Public Libraries as spaces for Digital Inclusion: Connecting Communities Through Technology
|
Earlier this year, LIANZA and Public Libraries of New Zealand (PLNZ) supported research undertaken by the Institute of Education, Equity through Education Centre, Massey University, which was funded by InternetNZ. The research report was recently released by Dr Maggie Hartnett, Associate Professor Mandia Mentis, Associate Professor Alison Kearney, Dr Lucila Carvalho, and Dr Philippa Butler
The research aimed to find out how public libraries in New Zealand meet the digital needs of their users and communities. Data was gathered through three surveys developed for library managers, library staff, and library users and conclusions are presented using four overarching categories of access, motivation, capability, and trust. The report found that “public libraries see themselves as effective at supporting users’ digital needs, and staff are interested and engaged in developing their own digital skills to support the needs of their communities." (p. 1) The report recommended that libraries prioritise development of a digital strategy, promote partnerships with external partners and address identified barriers that hinder the digital needs of library users (p. 49). The authors suggest that the recent $58.8 million government funding boost to libraries from the NZ Libraries Partnership Programme may help support these recommendations. Helen Heath caught up with researcher, Maggie Hartnett to learn more about the report’s recommendations. |
|
Kia ora Maggie and thanks for taking the time to explain your research in more detail. Reading your report, I was quite surprised to discover how few councils and public libraries have digital strategies in place.
I don’t know if we were surprised – it was what it was. I think for some people the connection between the council and the library was really clear, for others it was not. I think partly because, for some of the bigger libraries, the pathway through strategy is perhaps clearer than for some smaller libraries. I thought it might be useful for our readers if we used the report’s recommendations as talking points. But firstly, I just want to note that the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme goals seem to be well aligned with your recommendations and your report seems really well-timed. Yes, I think so, although not by design! But it’s a very positive situation and hopefully, the report helps provide some context from which decisions can be made about the allocation of funding. |
Dr Maggie Hartnett is a senior lecturer within the Institute of Education at Massey University where she teaches and coordinates the postgraduate digital education programmes.
|
The first recommendation is: ‘Prioritise the development of a digital strategy for those public libraries where a strategy does not currently exist and link it to the council digital strategy.’ It looks like there may be a need for a community of practice that perhaps LIANZA can facilitate. I’m thinking of workshops, digital strategy templates, peer support, knowledge sharing. Have you got any thoughts about that?
We didn’t actually look at the content of the digital strategies, we asked if they had one; if the council had one; and if they were connected. I think that’s probably a really good idea, learning from each other is a really powerful way to get things moving forward for everybody. So, a community of practice would be an excellent way to support – particularly for libraries with fewer resources available. I imagine many libraries would need some guidance around what goes into a digital strategy. LIANZA is a central player in this space and the issue is not going away. You provide a really important service to the wider library communities in which you sit. In order for libraries’ approach to be coherent, to have a sense of purpose and direction, strategy makes complete sense. It’s all very well for research to come up with recommendations but then there needs to be a mechanism for them to be put into place, obviously! That’s where your networks come into their own.
Yes, I think one of LIANZA’s strengths is bringing members together. The next recommendation in your report is: ‘Promote further development of partnerships with external partners (e.g. APNK Network, Spark Jump, Stepping Up Programme) that support digital inclusion.’ (p 49) One of the things that have come out of the Partnership Programme is the extension of the APNK network to all libraries.
Yes, I saw that, which is fantastic! We aligned really well there too!
It’s obviously a really timely report!
Yes, because what came through really strongly in the research was the value of those things. From the point of view of the librarians, but also of the library users as well. How libraries provide those supports and expertise that a lot of library users are looking for – the technology for a start, but also that support and expertise. One thing that came through clearly for me is that libraries seem to be very good at creating these partnerships. They recognise that they don’t have to do all of it on their own and there is expertise out there – people and organisations that are doing a good job and it’s just a matter of partnering up with them so they can offer a wide range of services that library users are looking for.
Yes, earlier this year, Library Life featured libraries that are working successfully in partnership with the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa and we are keen to share more success stories. Many libraries don’t have the time or capacity to do it all on their own and they know that there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.
Libraries are very good at leveraging their networks and creating collaborations with other groups that benefit everybody. You don’t have to do everything yourself – that’s the key. You don’t necessarily need to have all the expertise yourself either. There are ways you can provide those services without having to employ a whole lot more digital expertise. That’s not to say that the existing library staff are not wanting to upskill, but there’s another way you can provide that expertise, which I think is really important.
Especially when you are working on the smell of an oily rag!
Well, exactly! That came through really strongly as well. Although fortunately there is now this new funding.
So, the next recommendation is ‘Invest in professional learning and development to address identified barriers that hinder the digital needs of library users including lack of staff knowledge, time and capacity, funding, and physical resources (e.g. space, equipment).’ (p 49)
This was a biggie - it came through so strongly from the library staff survey. By and large, most of the staff said they were really interested in upskilling and they saw value in it. They spend a reasonable amount of time working with library users who want to learn these new skills or want to know more about their own devices, or how to do things. But so much of it is done in their own time – they’re learning things outside of work hours, or while they’ve got someone in front of them that wants some help and they’ll give it a go. While all of that is really admirable and probably a characteristic of many library staff, it is only one aspect of learning and there probably needs to be more focus in their strategic plan on how libraries are going to upskill their workforce. Because things continue to shift, there’s an expectation that we upskill the library users, but once they get upskilled they’re going to want to try new things, in which case, library staff will need to be able to do new things.
I think there is a place for more formal professional development (although there is some out there) for staff that is accessible. Often they can’t find the funding or the time, so for whatever reason, they end up relying on their own resources and having to figure it out for themselves. From what we saw in the survey, the vast majority of staff would jump at it.
That’s food for thought! Your next recommendation is: ‘Prioritise the creation of digital specialist roles in libraries.’ I guess that also comes underneath the umbrella of a digital plan?
I think so, and we recognise that will be dependant on the size and resourcing within particular libraries but it does seem that those things are connected up – those libraries that had a digital specialist role also had a digital strategy and tended to also be linked up with the strategy at council level so there was a plan of action, essentially. It’s a way in which you can organise your resources to ensure you are meeting those needs. Having people in these roles means you can support not just library users but staff as well.
It would also aid a community of practice by creating a network of contacts to help reach the wider library community and get information out there to people that need it.
Next on the list is: ‘Provide additional expertise and support for specialist groups of library users, including those who are blind or have low vision, the deaf and hard of hearing, and those with physical impairments and complex needs.’
The way to do this might be to ensure the people who have that interest and expertise are able to share their expertise so that people have a way of moving forward. So, if librarians see a need for a specialist service within their library community, they have resources they can draw on to make decisions on how they might change that.
There is the recognition that these services are really important to provide for these different groups of users, who have particular needs. But there is also the recognition that libraries aren’t necessarily doing the job that they would like to be doing for those users at this stage. That’s often because there is so much stuff that we have to keep on top of in a profession that we can’t have expertise in all areas, we do have to rely on others.
The next point is: Have the amount of time staff currently dedicate to supporting library users' digital skills (including foundational skills) recognised as an important part of their workload.
One of the things that came up when we first started talking to people is that a lot of this work is hidden. We had comments made to us that, for some libraries and library staff, their councils had no idea what they were doing. These councils still saw libraries as places you go to borrow a book – that’s all! So, when libraries explain that many staff are dealing with complex digital requests from their users, they’d be met with blank stares or the response “that’s not what libraries do!”
That makes me wonder when they last set foot in a library!
Exactly, part of what we hoped to do was to make that visible and I think we really have. What’s come through really clearly is that it is an ongoing and regular part of library staffs’ role. It’s every day and what they have to be able to manage is really quite broad. This should be acknowledged in their written job descriptions and then planned for.
So that dovetails into the next point, which is to include ongoing PLD requirements as part of library staff roles.
It does, as soon as you recognise that it is part of their role, there is a responsibility then to provide the training and ongoing skill development that’s needed to meet the requirements of the role.
The NZ Libraries Partnership Programme funding certainly lends itself to the next points:
Prioritise and fund a systematic approach to Professional Learning Development so that all staff can develop their digital capabilities to support the ongoing digital needs of users.
Provide advanced digital professional learning and development opportunities to staff who have pre-existing digital capability and interest, thereby enabling them to support library users seeking to develop these skills.
The people who responded to the survey who were able to do advanced digital tasks, such as help people with 3D printers and coding, came into library work with those skills already, they didn’t acquire them as part of their role. I think this is an area that’s going to grow – Makerspaces in libraries, coding clubs in libraries – those kinds of things will continue to grow, so there will need to be people in those spaces that can provide support. What is clear is that there are people in libraries who are interested and keen to do that. To make it work really well, we’ll need to identify and encourage those people to develop those skills and use their capabilities to provide those services and perhaps support other staff within their libraries to develop those skills as well.
And as your report pointed out, it seemed to be those staff that had been recruited more recently that seemed to have these skills.
It would be really interesting to follow up where these people had developed those skills, what experience they had in their background that enabled them to bring those skills with them.
That the digital curriculum has been introduced into New Zealand schools now and is expected to be taught from this year. Part of the digital strand is computational thinking, which is bigger than coding but encompasses coding. What’s going to be interesting over time is as we see those students come through the schooling system and go on to do other qualifications and move into professions – including the library sector – whether we see a change over time with more people coming through not only being able to use these technologies but to develop them and think about them in a broader context.
The last point is: Provide targeted support to develop library users’ online safety capabilities. I guess once we support the librarians we can support the users.
Something that came through strongly is that the mechanisms in place to help people with the really basic stuff are going to continue to be important. The partnerships that libraries develop with other organisations are going to continue to be important because foundational skills are shifting, so there is always going to be a need for that support for library users.
The survey identified that library users are not so good at understanding online safety, so there is an opportunity there – not just about things like not getting hacked or having your identity stolen – but, increasingly, the trust aspect, which is where librarians come into their own – how to access information that is from safe and trustworthy sites, how to determine what’s reputable and what’s not. That’s an opportunity libraries could be maximising to really help people within the wider community to develop the skills they really need for today.
The LIANZA Standing Committee on Freedom of Information is doing work in that area and it will be interesting to see how that develops.
That need is only going to increase as things become more sophisticated and we only need to look at the misinformation being spread around this last COVID outbreak – it shows that New Zealand is not immune to this and we need more critical thinking!
Fake news is far more click-able than boring facts!
Absolutely, and once you’re in that whirlpool, it’s very hard to get out of it. We need the antidote to that more than ever with everything that’s going on around the world in all sorts of different ways.
Thank you for your time, your report is a great resource and hopefully, it will help inform the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme.
It’s been great talking with you, I do hope it has some benefit to libraries because they are such a valuable resource within our communities that have been underappreciated in many ways, it seems to me. I’m often astounded by what libraries and librarians are able to offer.
We are looking forward to your LIANZA Webinar on Digital Inclusion, October 28, see you then!
READ THE FULL REPORT >
Hartnett, M., Butler, P., Mentis, M., Carvalho, L., & Kearney, A., (2020). Public libraries as spaces for digital inclusion: Connecting communities through technology. Massey University, Institute of Education.
We didn’t actually look at the content of the digital strategies, we asked if they had one; if the council had one; and if they were connected. I think that’s probably a really good idea, learning from each other is a really powerful way to get things moving forward for everybody. So, a community of practice would be an excellent way to support – particularly for libraries with fewer resources available. I imagine many libraries would need some guidance around what goes into a digital strategy. LIANZA is a central player in this space and the issue is not going away. You provide a really important service to the wider library communities in which you sit. In order for libraries’ approach to be coherent, to have a sense of purpose and direction, strategy makes complete sense. It’s all very well for research to come up with recommendations but then there needs to be a mechanism for them to be put into place, obviously! That’s where your networks come into their own.
Yes, I think one of LIANZA’s strengths is bringing members together. The next recommendation in your report is: ‘Promote further development of partnerships with external partners (e.g. APNK Network, Spark Jump, Stepping Up Programme) that support digital inclusion.’ (p 49) One of the things that have come out of the Partnership Programme is the extension of the APNK network to all libraries.
Yes, I saw that, which is fantastic! We aligned really well there too!
It’s obviously a really timely report!
Yes, because what came through really strongly in the research was the value of those things. From the point of view of the librarians, but also of the library users as well. How libraries provide those supports and expertise that a lot of library users are looking for – the technology for a start, but also that support and expertise. One thing that came through clearly for me is that libraries seem to be very good at creating these partnerships. They recognise that they don’t have to do all of it on their own and there is expertise out there – people and organisations that are doing a good job and it’s just a matter of partnering up with them so they can offer a wide range of services that library users are looking for.
Yes, earlier this year, Library Life featured libraries that are working successfully in partnership with the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa and we are keen to share more success stories. Many libraries don’t have the time or capacity to do it all on their own and they know that there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.
Libraries are very good at leveraging their networks and creating collaborations with other groups that benefit everybody. You don’t have to do everything yourself – that’s the key. You don’t necessarily need to have all the expertise yourself either. There are ways you can provide those services without having to employ a whole lot more digital expertise. That’s not to say that the existing library staff are not wanting to upskill, but there’s another way you can provide that expertise, which I think is really important.
Especially when you are working on the smell of an oily rag!
Well, exactly! That came through really strongly as well. Although fortunately there is now this new funding.
So, the next recommendation is ‘Invest in professional learning and development to address identified barriers that hinder the digital needs of library users including lack of staff knowledge, time and capacity, funding, and physical resources (e.g. space, equipment).’ (p 49)
This was a biggie - it came through so strongly from the library staff survey. By and large, most of the staff said they were really interested in upskilling and they saw value in it. They spend a reasonable amount of time working with library users who want to learn these new skills or want to know more about their own devices, or how to do things. But so much of it is done in their own time – they’re learning things outside of work hours, or while they’ve got someone in front of them that wants some help and they’ll give it a go. While all of that is really admirable and probably a characteristic of many library staff, it is only one aspect of learning and there probably needs to be more focus in their strategic plan on how libraries are going to upskill their workforce. Because things continue to shift, there’s an expectation that we upskill the library users, but once they get upskilled they’re going to want to try new things, in which case, library staff will need to be able to do new things.
I think there is a place for more formal professional development (although there is some out there) for staff that is accessible. Often they can’t find the funding or the time, so for whatever reason, they end up relying on their own resources and having to figure it out for themselves. From what we saw in the survey, the vast majority of staff would jump at it.
That’s food for thought! Your next recommendation is: ‘Prioritise the creation of digital specialist roles in libraries.’ I guess that also comes underneath the umbrella of a digital plan?
I think so, and we recognise that will be dependant on the size and resourcing within particular libraries but it does seem that those things are connected up – those libraries that had a digital specialist role also had a digital strategy and tended to also be linked up with the strategy at council level so there was a plan of action, essentially. It’s a way in which you can organise your resources to ensure you are meeting those needs. Having people in these roles means you can support not just library users but staff as well.
It would also aid a community of practice by creating a network of contacts to help reach the wider library community and get information out there to people that need it.
Next on the list is: ‘Provide additional expertise and support for specialist groups of library users, including those who are blind or have low vision, the deaf and hard of hearing, and those with physical impairments and complex needs.’
The way to do this might be to ensure the people who have that interest and expertise are able to share their expertise so that people have a way of moving forward. So, if librarians see a need for a specialist service within their library community, they have resources they can draw on to make decisions on how they might change that.
There is the recognition that these services are really important to provide for these different groups of users, who have particular needs. But there is also the recognition that libraries aren’t necessarily doing the job that they would like to be doing for those users at this stage. That’s often because there is so much stuff that we have to keep on top of in a profession that we can’t have expertise in all areas, we do have to rely on others.
The next point is: Have the amount of time staff currently dedicate to supporting library users' digital skills (including foundational skills) recognised as an important part of their workload.
One of the things that came up when we first started talking to people is that a lot of this work is hidden. We had comments made to us that, for some libraries and library staff, their councils had no idea what they were doing. These councils still saw libraries as places you go to borrow a book – that’s all! So, when libraries explain that many staff are dealing with complex digital requests from their users, they’d be met with blank stares or the response “that’s not what libraries do!”
That makes me wonder when they last set foot in a library!
Exactly, part of what we hoped to do was to make that visible and I think we really have. What’s come through really clearly is that it is an ongoing and regular part of library staffs’ role. It’s every day and what they have to be able to manage is really quite broad. This should be acknowledged in their written job descriptions and then planned for.
So that dovetails into the next point, which is to include ongoing PLD requirements as part of library staff roles.
It does, as soon as you recognise that it is part of their role, there is a responsibility then to provide the training and ongoing skill development that’s needed to meet the requirements of the role.
The NZ Libraries Partnership Programme funding certainly lends itself to the next points:
Prioritise and fund a systematic approach to Professional Learning Development so that all staff can develop their digital capabilities to support the ongoing digital needs of users.
Provide advanced digital professional learning and development opportunities to staff who have pre-existing digital capability and interest, thereby enabling them to support library users seeking to develop these skills.
The people who responded to the survey who were able to do advanced digital tasks, such as help people with 3D printers and coding, came into library work with those skills already, they didn’t acquire them as part of their role. I think this is an area that’s going to grow – Makerspaces in libraries, coding clubs in libraries – those kinds of things will continue to grow, so there will need to be people in those spaces that can provide support. What is clear is that there are people in libraries who are interested and keen to do that. To make it work really well, we’ll need to identify and encourage those people to develop those skills and use their capabilities to provide those services and perhaps support other staff within their libraries to develop those skills as well.
And as your report pointed out, it seemed to be those staff that had been recruited more recently that seemed to have these skills.
It would be really interesting to follow up where these people had developed those skills, what experience they had in their background that enabled them to bring those skills with them.
That the digital curriculum has been introduced into New Zealand schools now and is expected to be taught from this year. Part of the digital strand is computational thinking, which is bigger than coding but encompasses coding. What’s going to be interesting over time is as we see those students come through the schooling system and go on to do other qualifications and move into professions – including the library sector – whether we see a change over time with more people coming through not only being able to use these technologies but to develop them and think about them in a broader context.
The last point is: Provide targeted support to develop library users’ online safety capabilities. I guess once we support the librarians we can support the users.
Something that came through strongly is that the mechanisms in place to help people with the really basic stuff are going to continue to be important. The partnerships that libraries develop with other organisations are going to continue to be important because foundational skills are shifting, so there is always going to be a need for that support for library users.
The survey identified that library users are not so good at understanding online safety, so there is an opportunity there – not just about things like not getting hacked or having your identity stolen – but, increasingly, the trust aspect, which is where librarians come into their own – how to access information that is from safe and trustworthy sites, how to determine what’s reputable and what’s not. That’s an opportunity libraries could be maximising to really help people within the wider community to develop the skills they really need for today.
The LIANZA Standing Committee on Freedom of Information is doing work in that area and it will be interesting to see how that develops.
That need is only going to increase as things become more sophisticated and we only need to look at the misinformation being spread around this last COVID outbreak – it shows that New Zealand is not immune to this and we need more critical thinking!
Fake news is far more click-able than boring facts!
Absolutely, and once you’re in that whirlpool, it’s very hard to get out of it. We need the antidote to that more than ever with everything that’s going on around the world in all sorts of different ways.
Thank you for your time, your report is a great resource and hopefully, it will help inform the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme.
It’s been great talking with you, I do hope it has some benefit to libraries because they are such a valuable resource within our communities that have been underappreciated in many ways, it seems to me. I’m often astounded by what libraries and librarians are able to offer.
We are looking forward to your LIANZA Webinar on Digital Inclusion, October 28, see you then!
READ THE FULL REPORT >
Hartnett, M., Butler, P., Mentis, M., Carvalho, L., & Kearney, A., (2020). Public libraries as spaces for digital inclusion: Connecting communities through technology. Massey University, Institute of Education.