Trafford Publisher Pledges

US $1.26 Million for Endangered Languages

Trafford on-demand publishing service (TM)

Global Effort Needed to Halt Loss of Priceless Cultural Knowledge

VICTORIA, British Columbia, OXFORD, England and GABORONE, Botswana, Sept. 7 PRNewswire -- Over 6,500 indigenous languages around the world are severely endangered. With the last remaining native speakers of many dialects dying each year, one publishing company is pledging over $1.26 million to help in the global race to document and teach these languages to youth.

The donation by Trafford Publishing was announced last week to delegates from over 80 countries gathered at WITFOR 2005, a conference in Botswana held to discuss how technology could help the developing world.

Have them write books, urges Trafford Publishing, an innovative company which revolutionized the publishing industry when it created a process known as "on-demand publishing" ten years ago. Now over 3,000 independent authors publish their books each year with the company whose main offices are in Victoria, Canada and Oxford, England. Books are printed 'on-demand' one at a time to fill orders from bookstores and individuals, with most orders placed on the Internet.

Trafford is pledging to underwrite US$1,266,850 in publishing costs over the next ten years. The programme will make available primers for school children, dictionaries and local stories -- one book will be published in each of 650 endangered languages.

"When a native language dies out, we've lost forever our chance to learn cultural truths," says Trafford CEO Bruce Batchelor. "Philosophy, lifestyle, science, healing -- all the nuances are tied up in the grammar, vocabulary and way of speaking. It is a tragedy if a language that encapsulates tens of thousands of years of a group's culture is lost forever. It's like standing by watching the destruction of the ancient library at Alexandria, without trying to put out the fire."

Batchelor hopes the magnitude of Trafford's pledge will bring attention to the situation and encourage donations from other companies.

"Some communities really need a few key tools to document their language and then plug into the best revival practices. An iBook, iPod, microphone, digital camera, solar battery charger, a week's on-site technical training -- those would be part of the most basic linguistic rescue kit," says Batchelor.

"It is ironic that most of these languages have been almost wiped out because of 'modern' culture," notes Batchelor. "Now we can use innovations in publishing and technology to enable and empower locals to document and then teach their languages."

Trafford Publishing is a one of the world's most prolific publishers, used by independent authors from 105 countries. Its books are sold through major distributors and retailers around the world, with printing done in Canada, USA, Germany and UK. Trafford uses Green Power from solar and wind for its own print shop, which uses recycled paper. Some titles are available as eBooks.

"I encourage all companies to do the same as Trafford, and buy Green Power Certificates – as a basic duty to our environment." Bruce Batchelor, Publisher and CEO

Trafford believes that with its financial success and popularity comes responsibility to act as a socially and environmentally responsible corporate citizen. As one of the company's large resource consumption is electrical power, buying Green Power Certificates was seen as a great opportunity to allow BC Hydro to pursue environmentally-friendly energy sources, such as solar and wind and biomass.

By greening its power consumption, Trafford has reduced harmful emissions by over 139 tonnes per year. "I firmly believe that companies who use a balanced triple-bottom-line (financial-social-environmental) assessment of their situation and progress will, in the long term, be more profitable and stable than the pure-greed companies", said Batchelor. "When all the stakeholders (owners, employees, suppliers, customers, others in our communities, the planet) support a balanced approach to corporate responsibility, it is amazing how many benefits accrue to all."

Trafford - The first company in the world to offer "on-demand publishing services".

Trafford has been a pioneer in many of the most significant trends, developing the world's first on-demand publishing service in 1995. Having books printed one-at-a-time in response to orders coming in from customers around the globe . . . encouraging most customers to use the Internet and pay with credit cards . . . informing people about new releases through search engines . . . making this possible, affordable -- and available to individuals around the world . .. all this was almost unimaginable eight short years ago. And the next phases are being tested: having these same books also available as eBooks that can be read on computers and printed out at home or work . . . and having these books available for purchase from book manufacturing "vending machines" located inside bookstores...

Today thousands of authors are participating in a grand revolution . . . an evolution that is democratizing book publishing in many delightful ways.

Trafford's Latest Development: Trafford offers a major breakthrough in publishing: full-color on-demand publishing. Developed especially for authors wishing to self-publish color picture books for kids, this new service is Affordable, Beautifully Designed, Simple, powerful and Efficient.

About Trafford Publishing

Trafford Publishing is a division of Trafford Holdings Ltd.

The basics: Trafford Holdings Ltd. ("THL") is a privately-held corporation, registered in British Columbia, Canada. There are over 120 shareholders, including many authors and all the permanent employees. THL was originally incorporated in 1991 as a holding company (but never used for that purpose). When the on-demand publishing concept was first conceived in 1995 by Bruce and Marsha Batchelor, Steve Fisher and John Norris, the dormant "shell" was activated as the legal vehicle. In mid-1995, Trafford opened its doors and website and accepted its first paying clients - becoming the first company in the world to offer an "on-demand publishing service".

People thought we were nuts: Print-on-Demand was an industry term for printing short runs of 300 to 500 books and no one, even the equipment manufacturers, thought anyone could viably operate a service printing runs of ONE copy. We proposed to sell the books on the Internet, accepting payment with credit cards, and programmed an elaborate website that would display the books and even take orders.

St.Clair has published his book: Zen of Stars, through Trafford Publisher. St.Clair’s trans-dimensional, mind-expanding epic presents time-travel realities into 2080, revealing our Cosmic origin and destiny. His prophetic vision frees mankind of illusions, one soul at a time.  Read - Zen of Stars

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