What's Next Junior

Why is this important?

Dutch children and young people read longer texts less and less often and have fewer and fewer pleasure in reading. As a result, they build up less language skills. This leads to less later in life opportunities and greater vulnerability due to, for example, not being able to read forms, or unable to keep up with the digital age. That is why we have developed What's Next Junior so that children can get book suggestions at home, alone or with their parents, and at school in an accessible way. In this way we hope to increase reading pleasure and reduce the inequality of opportunity that can arise at a later age.

How does What's Next Junior work?

With the hand scanner, children can scan a book at school that they have read or liked. Thereafter gives the application an advice of other books that are nice to read (based on the “others also read” principle). The suggestions are linked to the collection of that school. Home use of What's Next Junior is also possible. Parents and teachers can also use the application to, for example, find the next reading book. They can type in the author and/or title of a book. The suggestions of this home use version are linked to the collection of the Eindhoven Library in the Witte Dame.

Who created What's Next Junior?

The Eindhoven Library and Garage2020 have together with Salto, Korein, GGD Brabant-Zuidoost, CQM, Edux, Smart Start, de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, SIDN Fonds, Gemeente Eindhoven, teachers, parents and children developed the application What's Next Junior. The project is the result of a great collaboration between these organizations and the interaction with children and their parents and teachers. They are a big part of the development. We don't want to create something for children and their parents and teachers, we want to create someting with them.