Digital Divide

Tech help can be a tricky area of public library service. In our efforts to ensure the library  remains relevant to the public we embrace helping our users with technology. We point to this as success and evidence of the library’s relevance and empowering mission. But that goal of individual empowerment often comes at the cost of obscuring systemic complexity. What does that obfuscation cost us as a community? In this session we will explore this issue and discuss Strathcona County Library’s approach to creating room for the discussion of politics and ethics within our tech programs. 

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his presentation will outline what digital literacy is and how increasing seniors' digital literacy skills can have a positive social impact in your community and in your library. Debunk the myth that seniors are unwilling and unable to learn about technology and explore a variety of ways to incorporate technology and digital literacy into library programming.
Learning Objectives:

• Understand more about digital literacy and why it is an important skill for seniors
• Consider how your library can engage seniors in digital literacy through programming and library technology

It's 2017, why doesn't everyone have email? Or aren't we post-email? Rural librarian and technologist Jessamyn West will talk about some of the intended and unintended consequences of the digital divide and discuss libraries' roles in helping mitigate them. Breakout session for more constructive discussions afterwards.
Jessamyn West is a librarian and community technologist. She writes a column for Computers in Libraries magazine and is the author of the book Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide. A born outreach librarian, she teaches a course entitled "Tools for Community Advocacy" for the University of Hawaii's Library School. She was a research fellow at Harvard University Library Innovation Lab for 2016-2017, and serves on the Advisory Board to the Wikimedia Foundation. She works with small libraries and businesses in Central Vermont to help them use technology to solve problems.