African Storybook vs Open Michigan

African Storybook develops and publishes picture storybooks in African languages to support children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination. Its stories and tools are intended for children aged two to ten, including early childhood and the first three years of primary school. The free Reader app lets parents and children access books offline. With the free Maker app, people can create storybooks offline on a phone or tablet, then publish them to the website once connected. Website tools also support creating, translating and adapting picture books, and readers can download titles for offline reading or print them. Stories may be read, copied, adapted and translated without payment or permission, subject to attribution and any non-commercial restriction attached to a particular story. Creating, adapting or translating requires registration; users must be at least 18 or have parent or guardian permission. The site distinguishes ASb-approved stories from those made on the website or in the Maker app that have not been checked. It also offers video and written guidance on using and developing picture storybooks. The initiative is free, with Android, iOS and web access.

Open Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative for sharing research, teaching and creative work beyond campus. It offers services and expertise in open educational resources, open data and open publications, and lets visitors search for material from within and outside the university for teaching and research. Its collection includes course materials, videos, lectures, student work and other educational resources from U-M faculty, students, staff and partner institutions. Nearly all of its educational resources are openly licensed for reuse under Creative Commons. The initiative can help publish syllabi, courses and learning modules, promote educational resources, and make data publicly available. It describes open data as publicly available for use, reuse and distribution, and open access scholarship as available to read online for free. Open Michigan is a partnership of the University Library and Health Information Technology and Services, and began in 2007. It notes that older resources may not work well with screen readers and many videos lack sufficient captions; remediation is underway. Hosted content published after January 1, 2017 receives accessibility reviews, with a goal of WCAG 2.0 AA compliance.