Publishing

=**Publishing Issues in the Pacific Islands** =

 One major challenge for libraries located in the Pacific Islands relates to the publishing industry and book acquisition. In the centuries since European colonists arrived in the region and brought with them the concept of written communication, the publishing industry in the Pacific Island has slowly developed. However, challenges such as the vast distances between people and the daunting diversity of languages make building a local publishing industry difficult. However, their have been some successes, such as the Institute of Pacific Studies Publications, who have established themselves as a key publisher in a number of Pacific regions. As well, some of the Pacific Islands have been making strides towards enabling greater Internet access, which could lead to advances in digital publishing.

**The History of the Written Word and Publishing in the Pacific** Prior to the arrival of colonists from Europe in the in the 1500's, the people of the Pacific Islands relied on the oral tradition as their only means of information transfer (Crowl, 2004, 2007). Furthermore, given the vast distances between many of the islands, there was very little, if any, communication between the people of different islands. Upon the arrival of Europeans, the colonists sought to 'civilize' the people of the Pacific and one of their mean of accomplishing this was through the written word. The driving force behind this 'civilizing' effort was Christian missionaries with their efforts peaking in the late 1700's (Crowl, 2004).

These missionaries taught many Pacific Islanders about the written word and through the written word disseminated their beliefs to these people so as to convert them to Christianity. Colonial governments tended to stay away from matters of education, so during this time missionaries were the sole non-native providers of education in the Pacific Islands (Crowl, 2007). Over time, native converts became involved in as teachers the missionary eduction system as well (Crowl, 2004). One of the most important tasks that the missionaries accomplished was to create orthographies for the local languages and began publishing their teachings and tracts in local dialects, as they had a "mandate to translate God’s Word into indigenous languages." (Crowl, 2007, p. 7). Many missionaries declined to teach Pacific people to read in European languages, possibly in order to maintain a stronger control over the materials available to these people (Crowl, 2007). Even in the 20th and 21st centuries, missionaries have continued to be one of the driving forces of publishing in the Pacific Islands (Crowl, 2004)

In the 1800's the responsibility for education began to shift from the missions to the governments in many of the Pacific Islands. As this shift occurred, there was also a shift from teaching in the local language to the colonial language (Crowl, 2007). A consequence of this was a reduced reliance on locally published texts over imported books from Europe, and later America, Australia, and New Zealand.  Compared to other areas of the world, colonialism is still a strong force in the Pacific, with approximately 40% of the people of the Pacific Islands living in dependent territories (Crowl, 2007). Nonetheless, there has been another shift in the past century, with a renewed emphasis on the publication of local dialects (Crowl, 2004). however the infrastructure for publishing is poor in most Pacific Islands and there are a number of challenges that must be overcome.

**Obstacles to Local Publishing** An improved publishing system is greatly needed in most areas of the Pacific Islands and the current system is riddled will problems. For example, books imported from larger nations (e.g., America, Australia, etc.) are expensive and are often out of date (Crowl, 2004). Additionally, relying on imported materials creates an educational and intellectual environment that de-emphasizes the importance of local knowledge and history.

There are a number of challenges to the creation of cohesive local publishing systems in the Pacific Islands. For the most part, the Islands of the Pacific are classified as developing regions, thus do not have a significant amount of funds to allocate to publishing. Further complicating matters is the great variety of languages and dialects in the region. For example, Papua New Guinea is considered to be the most linguistically diverse place in the world with over 800 distinct languages (Lewis, 2009). Additionally, despite the efforts of the missionaries, there is still much variation in the orthographies of many of the languages of the Pacific (Crowl, 2004, 2007, 2008). Consequently, any publisher publishing in a local dialect faces the fact that only a small number of people will be able to read the publication. As Crowl (2007) states, "Global audiences already exist for English, French, and Spanish, but audiences and skilled publications workers for Mangareva, Maring, and Mokilese are much more limited in number and finance." (p. 14).

 Another challenge relates to the infrastructure of the region. Populations are sparse, collected in small islands, and spread across a large distances. Thus, no matter whether a publication is domestic or imported, it can be very difficult to disseminate it the people who it is directed at. Furthermore, the digital divide makes it difficult for publications and other information to be disseminated electronically.

**Recent Developments** In recent years, there has been an effort to build a localized publishing industry in the Pacific Islands. It has been posited that many of the Pacific Islands are adequately developed to enable them to 'leapfrog' past print publishing to the electronic medium (Mamtora, 2000). Furthermore, Mamtora suggested that, given the inadequate communications infrastructure, CD-ROM technology would be the most suitable for developing an electronic publishing infrastructure. However, in the ten years since Momtora wrote her piece, there have been some changes in the infrastructure of some Pacific Islands

 Although there is very low Internet usage in many regions, such as Papua New Guinea and Kiribati, other regions are showing marked increases in usage over the past decade(United Nations, 2010). For example, between 2000 and 2009, Guam's internet usage rose from 16% to 51%. Similarly, usage rose in French Polynesia from 6% to 45%. Other regions had more moderate increases, such as Fiji, which rose from 1.5% to 13%. Thus, it seems that an web-based electronic publishing system could be possible in some regions.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Perhaps the best example of a successful Pacific Island-based publisher is the Institute of Pacific Studies (IPS). It is operated by the University of the South Pacific, a university with locations in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu (Crowl, 2003). IPS serves at the only major publisher for these twelve districts. IPS publishes a wide variety of materials including academic works, collections of local histories, poetry, and literature. The Majority of publications are in English, but works in other languages, such as French, Bislama, Maori, Fijian, Kiribati, Niuean, Pijin, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, and Tuvaluan, are often published. As well, while the majority of sales occur in the Pacific, some materials are also exported to Asia, Europe and North America. Currently, IPS has over 350 titles in print (IPS Publications) and thus far in its development, IPS has focused primarily on physical publishing and has made little attempt to enter the electronic medium. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;"> **The Outlook for Libraries** As the communications infrastructure improves and more people of the Pacific Island go online, it is possible that libraries in these regions may be able to develop electronic collections. The ability to electronically receive materials from publishers and deliver them to patrons would certainly help enable access to many who are in isolate regions of the Pacific. Presently, it appears that most of the Pacific Islands are still a ways away from accomplishing this though. Nonetheless, publishers such as IPS have stepped in and filled the gap of locally published materials that enable the people of the Pacific to access information about regional subject matter. However, the reliance on physical publications greatly limits the ability of libraries to serve those in isolated areas.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">**References**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Crowl, L. S. (2003). Publisher to twelve countries. //Logos, 14//(4), 200-205.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Crowl, L. S. (2004). Literacy, Book publishing, and civil society. //State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project.// Retrieved from https://dspace.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/41576

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Crowl, L. S. (2007). Publishing’s and possibilities for literacy in the Pacific Islands. //International Journal of the Book, 4//(4), 7-18.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Crowl, L. S. (2008). //Politics and book publishing in the Pacific Islands// (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=theses&sei-redir=1#search=%22Politics+and+Book+Publishing+in+the+Pacific+Islands%22

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">IPS Publications. (n.d.). //About us//. Retrieved from http://ipsbooks.usp.ac.fj/page.php?page=about

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Lewis, M. P. (ed.) (2009). Languages of Papua New Guinea. //Ethnologue: Languages of the World.// Retrieved from http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PG

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Mamtora, J. (2000). The electronic medium: A panacea for publishing in the Pacific? //Information Development, 16//(2), 93-95.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px;">United Nations. (2010). Millennium development goals database. //UN Data: A world of information//. Retrieved from: http://data.un.org/

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