Libraries Without Borders Wins Open Education Creative Innovation Award

Libraries Without Borders is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the Open Education Creative Innovation Award in recognition of the “Ideas Box.”

The Open Education Awards for Excellence recognize outstanding projects that support the production, use, and promotion of Open Education resources. Awards are granted in two categories: “Creative Innovation” and “Open Research.”

LWB received the Creative Innovation Award, which highlights projects offering new approaches to Open Education, and ideas that substantially improve the discoverability, presentation, usability, accessibility or availability of openness in education. LWB is among three other organizations selected for this honor.

The award commends LWB for its innovative work on the Ideas Box, a transformative technology that tackles systemic challenges faced by vulnerable populations around the world. The Ideas Box is a mobile “pop up” ​multimedia​ center that provides educational and cultural resources to communities in need, including refugees and displaced persons in camps around the globe, and underserved communities in developed countries. By providing access to the Internet, books, teaching resources and multimedia, the Ideas Box gives people the essential tools needed to rebuild and imagine their futures.

The Open Education Consortium is a global network of educational institutions, individuals and organizations that support an approach to education based on openness, collaboration, innovation, collective development, and the use of open educational materials. Libraries Without Borders is proud to accept this honor.

About Libraries Without Borders

Libraries Without Borders is an international nonprofit organization. Founded in 2007, it has become one of the world’s leading NGOs working to expand access to information and education to vulnerable populations around the world.  We have worked extensively in Central Africa, Europe, and the Middle East and are expanding our operations to communities in the United States. Our innovative creations include the Ideas Box, a portable multimedia toolkit designed for vulnerable communities.

A Note About the Ideas Box

Designed by LWB in collaboration with designer Philippe Starck and the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Ideas Box is a standardized, easily transportable and deployable media kit for use on the ground. It is a robust and energy-independent device that provides users with customized curated content. Each Ideas Box contains a server, generator, 25 tablets and laptops, a cinema, games, arts & crafts, and a stage for music and theatre. Beyond a toolkit, the Ideas Box is a revolutionary intervention in humanitarian response.

For more information: https://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/activities/our-tools-and-methodologies/ideas-box-eng/

Media Contact: 

 Katherine Trujillo – Director of Communications & Advocacy – Libraries Without Borders

ktrujillo@librarieswithoutborders.org | + 1 202 729 3516