Category: Digital Literacy

For the last year, the Willoughy-Eastlake Public Library has been participating in the Mozilla Foundation’s Web Literacy pilot funded by an IMLS grant. Mozilla is the free-software company behind the Firefox web browser. The goal of the grant has been to strengthen the web literacy skills of our library staff. The web literacy framework is based on three core 21st century skills: read, write, and participate. These areas are divided into more specific skills such as navigating online, evaluating online sources, coding web pages, and online safety and privacy. This framework is not only essential for library staff to understand but also members of the community. Web literacy is now a life skill. It is the foundation of finding jobs online, getting access to social services, and staying informed.

During the pilot, the library trained a total of 27 public service staff members that work in three different departments within the 4 library branches: Adult Services, Young Adult, and Children’s. The library has also implemented the web literacy curriculum in the courses that they offer for the public. The library offered a Privacy Matters class at the Eastlake Library in May and at the Council on Aging. Last month, the library offered its first HTML coding class for adults: Building the Web: Intro to Coding. Most recently the Children’s Librarians have begun integrating web literacy activities into the Homeschool Computers and Research classes.

In October, I had the opportunity to attend MozFest in London. The conference explored the current health of the internet and included sessions on online privacy, web literacy for veterans, and working with seniors in digital literacy education.

Web literacy skills are essential for our communities to be able to engage and participate online in safe and productive ways. The library will continue to offer innovative technology classes that strengthen the skills in the community.

Trust is fundamental to so much of what libraries do. I think it is one of the main reasons that people like libraries. Fostering a trusting environment should be considered in all library decisions from building remodels to lending new materials. Ultimately, librarians and administrators need to look at themselves as part of the community that they are serving instead of being separate from it. Essentially librarianship is about building relationships and opening a dialogues.

I think this is true for how we engage and interact with coworkers. Personally, I know that I need to bring more trust to the table or maybe I need to realize that my coworkers do indeed trust me!

I was listening to an episode of Freakonmics Radio about hitchhiking. I have hitchhiked in Scotland and Ireland. All of my experiences hitchhiking were very positive. I would not have been able to get to the outskirts of Skye or the coast of Torridon if it wasn’t for hitching a ride. It also allowed me to interact with locals. I couldn’t imagine hitchhiking in America mainly because our infrastructure and highway system does not lend itself to hitching.

Anyway, hitchhiking requires a great deal of trust. Statistician, Bill James, feels that hitchhiking should be reinvigorated:

Yes, I do. And the reason I do is that we have a better society when we can trust one another. And wherever and whenever there’s an evaporation of systems based on trust I think there’s a loss to society. I also think that one evaporation of trust in society tends to feed another, and that we would have a better society if we could, rather than promoting fear and working to reduce the places where terrible things happen, if we could promote trust and work on building societies in which people are more trustworthy. I think we’re all better off in a million different ways if and when we can do that.”

Our concept of information literacy is evolving more and more rapidly as technology becomes ingrained in our everyday lives.  Schools and educators are realizing the importance of expanding an interest in computer science and coding to a wider audience and at an earlier age.  On January 24, 2014, the popular science podcast, ScienceFriday, ran an episode entitled “Is Coding the Language of the Digital Age?“.  The panel discussed ways that coding can be incorporated into our existing education system in order to close the gap for women and minorities.

The ability to code is becoming increasingly important in order to succeed professionally and to be able to creatively solve problems that affect all communities.  The logic and problem solving skills are becoming as relevant as the traditional sciences taught in the classroom.  A number of accessible resources were discussed:

Hour of Code

The Hour of Code campaign aims to demystify computer science for students across the country by taking them through introductory tutorials that can be completed online, on a smartphone, or even unplugged.

 Girl Develop It

Empowering women of diverse backgrounds from around the world to learn how to develop software.

Alongside these resources, libraries can use the Web Literacy Standard, developed by Mozilla, to create workshops to offer to the public to allow users of all ages to gain insight into the empowering world of coding.  For the self-learner, free online tutorials are offered through organizations such as Codecademy.

Libraries are already offering the public ways to improve their digital literacy.  The St. Paul Public Library developed the Northstar Digital Literacy Certificate.  This project “defines basic skills needed to perform tasks on computers and online.”

As more and more job applications and tests, such as the GED, move to a digital-only format,  information skills become vital.