For community-based or other participatory archive models, digital technologies offer a way to meaningfully engage with materials. Yet what good is a digital archive if the community does not have internet available? How can an individual fully participate in using or shaping digital heritage resources if they do not have the computer skills, or even … Continue reading What Is Access without Equity?
Sue Alman, a full-time lecturer at the SJSU iSchool, outlined her study of how libraries can use blockchain technology in support of city or community goals. Blockchain, most closely associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is a highly secure ledger system that records digital transactions. Alman said that her goal is to engage in a … Continue reading Blockchain, Open Civic Data, and TV White Space
The traditional dilemma about whether listening equals reading becomes increasingly relegated to the same bin of disproved anxieties as our ancestors’ certainty that radio would kill thoughtful reading. As technology advances our access points to—and interest in—information and literature, the world of social and political possibilities blossoms. Where audiobooks were once limited to oral reading … Continue reading Audiobooks and Engagement
When I started working at the library, we handed out time-limited computer access passes to anyone who wanted them. Users included library cardholders, people who were homeless, the residents of a local halfway house, and people who worked in the city but didn’t live there. I loved that we provided a valuable service to those … Continue reading Access and Resistance
The public–private partnership brings together internet service providers, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector to narrow the digital divide for families with school-aged children who live in HUD-assisted housing. It builds on the ConnectED initiative to connect 99% of K–12 students to high-speed internet in classrooms and libraries by 2018. In a July 14 media … Continue reading ConnectHome Marks One-Year Anniversary
But ask someone to fill out a form, search a library database, or edit a term paper, and it quickly becomes clear that a phone is not a perfect replacement for all of a computer’s functions. According to a recent Pew Research Center study of smartphone use, for approximately one in five Americans, their mobile … Continue reading The New Digital Divide
The good news for libraries is that investment in drivers of inclusive growth—public services such as schools, libraries, and telecommunications infrastructure—represents a critically important risk mitigation strategy. Education and knowledge are essential to successful communities, organizations, and economies, and they represent the future for the information profession if, of course, library professionals keep pace with … Continue reading Transforming the Library Profession
Progress has been made in closing the digital divide between computer-based tools and infrastructure, but an equally debilitating digital divide in internet literacy affects the American public, according to “Responding to the Second Wave of the Digital Divide,” a briefing of local government, public-policy, and library experts held May 6 at the National Press Club … Continue reading Responding to the Second Wave of the Digital Divide
Popular wisdom says if you want to learn how to use your latest piece of consumer technology, you find an 8-year-old to teach you. In “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s,” (The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2010), Brad Stone looked at how children view technology differently than adults, and even how … Continue reading Bridging the Digital Divide
This piece is excerpted from the January 2012 issue of Library Technology Reports. You can purchase the full issue on the ALA Store. Google “smartphone user.” Click on Images. What do you see? When I tried this, I saw some graphs, pictures of devices (many of them BlackBerrys), and a bunch of white people, mostly … Continue reading Bridging the Digital Divide with Mobile Services
“The digital divide gets bridged in public libraries everywhere in America,” said Mary Dempsey, Chicago Public Library commissioner, as she announced the expansion of a popular digital media center for youth in June. Recent books provide insights on how to bridge the divide, explain why we need to, and offer some research to help make … Continue reading Conquering the Digital Divide
Technology and reference are intertwining strands of public service. As our systems get more sophisticated, and as our desire to overhaul and remake those systems gets more intense, libraries need librarians who are tech-savvy and back-office staff who are pure tech. But is the drive toward more technologyoriented public service a one-way street? Or is … Continue reading Digital Divide on the Inside
