizer, raising children’s curiosity to browse through the virtual library and then, perhaps, to come to the real library and enjoy real books and media.
All Infoplanets provide information about the participating libraries, opening hours, library use, library events. In some Infoplanets, e.g. the English version, children can write emails to the library or participate in a homework service. Some local OPACS are linked to the service.
The Infoplanet provides information about the participating towns, Barcelona and Stuttgart, Athens and Lisboa, Gateshead and Vantaa. Children all over Europe can find child-friendly information about the project sites, partly created by children themselves.
The Infoplanets provide information about topics like music, animals and sports; topics children are most interested in as the User Needs Analysis has shown. The information is different in all versions. For example, new books or CDs are presented, or detailed pages about music (instruments in the Finnish version) or about animals in the Portuguese version.
All Infoplanets provide selected Internet links to other Web sites such as homepages of Pop-Groups or Sports, clubs, etc. So the Infoplanet is not only a collection of new Web pages for children, but a guide to child-friendly Internet sites as well.
The core of the Infoplanet is the 'Author Gallery'. All sites provide information about children’s book authors, about their lives, their books, and where to find the books in the library.
Within the term of the project the Author Gallery has been fairly small in scale, but it will grow beyond the lifetime of the project, as all sites plan to maintain the service.
The Author Gallery has been created in close collaboration with the authors themselves. They have provided lots of materials and information, written new stories or songs for the Infoplanet. The new collaboration between authors and the libraries has been one of the most exciting experiences in the project.
Children enjoy the Author Gallery, they like to explore the pages and sometimes they go to the library shelves to get one of the real books. This bridge between the virtual world and the real library is one of the CHILIAS objectives.
As the first tests with children user groups have shown that children are not used to Internet browsers and easily get lost, Infoplanet includes a help function explaining basic navigation skills on the Internet. But CHILIAS validation has proved that children are not very eager to use help functions. They prefer to explore the use of multimedia applications by just clicking and testing what happens. So the application itself has to be self-explanatory, otherwise children lose their patience. The Infoplanet also contains a search function for Infoplanet content. But again validation has shown that children prefer exploring the Infoplanet and do not often use it for detailed searches. The search function is more useful to parents or teachers who are interested in specific information.
The Storybuilder is an interactive application which allows for creative input from children. Children can create stories in their local language using the symbols the Storybuilder provides.
The language problem is a challenge for the project idea to stimulate European communication. Children of the target age group learn English - this has been proved by the User Needs Analysis - but they have difficulties in writing in English. So the project has arranged storybuilding events in all sites in the local language. A selection of stories has been translated into English to share the ideas all over Europe.
“The dark, dark contest“ is the beginning of a story written by a Greek author for CHILIAS. Written in English, children all over Europe can finish the story. The objective of this part of the storybuilder is to explore the potentiality of common activities between European children in spite of the language difficulties.
The Guestbook is a discussion and feedback tool for use by children. Children can write comments to selected topics and answer messages from other children. Although the language skills of the target age group set limits to European communication, there are many children in all sites with a multicultural background. So the Guestbook can contribute to multicultural European communication.
Infoton provides interactive exercises in basic information-seeking skills such as alphabetical order, classification and categorisation. The CHILIAS User Needs Analysis has clearly shown that children of this particular age have difficulties in both constructing a search and in deciding upon the relevant medium to search. Therefore CHILIAS has created a learning environment aimed at the fostering of expertise in information seeking skills and in subject knowledge. Within the term of the project Infoton could only be developed on a small scale with exercises on basic skills.
CHILIAS is aimed at developing the library as a stimulating environment for innovative learning. Children’s libraries and school libraries have created services and activities to support children’s information needs in a creative way, to enhance their imagination and to enlighten their minds. This traditional model of the library can be adapted to the virtual world. The CHILIAS Infoplanet provides new access to information and learning. Doing the skills exercises they improve their information skills. Browsing through the Infoplanet, they discover new information about authors and books, music and animals, European cities and countries. The virtual children’s library - the Infoplanet - provides access to the physical children’s library showing children what they can expect from it, and raising their curiosity about books and authors. The use of the virtual library is not only to find a specific information, but is like a magazine with rich information and links between the different types of information; a tool for intuitive learning.
Infoplanet has enhanced the attractiveness of the real library. Testing the Infoplanet in the physical environment, the CHILIAS consortium has observed that many children come to the library because of the Infoplanet. And they normally leave the library with some books. So Infoplanet can support the bridge between traditional and new media.
But the learning impact of CHILIAS is more than using the application. CHILIAS has been a user-oriented project involving the end-user group children in the project development from the start. Children have participated in designing the virtual library and in generating content. Many of the Infoplanet Web pages have been written by children. The children’s library in Stuttgart has created the “Internet-Reporter“, library workshops for children to create Web pages. Guided by the librarians, children have designed their own Web-pages on selected topics. And by doing this they have learned how the Internet works and enhanced their computer literacy and their information-handling skills.
Further information will be found on the CHILIAS International Homepage shown in Figure 2. [2]
 Figure 2: CHILIAS International Home Page |
The main benefit of CHILIAS is the development of a useful application for European children, the Infoplanet. As pointed out the Infoplanet can support children’s information needs and help them to prepare their future role as users of the European information society. As CHILIAS is a WWW/Internet service it is accessible for children all over the world.
CHILIAS has established new collaborations across Europe. Teachers and schools have perceived the libraries as relevant partners in the new multimedia area. CHILIAS has developed new relations to authors and publishers providing them a platform on the Internet. In all sites lots of institutions have been involved in the developing process, library colleges and sports clubs, youth associations and media experts. CHILIAS has significantly raised the profile of the participating libraries and increased their value and attractiveness in their local communities and in the public. And again this expertise can encourage children’s libraries and school libraries in Europe to prove their position as “signpost on the new cross-roads of information and culture“.
And last but not least, the collaboration between the CHILIAS consortium has been a contribution to European understanding. CHILIAS has been followed by a new European project, VERITY - Virtual and Electronic Resources for Information skills Training for Young people. Under coordination of University of Sunderland, Great Britain VERITY started in April 1998. VERITY is developing a new electronic library service aiming at the needs of young people between 13 and 19 years with a Virtual Librarian, a Referral Service and an information skills package for the target age group.
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Ingrid Bussmann
Stadtbücherei Stuttgart
Email: u410031@stuttgart.de
URL: http://chilias.stuttgart.de:8080/chilias/
For citation purposes:
Ingrid Bussmann, "The European Virtual Children's Library on the
Internet: a New Service to Foster Children's Computer Literacy," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/chilias/>
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