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Library and Information Science
in the Middle East and North Africa
Global Studies in Libraries
and Information


Edited by Ian M. Johnson

Editorial Board
Johannes Britz (South Africa/U.S.A)
Barbara Ford (U.S.A.)
Peter Lor (South Africa)
Kay Raseroka (Botswana)
Abdus Sattar Chaudry (Pakistan/Kuwait)
Kerry Smith (Australia)
Anna Maria Tammaro (Italy)

Volume 3
Library and Information
Science in the Middle
East and North Africa


Edited by Amanda B. Click, Sumayya Ahmed,
Jacob Hill, and John D. Martin III
ISBN 978-3-11-034172-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-034178-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-039641-6
ISSN 2195-0199

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek


The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the
Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston


Typesetting: Lumina Datamatics
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany

www.degruyter.com
About IFLA
www.ifla.org

IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is


the leading international body representing the interests of library and informa-
tion services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information
profession. IFLA provides information specialists throughout the world with a
forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research,
and development in all fields of library activity and information service. IFLA
is one of the means through which libraries, information centres, and informa-
tion professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as
a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.
IFLA’s aims, objectives, and professional programme can only be fulfilled
with the co-operation and active involvement of its members and affiliates.
Currently, approximately 1,600 associations, institutions and individuals, from
widely divergent cultural backgrounds, are working together to further the goals
of the Federation and to promote librarianship on a global level. Through its
formal membership, IFLA directly or indirectly represents some 500,000 library
and information professionals worldwide.
IFLA pursues its aims through a variety of channels, including the publica-
tion of a major journal, as well as guidelines, reports and monographs on a wide
range of topics. IFLA organizes workshops and seminars around the world to
enhance professional practice and increase awareness of the growing importance
of libraries in the digital age. All this is done in collaboration with a number of
other non-governmental organizations, funding bodies and international agencies
such as UNESCO and WIPO. IFLANET, the Federation’s website, is a prime source
of information about IFLA, its policies and activities: www.ifla.org.
Library and information professionals gather annually at the IFLA World
Library and Information Congress, held in August each year in cities around
the world.
IFLA was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927 at an international con-
ference of national library directors. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in
1971. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library), the national library of the
Netherlands, in The Hague, generously provides the facilities for our headquar-
ters. Regional offices are located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pretoria, South Africa;
and Singapore IFLA also has four Language Centres whose role it is to contri-
bute to more effective communication within the relevant language commu-
nities – Arabic, Chinese, French (in Africa), and Russian.
Acknowledgements
The editors appreciate the support of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill School of Information and Library Science. We would also like express our
gratitude to Dr. Barbara Moran, Louis Round Wilson Distinguished Professor
and leader of the ELIME-21 program, for her invaluable guidance throughout the
process of creating this volume. Thank you also to Boyd Holmes, for his expert
indexing.
Contents
List of Tables, Figures, and Appendices  IX

Amanda B. Click
Introduction  XI

Christof Galli
1 Arab Book Publishing  1

Sumayya Ahmed
2 For a Morocco that Reads: The Crisis of Reading and Recent Initiatives
to Revive Libraries and Reading in Morocco  28

Samir Hachani
3 A Bird’s Eye View of Two Open Access Experiences in Algeria: CERIST’s
Webreview and Dépôt numérique de l’Université d’Alger I  46

Anaïs Salamon
4 Academic Librarianship and Coercion: A Case Study in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories  63

Daphne Flanagan and Frieda Wiebe


5 American-style Academic Libraries in the Gulf Region  87

Meggan Houlihan, Christine Furno, and Jayme Spencer


6 Information Literacy in the Middle East: A Case Study of the American
University in Cairo and the American University of Sharjah  113

Janet Martin
7 Aligning Library Services to the Emerging Online Capability
of Emirati Students  138

Patricia A. Wand
8 Correlating Information Centers to Emerging Knowledge-based
Economies  156

Evelyn H. Daniel, Lokman I. Meho, and Barbara B. Moran


9 Education for Library and Information Science
in the Arab States  173
VIII  Contents

Amanda B. Click, Josiah Drewry, and Mahmoud Khalifa


10 Library and Information Science Research in the Arab World:
A Systematic Review 2004–2013  235

Blake Robinson
11 Addressing Bias in the Cataloging and Classification of Arabic and
Islamic Materials: Approaches from Domain Analysis  255

Jordan M. Scepanski and Yaşar Tonta


12 Library Collaboration in the Middle East and North Africa  270

Walid Ghali
13 The State of Manuscript Digitization Projects in Some Egyptian
Libraries and Their Challenges  302

Contributors  319

Index  325
List of Tables, Figures, and Appendices
Table 1.1 Number of records for books in Middle Eastern languages from
OCLC/WorldCat, –  
Table 1.2 Reading habits of Arab publics  
Table 1.3 National book production, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt,
–  
Table 1.4 National book production, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia,
–  
Table 1.5 Percentages of Dewey subject classes of legal deposit totals in
Tunisia, –  
Table 1.6 Number of publishers in selected Arab countries,   
Table 1.7 Book pricing ranges, selected categories  
Table 1.8 Membership of Arab States in international copyright
treaties  
Table 1.9 Arab states’ IDI rankings and values,   
Table 1.10 IT Indicators for Arab countries  
Table 3.1 World Internet usage and population statistics from Internet
World Stats  
Table 3.2 Ratio of open access articles in each journal in Webreview  
Table 4.1 Library, date of foundation, and location  
Table 4.2 Collections, floor area, staff, and number of students  
Table 4.3 Geographical mobility and job stability  
Table 4.4 Gender repartition  
Table 4.5 Degree(s) earned and position held  
Table 4.6 Academic trajectory of Palestinian library professionals  
Table 4.7 Daily tasks and duties, and position held  
Table 8.1 Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) for eight Gulf countries,
comparing  and   
Table 8.2 Number of information centers (libraries and museums), Gulf
Countries  
Table 8.3 Number of persons per information center, Gulf Countries  
Table 8.4 Comparing Gulf Countries to select Western knowledge-based
economies regarding the number of people per information
center  
Table 9.1 LIS programs in the Arab States offering at least a bachelor’s
degree in the field  
Table 10.1 All journal titles included in the systematic review  
X  List of Tables, Figures, and Appendices

Table 10.2 Number of Arab world-related articles, top and international


journals  
Table 10.3 Research by geographical location, top and international
journals  
Table 10.4 Most common research topics, top and international
journals  

Figure 8.1 Four interactive pillars of Knowledge Economies  


Figure 8.2 Comparing number of information centers, Gulf Countries  
Figure 9.1 Number of LIS programs founded per decade,
-present  
Figure 10.1 Number of Arab world-related articles by year, top and interna-
tional journals  
Figure 10.2 Author country affiliations, top and international journals  
Figure 10.3 Author country affiliations, Arab journals  

Appendix 4.1 Survey Instrument  


Appendix 12.1 Library Consortia Questionnaire  
Appendix 12.2 Library Associations Questionnaire  
Appendix 12.3 Library Cooperation Questionnaire  
Appendix 12.4 Library Consortia in the Middle East and North Africa  
Appendix 12.5 Library Associations in the Middle East and North Africa  
Appendix 12.6 Other Organizations and Institutions Promoting Library
Collaboration in the Middle East and North Africa  
Amanda B. Click
Introduction
In 2011, the School of Information and Library Science at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill admitted the first of four doctoral fellows funded
by a grant awarded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. This
grant, titled ‘Educating Librarians in the Middle East: Building Bridges for the
21st Century (ELIME-21)’, focused on creating professional development and
educational opportunities for information professionals interested in the library
and information services in or focused on the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA). As the fellows pursued our own research interests related to library
and information science (LIS) in this region, we felt that a new volume raising
awareness of the state of the field in the 21st century would be a valuable
addition to the English-language LIS literature. We proposed Library and
Information Science in the Middle East and North Africa as part of the IFLA/De
Gruyter ‘Global Studies in Libraries and Information’ series. The volume is
edited by the ELIME-21 fellows, and contains the work of 21 authors with
regional expertise.
We are delighted with the range and quality of the contributions in this
volume. These 13 chapters provide thorough investigations of key topics from
cataloging to information literacy to library cooperation, written by experts in the
field from the Middle East, North Africa, and North America. From individual
country case studies to research covering the whole region, this volume contributes
to a “big picture” understanding of LIS in the modern Middle East and North Africa.
Defining this region is a complex task, and the authors whose work is
included in Library and Information Science in the Middle East and North Africa
chose to do so in different ways. Some included all the members of the League
of Arab States: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Syria (although it
is currently suspended from the League). Other authors chose to include Turkey,
Iran and Afghanistan, or exclude sub-Saharan African countries. Some chapters
focus on a specific country or sub-region, such as the countries that make up
the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Several chapters offer in-depth regional overviews. Christof Galli covers
book publishing in the region, including issues of pricing, censorship,
distribution, and copyright. His chapter, “Publishing in the Middle East and
North Africa,” closes with a discussion of the fledgling Arabic e-book market.
“Education for Library and Information Science in the Arab States,” by Evelyn
XII  Amanda B. Click

Daniel, Lokman Meho, and Barbara Moran, provides in-depth information about
LIS education by sub-region. The authors note that remarkable growth has
taken place since LIS education became widespread in MENA fewer than fifty
years ago. The chapter includes historical detail and a comprehensive list of the
LIS programs that offer at least a bachelor’s degree. Jordan Scepanski and Yaşar
Tonta explore library collaboration, including consortia, associations, and other
institutions and organizations that promote library cooperation. Collecting data
via literature review, personal communications, and online questionnaires, the
authors were able to compile a directory of LIS consortia, associations, and
other organizations in MENA.
Other chapters use country case studies to explore the state of LIS in the
region, including topics such as information literacy, knowledge-based economies,
manuscript digitization, and open access. Editor Sumayya Ahmed tackles the
“crisis of reading” in Morocco, and describes several organizations and programs
designed to promote reading. She points out that reading in public is not a
common activity in Moroccan culture and these inspired initiatives strive to change
this perception, focusing on populations including children in rural areas and
urban commuters on public transportation. “Information Literacy in the Middle
East: A Case Study of the American University in Cairo and the American University
of Sharjah,” by Meggan Houlihan, Christine Furno, and Jayme Spencer, outlines
the development of information literacy programs at two respected American-style
universities in the Middle East. These programs might serve as models for other
regional universities wishing to implement or improve information literacy training
in their libraries. Daphne Flanagan and Frieda Wiebe’s “American-style Academic
Libraries in the Gulf Region” provides a detailed exploration of both branch
campuses of U.S. universities, and private universities accredited by U.S. agencies.
The chapter includes information about universities and libraries in Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, countries in which this education model
has become particularly popular. Patricia Wand’s chapter on information centers
and knowledge-based economies focuses on the Gulf countries as well. Following a
discussion of the foundations of knowledge-based economies, she makes the
connection to information centers and uses this framework to consider the current
situations in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates and Yemen. In “A Bird’s Eye View of Two Open Access Experiences in
Algeria: CERIST’s Webreview and Dépôt numérique de l’Université d’Alger I,”
Samir Hachani gives an overview of open access with an emphasis on issues in the
developing world. The chapter includes detailed information about two open
access initiatives in Algeria. Based on his own experiences and a survey of local
experts, Walid Ghali covers manuscript digitization projects in Egyptian libraries.
Introduction  XIII

The chapter discusses bibliographic and image databases, manuscript portals, and
specific projects at institutions like Al Azhar Mosque and Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
This volume contains original research on topics as varied as the overall
state of recent LIS research in MENA, and the use of digital technologies
by Emirati students. Josiah Drewry, Mahmoud Khalifa, and I conducted a
systematic review of the LIS literature to explore the research conducted about
MENA, and by authors affiliated with institutions in the region. The study
revealed interesting issues related to language, author collaboration, and the
effects of political and social upheaval on research. Anaïs Salamon surveyed
academic library professionals working in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Her chapter, “Academic Librarianship and Coercion: A Case Study in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories,” profiles Palestinian academic library staff and
explores the impact of the occupation on academic libraries and librarianship.
“Aligning Library Services to the Emerging Online Capability of Emirati
Students,” based on Janet Martin’s doctoral thesis research, looks at the extent
to which Emirati students use digital technologies and how skillful and
confident they are in the use of these technologies. Martin shares her findings
and outlines the implications for library services. Blake Robinson’s chapter
provides a thorough analysis of bias in the cataloging and classification of
Arabic and Islamic materials. He discusses Edward Said’s Orientalism and Sanford
Berman’s Prejudices and Antipathies, and offers Birger Hjørland’s theory of
domain analysis as a framework in which to address bias.
We hope that LIS educators and practitioners from an Arabic cataloger in
Toronto to a LIS professor in Tunis will find something of value in Library and
Information Science in the Middle East and North Africa, but this volume will also
provide new insights for anyone throughout the world who has an interest in
how this dynamic region is developing.
Christof Galli
1 Arab Book Publishing
Introduction
In a 1975 article in MELA Notes, David Partington, then Middle East librarian at
Harvard College, attempted to estimate the number of publications produced
in the Middle East (all the Arabic-speaking countries and Turkey, Iran, and
Afghanistan). In one of his tabulations (Partington, 1975, p. 17) he estimated
that an average of “about 30 percent of total Middle Eastern production is in
subjects outside of a liberal collecting policy. By liberal collecting policy I mean
most of the books in literature, linguistics, humanities, and the social science
works applicable to the native countries” (Partington, 1975, p. 15). He “regard[s
as] ‘non-collectable’ subjects: generalities, trade, transport, mathematics, natural
sciences, medical sciences, industries, agriculture, domestic science, commercial
techniques, games & sports” (p. 15).
Today, very few collection policies for academic libraries, especially not at a
tier – one research institution like Harvard, would systematically exclude materials
in these fields from their Middle East collections. Whereas area studies, during the
first two thirds of the twentieth century, became a way to support the “universali-
zation of the social sciences” by providing “concrete data to bear on generalization
and theory” (Mitchell, 2004, p. 85), paradigmatic shifts which occurred under the
influence of poststructuralist and postcolonial theoretical developments have
increasingly eroded these disciplinary strictures and limitations. The goal is a
reconfigured and “re-envisaged, cosmopolitan area studies that seeks to provincia-
lize universal western knowledge claims to become more inclusive of, as well
as relevant to, the concerns of people in the majority world” (Hörschelmann &
Stenning, 2008, p. 355). This approach has triggered increased demand for the
acquisition of a broader thematic palette of published materials from the Global
South, and consequently, the Arab Middle East, in order to document and make
accessible the cultural and scientific output of this region. The scope of this
endeavor clearly goes beyond the above-mentioned “liberal collecting policy” of
40 years ago to include publications covering the whole gamut of life experience
reflected in the published output. Hazen (2009) writes of today’s scholarship:

[c]ross-disciplinary inquiry, participatory learning, an obsession with primary resources


and original documentation in all formats, and hybrid methodologies are increasingly the
norm…. Newly minted centers, institutes, programs, and initiatives today provide homes
for interdisciplinary scholarship, even as traditional departments remain strong (pp. 5–6).
2  Christof Galli

Amid these trends, which apply closely to the field of Middle Eastern studies,
librarians will have to find ways, financial restrictions notwithstanding, to
acquire materials to build research-level collections of materials from markets
such as the Arabic publishing arena, which ranges from the Arabian Peninsula
to the western reaches of North Africa. To live up to the challenge of efficiently
capturing the materials to ‘feed’ the emerging methodological trends in scholar-
ship and teaching, we have to understand the workings of the regional book
publishing and distribution sector.
Previous studies have examined Arab publishing from the perspective of
libraries with the intent to determine at which level relevant materials of the
available output from the region was to be acquired. Hopwood (1972) and Par-
tington (1975) both found that production of “collectable” materials was increas-
ing and that budgets should be increased to acquire more comprehensively from
all countries in the Middle East. Hirsch (2007) notes the emergence of varying
levels of need for core collections which address immediate curricular and
instructional requirements on the one hand and for research collections which
are geared towards long-term, primary-source-oriented faculty- and graduate-
level research on the other hand.
Reflecting sustained scholarly and policy interest in the Middle East both
pre- and post-September 11, 2001, Arabic book holdings in U.S. libraries have
doubled between 1992 and 2007 (see Table 1.1). Even so, in 2007, the number of
books from Arab countries was about half of those from regions with compar-
able populations (200–600 million): about one eighth from Western Europe
(even excluding those from the United Kingdom); 40% of Eastern Europe; and
about half of Latin America. Arabic books slightly exceeded those from South-
east Asia and their number was about twice as high as the one for books from
Sub-Saharan Africa (Kurzman, 2014).

Tab. .: Number of records for books in Middle Eastern languages from OCLC/WorldCat,
– (Kurzman, ).

Year Arabic Hebrew Persian Turkish All Languages


Records Records Records Records Records

1992     ,


1993     ,
1994     ,
1995     ,
1996     ,
1997     ,
1998     ,
1 Arab Book Publishing  3

Tab. 1.1: (continued)

Year Arabic Hebrew Persian Turkish All Languages


Records Records Records Records Records

1999     ,


2000 ,    ,
2001 ,    ,
2002 ,    ,
2003 ,    ,
2004 ,    ,
2005 ,    ,
2006 ,    ,
2007 ,    ,

This chapter proposes to provide a snapshot of book publishing in the Arab


world at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, which for the
purpose of this study includes Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia (KSA), Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar,
Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen. The goal of this chapter
is to provide academic librarians with an understanding of the industry, its chal-
lenges and emerging trends. The chapter begins with descriptions of the number
and types of books published, and then describes the particular challenges in
the areas of distribution, pricing, censorship and copyright that negatively affect
book publishing. It ends with a brief description of nascent Arabic e-publishing
initiatives.
The Arabic language, one the United Nations six official languages (United
Nations, 2015), constitutes a powerful unifying force which has produced a
measure of cultural cohesion in an otherwise geographically and politically frac-
tured region. In fact, in the region’s sociopolitical quest to define and build
national and state identities, Arabic has formed an important “cornerstone”
(Suleiman, 2006, p. 125) and has been championed as a “bond of identity, over
religion” by sociopolitical movements and activists (p. 126). With its over 300
million speakers,¹ the Arabic speaking demographic seems to harbor formidable
potential for both producing and consuming cultural output in considerable
quantities. Increasingly, users of online social media services in the Arab region,
such as Twitter and Facebook, use Arabic as their language of choice. The number

1 Lewis et al. (2014) give a total of 273 million speakers. Internet World Stats (2014) gives
379 million.
4  Christof Galli

of tweets in Arabic and originating in the Arab world increased from 62.1% in 2012
to 75% in 2014 in the Arab region, and postings on Facebook and the use its
Arabic interface is on the rise (Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government
[MBRSG] 2012, 2014a). Arabic, then, continues to function as a major world lan-
guage, and the Arab book markets with their base in more than 300 million speak-
ers has enormous potential for both print and digital publications.

Reading
Awareness of socio-economic and educational indicators and behaviors help in
determining the parameters of the market which librarians have to probe in
order to cover the areas and subjects in which relevant societal discourses take
place, thereby allowing for successful documentation of cultural and scientific
output of Arab societies. Furthermore, reader behavior and attitudes are of inter-
est to publishers and help them shape their programming and marketing strate-
gies. Two such indicators are literacy, and, closely related, reading behavior.
Low literacy rates have been a scourge in the region for many years and progress
in remediating the situation has been difficult. At the beginning of the 21st
century, there were “over 70 million illiterates out of a population of 280 million”
in the Arab region, and this is the situation even after a concerted effort which
reduced illiteracy from 48.7% in 1990 to 38.5% in 2000 (UNESCO-Beirut, 2003,
p. 12). For 2015, UNESCO projects a 79.2% combined male/female literacy rate for
the Arab States, leaving an illiterate adult population (15 years+) of 47.6 million,
66.8% of which are female (UNESCO, 2013, pp. 27–28).
The reading habits of literate populations have only been studied scantily
(see Table 1.2). The unprovable claim (Caldwell, 2012) that Arabs read “6 minutes
a year,” spread by, among others, the Arab Thought Foundation (Arab Thought
Foundation, 2011, p. 500) is hardly a ‘real’ measure for the reading habits of a
300-million-people public. A recent survey by the NextPage Foundation presents
a more detailed and richer (but not an entirely reliable or clear) picture of the
reading public in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Morocco (NextPage,
2007a) and Algeria, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria (NextPage, 2007b). Both surveys
focus on literate adults aged 15–65 in a variety of socio-economic groups. The
survey has found that, with the exception of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, a larger
share than expected of literate people do not read (Harabi, 2007, p. 14). In addi-
tion, any readers read for only an hour a day or less, reading is limited to school
without aiming to turn pupils into life-long readers, and once they complete
school, adults stop reading at age 19 or earlier and often do not read significantly
again (Harabi, 2007, p. 14).
1 Arab Book Publishing  5

The findings indicate that solid portions of surveyed readers read books,
albeit to a lesser degree than newspapers and magazines which serve as source
for information on current events, politics, and news (NextPage, 2007a, 2007b).
The preferred reading language is Arabic for books and serials. Saudi and Egyp-
tian readers indicated that they equally liked Arabic for reading books and
reading online; Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian readers indicated their pre-
ference for French when reading online whereas Lebanese readers preferred
English for online reading. English is the second most read language in Syria,
Jordan and Palestine, an activity mostly undertaken with the goal of improving
language competency. Readers in Lebanon, Tunisia, and Morocco indicated a
higher incidence of reading French books than other countries. The majority of
book-readers are interested in (Islamic) devotional literature (Qur’an, tafsir,
sirah, etc.), but also in literature. Responses indicate that a majority of readers
who bought books during the 12 months preceding the survey did not purchase
translated titles. Surprisingly, a relatively small portion of surveyed readers
attend book fairs. One cannot help but note the rather narrow spectrum of
reading preferences mentioned by survey participants. One commentator of the
survey attributes this paucity of topics to a poor variety in the supply of titles
from other Arab countries caused by lack of trade in publishing rights between
Arab publishers, high tariffs, and distribution problems (Habeeb n.d.). A second
commentator notes the same narrow range of interests and similarly attributes
it, on the one hand, to insufficient variety in the supply and marketing strategies
of Arab publishers, but also, on the other hand, to lack in broad-based literacy
(Wile n.d., p. 16).

Tab. .: Reading habits of Arab publics (NextPage, a, b).

Read During Newspapers/ Books Attended % Readers who


Past Year Magazines Book Fair bought book(s), but
(% Readers) not translation(s)

Algeria % % % % %


Egypt % % % % %
Jordan % % % % %
Lebanon % % % % %
Morocco % % % % %
Palestine % % % % %
Saudi Arabia % % % % %
Syria % % % % %
Tunisia % % % % %
6  Christof Galli

Challenges to Statistical Assessments


of Arabic Book Publishing
There are currently no unified reporting mechanisms which would allow the sys-
tematic tracking of the production of books, and Arab publishing as a whole has
been notoriously under-studied and under-documented. Although some local/
national markets have been examined more closely and more extensively than
others, consistent historical and current statistical documentation and analysis
for all the countries or the region are not available. Overall, Arab publishing
remains hard to assess and quantify. There are no reliable mechanisms to gather
figures which could be used to describe the Arab publishing. Available disparate
sources often provide unreliable and contradictory information. It has long been
known that the Arab publishing arena and its target markets are fragmented
along national borders (Abou Zeid, 2014). Despite a unified language there is no
system to create a regional catalog of materials in print. Recent studies derived
figures for the number of books accessible in one online bookseller’s catalog
(Abou Zeid, 2013; Wischenbart & Jarrous, 2012a). This catalog with about 400,000
entries in 2012 is estimated to represent about 80% of all available Arabic titles
published in the region, and covering the production of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan,
Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, but excluding Arabic publications from the Maghreb,
Mauretania, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen (Wischenbart & Jarrous, 2012b). Recent new
additions to this catalog are estimated to break down as follows:
– 2011: 18,000 new titles, including 2700 translations into Arabic
– 2012: 17,000 new titles, including 2,400 translations into Arabic
– 2013: (till August): 9,700 new titles, among which 1,150 in translation
(Abou-Zeid, 2013, p. 2)

No single source validates these figures independently. The ISBN system might
constitute one way of gathering more precise publishing statistics. The legal
deposit registries in several countries are another possible source of information.
Unfortunately, the implementation of and adherence to the ISBN numbering
system varies widely from country to country. Although acquiring ISBN numbers
is free in most Arab countries, the limited scope for distribution and high shares
of direct sales cause many publishers to see ISBNs as superfluous because they
do not produce any significant advantage for the publisher. The absence of an
ISBN, which would help with large-scale categorization and market assessment,
also makes cross-border book distribution difficult. Furthermore, the lack of sys-
tematic ISBN numbering impedes the creation of a unified, functioning book dis-
tribution system (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, pp. 196–197). Some publishers shun
1 Arab Book Publishing  7

ISBNs because they fear that increased market transparency could “facilitate the
control of official entities over the flow of books and the publishing business in
the Arab world” (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 197). Especially in countries with
strict censorship regimes, ISBN numbers are often only issued after the books
have been scrutinized and approved (Al Qasimi, 2011, p. 339). Some local book
distributors have developed their own, often competing and incoherent, coding
systems, but overall these attempts have created additional complications and
cannot serve as a trusted basis for the intra- and inter-country trade of Arabic
books (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 197) or the creation of a supra-national or
regional book tracking system.

National Depositories
Several countries in the region have legal deposit regulations which could serve
as a source for data on publishing in the respective country. While only a small
number of countries have consistently collected deposited materials and pub-
lished the bibliographies, they do provide a source of reliable statistical informa-
tion for parts of the Arab World. Tab. 1.3 summarizes figures which were obtained
directly from the countries’ culture ministries’ agencies which monitor publishing
or oversee the legal deposit organizations.

Tab. .: National book production, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, –.²

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Egypt , , , , ,


Jordan , , , , ,
Lebanon , , , , ,
Syria   ,  ,
U.A.E.³ n/a n/a n/a  

Three North African countries, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco have legal deposit
regulations (Lajeunesse & Sène, 2004). Morocco and Tunisia have published
their national bibliographies consistently and have made them accessible, albeit
in different form and to a different extent, on the Web portals of their national

2 Figures collected by Salah Chebaro, CEO of neelwafurat, obtained from Dr. Ruediger Wischen-
bart in personal communication, 9 September 2014
3 U.A.E. numbers (Wischenbart, 2012a)
8  Christof Galli

libraries. Morocco’s national bibliography is available in searchable form back


to 2007; Tunisia’s is available back to 1984 in PDF format, with each issue con-
taining summary tables for Arabic materials and materials in other languages.
The figures in Tab. 1.4 below have been extracted from two online sources from
the Moroccan National Library and the Tunisian National Library respectively.⁴,⁵
Recent figures for Algeria, the third North African country with a legal deposit
law, were only available for January to March and May to June of 2011.⁶

Tab. .: National book production, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, – (DKWT ,
a, f, ; Algerian National Library, N.D.; BNRM ).

2010 2011 2012

Algeria–Arabic – , –
Algeria–Other –  –
Morocco–Arabic  , ,
Morocco–Other   
Tunisia–Arabic ,  
Tunisia–Other   

The Subject Profiles of Arabic Book Publishing


It is hard to assess what subject categories dominate in the overall Arab publish-
ing arena (see Table 1.6 for the number of publishers in selected countries).
National bibliographies often offer a rough subject breakdown. Tunisia’s summary
tables break down the legal deposit statistics by top-level Dewey classes and also
indicate the number of school and children’s books. Tab. 1.5 shows these groups
as percentages of the annual totals.

4 Morocco ; searches were conducted in the Bibliographie nationale segment of the database
using ‘year-of-publication’ AND Fascicule=tout AND Langue (‘Arabe’ and combined ‘Français/
Anglais/Espagnol’): http://opac.bnrm.ma:8000/cgi-bin/gw_2011_1_4_4/chameleon?sessionid=
2014090800350518409&skin=bnrm&lng=fr&inst=consortium&function=EXTERNAL_CONTENT&
externalurl=http%3a%2f%2fopac.bnrm.ma%3a8000%2fgw_2011_1_4_4%2fhtml%2fbnrm%2ffr%
2fsearch_screens%2fsearch_screen_bibliography_form.html
5 Tunisia: http://www.bibliotheque.nat.tn/channels/espace-professionnel/bibliographie-natio-
nale/27/0.html ; individual files for annual national bibliography compilations contain summary
tables.
6 Algeria: http://www.biblionat.dz/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=143:
2011-03-01-18-47-48&Itemid=126
1 Arab Book Publishing  9

Tab. .: Percentages of Dewey subject classes of legal deposit totals in Tunisia, –
(DKWT , a, f, ).

1992–2003⁷ 2010 2011 2012

All Arabic Other Arabic Other Arabic Other

Children’s Books n/a .% .% .% .% .% .%


School books n/a .% .% .% .% .% .%
Generalities % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Philosophy/Psychology % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Religion % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Social Sciences % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Languages – .% .% .% .% .% .%
Natural Sciences/Maths % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Applied Sciences % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Arts % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Literature % .% .% .% .% .% .%
Geography, History % .% .% .% .% .% .%

Studies have shown that, throughout the Arab world, religious books constitute
17% of all books published in Arab countries, compared to about 5% worldwide.
This has been attributed to subsidies from mosques and pious foundations that
may promote their production and make them more affordable for low-income
readers (Schwartz et al. 2009, p. 8).
The second-highest sellers are novels, with original titles selling better than
translations. Third-best are children’s books with educational, non-fiction content.
Lebanese children’s books sell well in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, but
not in North Africa where, at an average price of $4 per copy, children’s books are
too expensive for most residents. Largest sales are to educational institutions
(e.g., schools, ministries), and original publications are preferred over transla-
tions. Cookbooks and original astrology sell well also. Numbers for translated self-
help books are on the rise (Abou-Zeid, 2014, pp. 100–101).

Translations
The dearth of statistics makes it difficult to provide a clear picture of the current
state of Arabic translation activities in the Arab world. However, the statistics

7 Source: http://book-fair.com/pdf/buchmesse/buchmarkt_tunesien_e.pdf ; Languages counted


in Literature.
10  Christof Galli

which exist indicate that Arabic translations of foreign language books consti-
tute a small portion of the publishing output in the region. A 2007 mostly attitudi-
nal survey of publishers and translators in five Arab countries (Egypt, Lebanon,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria) examined the production of, and demand for,
translations in the countries in the survey as well as the industries and corporate
and public strategies and policies related to translation activities (Harabi, 2007,
p. 6). A lack of qualified translators in four of the surveyed countries is one main
reason for a sparse output of translations. Of the five countries, only Lebanon has
institutions of higher learning which offer translation degrees, among them
St. Joseph University and the Lebanese University which have separate schools for
translation studies (Harabi, 2007, p. 52). Morocco is home to the École Supérieure
Roi Fahd de Traduction in Tangier which offers complete translation training.
In addition, some professional associations have started to address the formation
of specialized translators (Harabi, 2007, 75, p. 84). On the other hand, Morocco
lacks up-to-date publishing equipment, and public financial support and private
funding are sparse (Harabi, 2009, p. 210). In Egypt, there is no scarcity of transla-
tors, but there is a significant lack of quality and absence of specialization (Harabi,
2007, pp. 29–30). Deterioration of Egypt’s system of higher and professional educa-
tion has led to a situation where the profession of translator has become “a job
without clear criteria” (Harabi, 2007, p. 32). Translations produced in Lebanon are
generally considered as being of superior quality (Harabi, 2007, p. 42).
In most countries, private publishers decide what translations get marketed.
The weak state of the Arabic translation industry is also attributed to weak
domestic demand in all the surveyed countries except Saudi Arabia (Harabi,
2009, p. 211). In Saudi Arabia, many institutions of the public sector as well as
financial, commercial and health-related entities produce documentation in
English but need to translate it into Arabic to be able to maintain effective com-
munication with the public. Since the language of instruction in Saudi universi-
ties for the natural sciences, medicine, and engineering is English, these sub-
jects need very little Arabic translation. Subjects like accounting, economics, law,
and agriculture are taught in Arabic and thus require more Arabic translation
(Harabi, 2007, p. 103). In Lebanon, the government does not have a program to
foster or promote the translation of foreign works. In several countries, cultural
centers of foreign countries fund translations of works by authors from their coun-
tries. In Lebanon, for instance, the French Cultural Center promotes translations
as part of its Programme d’Aide à la Publication (PAP) (Harabi, 2007, p. 48). In
Morocco, French, German, and American and other cultural centers promote and
sponsor novels and other books from their respective countries for translation into
Arabic, a practice, which according to experts interviewed for the survey, might
be considered a “form of post-colonialism” [sic] as the decision about what to
1 Arab Book Publishing  11

publish is not sufficiently democratic (Harabi, 2007, p. 81). The French Cultural
Center also subsidizes 6–7 translations per year in Syria (Harabi, 2007, p. 148),
empirically selecting titles designated by local publishers and educational institu-
tions⁸ (Harabi, 2007, p. 154). In Morocco, the decision about what to translate is
often taken by researchers and authors (Harabi, 2007, p. 81). It is noteworthy
that in Morocco, during the period for which the researchers gathered data
(1980–2002), about one third of all translations are of works written by authors of
Moroccan origin. This is attributed to the fact that many Moroccan writers writing
in French live in France and, if successful, target the readership in their country of
origin with an Arabic translation (Harabi, 2007, p. 77). In Saudi Arabia, commer-
cial publishers as well as public institutions and non-profits produce translations.
The publishing of Arabic translations in Saudi Arabia is highly concentrated
among private publishers (Obeikan Bookshop, Mars Publishing House, Jarir, and
Knowledge for Humanities Development) with 600 books between 1992–2004;
and two public sector publishers, King Saud University and the Institute of Public
Administration with 157 books during the same period (Harabi, 2007, p. 124).
Whereas Arabic translation activities are often geared towards the domestic market,
publishers in Egypt or Lebanon especially target foreign markets, particularly the
Gulf economies. In all countries, the highest share of translations occurs in subjects
like history, politics, and religion (Islam). Only in Morocco does the highest number
(about 25%) of translations falls to literary works (Harabi, 2007, p. 78).
In Lebanon, publishers usually acquire world Arabic rights for a title together
with the digital rights. Royalties for translated titles are between 5–8% of the local
retail price (children’s books 5%–6%). The seller of the rights obtains the royalties
of the first print run as an advance. E-book rights for the translation are 25% of the
retail price (Abou-Zeid, 2014, p. 102).

Scientific Publishing
The establishment of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, Education City in Qatar with campuses of several major
US universities, and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Initiative have changed the context for
science research in the Arab Middle East. A research report by Thomson Reuters
(Adams et al. 2011) studies a group of countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE,

8 Since this survey was conducted before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, this practice may
no longer be applied today. Ay data cited here about Syria may just serve historical purposes.
12  Christof Galli

and Yemen. These countries increased their scientific publication output from less
than 2% to more than 4% of the Thomson Reuters-indexed output between 2000
and 2009. Total world output indexed in the same source increased from 760,000
to 1.16m publications in the same period. During this period the output of the
Middle Eastern group was growing faster than the one of the Asia-Pacific group. A
more recent tally which examined the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
shows that Qatar has increased its output from 41 articles in 2000 to 576 in 2012
(The Royal Society, 2014). By comparison, Iran published 1,343 articles in 2000
and 23,885 in 2012; Turkey netted 24,562 publications in 2012. In comparison,
global output indexed by Thomson Reuters increased from 931,000 in 2000 to
1.27 million. Within the OIC, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and
Pakistan account for 77% of articles published in this group.
If we compare the impact of the region’s publications in all fields as mea-
sured by Thomson Reuters’ calculations⁹ we find that none of them reaches
parity with what would be considered the global top 1% for 2000–2009: Iran
reaches .48%, Turkey .37%, Jordan .28%, Egypt .26% and Saudi Arabia .25%. Only
in the field of mathematics do Iran (1.7%), Saudi Arabia (1.5%), Jordan (1.5%), and
Egypt (1%) reach or surpass this threshold. In engineering, Turkey (1.5%) and Iran
(1.3%) produced significantly cited output. The recent Royal Society study indi-
cates that in 2012, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia had impact factors of 1.05% and
.95% respectively, thus leading the way in OIC before Indonesia with .91% but
below the world average of 1.23% (The Royal Society, 2014). Lebanon’s score may
be reflective of the fact that smaller countries engage in more internationally colla-
borative research ventures whose output gets cited more frequently.

Distribution
Most titles are produced in print runs of 1,000–3,000 copies (Abou-Zeid, 2013,
p. 2). In Jordan, publishers release between 10–20 titles per year with runs of
1,000 copies. About 3,000 new trade titles are released in Lebanon every year
with print runs of 1,000–3,000 copies, rarely 5,000 for some expected best-
sellers. In the Lebanese book industry, local sales represent only 10% of the
total production. Lebanon and Egypt produce together about 80% of the total of
Arabic books published annually in the Arab world.

9 Publications which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication are
considered ‘highly cited’ (Adams et al. 2011)
1 Arab Book Publishing  13

Tab. .: Number of publishers in selected Arab countries,  (Ittihad al-Nashirin al-Arab, ).

Government Commercial Total

Egypt   


Iraq   
Jordan   
Kuwait   
Lebanon   
Libya   
Mauritania   
Palestine (Gaza Strip)   
Tunisia   
Saudi Arabia   
Syria   

Small print runs are the result of one of the Arab publishing arena’s greatest
challenges: the lack of a uniform book distribution system. A 2005 study ana-
lyzed the reach and size of 150 print titles on various topics by well-known and
little known authors in the Egyptian book market. This study found that the top
10% of the titles got distributed widely and could be located at most points-of-
sale; the bottom 10% of the titles could not be located anywhere in the market;
the remaining 80% were only available within a 5 kilometer radius of the pub-
lisher’s domicile or the author’s home (Al Qasimi, 2011).
International book distribution in the Arab Middle East takes place in a
highly fractured commercial environment, and has none of the advantages of a
unified market. Different tax codes in each country, varying shipping methods,
and widely differing demand in the regions of this wide-ranging market make it
impossible to develop an infrastructure which would allow for the effective dif-
fusion of books through one distributor. Rather, there are publishers and distri-
butors operating in every national market. Publishers who sell their books in
several countries have to employ individual distributors in every market. This
lack of distribution infrastructure also has disadvantageous effects for authors
who publish their books in their own country. These books often do not reach
other markets. (Schwartz et al. 2009, pp. 11–15). This continuing lack of an effec-
tive distribution system is seen as a result of the poor performance of the Arab
book market. Since book prices remain low, they are offered with little “retailing
finesse” and often arrive in poor condition. Due to low prices, authors’ incomes
are low and publishers’ profit margin is slim. Low prices also reflect limited
buying power. Publishers have little room for capturing margins and re-investing
in retailing value added. As a result, book industry participants tend to use short-
cuts where possible to save transaction costs. Publishers form mutual agreements
14  Christof Galli

for distribution of their titles, taking over, in many cases, assortments from part-
nering publishers. Small retailers buy directly from publishers or authors from
whom they can obtain better discounts (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 196).
Drawing a distinction between publishers, distributors and retailers becomes
impossible. The only publishers with strong export connections to other countries
in the region are from the Levant, with those from Lebanon in the lead, followed
by those from Syria and Jordan (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 199).
Distribution to end-users is equally problematic. Largely limited to urban
areas, bookstores are scarce and unevenly distributed in the Arab world. There
is no “reasonable relationship between the degree of urbanization and rural
book sales: Even in countries where large portions of the population still live
outside big cities, the availability of books is limited to metro areas” (Eschweiler
& Goehler, 2010, p. 197). Although telecommunications infrastructures in many
Arab countries are equipped for online retailing, book sales over the Internet are
very low. Credit cards are not widely available and the public’s resistance to
e-commerce hinder significant developments of online distribution. Neelwafurat,
one of the leading e-commerce bookshops, handles only about 6,000 orders per
year which do not add up to a critical mass (Escheweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 200).
Bookstores in urban areas can be divided into three main categories:
– International retail chains (e.g. Virgin, W.H. Smith): Type I
– National chain store (e.g. Jarir, Mutanabbi): Type II
– Small, family-owned bookstores: Type III (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 198)

In Type I stores, books are only one of many types of products sold as part of
a whole spectrum of entertainment products. Many books for sale in chain
stores are in English. A limited assortment of Arabic books in the categories of
self-help, political literature, fiction, and children’s books are also available.
The market-leader Type II bookstore, Jarir in Saudi Arabia, evolved from a
stand-alone store to a chain with multiple sales outlets. Jarir also publishes its
own titles and, if successful, exports them. However, other Type II bookstores,
according to a recent study, often carry relative high debt (Eschweiler & Goehler,
2010, p. 198). Type III, family-owned and operated bookstores, typically suffer
most from inadequate book distribution because they end up with large stocks of
unsold books and cannot get access to new and trendy issues in a timely manner
because distribution channels are non-existent (Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010,
p. 198). The only market with a relatively satisfactory bookstore network is
Lebanon. One study finds 40 point-of-sales in Lebanon which specialize in
books or cultural goods and about 100 point-of-sales with a separate book
department. A second study counts 321, however this figure includes stores
which, besides books, also sell stationary, electronics, etc. (Abou-Zeid, 2014,
1 Arab Book Publishing  15

p. 96). In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Bahrain has five book-
stores, Saudi Arabia about 100 small point-of-sales and three chain stores, Kuwait
seven bookshops, Oman three, Qatar five, and UAE about 60 small units and 3
chain stores (Abou-Zeid, 2013). Many of these stores also offer foreign-language
books, often in much larger numbers than Arabic books (Abou-Zeid, 2013).
Confronted with a fractured regional legal environment, the absence of a “pan-
Arab distribution infrastructure,” and insufficient retail outlets, publishers are
hard-pressed to identify different distribution channels in every national market if
they want to sell their books outside their home country. Book fairs have proved to
be the only efficient way to distribute and market books in the Arab world (Eschwei-
ler & Goehler, 2010, p. 197). The fairs constitute a market place where publishers
can meet local booksellers, collect their orders, and, in addition, directly sell their
books to schools, libraries, and the public. For individual buyers, book fairs repre-
sent the most efficient way to buy books in the absence of bookshops in their local
settings. In addition, publishers may offer a broader set of titles because books can
reach the fairs without passing through the hands of the censor (e.g., in the GCC).

Pricing
Book prices in all Arab markets are below the average for more developed markets
(see Table 1.7 for selected pricing ranges). Publishers will multiply their production
costs by 6 or 7 to determine the selling price. Books in more developed markets sell
at 8–10 times the production costs (Abou-Zeid, 2013). Market studies attribute low
Arab book prices to three factors:
– Low-interest commodity status: “Due to inefficient and high-cost distribu-
tion structures books are doomed to become low-interest items,” often
delivered in “poor product condition” and “with little retailing finesse”
(Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 195). Prices are 60%–70% lower than in
more developed economies where the average price is estimated at $17
(Eschweiler & Goehler, 2010, p. 195).
– Low purchasing power: Low prices also reflect low purchasing power;
higher-priced books would exceed affordability in even larger segments of
the regional population.
– Piracy: Piracy affects book prices because if book prices are too high, pirat-
ing becomes more likely.

Low prices and attempts to keep production costs low lead to economize on
editorial expenses. Arab publishers in general cannot afford the salaries for
qualified book editors and traditionally have not reviewed submitted texts to
16  Christof Galli

improve or correct them. Publishers see themselves as intermediaries between


authors and printers, an attitude which impinges on the quality of literary pro-
duction and potentially on the sale of foreign rights (Abou-Zeid, 2013).
Hard covers are uncommon in general literature, and various paperback
formats are the rule. The exceptions are religious books which are often hard-
bound and frequently leather-bound. Other hard-bound categories include
children’s picture books, dictionaries, cookbooks, and coffee-table books.

Tab. .: Book pricing ranges, selected categories (Abou-Zeid, , p. ).

Type Price

Fiction (over 200 pp) $–


Fiction (under 200 pp) $–
Nonfiction $–
Cookbooks (small) $–
Cookbooks (large paperbacks or hardcover) $–
Children’s books (hardcover) $–
Children’s books (paperback) $–
E-books –% of printed price

Censorship
Censorship is exercised for moral, religious and political reasons throughout the
Arab World. Arab censors can impact the trajectory of a publication at its origin
by impeding its printing, by banning it and preventing its distribution, or by
blocking it from entering a country. In many countries, books have to be sub-
mitted to the censorship authority before they are printed (Abou-Zeid, 2013).
Sexual impropriety is a frequent reason for banning a book. In the case of Salwa
Nu’aymi’s Burhan al-asal,¹⁰ an advance review in the press caused it to be
banned from several Middle Eastern book fairs without the censors having seen
it (Schwartz et al. 2009, p. 4). Religious authorities, such as al-Azhar in Egypt,
sometimes recommends books to be banned (Schwartz et al. 2009, p. 4). Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait implement strict censorship regimes, and on various occa-
sions have banned significant portions of publishers’ output from being exhib-
ited at the Riyadh and Kuwait book fairs (Schwartz et al. 2009, p. 5).

10 The narrator of the novel (translated into English as The Proof of the Honey) interweaves folk-
tales, personal memories, and stories from friends into an exploration of female sexuality,
desire, and love in the context of Arab culture and society.
1 Arab Book Publishing  17

Coping with censorship can take three forms: the publisher accepts that a
work is banned in certain markets; the publishers attempt to modify sensitive
details in the book; or the publisher rejects publication of the work outright.
Lebanese publishers tend to take the risk of censorship with works of famous
authors, knowing that if the book is banned in one market it will sell more copies
in another. With less-known or new authors, and with common titles, they might
suggest modifications but give the author the final say. Lebanese publishers
also cannot ignore the strict censorship regimes imposed in their major markets,
especially in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries. The existence of different
censorship regulations forces Lebanese publishers to heed a variety of criteria
if they want to introduce their publications in other Arab countries. Further com-
plicating this issue is the fact that censorship criteria are rarely clearly set. A
special case is children’s literature. With its 28 million people, Saudi Arabia
represents one of the most important markets for this genre. To avoid losing this
market, publishers exclude from their publications any content that could lead to
a ban in Saudi Arabia, even if the content is allowed or relevant in Lebanon
(Abou-Zeid 2013).
Lebanese publishers do not submit to censorship review before publishing,
but printed books with sensitive political content that is perceived to potentially
raise sectarian tensions may subsequently be banned.

Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights


Tab. .: Membership of Arab States in international copyright treaties (adapted from Houissa,
)

Arab Berne UCC Geneva Rome WTO/TRIPS WIPO


Convention Convention

Algeria Signed April ,  August , April , Observer –
 
Bahrain Signed March ,  – January , January , December ,
  
Egypt – June ,  – – June , –

Iraq Signed n/a – – Observer –
Jordan Signed July ,  – – April , April ,
 
Kuwait Signed December , – – January , –
 

(continued)
18  Christof Galli

Tab. 1.8: (continued)

Arab Berne UCC Geneva Rome WTO/TRIPS WIPO


Convention Convention

Lebanon – September , October , August , Observer –


  
Libya Signed September , – – Observer –

Morocco Signed June ,  May ,  – January , July , 

Oman Signed July ,  – – November , September ,
 
Qatar Signed July ,  – – January , October ,
 
Saudi Signed March , July ,  – December –
Arabia  , 
Syria Signed June ,  – May , Observer –

Tunisia Signed December , June , – March , –
  
United Signed July ,  – January , April , July , 
Arab  
Emirates
Yemen – July ,  – – June ,  –

Most Arab countries have signed the Arab Convention for the Protection of
Copyright, which was ratified by the conference of Arab Ministers of Cultural
Affairs in Baghdad in 1981. The Convention’s goal was to create a “unified Arab
system of copyright protection” (Houissa, 2014, p. 295). Granting a general copy-
right protection over the duration of the author’s life plus 50 years after the
author’s death, the Arab Convention contains commonly stipulated principles
and rules found in international treaties, but leaves three major determinants
to the member states’ national laws:
– The copyright registration rules;
– the criminal penalties for infringement; and
– the protection of the rights of national authors against infringement in their
own countries.

Many Arab states have a viable legal framework in place to effectively prosecute
copyright infringement (for a detailed listing of national copyright legislation,
see Houissa, 2014, p. 305), a fact borne out by an increasing number of cases
and precedents (Houissa, 2014, p. 297). See Table 1.8 for summary of copyright
legislation in Arab countries.
1 Arab Book Publishing  19

Most Arab states have become parties of the Berne Convention for the Pro-
tection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Convention). In addition, many
countries in the region have joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and
consequently are under obligation to shape their copyright laws such that they
conform to international standards (Harabi, 2009, p. 213). Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which introduced intellectual property
rights into the international trading system in 1994, integrates all aspects of the
Berne Convention and adds enforcement mechanisms through trade sanctions
if national laws fail to address intellectual property and copyright protection
adequately or if they vary too much from the minimum standards laid down by
the Berne Convention and TRIPS (Kevin Smith, email to author, 12 September
2014).¹¹ The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) was developed by UNESCO
in 1952 (revised 1971, effective 1974) as an alternative to the Berne Convention.
The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phono-
grams and Broadcasting Organizations (effective 1961) aims to protect works
produced with new audiovisual technologies. Lastly, the World Intellectual
Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO) (adopted 1996, effective 2002)
provides additional protections for works involving information technologies
such as computer code, databases, etc. (Houissa, 2014, pp. 295–296).
Despite this evolving judicial framework, piracy remains an endemic problem
affecting the viability and development of the Arab book publishing sector.
Although the loss of revenue because of piracy is not clearly and systematically
documented, existing estimates indicate that it is significant. Smith (1996, p. 566)
puts the loss to the book publishing industry in the Middle East and the Mediter-
ranean (including Turkey) at $65.7 million. The International Intellectual Property
Alliance (IIPA) has compiled estimates of losses caused by piracy. For 2007,
Egypt reported an estimated loss of $32 million due to book piracy, Lebanon’s
estimate for 2005 was $4 million, and KSA’s loss for the same year was put at $10
million (The International Intellectual Property Alliance, 2014).
Piracy harms publishers twofold: Firstly, when books are pirated in a differ-
ent regional market as a result of the absence of a functioning international
distribution system. A network of pirated publications and academic texts,
which brings these items into other markets in the Arab world, profits from the
absence of legal distribution channels. Secondly, local publishers suffer when
foreign publishers with whom they enter into partnerships regard the region,
because of excessive piracy, with mistrust and consequently impose harsh con-

11 The author would like to thank Kevin Smith, J.D., Scholarly Communications Officer at Duke
University Libraries, for his clarifications.
20  Christof Galli

ditions on local partners (Abou-Zeid, 2014, p. 98). Often, piracy not only affects
the external markets. Pirated works are also present in the original markets. This
occurs frequently in Egypt and may reflect the public’s low purchasing power.

Arabic e-Publishing
Driven by an impressive demographic and a rapidly evolving communication
infrastructure, Arab e-publishing is perceived as an emerging economic oppor-
tunity. Kulesz (2011b) points out that:

In the Arab World digital publishing is highly incipient. The Arabic language represents a very
powerful cohesive force, which may give rise to electronic platforms with transnational reach,
but which at the same time […] involves numerous challenges. Of course, none of these chal-
lenges is unsurmountable; in fact, the proliferation of blogs and the eagerness of digital
content demonstrated by a section of the population indicate the potential that exists (p. 58).

Organizations like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and


market research firms have been watching the development of the necessary
infrastructure to deliver e-commerce services in the Arab region. In a regional
analysis of the ITC Development Index (IDI),¹² the Arab States rank fifth out of
six world regions, with an average IDI value of 4.55 (Tab. 1.9). They fall below
the world average of 4.77, as do Asia/Pacific (4.57) and Africa (2.31). Other
regions are above the world average (Europe 7.14; CIS Region 5.33; Americas
4.86) (International Telecommunications Union [ITU] 2014, p. 84).

Tab. .: Arab states’ IDI rankings and values,  (ITU, , p. ).

Regional Rank 2013 Global Rank 2013 IDI 2013

Bahrain   .
UAE   .
Qatar   .
Saudi Arabia   .
Oman   .
Lebanon   .

12 The Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Development Index (IDI) is designed to
create a globally valid measure for “the level and evolution over time of ICT developments in countries
and relative to other countries” as well as the digital divide between countries with different levels of
ICT development (ITU, 2013, p. 17). It is composed of three sub-indexes, the access sub-index, the use
sub-index (both weighted at 40%) and the skills index (weighted at 20%) (ITU, 2013, p. 21).
1 Arab Book Publishing  21

Tab. 1.9: (continued)

Regional Rank 2013 Global Rank 2013 IDI 2013

Jordan   .
Egypt   .
Morocco   .
Tunisia   .
Palestine   .
Syria   .
Algeria   .
Sudan   .
Yemen   .
Djibouti   .
Mauritania   .

The intra-regional ranking of Arab states reflects the income disparities in the
region. The top-ranking country of the 166 countries for which the IDI has been
calculated is Denmark with an IDI value, in 2013, of 8.86, closely followed by
the Republic of Korea with 8.85 (ITU, 2014, p. 42). In the country rankings of the
Arab countries, Bahrain is at the top with an IDI of 7.4 (see Tab. 1.9), followed
by UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman, all oil-rich, high-income economies,
and UAE (+14 ranks), Qatar (+8 ranks) and Oman (+9 ranks) recorded the largest
improvements in global rankings (ITU, 2014, p. 88).
The ITU states that “affordability remains the main barrier to Internet access
at home in many developing countries” (ITU, 2014, p. 107) Both fixed and mobile
broadband services are essential for delivering access to today’s information offer-
ings. Fixed broadband remains a critical service for high-capacity, high-speed,
reliable Internet access. Only 3% of global IP traffic was on mobile networks at
the end of 2013 (ITU, 2014, p. 114). Prices of fixed-broadband plans fell from an
average of 94.5% of gross national income per capita (GNI p. c.) in 2008 to 18.2%
of GNI p.c. in 2013. In the Arab States region, the average price for entry-level fixed
broadband amounts to 4.1% of GNI p.c., compared to 1.4% in Europe and 135.8%
in Africa (ITU, 2014, pp. 114–116). The differences inside the region are wide,
however, with the GCC countries and Tunisia (1.68% of GNI p.c.) having the most
affordable fixed-broadband prices. Kuwait has the most affordable plan with
0.37% of GNI p.c. and Mauritania has the highest, corresponding to 23.7% of GNI
p.c in 2013 (Tab. 1.10). Mobile-broadband prices are on average below the 5% of
GNI p.c. in the Arab States (ITU, 2014, p. 129). This makes this service relatively
affordable and an expected 25% expected penetration rate for the Arab States by
the end of 2014 is not surprising (ITU, 2014, p. 129).
Tab. .: IT Indicators for Arab countries (ITU, ).

GNI p.c. Adult Fixed Prepaid Mobile % households % households % using % Wired
literacy rate Broadband Broadband Internet 2013 computer 2013 Internet Broadband
Prices as % (500MB/1GB) as Subs
of GNI p.c. % of GNI p.c.ᵃ

Algeria  . . no data .  . .


22  Christof Galli

Bahrain  . . ./.    .


Egypt  . . ./. . . . .
Iraq  no data no data ./. no data no data no data no data
Jordan  . . ./. . . . .
Kuwait  . ./.
Lebanon  . . ./. . . . 
Libya  no data no data ./ no data no data no data no data
Morocco  . . ./.    .
Oman  . . ./. . . . .
Qatar  . . ./. . . . .
Saudi Arabia  . . ./. . . . .
Syria . no data no data . . . .
Tunisia  . . ./. . . . .
United Arab Emirates   . ./. . .  .
Yemen  . no data ./. . .  .

ᵃ The 500MB option is handset-based, the 1 GB option is copputer-based.


1 Arab Book Publishing  23

A further component to be considered in a successful e-publishing ecosystem is


the presence of reliable devices. For books this would be smartphones, tablets,
laptops and desktop computers, in combination with software and applications
to facilitate reading e-books. Some of the initial difficulties with rendering and
displaying Arabic fonts on a broad range of devices (Kulesz, 2011b, p. 61) have
been mostly eliminated but ownership of devices suited to read e-books is
limited to the wealthiest group of consumers (Kulesz, 2011b, pp. 62–63).
Furthermore, the events of the Arab Spring have elevated the Arab public’s
awareness, and, where possible, use of online social media services in their
Arabic interfaces and for communication in Arabic. Their level of use can thus
serve as an indicator of readiness for the acceptance of electronically delivered
publications, including books. Qatar has the highest Facebook penetration
(60%) (MBRSG, 2014a, p. 27), followed by UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, and
Tunisia. Egypt, with a penetration of 22.4%, has the highest number of users in
the region (24%). About three quarters of these users post in Arabic (MBRSG,
2014a, p. 31). The highest number of users for Twitter is from Saudi Arabia and
Egypt: 40% of ‘tweets’ from the Arab region are from KSA, 17% from Egypt.
Whereas Saudi Arabia’s Twitter penetration is one of the highest in the region
(8.07%), Egypt’s rate is only 1.26%. Kuwait has the highest penetration (11.38%),
but produces only 10% of the ‘tweets’ (MBRSG, 2014a, p. 32, p. 34). An addi-
tional factor in assessing the ecology of ITC is the acceptance of e-commerce
transactions by consumers. Arab consumers are unwilling or reluctant to conduct
online purchases: only 32% of Arab consumers habitually buy things online, com-
pared to 62% in the United Kingdom (Kulesz, 2011b, pp. 63–64). A more recent
survey confirms these finding (MBRSG, 2014b, p. 8): 64% of respondents say that
they have never purchased a book online. Whether these behaviors are because of
the limited availability of credit cards or a general reluctance on the part of consu-
mers to conduct e-commerce transactions remains to be seen.
There are companies which are starting to distribute Arabic e-books on a
broader scale. Examples are al-Manhal and Rufoof. There also attempts to
develop reader apps for Arabic e-content on smartphones. One example is
Sanabil Med (Kulesz, 2011b, p. 65).
The fundamental challenges of inefficient distribution and censorship in
the region could to some extent be mitigated through electronic technology.
Although there were some early entrants into the arena of electronic publishing
in the Arab world, there still remain issues to be addressed. Arabic e-books have
been available since 2011 in Lebanon. Many publishers have a good number of
their catalogs available in digital format, although print editions of a title still
outsell digital editions by at least a factor of 10, and piracy of electronic books is
not less severe than the piracy of printed items (Abou-Zeid, 2014). The most
24  Christof Galli

widely used platform seems to be the iPad, followed by Android, then PC. E-
readers such as Kindle and Nook do not support ePub3 for Arabic which means
that only Arabic books in pdf format can be read on these devices (Abou Zeid,
2013, p. 99). Kindle may apply the Unicode, which is compatible with the Arabic
script starting in 2014.

Conclusion
The persistence of print publishing means that librarians must continue to collect
and pay attention to publishing developments in this type of material. The frac-
tured environment and lack of unified distribution mechanisms, a situation that is
only exacerbated by ongoing turmoil in the region will require libraries to main-
tain a presence in several markets to capture relevant output. Relationships with
local vendors and publication houses will continue to be necessary for the fore-
seeable future. On the other hand, improvements to infrastructure in parts of the
Arab world, and interest among Arab publishing houses in developing their
e-publication divisions suggest that there may be significant changes to the pub-
lishing industry in the years to come.

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Received: 16th November 2014


Final version received: 2nd September 2015
Accepted: 22nd September 2015
Sumayya Ahmed
2 For a Morocco that Reads: The Crisis of
Reading and Recent Initiatives to Revive
Libraries and Reading in Morocco
Introduction
The North African country of Morocco has been called the “Arab exception” to
the revolutionary changes that took place throughout North Africa and the Middle
East because of the ability of its government to have diminished, so far, the
potency of protests with cursory reforms (Dalmasso, 2012; Lalami, 2011). It could
be argued, however, that an energy similar to that which went into deposing dic-
tators in its neighboring countries is now being leveraged in Morocco for the
cause of reading and libraries. This is evidenced by the presence of five active
pro-reading initiatives in the country that seek to re-engage the Moroccan public
with books. While reading may seem far away from revolution, Barton (2009)
argues that literacy is “at the heart of much of current social change” because it
“structures knowledge and enables communication,” and that studies of literacy
provide “a powerful lens because literacy is bound up in identity, in power and in
how we act in the world” (pp. 38–39). A concerted effort is currently underway in
Morocco to create and multiply “literacy events” through social campaigns and
grassroots mobilization which is worthy of study because “literacy and society are
bound together and evolve together” (Wagner, 1993, p. 268).
Morocco has had a sense of itself as a distinct cultural and political entity
since the pre-modern period (Wyrtzen, 2008). It simultaneously nurtures an
identity as an African, Muslim, Arab, Berber, and Mediterranean country. Colo-
nization by France in the early twentieth century (1912–1956) and its close proxi-
mity to Europe has also resulted in an intimate understanding of European
customs by large sections of the population. Morocco is a multilingual country
in which at least two varieties of Arabic (standard and dialect), Berber and French
are used throughout the society. However, geographic location (i.e. rural vs.
urban) and level of educational attainment generally determine the degree to
which any one individual is multilingual (Ezzaki, Spratt & Wagner, 1999).
As a country of nearly 33 million people with a median age of 28 (Central
Intelligence Agency, 2014), Morocco struggles with high levels of unemploy-
ment, even amongst educated degree-holders. Its economy, based primarily upon
2 For a Morocco that Reads  29

agriculture and tourism, is “increasingly challenged by globalization” (Wyrtzen,


2008, Independent Morocco section). Moulaison (2011) described Morocco as a
place where “poverty, limited access to education, limited resources, and a funda-
mentally oral culture contribute to a society rich in traditional social networks”
based primarily around the extended family unit (p. 550).

The Crisis of Reading


A “crisis of reading” has been used to describe the current situation in Morocco,
where low levels of reading and the absence of a culture of reading permeates
almost every strata of society. The relatively high levels of illiteracy which are
found in the country are not the main cause of the crisis of reading. Bougroum,
Diagne, Kissami, & Tawil (2007) found a continuing reproduction of youth illit-
eracy in North Africa, noting a reduction in the total percentage of illiterate
people since independence, but an actual overall increase in the “absolute
number of illiterate adults [which] has grown from six to nine million persons”
(p. 4), assumedly because of population growth. However, they believe that
Morocco has actually made progress in battling illiteracy in the past few decades,
and reference the high number of participants in government sponsored literacy
programs as proof.
Agnaou (2004), whose research focus is Moroccan efforts to reduce female
illiteracy, describes the efforts made on the part of the government in the battle
against illiteracy as “great” (p. 1). In 1956, the year Morocco gained its indepen-
dence from France, and 1957, the Moroccan government began two literacy cam-
paigns that “involved more than three million beneficiaries and led to the publi-
cation of Manar al-Maghrib, a specialized newspaper for the neo-literates.”
From 1961 to 1963, selective adult literacy programs targeting rural girls (10 to 15
years old) and agricultural workers were managed by the Ministry of Youth and
Sports and the Ministry of the Interior respectively and benefitted approximately
53,000 people primarily in the Beni Mellal area. The Ministry of the Interior’s
program with agricultural workers was sponsored by UNESCO and supplemen-
ted literacy schools with local radio broadcasts. Agnaou (2004) characterizes this
as a time in Moroccan history where literacy was seen as inherent to building a
new post-colonial social order. Literacy would later be iterated as necessary for
economic development, and then by the 1970s adult illiteracy in Morocco would
cease being “regarded as a disease to be eradicated within a specific time, but
was rather considered as a social phenomenon with multi-facets.” From 1981 to
1985 funds were given to support adult literacy programs that reached 81,000
people. This was followed up in 1986 by a two-year program that was carried out
30  Sumayya Ahmed

in five major cities (Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech, and Oujda) and benefited
an estimated 50,000 people. By the 1990s literacy was being connected to gender
inequalities and rural–urban disparities in the country. In 1997, the Adult Literacy
Directorate was established as a body “responsible for the execution of the gov-
ernment’s adult literacy policy” (Agnaou, 2004, pp. 49–52).
In 2004 Morocco adopted what was termed a “literacy and non-formal edu-
cation strategy” that aimed “to integrate literacy programs within all poverty
reduction interventions” (Bougroum et al. 2007, p. 5). Seven years later, a royal
decree, Dahir 1-11-142, brought into creation the National Agency for the Battle
against Illiteracy (l’Agence nationale de lutte contre l’analphabétisme) (Kingdom
of Morocco, 2011). Some of its most recent initiatives have included carrying out
literacy programs in workplaces with illiterate employees of notable Moroccan
companies (Sakhi, 2012). In 2013 the Directorate highlighted the accomplishments
of literacy work in Morocco stating that six million Moroccans have benefitted
from literacy programs in the country, with approximately 735,000 having bene-
fited between 2011 and 2012 alone. The Moroccan government’s literacy efforts
have been supported by technical and financial assistance from UNESCO, the Eur-
opean Union and numerous non-governmental organizations (Binoual, 2013).
Yet, with only an estimated 56 to 62% of its population being literate (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2014), illiteracy is a sig-
nificant challenge to the ability of Morocco to make serious strides towards being
a knowledge economy. Significantly, UNESCO’s 2014 Education for All Global
Monitoring Report listed Morocco as one of 21 countries in the world with a “learn-
ing crisis,” whereby less than half of children attending school do not progress
enough to learn the requisite basic skills. This is rendered even more significant
in light of the fact that Wagner (1993) has shown that in the context of Morocco,
early reading had a positive effect on “subsequent reading achievement and on
staying in school” (p. 137).
Among Bougroum et al.’s (2007) suggestions for improving literacy out-
comes in Morocco was “the strengthening of post-literacy environments that
encourage the use of reading and writing skills in daily life” (p. 22), i.e. creating
a culture of reading and writing whereby skills could be utilized and further
developed, or at the very least, not lost. In order for this to happen, literacy cam-
paigns would have to encourage “pleasure” reading by weakening reading’s
tight coupling with practical everyday life matters as currently happens in
literacy campaigns. For example, Bougroum et al. (2007) note that literacy
manuals in Morocco are developed for very specific populations with the goal of
providing know-how relevant to daily chores and occupations. These have
included literacy manuals that focus on agriculture, dairy farming, and fishing.
2 For a Morocco that Reads  31

In some literacy programs literacy is also tightly coupled with religious instruc-
tion (Dardour, 2000).
The tight coupling of reading with the practical, or with school work, is one
aspect of the Moroccan crisis of reading. In a survey done by El Yazami (1998) in
order to develop a better understanding of Moroccan readers, the author called
students, teachers, and others who read by necessity of their social situations,
“readers of the State.” El Yazami’s (1998) Enquête sur la lecture au Maroc [Survey
of reading in Morocco] was carried out in several cities across Morocco (Fes, Casa-
blanca, Tangier, Oujda, Tetouan, Taza, Marrakech, Agadir, and Meknes), with a
sample population of people ranging from age fifteen years and older who could
read and understand French. It excluded monolingual Arabic speakers, although
97% of the sample spoke Arabic at home amongst their families. 50% of them said
that they preferred to read in French (as opposed to Arabic) and it should be noted
that 60.5% of the sample were males. El Yazami’s (1998) survey offered early
insight into the problem of reading in Morocco and highlighted certain trends that
still reverberate in discussions about the reading crisis today, among them:
– The weakness at the state level to address the problem; specifically the small
budget allotted to the Ministry of Culture for this purpose, which leads to an
inability to take a leading role in promoting reading at a national level.
– The fierce “competition” between reading and television viewing in Moroc-
can daily life.
– A frail circulation chain (from publisher to bookstore and library) for books
which contributes to reduced availability.
– The existence of an informal network (family and friends) by which Moroc-
cans learn about and procure reading materials.
– The lack of reading resources for children, from children’s literature to chil-
dren’s space in existing libraries.
– The near absence of a culture of Moroccans giving or receiving books as
gifts.
– The relative high cost of books: Only 14% of the sample found the price of
the book to be “acceptable” (convenable) with 82% calling the price either
“expensive” or “very expensive” (p. 67).
– The absence or weak state of public libraries across the country.
– The importance of Moroccan literature in attracting Moroccan readers.
– The lack of places to read in public (81% of the sample read at home fol-
lowed by 6% who read in the library or in a café) (p. 64).

The lack of public places for reading is intimately linked to the absence or impo-
tence of public libraries in Morocco. Although there are a multitude of archives
and private libraries for historical and academic research in the country, especially
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
FACTORS INFLUENCING DIGESTION
As before stated, it is not the food eaten, but that which the body
digests and assimilates, or appropriates to its needs, which counts;
many factors influence such nourishment. The principal ones are the
forceful circulation, the breathing of plenty of oxygen, and the
resultant free elimination of waste.

If one has no appetite, by far the safest method


The Appetite is to abstain from food until the system calls for it,
or to eat but a very little of the lightest food at
regular meal times; be careful not to mince between meals nor to eat
candy nor pickles. Be sure that the lack of appetite is not due to
mental preoccupation which does not let the brain relax long enough
for the physical needs to assert themselves. One should relax the
brain in pleasant thoughts during a meal.
If the appetite is lacking, because of physical exhaustion, it is
unwise to eat, because the digestive organs are tired, and to load a
tired stomach with food, still further weakens it and results in
indigestion. The better plan is to drink two glasses of cold water and
lie down for an hour; if there is still no desire for food, drink freely of
water, but abstain from food until hungry.
This should not lead one into forming the habit of irregular eating,
however. The stomach forms habits and the supply of food must be
regular, just as the nursing child must be fed regularly, or digestive
disturbance is sure to result.
A wise provision of Nature makes the system, in a normal
condition, its own regulator, protesting against food when it has not
assimilated or eliminated that consumed. One should learn to obey
such protests and cut down the quantity when Nature calls “enough.”
There are exceptions, however. Some phases of indigestion result
in a gnawing sensation in the stomach, which is often mistaken for a
desire for food. This is not a normal appetite. Water will usually
relieve it.
Often loss of appetite is the result of a clogging of intestines or
liver, or to an excess of bile, which, not having been properly
discharged into the intestines, has entered the blood stream. An
excess of bile and poisons, indicating a torpid liver, often expresses
itself in a dull mental force, the toxins deadening the nerve cells.
Nature does not call for more food until she has eliminated the
excess of waste.
It is commonly stated that the body will call for what the system
requires. This may have been true of the aborigines, who ate their
food in its natural state, and, to a certain extent, it is true to-day, but
condiments and stimulants, to make the food “appetizing,” have
unduly stimulated the nerves and perverted the natural taste; foods
containing their natural amount of spices or extractives no longer
tempt one. Those whose nerves are highly keyed, form the habit of
seasoning the food too strongly, making it too stimulating. This
undue stimulant calls for more food at the time of eating than a
normal appetite would demand. The taste being cultivated for the
stimulant, the habit of eating too much food is formed.
There is a difference between the cultivated and the normal
appetite. A child rarely shows a desire for stimulants or condiments,
unless unwisely encouraged by an adult, who does it,—not because
it is good for the child, but because the individual himself has
cultivated a taste for it. It is as easy to form healthful tastes and
habits of eating as unhealthful ones, and care should especially be
exercised in the formation of healthful habits by the growing child.
The simple foods, in their natural state, are in the right condition to
be digested, with the aid of heat to break the cellular coverings of the
globules of some of them, but time, energy, muscular activity, nerve
force, and money are spent in combining, seasoning, and cooking
foods in such a manner as often to render them difficult of digestion.
Deep breathing of fresh air, to throw off the poisonous carbon
dioxid and to supply an abundance of oxygen to oxidize the waste,
thus putting it in condition to be expelled from the system; brisk
exercise to accelerate the circulation, that the blood may carry the
oxygen freely and that the tissues may liberate the carbon dioxid and
other waste; and a copious drinking of water, are the best tonics for
loss of appetite or for a lack of vitality.

It is economy, therefore, to keep the digestive


Economy in organs and the circulation and tissues strong, in
Food order that all foods eaten may yield returns,
instead of hampering activity.
The food which furnishes the most tissue-building substance and
yields the most heat and energy, with the least refuse, is the
economical food. In the selection of food for any individual, the result
to be gained from the food must be borne in mind. If one is doing
heavy muscular work, more protein to rebuild tissue, as well as more
carbohydrates and fats to produce energy, are required than if one’s
habits of work are sedentary. In mental work, where the brain is
continually active, proteins are required to re-supply the brain tissue,
but the fats and carbohydrates may be lessened. This would seem to
contradict the theory that where one’s habits are sedentary and the
brain alone is active, the proteins are not required. In sedentary
occupation, the carbohydrates and fats are stored within the system,
clogging it and producing torpid liver, constipation, and obesity,—
unless the brain is sufficiently active to use all of the fuel in brain
energy.
In a dietary study of the following tables, the question should be to
provide the largest quantity of nutriment at the lowest cost, with due
attention to palatability and variety. In the selection of meats, for
instances, while beefsteak may cost twice as much as beef stew, it
must be borne in mind that beefsteak contains very little waste, and
it contains a large proportion of albuminoids, or the tissue building
proteins, while, in the beef stew, the bones and the connective tissue
predominate; the proteins yielded from the beef stew are a large
proportion gelatinoids and extractives,—not the tissue building
albuminoids. This would not hold in comparing the cheaper and the
more expensive cuts in the same kind of beefsteak; the cheaper cuts
often yield quite as much nutriment as the more expensive ones.
Round steak is just as nourishing as porter-house and much
cheaper.
Much is said about the bacteria present in the atmosphere, the
microbes in the food, etc., that one is puzzled to know, not only what
to eat, but how to breathe, and, in fact, which way to turn to avoid
them; but microbes and bacteria have been present in the
atmosphere and in matter everywhere since time began. They are a
part of the natural surroundings, and the body, if kept in strong
vitality, has sufficient resistive power to enable one to live unharmed
by them. The danger lies in allowing the system to run down and the
vital force to ebb, so that the body becomes an easy prey to them.

There is no doubt but that the habit of eating


Habit and governs one’s convictions of what the system
Regularity of requires. One is inclined to think that a desire for a
Eating. food is a requirement of Nature; yet it may simply
be the continuance of a habit. The vital organs
form habits just as one forms a habit of walking, sitting or of carrying
the head or the hands, and habit re-asserts itself.
If a mother feeds her babe every three hours the child will usually
wake and call for food about this period. If she has formed the habit
of nursing the child every two hours, it will call for food in about two
hours, even though all symptoms indicate that the child is over fed.
It is important that both child and adult establish regular and
hygienic habits because the digestive juices secrete themselves at
the regular periods established. A right habit is as easily formed, and
as difficult to change, as a wrong one.
If one forms the habit of eating a certain amount of food, the
stomach calls for about the same amount, and when one first begins
to change the quantity it protests, whether the change be to eat more
or less.
Few people form the habit of drinking sufficient water,—particularly
if they have been taught that water at meals is injurious. In this busy
life, few remember to stop work and drink water between meals, and
if not consumed at the meal time the system suffers. Many people
look “dried up.”
The habit of drinking two glasses of water upon first arising, and
six more during the day is an important one.

There is no doubt but that a large number of


Frequency of people overload the digestive organs. This, as well
Meals as the bolting of food, insufficiently masticated,
cannot be too strongly denounced. All food should
be chewed to a pulp before swallowed.
As a relief from overeating, many theorists are advocating two
meals a day, but the work of the average man is planned into
morning and afternoon sessions, and the three meals have been
arranged accordingly.
Where two meals a day are eaten, the first meal should be at nine
or ten o’clock in the morning and the second meal at five or six
o’clock in the afternoon; whereas, for the average person who eats
two meals a day, the custom is to go without food until the midday
meal, and then to eat two meals within six hours, with nothing more
for eighteen hours.
The argument in favor of two meals a day has been that the
digestive system is inactive during sleep, and, therefore, the system
is not ready for a meal upon arising, but the latest experiments
(Pawlow) show that digestion continues during sleep, though less
actively. It must be borne in mind that the average evening meal is
eaten about six o’clock and that there are about four waking hours
between this meal and the sleep period; also, that the average
individual is awake and moderately active an hour before the
morning meal. This gives five waking hours between the evening
and the morning meal. About the same time, five hours, elapses
between the morning and the midday meal, and between the midday
and the evening meal, so that three meals a day divide the digestion
periods about evenly.
More frequent meals, served in lighter quantity, with greater
regularity, so that the system is not overloaded at any one meals, is
rational for delicate, or undernourished nerves and tissues. The little
child is fed regularly every three hours.

Daily exercise and the habit of full breathing are


Effect of absolutely necessary that the waste of the system
Exercise and may be fully liberated, that the nourishment may
Breathing upon be carried freely to every tissue, and that sufficient
Digestion
oxygen may be carried through the blood to
oxidize the waste, or, to put it into condition to be
thrown off.
The necessity of oxygen as food is evident. The body will subsist
about forty days upon the food stored within it, without re-supply, but
it can endure only a few seconds without oxygen, because heat,
occasioned by the union of oxygen with carbon and hydrogen, is
necessary to keep up the physical activity termed “life.” The
necessity of habits of full, correct breathing cannot be too fully
emphasized. The quantity of oxygen, daily consumed, should fully
equal the sum of all other food elements.[6]
Oxygen is necessary to cause combustion of fats, starches and
sugars, just as it is necessary to cause combustion of carbon in
wood, or coal.
The heat from “burning” wood is produced by the oxygen of the air
uniting with hydrogen and carbon, forming carbon-dioxid (carbonic
acid gas) and water.
The light in the burning of wood is caused by the rapid combustion
of the carbonic acid gas. The same combustion occurs within the
body continuously, though more slowly, hence no light is produced.
The carbon in the body is liberated and brought into contact with
more oxygen in the blood through exercise and full breathing, just as
a fire is fanned to flame by bringing more oxygen into contact with
the fire, by means of a draught of air. Keep all air away from a fire
and it “goes out,” or ceases to unite with the oxygen, and no heat is
produced; keep all air from within the body, by cessation of
breathing, and it also becomes cold. A room in which the air is
impure, containing insufficient oxygen, is heated with difficulty,—the
body which is not constantly supplied with pure air generates very
little body heat. The effect of oxygen in the creation of heat is
practically demonstrated by repeatedly filling the lungs with air while
out in the cold. The body will become quickly warmed on the coldest
day by this practice.
Deep breathing aids digestion and assimilation, not alone because
of the regular exercise given to the pancreas, the spleen, the
stomach, and the liver by the correct movement of the diaphragm,
but because of the latent heat which the oxygen liberates within the
digestive organs and out among the tissues.
While the chemical action of food creates activity within, this
activity is materially aided by exercise, and oxygen is imperative, as
shown above. Exercise and oxygen are also necessary for chemical
action in tearing down waste and in putting raw material into
condition to be appropriated to the body needs.
Two glasses of water in the morning and fifteen minutes’ brisk
exercise of well selected movements, to start a forceful circulation
and to surge the water through the vital organs, are a daily necessity
if one is to keep clean and strong within. It is as important to cleanse
the body within as without. It is the method employed by all men and
women who would retain strong vital forces to a ripe old age. They
fully enjoy the mere living.

Since the condition of the body so materially


“Tired” or affects the digestion, absorption, and metabolism
Disturbed of food, as well as the elimination of waste, it is not
Balance amiss to discuss it here.
The habit of eating when too tired and then at once going to work,
so that the blood is called from the stomach, is almost sure to result
in indigestion.
The average person is tired because the brain and nerves are
more active than the muscles and is rested by muscular exercise, or
change of work.
The regular work of the body in keeping up the heart action and
the circulation and in renewing and relieving waste, requires a
certain quantity of oxygen to liberate energy. This energy the system,
in normal condition, with normal breathing, readily furnishes, but
when that used in undue muscular work is more than that being
liberated at the time, through combustion, the energy required for the
constant bodily needs is called upon, and the muscles, nerves and
tissues are then in the state termed “tired.” They remain so until
sufficient oxygen has liberated more potential energy than is needed
for the work constantly going on in the body. When a sufficient
supply of oxygen has been consumed to equal the demand, the
body is in a state of rest.
In mental work the nerves and the brain call for the surplus energy,
while in muscular work the tissues require it, hence undue work,
either mental or physical, expresses itself in bodily fatigue, until the
oxygen equals the demand in all parts of the body.
A torpid condition of body, producing inertness, means that the
waste of the system is not relieved. It may be that by reason of
insufficient breathing of pure air, sufficient oxygen is not consumed
to put the waste in condition to be eliminated. This poisonous carbon
dioxid being hoarded, dulls the nerve sensation and the brain action
and produces more or less of stupor. It may be because the
circulation in some part of the body is clogged (most often the portal
circulation through the liver), so that sufficient oxygen is not carried
to that part.
Relief from this “inertness” is experienced most quickly by exercise
in the fresh air, that the circulation may be quickened and the oxygen
more freely carried to each part. Exercise in one’s room by the open
window, or at least with the air in the room pure, is often preferable
to outdoor exercise, because the body can be nude, or so loosely
clothed that the oxygen may not only enter the lungs but also
circulate about the pores of the skin. Fifteen minutes of brisk
exercise in one’s room is better than a five-mile walk, because if the
exercises be intelligently selected, every organ and tissue is used,
while walking exercises only about one-fourth of the muscles. If the
circulation is clogged, the exercising must be kept up persistently,
until the obstruction is removed and particular attention must be
given to the supply of fresh air in the room.
After sleeping in a room with impure air, one arises fatigued,
because of insufficient oxygen to liberate the energy required for
circulation and catabolism, and because the carbonic acid gas
cannot be relieved without oxygen to cause combustion. As stated
above, if the poisonous carbonic acid gas remains in the system, it
deadens the nerve sensation and produces a semi-stupor.
The relief, then, from the state of body we call “tired,” is in the
distribution of the circulation, calling the blood from the unduly
distended capillaries, and supplying the normal quantity of oxygen.
Rightly directed physical exercise renews the circulation to all parts,
incites deep breathing, and puts the body in the state of harmony
called “rest.”
Harmony, either mental or physical, is rest.
With a little more intelligence in keeping up the supply and
demand of oxygen, in establishing correct breathing habits, and in
understanding the law of distribution of circulation, which means the
harmony of forces, this tired world could draw a deep, restful breath.

The state of the mind has much to do in


Influence of the regulating the digestive system. Cheerful thoughts
Mind put the nerves of the entire organism in a natural
state, while disagreeable thoughts put the nerves
in a tense, unnatural condition. The nerves to the digestive system
are affected by the tensity of the mind, just as the nerves to any
other part of the body. As an illustration of this;—if one thinks ugly,
disagreeable thoughts for a continuous period, actual illness results.
These thoughts affect the digestion in such a manner that the
appetite sometimes entirely wanes. All so-called “new thoughts,”
“ologies,” or “isms,” conducive to the formation of the habit of looking
upon the bright side of life, or of looking for good and joy in life, put
the nerves in a natural state, affecting the digestion and
consequently the health. The practice is Christian Sense.
The nerves control, to a great degree, the peristaltic movements of
the stomach and the action of the absorption cells, as well as the
cells which secrete the digestive juices. Thus it is that a food which
one likes is not only more palatable, but it will digest more readily,
because the digestive juices flow more freely.
It is well, therefore, to begin the meal with something which tastes
particularly good, that the flow of these digestive juices may be
incited. For this reason, if one cares for fruit, it is an excellent custom
to begin the meal with fruit, or with soup, containing protein
extractives, which stimulate the flow of digestive juices. The habit of
finishing a meal with some tasty dessert, is based upon the scientific
principle that by so doing the gastric juices will flow more freely after
the meal, thus aiding in its digestion.
Dainty service in a sick-room, because of the psychic effect of a
meal daintily served, is of utmost importance. Because of the effect
upon the mind the sight of a meal served upon soiled linen will
almost stop the flow of gastric juice and destroy the desire for food,
while a meal daintily served upon dainty linen, with garnishings and
tasteful table decorations, incites the flow of gastric juices.
The careful wife and mother, who notes the appetites of members
of her family failing, should attend carefully to the garnishing of her
dishes and to serving them in a neat, attractive manner; also to
changing her table decorations, as far as may be consistent, so that
the eye as well as the sense of smell and taste may be pleased.
It is strange, but it is true, that just a fresh flower, or a new table
decoration, may so put the mind of one who is afflicted with nervous
indigestion in a receptive state that the meal more readily digests,
while an untidy table, or a lot of food served untidily would retard
digestion. One may be able to control the thoughts under most
circumstances but the above is a physiological fact.
Sometimes the sight of quantities of food turns one against it. The
custom among hearty eaters, of serving a plate too plentifully,
destroys the appetite of one whose digestion is not so hearty.
Our grandmothers’ overloaded tables, with sufficient food of
various kinds to serve many times the number of participants, might
stimulate the appetite of hearty, strong men, while the very sight of
so much might turn the appetite of one more delicate, whose system
did not crave food.

FOOTNOTES:
[6] Editor’s Note.—Measurements of eighteen thousand women
show that sixty-two per cent of women use only about one-half of
their lung capacity and less than nine per cent use their full
capacity.
CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS
In the previous chapters, we have given the classification of the
elements in foods which supply the body needs. Below we classify
the foods commonly used, according to the predominance of these
elements.
Carbonaceous Foods
While all foods contain a combination of elements, the foods
described below contain a greater proportion of carbohydrates and
fats, and are classed as carbonaceous.

Of the carbohydrates, next in importance to the


Roots and sugars and to the starches in their purest form
Tubers (corn starch, tapioca, sago, and arrowroot), come
the roots and tubers, such as potatoes, sweet
potatoes, beets, parsnips, turnips and onions.
The following table shows the proportion of various foodstuffs in
these vegetables:
TABLE I—ROOTS AND TUBERS
Water Fat Ash
Protein Carbohydrates Food Value per
Food Materials Per Per Per
Per Cent Per Cent pound Calories
Cent Cent Cent
Sweet Potatoes 69.4 1.5 0.3 26.2 2.6 440
White Potatoes 75.0 2.1 0.2 22.0 0.7 295
Parsnips 64.4 1.3 0.4 10.8 1.1 230
Onions 86.0 1.9 0.1 11.3 0.7 225
Beets 87.0 1.4 0.1 7.3 0.7 160
Carrots 88.2 1.1 0.4 8.2 6.0 210
Turnips 92.7 0.9 0.1 0.1 0.6 120
Potatoes. It will be noted from the above table that sweet potatoes
have a larger percentage of carbohydrates, hence they produce
more heat and energy, than any other vegetable; next to the sweet
potato, the Irish potato.
In the above table, the skins of the vegetables are included, and
while the white potato contains two per cent protein, this is almost all
located in a very thin layer immediately beneath the skin, so that
when the potato is peeled in the ordinary way, the protein is
removed. This holds true in many vegetables. They lose their
distinctive flavor, as well as their value as tissue building foods, when
the skins are removed. In baking a potato, the outer skin is readily
separated from a less perceptible covering containing the protein,
and this second skin should be eaten to get the full value and flavor.
In the white potato, of the twenty-two per cent carbohydrates three
and two-tenths per cent is sugar and eighteen and eight-tenths per
cent is starch. In the sweet potato, ten and two-tenths per cent is
sugar and sixteen per cent is starch. Since sugar digests more
quickly than starch, the sweet potato digests more quickly than the
white. Because of the large per cent or carbohydrates in each, it is a
mistake to serve these two vegetables at the same meal. For the
same reason, bread and potatoes should not be eaten, to any
extent, at the same meal, unless by one who is doing heavy manual
labor, requiring much energy.

Onions. Only about four per cent of the onion represents


nourishment; the eleven per cent of carbohydrates is made up of two
and eight-tenths per cent sugar and the rest extractives. Of the
extractives the volatile oil, which causes the eyes to water when
peeling, is the most important. The onion is not, therefore, so
important for its actual nourishing qualities as for its relish and flavor,
and for this it is to be commended. It is a diuretic, encouraging a free
action of the kidneys. Because of its diuretic value it is commonly
called a healthy food. An onion and lettuce sandwich stimulates the
action of the kidneys and is a nerve sedative.
The volatile oil makes the onion difficult for some to digest and, in
that case, should be omitted from the diet.

Beets. There is no starch in beets, the seven and three-tenths per


cent carbohydrates being sugar; they possess, therefore, more
nutritive value than onions, and they are easily digested. It will be
noted that it takes many beets to make a pound of sugar.
There are no more delicious nor nutritive greens than the stem
and leaf of the beet. These greens contain much iron and are
valuable aids in building up the iron in the blood, thus correcting
anaemia.

Carrots. Carrots are valuable as food chiefly on account of their


sugar. They are somewhat more difficult of digestion than beets and
they contain more waste. They make a good side dish, boiled and
served with butter or cream.

Turnips. Turnips have little value as a food. Their nutriment


consists in the sugar they contain. For those who enjoy the flavor
they are a relish, serving as an appetizer, and, like the onion, are to
be recommended as a side dish for this purpose.

Parsnips. Like carrots, parsnips are chiefly valuable for their


sugar and for the extractives which act as appetizers.
Since turnips, carrots, onions, and parsnips owe a part of their
value in nutrition to the extractives which whet the appetite for other
foods, it follows that, if one does not enjoy the flavor or the odor,
these vegetables lose in value to that individual as a food. If one
does enjoy the flavor, it adds to their food value.

The question may be asked with reason: “Why


Green do we eat green vegetables?” They contain only
Vegetables about four per cent nutrition, as will be seen by the
chemical analysis in the following table, and are
mostly made up of water and pulp. It will be noted from the table that
they are distinctly lacking in protein (nitrogenous matter) and in
carbohydrates; hence, they have little food value. Some of them
have strong acids, thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood.
Their merit lies in the fact that they have distinct flavors and thus
whet the appetite. Another reason why green vegetables are
thoroughly enjoyed is because they come fresh in the spring, when
the appetite is a little surfeited with the winter foods and one looks
for green things.
TABLE II—GREEN VEGETABLES
Fuel
Mineral
Water Nitrogenous Fat Value
Carbohydrates Matter Cellulose
Food Materials per Matter per per per
per cent per per cent
cent cent cent pound
cent
Calories
Cabbage 89.6 1.80 0.4 5.8 1.3 1.1 165
Spinach 90.6 2.50 0.5 3.8 1.7 0.9 120
Vegetable
94.8 0.06 0.2 2.6 0.5 1.3 120
Marrow
Tomatoes 91.9 1.30 0.2 5.0 0.7 1.1 105
Lettuce 94.1 1.40 0.4 2.6 1.0 0.5 105
Celery 93.4 1.40 0.1 3.8 0.9 0.9 85
Rhubarb 94.6 0.70 0.7 2.3 0.6 1.1 105
Water Cress 93.1 0.70 0.5 8.7 1.3 0.1 110
Cucumbers 95.9 0.80 0.1 2.1 0.4 0.5 10
Asparagus 91.7 2.20 0.2 2.9 0.9 2.1 110
Brussels
93.7 1.50 0.1 3.4 1.3 0.4 95
Sprouts
Beans (string) 8.92 2.3 0.3 7.4 0.8 7.0 195
Beans (dried) 12.6 22.5 1.8 59.6 3.5 0.0 1605
Peas (green,
74.6 7.0 0.5 16.9 1.0 0.0 465
shelled)

All fresh vegetables should be masticated to almost a fluid


consistency; otherwise, they are difficult of digestion, containing, as
they do, so much pulp.
They are diuretic, helping the kidneys and the skin to rid the
system of waste, and they are more laxative to the intestines than
the root vegetables, partly because of the salts which they contain
and partly because of the undigested vegetable fibre, which helps to
move along the waste in the intestines. This vegetable fibre, being
coarse, assists in cleansing the mucous lining of stomach and
intestines, and, if for no other reason than for this cleansing of
kidneys and intestines in the spring, when the system is most
sluggish, the use of green vegetables is to be commended.
In larger cities, fresh vegetables are in the markets the year
around, but if they are raised in greenhouses, or in any way forced,
they lack the matured flavor and they also lack the iron which the
rays of the sun give. If raised in the south and shipped for a distance,
they are not fresh and they do not have as good an effect upon the
system as when fresh and fully matured by the sun.
All greens, as spinach, chard, dandelions and beet tops, as
previously stated, contain iron and build red blood corpuscles.
It is well, then, to eat freely of fresh vegetables in their season,
even though they do not appreciably build tissue or furnish energy.
By their effect upon the blood, the kidneys, skin, and intestines, they
make sluggish vital organs more efficient.
Tomatoes and rhubarb are often, and with reason, classed under
fruits.
Technically speaking, fruits include all plant
Fruits products which bear or contain a seed. They are
valuable for their acids and organic salts—citrates,
malates, or tartrates of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium.
In the juices of citrous fruits, are citrates of above minerals.
The fruit juices are readily absorbed and carried at once to the
liver, where the sodium, magnesium, and potassium are released
and the acids oxidized and changed to carbonates. They increase
the alkalinity of the blood. These alkalis are soon eliminated through
the kidneys, which accounts for the diuretic effect of fruits.
The seeds in the small fruits are not digested, but they serve the
purpose of increasing intestinal peristalsis and of assisting the
movement of the contents of the intestines. The skin and the fibre of
fruits also assist the intestines in this way, just as the fibre in
vegetables does. Fruits may be classified into acid and sweet fruits.
Under acid fruits are the citrous group—lemons, limes, grape fruit,
oranges, cranberries, gooseberries, whortleberries, pineapples,
currants, and rhubarb—if rhubarb is to be classed as a fruit.
There has been a commonly accepted theory that where a blood
test shows evidence of too much uric acid, acid fruits are to be
avoided, but the reverse is true. It has been fully demonstrated that
the use of acid fruits increases the alkalinity,—or neutralizes the
acids in the blood.
In case of an excess of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, lemon, or
citrous fruits are valuable about half an hour before a meal as they
decrease the secretion of the hydrochloric acid into the stomach.
Where hydrochloric acid is limited, acids are given after a meal to
supplement the deficient amount.
The sweetening of acid fruits does not detract from the value of
the acids or of organic salts.
All acid fruits stimulate the action of the kidneys and the skin,—
particularly lemons, limes, grape fruit, and oranges, and wherever
the kidneys and skin are not sufficiently active, these fruits should be
eaten freely.
It is difficult to make a decided distinction between sweet and acid
fruits. The best guide is in the amount of sugar required to make
them palatable. Some species of cherry are distinctly sour, while
others are sweet. The same is true of apples, peaches, plums, etc.
Under sweet or bland fruits are pears, raspberries, grapes,
bananas, blackberries, blueberries, melons, apricots, and some
peaches, apples, and plums.
The large majority of fruits do not contain sufficient sugar to make
them valuable for nourishment. Their chief value is in their appetizing
flavor, and in the acids, and salts. Dates, figs, prunes, and dried
grapes (raisins) are exceptions. As will be noted by the following
table, these fruits contain a large amount of carbohydrates in the
form of sugar. The larger amount of protein in these sweet fruits is
largely in the seeds and, as the seeds are not digested, they have no
real food value to the individual.
Figs and prunes are laxative,—probably the laxative effect of figs
is due to the seeds, and of prunes to the salts and acids. However,
prunes are free from tannic acid.
TABLE III—FRUITS
Water Protein Ether Ash Acids
Carbohydrates Cellulose
Food Materials Per Per Extract Per Per
Per Cent Per Cent
Cent Cent Per Cent Cent Cent
Acid:
Apples 82.50 0.40 0.5 12.5 0.4 2.7 1.0
Apricots 85.00 1.10 0.6 12.4 0.5 3.1 1.0
Peaches 88.80 0.50 0.2 5.8 0.6 3.4 0.7
Plums 78.40 1.00 0.2 14.8 0.5 4.3 1.0
Cherries 84.00 0.80 0.8 10.0 0.6 3.8 1.0
Gooseberries 86.00 0.40 0.8 8.9 0.5 2.7 1.5
Currants 85.20 0.40 0.8 7.9 0.5 4.6 1.4
Strawberries 89.10 1.00 0.5 6.3 0.7 2.2 1.0
Whortleberries 76.30 0.70 3.0 5.8 0.4 12.2 1.6
Cranberries 86.50 0.50 0.7 3.9 0.2 6.2 2.2
Oranges 86.70 0.90 0.6 8.7 0.6 1.5 1.8
Lemons 89.30 1.00 0.9 8.3 0.5 1.5 1.8
Pineapples 89.30 0.04 0.3 9.7 0.3 1.5 7.0
Pears 83.90 0.40 0.6 11.5 0.4 3.1 0.1
Blackberries 88.90 0.90 2.1 2.3 0.6 5.2 1.6
Raspberries 84.40 1.00 2.1 5.2 0.6 7.4 1.4
Mulberries 84.70 0.30 0.7 11.4 0.6 0.9 1.8
Grapes 79.00 1.00 1.0 15.5 0.5 2.5 0.5
Watermelons 92.90 0.30 0.1 6.5 0.2 1.0 0.5
Bananas 74.00 1.50 0.7 22.9 0.9 0.2 0.5
Sweet:
Dates, dried 2.08 4.40 2.1 65.1 1.5 5.5 7.0
Figs, dried 2.00 5.50 0.9 62.8 2.3 7.3 1.2
Prunes, dried 2.64 2.40 0.8 66.2 1.5 7.3 2.7
Raisins 10.60 2.50 4.7 74.7 3.1 1.7 2.7

Care should be exercised in selecting ripe fruits and those which


have not started to decay. The difficulty with so many fruits, which
must be shipped from a distance, is, that, in order to reach their
destination in fair condition, outwardly, they are picked before ripe
and there is too much tannic acid in them. When fruits are allowed to
ripen on the trees, the tannic acid is changed to sugar and fruit
juices. One test of a ripened apple is to cut it with a steel knife—if the
blade turns black, or if the cut surface of the apple turns brown in a
few minutes, it should not be eaten, for it indicates an excess of
tannin. It is this tannin which gives the small boy, with his green
apples, excruciating pains. It will be recalled that the tannin from the
bark of trees, so toughens the elastic skin of animals that we can
wear this skin for shoes. The effect upon the live skin of the stomach
and intestines, from the tannin in food, is not pronounced in
toughening the skin, because of the activity and resistance of live
matter.
Bananas are commonly picked green, because they decay so
quickly that if they were picked ripe they would spoil before reaching
the northern markets. The above table shows that bananas contain
nearly twenty-three per cent of carbohydrates, which, in an immature
state, are largely starches. The natural ripening process changes the
starch to sugar, thus making them more easily digested. The starch
globules, when not matured on the tree, are not easily broken and
are thus difficult of digestion. Baking breaks the globules; a baked
banana is thus more readily digested.

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