Public Libraries | Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab | School of Information Sciences

Public Engagement Summit Presentation

Five people are in a conference room: four standing near a podium and one seated. A person at the podium is presenting a PowerPoint slide titled

On Friday, April 17th, DEAR Lab members (pictured right), Dr. Colin Rhinesmith along with Elliot Barber (on Zoom), Isabel Braico, Mads Christiansen, and Bashi Hariharan Yasodha, joined our community partner, Anne Slaughter, RAILS Director of Technology Service at the Public Engagement Summit.

During the Summit, we presented our case study titled “Building the Digital Equity Capacity of Illinois Public Libraries.” As our abstract describes,

This presentation will cover the key findings and strategic directions for a research initiative in partnership between the Digital Equity Research Lab at Illinois and the Reaching Across Illinois Library System to investigate the capacity of public libraries to address the digital equity needs of their communities.

As we described in our presentation, Boyer’s (1996) “scholarship of engagement,” along with Barker’s (2004) “taxonomy of engaged scholarship” were particularly useful in describing our approach to engaged research with Anne and her team at RAILS. It was also wonderful to join Anne to co-present on our work together and future plans moving forward. The full presentation slides can be found here on IDEALS.

Libraries in a Democratic Ecosystem

I’m excited to join my friend and colleague, Claudia Șerbănuță for the first in a series of engaging discussions on “Libraries in a democratic ecosystem” hosted by Acesso Cultura.

As the website explains (also below):

Online debates
5, 12, 19 May (Tuesdays) and 25 May (Monday)
7-9pm CET
The debates will be held in English. They will not be recorded.

Register here

Human beings are not “naturally” prepared to live in democracy. In “Cultivating humanity”, philosopher Martha Nussbaum reminds us that that “people need to be fitted for freedom”, that “freedom of thought and human dignity are capabilities to be developed”, and that our role (in our case, as cultural organisations”, is to to produce free citizens, citizens who are free not because of wealth or birth, but because they can call their minds their own.”

In this context, it is relevant to explore the role of libraries in the democratic ecosystem, at a time where democracy is under pressure. Like other institutions, libraries are also vulnerable to being caught up in and coopted by the status quo. Pressure may come from political/partisan interference, from the growing lack of trust in “the system”, from mis- and dis-information, from artificial intelligence (AI), from policies and actions that aim at excluding citizens from civic participation.

Even though, there is something about the nature of information that seeks to escape containers that in some ways, forces the library as a system to push towards access, despite what the rule-bearers think or do. Libraries are still trusted; libraries are still open and free; libraries offer a place to sit, access information, read, debate, connect and create A place to train and actively defend democracy.

We invited four librarians and asked them to choose their pair for these debates.

We thank Filipa Barros for co-curating these debates.

Programme

5 May, 7-9pm CET
Claudia Șerbănuță with Colin Rhinesmith

12 May, 7-9pm CET
Filipa Barros with Renan Leite

19 May, 7-9pm CET
Alexander Soto with Dalitso Mvula

25 May , 7-9pm CET
Tracie Hall with Alberto Manguel

The link to register is here.

DNHV: Report Highlights and Recommendations

The Southeastern New York Library Council released a new report today, titled “DNHV: Report Highlights and Recommendations.” I am thrilled to have played a small part in this report, which outlines the findings from research on data gathered by the Southeastern NY Library Resources Council about the Digital Navigators of the Hudson Valley program between 2022–2024.

Here’s an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

“L&G Research and Evaluation Consulting, working in partnership with the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, analyzed data gathered by the Southeastern NY Library Council about the Digital Navigator program between 2022–2024. The research team found many benefits for public libraries, underscoring the necessity of these services for libraries and other community-based organizations in their regions. Because nationwide indicators for measuring the outcomes and impacts of Digital Navigator programs do not currently exist, we believe the findings in this report will help to inform efforts to develop indicators in the future.”

Download the full executive summary and summary of data findings to learn more about the impact of the program.

New Digital Equity Research Project with RAILS

We are thrilled to partner with the data and technology team at the Reaching Across Illinois Library System on a new project to investigate the digital equity capacity of Illinois libraries!

While existing studies have identified the role of public libraries in addressing their communities’ digital equity needs, there is little research on the digital equity capacity of public libraries in Illinois. For example, existing scholarship has documented the digital inclusion services provided by public libraries across the U.S. Other studies have examined the role of “Digital Navigators” in addressing a communities’ digital needs beyond the walls of the public library. Several dissertations at Illinois have sought to address gaps in the existing scholarship on public libraries, digital inclusion, and broadband infrastructure. But there is currently a lack of research on the digital equity capacity of Illinois libraries that can be helpful to state and regional library agencies working to support these libraries.

This research seeks to address this gap in practice and scholarship through a partnership with the data and technology services team at the Reaching Across Illinois Library System. The purpose of the research is to achieve through the following objectives: (1) determine effective ways to measure the digital equity and literacy needs of the populations served by RAILS libraries; (2) identify key methods of collecting and interpreting data about the effectiveness of digital equity resources in RAILS libraries; and (3) establish key metrics that can be used to measure the effectiveness and impacts of a digital equity program or model for public libraries in Illinois.