By GLORY TSUJ
More than a million Culturgrams have been purchased in their 1995-1996 publication year, making BYU Culturgrams a hot commodity.
'Our goal was to sell a million copies this year,' said Grant Skabelund, managing editor at the Kennedy Center, where the Culturgrams guides are produced. 'But we didn't expect to meet our goal just seven months into our publication year.'
A total of 1.5 million Culturgrams are expected to sell by the end of this publication year, Skabelund said.
Each Culturgram is a four-page introduction to a country and its customs, lifestyles, politics and economic structure.
'You can look in any encyclopedia to find the population or the climate,' Skabelund said. 'But only in a Culturgram do you learn about general attitudes, personal appearance, greetings, gestures, visiting, eating, family, dating and marriage. They are a valuable resource of substance that describe how people live.'
Culturgrams were first designed in the mid-1970s to assist overseas visitors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today 142 Culturgrams can be purchased to meet the needs of a variety of individuals and businesses.
From a culture brief for religious leaders, Culturgrams have become an inestimable service to such institutions as United Airlines, Motorola, Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, Federal Express, AT&T, U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense and many more.
Chaplain Frolian Saluta, director of the Texas Resource of the U.S. Air Force Chaplains said in a news release, 'Before we found Culturgrams, we tried to find research about certain countries and their people in libraries and encyclopedias for our troops. But we found very little compared to what is in Culturgrams.'
Culturgrams don't focus on statistics; they focus on the culture of the individual country. Each guide is produced by a collaboration of consultants that meet residency, professional and educational criteria, Skabelund said.
Information in a Culturgram is gathered from scholars, business people, diplomats, and volunteers in various organizations. Once the guide is compiled, a panel of experts reviews the Culturgram and makes any necessary corrections.
When asked why the recent increase in demand for BYU Culturgrams has occurred, Skabelund gave three reasons:
Each Culturgram is updated yearly and new Culturgrams are added at the beginning of each publication year.
Secondly, the Kennedy Center recently signed an agreement with Highsmith Publishing Company, a distributor in Wisconsin, who will distribute and market the Culturgrams.
Last of all, as more people move around and more companies expand into foreign markets, our world gets smaller and more people are interested in other peoples and cultures, he said.
In 1993, Microsoft licensed 120 Culturgrams from BYU for digital use in its Encarta '96 World Atlas. Through the use of Culturgrams, atlas users are able to view the world around them beyond an ordinary map.
'These Culturgrams are the best introduction Americans have to any foreign countries,' said Nancy Dixon, managing editor of the Geography Reference Product Unit at Microsoft. 'When we wanted to show the world beyond maps for this atlas, we thought of the Culturgrams.'
In August, the beginning of the publication year, 11 new Culturgrams will be added, making a total of 153 guides available from the Kennedy Center.
'The collaboration and production of Culturgrams is exciting and challenging,' said Skabelund. 'But it requires a lot of hard work and dedication to make Culturgrams accessible to individuals and businesses throughout the world.'
Culturgrams can be purchased as individual four-page pamphlets or as a set bound in two volumes titled 'Culturgrams: The Nations Around Us.' Volume I includes the Americas and Europe; Volume II contains Africa, Asia and Oceania. Culturgrams may also be accessed through the Microsoft Encarta '96 World Atlas