There are more than 7,000 languages in the world. Most have little to no literature. SIL International found that people in many communities were becoming literate and were ready to write their own books, but conventional technology was too complicated for them to use.
Bloom is desktop publishing software designed to be so simple that if you can type and use a mouse, you can create a book. Bloom runs on Windows and Linux computers. Users can add narrated audio and sign language video to any Bloom book, making it possible to create books accessible to the visually impaired and the Deaf.
Books can be printed, read on a computer, in a browser, or offline in a free Android app. Bloom books can also be shared with others through the online Bloom Library. Bloom uses open formats and encourages authors to use Creative Commons licenses.
The Bloom Library website (https://bloomlibrary.org) is a growing collection of more than 11,000 books in 480 languages—more than any other online platform. Users can add original Bloom books to Bloom Library, and any Bloom Library book can be downloaded and adapted into new languages. Organizations and governments can use the Bloom Enterprise service to create curated collections of leveled reading materials.
People in hundreds of communities have used Bloom to create their own books or adapt books created by others. An increasing number of NGOs, governments, and communities are adopting Bloom as a tool for creating and sharing books in hundreds of languages. There are over 16,800 books in the Library in more than 680 languages, and books have been read 1.3 million times. A set of 623 books in Spanish, Guatemalan Sign Language, and 5 Mayan languages has resulted in nearly half a million reading sessions during the pandemic. A collection of 1,251 books in the Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek and Tajik languages that was uploaded during the pandemic have been read more than half a million times since they became available in December 2021.
More information: https://sites.google.com/sil.org/bloom-program/home. Downloads: https://bloomlibrary.org/page/create/downloads. User forum: https://community.software.sil.org/c/bloom.
Instructional videos: https://vimeo.com/channels/bloomlibrary/videos/sort:preset/format:detail.
General queries can be sent to librarian@bloomlibrary.org.
