WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:00.290 --> 00:00:05.220 COLIN RHINESMITH: Hello, everyone. My name is Colin Rhinesmith. I'm an assistant professor 2 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:11.200 of social and community informatics at the University of Oklahoma. It's a real honor 3 00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:16.750 to be here, a real pleasure to be with you all, and to the later hours of the afternoon 4 00:00:16.750 --> 00:00:23.400 before the coffee break. What we're going to do today is first we'll define what is 5 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:28.810 digital inclusion. We'll try to think about that within what we've heard already, and 6 00:00:28.810 --> 00:00:35.140 I think, really, a number, what we've been asked along with other panelists is to talk 7 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:38.481 a little bit about the state of the field in terms of digital literacy and inclusion, 8 00:00:38.481 --> 00:00:43.260 and I would agree with the other moderators that have come before me that I think we've 9 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:50.850 heard many examples already about the state of the field in digital literacy, among different 10 00:00:50.850 --> 00:00:56.120 populations, but I think what our wonderful speakers today will be able to provide some 11 00:00:56.120 --> 00:01:02.830 additional examples, additional perspectives from their work that will contribute, hopefully, 12 00:01:02.830 --> 00:01:09.350 to more full conversation and understanding of digital literacy and inclusion. So we will 13 00:01:09.350 --> 00:01:16.890 talk a little bit about current state of the field and continue on to talk about the challenges 14 00:01:16.890 --> 00:01:23.630 and gaps that will hopefully lead us to an exciting conversation about recommendations. 15 00:01:23.630 --> 00:01:31.270 We will, unfortunately, we are missing one speaker, who I will address in a minute. I 16 00:01:31.270 --> 00:01:34.729 will introduce in a minute, but we have some other people in the audience who could also 17 00:01:34.729 --> 00:01:41.920 speak to Susan Feller's work in tribal libraries, so that will be a good addition. 18 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:50.520 So let me begin by introducing our speakers who are here. To my second to my left is Ruth 19 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:56.560 Small, who is Laura J. And L. Douglas Meredith professor of information studies, the I school 20 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:02.980 at Syracuse. She's founding director of Syracuse University Center for Digital Literacy which 21 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:06.979 is an interdisciplinary collaborative research and development center for which she has earned 22 00:02:06.979 --> 00:02:15.739 more than 6 million in external funding, including being coPI over 26 years on the high school 23 00:02:15.739 --> 00:02:22.110 faculty and these projects include SOS for information literacy, which was named to the 24 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:27.609 first list of AASL's best Web sites for teaching and learning, and Project Enable, which we'll 25 00:02:27.609 --> 00:02:33.689 hear more about today, which enable stands for expanding nondiscriminatory access by 26 00:02:33.689 --> 00:02:37.879 librarians everywhere. A project to train librarians nationwide in 27 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.859 ways to provide accessible and inclusive libraries and library information services, programs 28 00:02:42.859 --> 00:02:51.849 and resources, and next to my more immediate left is Dwight McInvaill, who has served as 29 00:02:51.849 --> 00:02:57.359 director of the Georgetown county library of South Carolina since 1996. He was educated 30 00:02:57.359 --> 00:03:01.239 at Presbyterian College, where he received his bachelor's and at the University of North 31 00:03:01.239 --> 00:03:06.029 Carolina at chapel hill, where he received his MLS and at the University of BORDEAUX 32 00:03:06.029 --> 00:03:13.329 in France on a rotary foundation scholarship so his focus on a public librarian is on providing 33 00:03:13.329 --> 00:03:18.329 innovative services for the benefit of his community, which he will be talking more about 34 00:03:18.329 --> 00:03:24.459 today and to achieve that aim, he likes trying, in addition to traditional methods, a mix 35 00:03:24.459 --> 00:03:28.739 of other approaches, which are very exciting and we'll hear more about today, including 36 00:03:28.739 --> 00:03:33.730 interactive gaming to encourage teen literacy, oral history videos to strengthen community 37 00:03:33.730 --> 00:03:39.589 spirit, digital arts instructions to stimulate creativity, digital dissemination of historic 38 00:03:39.589 --> 00:03:44.389 images and documents to preserve and share stories, cooperation with other agencies to 39 00:03:44.389 --> 00:03:49.471 prepare our citizens for natural disasters, and the list goes on, let me tell you. Very 40 00:03:49.471 --> 00:03:53.629 exciting. So we're looking forward to hearing more about Dwight's work. 41 00:03:53.629 --> 00:04:00.139 So unfortunately, our third panelist who couldn't make it, Susan Feller, is president and CEO 42 00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:08.889 of the sorry, the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museum, ATOM. We do have in 43 00:04:08.889 --> 00:04:15.401 the back of the room, we have very exciting report that came out in 2014 that's in the 44 00:04:15.401 --> 00:04:20.420 back of the room that Mary Alice Ball is oh, holding up back there. It's entitled "Digital 45 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:24.660 Inclusion In Native Communities, " the Role Of Tribal Libraries. And there's some pretty 46 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:32.920 incredible findings from this report. It's unfortunate she couldn't be here. The reason 47 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:37.030 why is unfortunately with all the terrible storms in Oklahoma, that a tree fell through 48 00:04:37.030 --> 00:04:42.750 her roof, so it's really awful, and she had to turn around, after driving up yesterday, 49 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:49.320 as I did from Oklahoma, she had to turn around today and address that problem. So we're really 50 00:04:49.320 --> 00:04:53.060 sorry she couldn't be here, but we do want to include some of the remarks that she did 51 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:58.870 prepare today. So I'll include some of those in the time that we have. 52 00:04:58.870 --> 00:05:05.560 So this is who we are. This is what we're doing. But let's talk a little bit about digital 53 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:10.300 inclusion, and what's the difference between digital literacy, digital inclusion. There's 54 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:15.200 also this thing called the digital divide and all of them are important, and so what 55 00:05:15.200 --> 00:05:20.510 I'd like to do is just to read one bit of a page from the building digital communities 56 00:05:20.510 --> 00:05:25.510 report from the IMLS that came out a few years ago. I had the honor of being involved in 57 00:05:25.510 --> 00:05:31.280 the working group to put together that report, and so here are the IMLS states or asks the 58 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:36.370 question, what is digital inclusion and why does it matter? The report begins by saying 59 00:05:36.370 --> 00:05:41.770 that digital inclusion is the ability of individuals and groups to access and use information and 60 00:05:41.770 --> 00:05:47.380 communication technologies. Digital inclusion encompasses not only access to the internet, 61 00:05:47.380 --> 00:05:51.950 but also the availability of hardware and software, relevant content and services, and 62 00:05:51.950 --> 00:06:00.110 training for the digital literacy skills required for effective use of information and communication 63 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:07.270 technologies. The cost of digital exclusion is great. Without access, full participation 64 00:06:07.270 --> 00:06:12.810 and nearly every aspect of American society from economic success and educational achievement 65 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:19.030 to positive health outcomes and civic engagement is compromised. Now, lastly, what does digital 66 00:06:19.030 --> 00:06:23.960 inclusion mean for people in a community? So specifically, digital inclusion means that 67 00:06:23.960 --> 00:06:29.330 all members understand the benefits of advanced information communication technologies. All 68 00:06:29.330 --> 00:06:34.220 members have equitable and affordable access to highspeed internet connected devices and 69 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:39.980 online content, and all members can take advantage of the educational, economic and social opportunities 70 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:45.930 available through these technologies. So what we want to do today to begin, as I 71 00:06:45.930 --> 00:06:51.340 said before, is we'll turn it over to the speakers here to include some comments on 72 00:06:51.340 --> 00:06:56.430 what they're seeing within their own work, and also other examples that they find to 73 00:06:56.430 --> 00:07:02.590 be exemplars for models that we should discuss that haven't been announced already today 74 00:07:02.590 --> 00:07:09.930 and begin a conversation from there, so I'll start with Ruth, please. 75 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:17.560 >> RUTH SMALL: Okay. Thank you. Back in 2006 this is a little history leading to the answer 76 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:23.220 to this question, my answer to this question, I received an IMLS NLG, National Leadership 77 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:30.930 Grant, to study to do one of the school library impact studies, specifically in New York State. 78 00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:41.030 And it was a multiresearch method study using in depth surveys, general surveys, focus groups 79 00:07:41.030 --> 00:07:47.530 and case studies in 1600 school libraries in New York State. 80 00:07:47.530 --> 00:07:54.860 And one of the questions that we asked in that study of those 1600plus librarians was 81 00:07:54.860 --> 00:08:00.360 of all of these different tasks that are normal tasks for a school librarian, how do you rate 82 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:06.620 yourself in terms of your ability to perform them? We had things like collection development 83 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:21.300 and providing information literacy instruction. We had several probably I think 15 or 16 different 84 00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:32.630 tasks. And by far, we were actually startled by this result, 84% had statistically significant 85 00:08:32.630 --> 00:08:39.689 difference from all of the other tasks, 84% of the librarians that responded said they 86 00:08:39.689 --> 00:08:46.040 felt not adequately prepared to serve students with disabilities. 87 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:52.639 So we explored that in a little more depth, and that was in the first general survey. 88 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:57.720 So in the in depth survey, and then the focus groups and case studies, we explore that in 89 00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:05.800 a little more depth and found that not only did these librarians not receive this training 90 00:09:05.800 --> 00:09:13.320 in their preservice programs, but when it came time for programs, professional development 91 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:19.470 programs in their schools, they were left out of the loop. Those programs were for teachers, 92 00:09:19.470 --> 00:09:26.269 and not for librarians. Another case of librarians being left out. 93 00:09:26.269 --> 00:09:37.029 So we saw this immediately as a high need, and we were very lucky to receive, in 2010, 94 00:09:37.029 --> 00:09:44.041 a grant, a Laura Bush 21st Century Grant, to do something about that. And Project Enable 95 00:09:44.041 --> 00:09:53.339 was born. And we've had three successive grants to support Project Enable. So what is Project 96 00:09:53.339 --> 00:10:00.209 Enable? Well, it's a program to train school to train 97 00:10:00.209 --> 00:10:09.749 librarians. We started with school librarians, to provide accessible libraries and inclusive 98 00:10:09.749 --> 00:10:20.890 library programs and services. So we originally started with focused on New 99 00:10:20.890 --> 00:10:28.399 York State school libraries and school librarians using facetoface training. We quickly saw 100 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:37.970 that this was not going to be fast enough, nor give us enough coverage to cover the need 101 00:10:37.970 --> 00:10:46.800 so we asked for another grant from IMLS and got it to expand Project Enable to school 102 00:10:46.800 --> 00:10:54.920 librarians nationwide. At that point, we quickly found out from other surveys that we conducted 103 00:10:54.920 --> 00:11:01.519 that academic and public librarians felt exactly the same way. They were not prepared in their 104 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:06.939 preservice program, and they do not have adequate professional development to feel that they 105 00:11:06.939 --> 00:11:16.459 are capable of doing what we've asked. So we expanded again and got another grant from 106 00:11:16.459 --> 00:11:27.639 IMLS to expand to public and academic librarians basically all librarians, and nationwide. 107 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:35.399 So Project Enable, in its third iteration, became an online program so that we could 108 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:45.040 reach more people faster. It provides foundational, customized, free training to librarians. We 109 00:11:45.040 --> 00:11:51.209 only ask that they register, and we ask that so that we can customize it. It contains five 110 00:11:51.209 --> 00:12:01.170 selfbased learning modules on disability awareness, laws and policies, accessible libraries, inclusive 111 00:12:01.170 --> 00:12:07.559 programs and services and assistive technology, and the URL, in case you're wondering, is 112 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:20.290 projectenable.syr.edu. Project Enable is multimedia. It includes interactive exercises, quizzes 113 00:12:20.290 --> 00:12:27.160 and tests, games, webinars, and all kinds of other information. It's actually kind of 114 00:12:27.160 --> 00:12:32.689 fun to go through these modules, and they're quite comprehensive. You can pick and choose 115 00:12:32.689 --> 00:12:39.879 what you want to do. It's selfbased. But one of the other things that we have customized 116 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:46.600 is that you can go through Project Enable as an individual at your own pace, and looking 117 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:53.500 at what you want, or you can go through it as a group. And what I mean by that is if 118 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:58.639 a faculty at a university wants to have their students go through Project Enable or part 119 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:06.569 of Project Enable, they can register that group, and monitor their progress. If a library 120 00:13:06.569 --> 00:13:13.929 director or a professional developer or trainer in a library system wants to have their staff 121 00:13:13.929 --> 00:13:19.850 or part of their staff go through project enable, they can do that as well. So there's 122 00:13:19.850 --> 00:13:29.920 a lot of flexibility in how you participate. Today, since we launched the Project ENABLE 123 00:13:29.920 --> 00:13:38.129 online training, we've had 1.4 million visitors and over a thousand participate in our training. 124 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:45.040 We're currently doing some pilot research, and actually, this fits in well with the last 125 00:13:45.040 --> 00:13:51.249 presentation, because we started with research, and Project ENABLE grew out of the research 126 00:13:51.249 --> 00:13:56.730 that we had done, and now we're conducting research on Project ENABLE and its impact 127 00:13:56.730 --> 00:14:04.610 by collecting personal stories as evidence of impact on not only on librarians and libraries 128 00:14:04.610 --> 00:14:12.339 and library practice, but also on the people they serve, the people with disabilities. 129 00:14:12.339 --> 00:14:19.470 We're actively involved also in two other related IMLSfunded projects. One in Illinois, 130 00:14:19.470 --> 00:14:27.829 at the Illinois State library called Targeting Autism, and another in Florida through Florida 131 00:14:27.829 --> 00:14:37.810 State University, Project Pals, which is a project to train librarians to provide services 132 00:14:37.810 --> 00:14:44.269 and resources to children with autism. So that's Project ENABLE, and we feel that 133 00:14:44.269 --> 00:14:52.379 that is what is called inclusive digital literacy, where we are training librarians to be able 134 00:14:52.379 --> 00:15:00.329 to provide all of their services, all of their programs to all of their patrons. 135 00:15:00.329 --> 00:15:06.410 >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Great. Thank you, Ruth. So actually I forgot to say that we're going 136 00:15:06.410 --> 00:15:11.660 to try to make this more of a conversation, interactive among the three of us so that 137 00:15:11.660 --> 00:15:16.009 hopefully by the time we're saying what we have prepared that we can open it all to you 138 00:15:16.009 --> 00:15:24.360 and have that be a continuation of the discussion. So now we will turn to Dwight. And Dwight, 139 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.089 please. >> DWIGHT McINVAILL: Colin, thank you. Thank 140 00:15:26.089 --> 00:15:32.300 you so very much. I also wanted to thank the IMLS for this opportunity, and a place where 141 00:15:32.300 --> 00:15:36.980 you don't have a large budget, you don't get out very much, and so it's very good to be 142 00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:40.939 with you. I feel a bit like Alison as well. You recall 143 00:15:40.939 --> 00:15:45.579 that she talked about how so many ideas are abuzz in the room, well I'm just seeing neurons 144 00:15:45.579 --> 00:15:52.749 shimmering everywhere, and so it's a bit distracting. And also, you'll have to forgive me. As a 145 00:15:52.749 --> 00:15:59.199 southerner, we never talk in a direct line. And it's a problem. And I do know the time 146 00:15:59.199 --> 00:16:03.350 keeper. He's not going to cut me any slack. [Laughter] 147 00:16:03.350 --> 00:16:06.920 So let me proceed and try to do so in a direct way. 148 00:16:06.920 --> 00:16:12.489 We've been asked to talk about successful models, and then challenges and gaps. And 149 00:16:12.489 --> 00:16:19.119 I've been dazzled, listening to Ruth talk. She is so very, very passionate about working 150 00:16:19.119 --> 00:16:26.420 with people with disabilities. And Colin as well, is a wise man. He's wise beyond his 151 00:16:26.420 --> 00:16:32.699 years. And I'm between them. The model that I'd like to talk about, I'd 152 00:16:32.699 --> 00:16:39.670 like first to talk about two academic models, one of which influenced me a good number of 153 00:16:39.670 --> 00:16:45.079 years ago, perhaps a decade ago, and it was a DaVinci Institute Study on the future of 154 00:16:45.079 --> 00:16:51.530 libraries and it talked about what is a library going to be like once books are gone. And 155 00:16:51.530 --> 00:16:56.899 it said, you know, you need to concentrate on the latest technologies. You need to concentrate 156 00:16:56.899 --> 00:17:01.889 on good space for people to do things, and you need to find out what's at the heart of 157 00:17:01.889 --> 00:17:09.910 your community, and so that's what I've used. And in addition to that, of course, another 158 00:17:09.910 --> 00:17:15.130 very good grant, and I want to talk about it and then later, when we do the challenges 159 00:17:15.130 --> 00:17:21.390 and gaps, going in to it in more detail, but it's by Sin and Kim, in 2008, and I wish that 160 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:28.590 it could be replicated, and maybe it can be with your data, but the title is get this 161 00:17:28.590 --> 00:17:36.090 "Use and Nonuse of Public Libraries in the Information Age, a Logistic Regression Analysis 162 00:17:36.090 --> 00:17:42.130 of Household Characteristics and Library Service Variables." But it's a terrific, terrific 163 00:17:42.130 --> 00:17:50.810 report, and it does identify those groups that are disadvantaged, and then it also talks 164 00:17:50.810 --> 00:17:56.500 about specific obstacles so when we get to that portion, I'll go into that in more detail. 165 00:17:56.500 --> 00:18:02.960 The model that I'm going to use is my own library. I actually had a list of others, 166 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:08.590 and pretty much they were covered during the previous presentations. I'm looking at the 167 00:18:08.590 --> 00:18:14.060 gentleman with a wonderful white mustache on the third table, wonderful program, wonderful 168 00:18:14.060 --> 00:18:22.240 program. And others, of course, as well. We have, in my library, which serves 60,000 people, 169 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:29.100 and has about 30 fulltime equivalent employees, we have a digital archives librarian, we have 170 00:18:29.100 --> 00:18:35.150 a digital arts librarian, we have a team tech librarian, we have a Hispanic librarian, we 171 00:18:35.150 --> 00:18:41.200 have a cultural programming librarian. None of them well, one of them is an MLS, so we'll 172 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:49.370 talk in a little bit about gaps. We have achieved a lot. We have a digital library with 42,000 173 00:18:49.370 --> 00:18:55.130 items. We were the first digital library in South Carolina. We helped to found the state 174 00:18:55.130 --> 00:19:02.050 digital library, and other digital libraries. Our digital arts librarian has interviewed 175 00:19:02.050 --> 00:19:10.320 many, many people. She's created 800 oral history videos, and 200 of those are online. 176 00:19:10.320 --> 00:19:17.790 And those 200 are accessible through our digital library. The teen tech librarian has created 177 00:19:17.790 --> 00:19:25.980 a program that involves an interactive gaming and coding, and app production with teams 178 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:32.520 across the county. Our Hispanic librarian, we've just started with that. We had a terrific 179 00:19:32.520 --> 00:19:38.740 Hispanic fair, our first fair. We have instituted a collection of Hispanic materials. We've 180 00:19:38.740 --> 00:19:46.070 created a community team to deal with Hispanic issues because South Carolina, 5% of our population 181 00:19:46.070 --> 00:19:50.750 already is Hispanic. And then I just had a cultural programming 182 00:19:50.750 --> 00:19:56.760 librarian, I established that, just after John Palfrey, who I love, said something to 183 00:19:56.760 --> 00:20:06.170 the effect that, you know, viewing a library as a community center isn't a very good idea. 184 00:20:06.170 --> 00:20:10.920 But then I was able to read that last night and understand more about what he was saying, 185 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:16.770 that we have a certain brand and we have very good strengths that go beyond that. How am 186 00:20:16.770 --> 00:20:19.030 I? Okay. Good. Okay. Very good. 187 00:20:19.030 --> 00:20:23.420 I did want to talk about one project that was recently done that's grown out of all 188 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:29.410 of this, and it's our out of The Rice Fields Project and Georgetown County, for about 200 189 00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:38.560 years, 90% of the population was enslaved. And it was a major riceproducing area of the 190 00:20:38.560 --> 00:20:43.780 South. And the problems echoed to the state, along with the opportunities, because a very 191 00:20:43.780 --> 00:20:53.570 beautiful culture was formed called Goa Culture, but the problem is, of course, it's been impacted 192 00:20:53.570 --> 00:20:59.190 over time by a variety of stresses, and so we decided in "Out of the Rice Fields, we 193 00:20:59.190 --> 00:21:06.330 got three grants, or really three funding sources, to do the following. We met with 194 00:21:06.330 --> 00:21:11.600 artists and we found out would this be a value for them to be highlighted as artists and 195 00:21:11.600 --> 00:21:16.210 cultural leaders. We did that with the South Carolina Arts Commission and then we applied 196 00:21:16.210 --> 00:21:21.610 to the National Endowment For the Humanities and we got a grant to actually interview them 197 00:21:21.610 --> 00:21:29.350 and to have a series of lectures on GULA topics from music to art to all kinds of wonderful 198 00:21:29.350 --> 00:21:34.840 things. And then we worked with a cultural agencies up and down the coast of South Carolina 199 00:21:34.840 --> 00:21:41.090 to form a team to create the Rice Forum 2015, which will be a threeday event, which will 200 00:21:41.090 --> 00:21:47.580 occur in September, and we're going to have the premier of our GULA arts and cultural 201 00:21:47.580 --> 00:21:54.450 leader film on the Thursday. On the Friday, we'll have nine scholarly speakers talk about 202 00:21:54.450 --> 00:22:00.410 the impact of the rice industry of South Carolina, both before and after the civil war in the 203 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:06.490 area of arts and culture, before the civil war, right after the civil war, and from World 204 00:22:06.490 --> 00:22:12.070 War II to the present. And then that night, we're going to have a ballet, a big ballet 205 00:22:12.070 --> 00:22:18.700 troupe is going to come in and feature the works of Jonathan Green, and I'm waiting for 206 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:26.210 Tim to say one minute left. And then the next day,k, we're going to collaborate with the 207 00:22:26.210 --> 00:22:31.740 museum and we're going to have a wonderful event where we have a breakfast and have a 208 00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:35.590 talk, and then that afternoon, we're going to have children singing on the lawn of the 209 00:22:35.590 --> 00:22:42.030 Kaminski House with some lectures by some people who know about GULA music and then 210 00:22:42.030 --> 00:22:47.190 that evening we're going to have a wonderful event with stories and GULA folklore and more 211 00:22:47.190 --> 00:22:53.790 dance and song, and so it's just going to be a great time. But that's the kind of thing 212 00:22:53.790 --> 00:23:00.980 that we like to do, and we like to involve young people throughout that process in interviewing, 213 00:23:00.980 --> 00:23:07.320 in creating the and editing the material, and then being there to research the material, 214 00:23:07.320 --> 00:23:12.610 and we go out to sites, we meet with people in their homes. We met with a man who carves 215 00:23:12.610 --> 00:23:18.130 canes on the side of the road. It's just a lot of fun, that's how we do it. 216 00:23:18.130 --> 00:23:24.940 [Applause] >> COLIN RHINESMITH: So I have the uncomfortable 217 00:23:24.940 --> 00:23:29.880 task of speaking for Susan, which I really don't want to do because she should be here, 218 00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:36.980 but she did she prepared so much really important information that should be shared, and so 219 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:43.950 if you'll bear with me, I will share some of Susan's remarks. 220 00:23:43.950 --> 00:23:49.480 So but also, a little more just very quickly about Susan, and I'll sort of forfeit my turn, 221 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:54.270 if need so we can keep going to some other to the next round. 222 00:23:54.270 --> 00:23:58.180 But it is important to note also that so Susan Feller, who was supposed to be here, is recently 223 00:23:58.180 --> 00:24:04.370 retired from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries where she served as development officer. In 224 00:24:04.370 --> 00:24:08.290 addition to raising major funding for special initiatives, Susan also directed statewide 225 00:24:08.290 --> 00:24:13.640 projects relating to preserving and advancing cultural heritage of all types, including 226 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:23.060 serving as the state coordinator for Oklahoma's IMLS funded as an advocate, Susan has worked 227 00:24:23.060 --> 00:24:28.990 with IMLS funded tribal initiatives since 2006. National programs under her direction 228 00:24:28.990 --> 00:24:34.590 include annual continuing education initiatives, tailored to the specific needs of tribal cultures, 229 00:24:34.590 --> 00:24:41.481 as well as studies relating to the structure, activities and needs of the nation's 519 tribal 230 00:24:41.481 --> 00:24:47.760 archives libraries and museums, and most recently, Susan directed and coauthored the digital 231 00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:52.500 inclusion in native nations report, which is, again, in the back of the room. 232 00:24:52.500 --> 00:24:58.810 So Susan had some comments on some of the good things that are happening. Of course, 233 00:24:58.810 --> 00:25:05.690 they're incredible challenges on tribal lands and native country. But let me just share 234 00:25:05.690 --> 00:25:11.540 some of the bright spots that she wanted us to touch on today. So first, the FCC and other 235 00:25:11.540 --> 00:25:16.870 federal agencies recognize that the lack of Broadband capacity in Indian country must 236 00:25:16.870 --> 00:25:23.154 be addressed. Progress is slow, but many advances have been made in the past five years. These 237 00:25:23.154 --> 00:25:28.370 same agencies also realize that once Broadband capacity improves, the need for digital literacy 238 00:25:28.370 --> 00:25:34.620 programs increases significantly, and tribal libraries must be prepared to fulfill this 239 00:25:34.620 --> 00:25:39.610 growing demand. Second with support from IMLS, the firstever study of digital inclusion needs 240 00:25:39.610 --> 00:25:44.980 of native communities was conducted in 2014 and the resulting report is providing an action 241 00:25:44.980 --> 00:25:51.850 plan to help us systematically address issues, identify resources and actively seek solutions. 242 00:25:51.850 --> 00:25:55.370 She's happy to report that one of the key action items will be realized this September 243 00:25:55.370 --> 00:26:01.650 when the first ever digital inclusion summit will take place in Washington, D.C.. the summit 244 00:26:01.650 --> 00:26:06.130 will bring together a tribal librarians, funders, federal agencies, tribal leaders and other 245 00:26:06.130 --> 00:26:10.880 stakeholders to begin the process of working together to ensure the best possible digital 246 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:15.670 inclusion programs for native communities. And then third, there is progress towards 247 00:26:15.670 --> 00:26:21.020 state library agencies becoming more engaged with tribal libraries. While Arizona, New 248 00:26:21.020 --> 00:26:26.370 Mexico, California, Oklahoma and few other a few other state library agencies have long 249 00:26:26.370 --> 00:26:32.220 provided support for travel libraries, others have not been as engaged. By providing access 250 00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:37.910 to training, helping with Erate applications, providing access to library loans, sharing 251 00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:43.310 summer reading resources and allowing travel library patrons to access subscription databases, 252 00:26:43.310 --> 00:26:50.130 state libraries have the potential to significantly assist tribal libraries. And I will talk in 253 00:26:50.130 --> 00:26:57.790 a little bit about why these advances are so important given the tremendous need from 254 00:26:57.790 --> 00:27:04.570 the work that she's seen and done. So briefly in whatever amount of time we have 255 00:27:04.570 --> 00:27:09.280 left, maybe three minutes, I want to share a little bit about what I I want to throw 256 00:27:09.280 --> 00:27:17.820 out some provocative sort of comments here with the little time that I have as an unfunded 257 00:27:17.820 --> 00:27:22.190 IMLS grantee. So maybe I could do that. Maybe that's going to hurt my chances in the future, 258 00:27:22.190 --> 00:27:27.900 but that's okay. That's okay. It's mid afternoon. What I want to do is I want to propose sort 259 00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:32.930 of two ideas today that are not mine but I want to amplify comments that I think are 260 00:27:32.930 --> 00:27:37.810 extremely important and help us to really think differently about digital literacy inclusion. 261 00:27:37.810 --> 00:27:45.250 I want to propose the idea that the target audiences that we often think about when we 262 00:27:45.250 --> 00:27:50.101 are working within libraries, and we're designing digital literacy inclusion programs, they 263 00:27:50.101 --> 00:27:57.760 are already technology experts, okay, particularly in lowincome communities. And I want to throw 264 00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:03.660 that out, building on work from Virginia Eubanks at the University of Albany, who has done 265 00:28:03.660 --> 00:28:11.080 extensive research with lowincome women. She wrote a book called "Digital Dead End, fighting 266 00:28:11.080 --> 00:28:17.480 For Social Justice in the Information Age." She worked in a YWCA in New York, and found 267 00:28:17.480 --> 00:28:23.860 that actually in developing a digital literacy program, and offering a digital literacy program, 268 00:28:23.860 --> 00:28:29.680 you know, and expecting they would come, they didn't come, right? And so she realized that 269 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:36.110 she was wrong, that all of her assumptions about people who lack skills, who don't have, 270 00:28:36.110 --> 00:28:40.370 you know, the skills that we hold up as these, you know, goals that we really want everyone 271 00:28:40.370 --> 00:28:46.960 to have because they are important, that actually, there are other skills, and really important 272 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:53.600 skills. And the stories behind the skills, as people survive every day around technology 273 00:28:53.600 --> 00:28:59.930 and ways that we don't often think about and consider, such as dealing with the welfare 274 00:28:59.930 --> 00:29:05.040 system in this country, and how engagement with technology actually makes a lot of the 275 00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:11.370 people that we consider to be people without technology skills actually technology experts, 276 00:29:11.370 --> 00:29:17.050 but that do we spend the time to understand and listen to those stories deeply and carefully 277 00:29:17.050 --> 00:29:23.400 and closely to help us then develop programs based on those needs that we hear is a great 278 00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:28.450 contribution from her work. And I think there's a lot to be learned if we begin our programs 279 00:29:28.450 --> 00:29:34.870 not only by considering our patrons, our constituents, the target, the end users of our digital literacy 280 00:29:34.870 --> 00:29:41.950 programs as technology experts, but then inviting them both into the design, development, implementation 281 00:29:41.950 --> 00:29:48.580 and evaluation of our digital literacy and inclusion programs is a very exciting way 282 00:29:48.580 --> 00:29:53.640 to engage digital literacy and inclusion. And then lastly, in the last minute I have, 283 00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:59.490 I also want to call attention to the free library of Philadelphia. I was really honored 284 00:29:59.490 --> 00:30:04.460 that I had the opportunity to serve as an evaluator on a twoyear Knight foundation grant, 285 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:09.980 the free library hot spots program, which was incredibly innovative. It allowed essentially 286 00:30:09.980 --> 00:30:15.060 embedded librarians within community organizations to promote digital literacy inclusion and 287 00:30:15.060 --> 00:30:20.180 it was an incredible engagement strategy and one of the things that I found from my study 288 00:30:20.180 --> 00:30:27.560 was that actually what we know from the literature is that obviously comfort with technology 289 00:30:27.560 --> 00:30:31.970 is a really important outcome that we like to see people have at the end of our digital 290 00:30:31.970 --> 00:30:36.610 literacy programs, but what I actually found that comfort before one engages with technology 291 00:30:36.610 --> 00:30:42.020 is extremely important. What does that mean? That libraries then play an incredible role 292 00:30:42.020 --> 00:30:47.890 in helping people to feel comfortable, and invited, particularly when it's in partnership 293 00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:53.210 with a communitybased organization, like the free library hot spots program did, that allowing 294 00:30:53.210 --> 00:30:59.490 people to feel safe, trusted, supported and really connected to their anchor institution 295 00:30:59.490 --> 00:31:04.090 is the gateway towards technology literacy and training, and that was a really interesting 296 00:31:04.090 --> 00:31:10.580 finding that I wanted to share with you today. So I could talk more, but I will turn it over 297 00:31:10.580 --> 00:31:13.560 for a second round. And now we'd really like to talk about some of the challenges. We're 298 00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:16.470 going to combine sort of the challenges and recommendations with the time we have so we 299 00:31:16.470 --> 00:31:23.620 can open it up to a broader conversation. So who would like to start? 300 00:31:23.620 --> 00:31:26.570 >> DWIGHT McINVAILL: Well, I wanted to play off some of the things that you just said 301 00:31:26.570 --> 00:31:32.790 when you mentioned about giving something and will they come, the Sin and Kim study, 302 00:31:32.790 --> 00:31:39.280 one thing I liked about it is they did identify the disadvantaged, which they identified as 303 00:31:39.280 --> 00:31:45.490 ethnic minorities, immigrants and people with disabilities, and the three objects they've 304 00:31:45.490 --> 00:31:51.390 identified, one of which you touched upon, proximity deficiencies. You know, you can't 305 00:31:51.390 --> 00:31:57.520 assume that people will come, particularly in rural areas where transportation is a huge 306 00:31:57.520 --> 00:32:04.190 problem. But you have to go to them. And then the second thing is the poor relevance of 307 00:32:04.190 --> 00:32:09.920 services and collections. If you don't get them get folks to participate from the outset 308 00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:15.170 on planning, they may not come because they don't really consider it to be anything worthwhile. 309 00:32:15.170 --> 00:32:20.330 So it could be the content as well. And then the third thing was the lack of the 310 00:32:20.330 --> 00:32:26.450 continuous efforts because people associate with people who they think are their friends. 311 00:32:26.450 --> 00:32:33.730 And so those are three things that I think the Sin and Kim use and nonuse of public libraries 312 00:32:33.730 --> 00:32:38.600 in the information age, and I'll leave off the rest of it, does a good job of talking 313 00:32:38.600 --> 00:32:41.309 about. We got two smart invest too smart investing 314 00:32:41.309 --> 00:32:47.180 at your library grants, and the second one was a twoyear project, and we worked with 315 00:32:47.180 --> 00:32:51.920 the human services collaborative of Georgetown County, a group that the Francis Bunnelle 316 00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:58.170 Foundation had brought together, agencies that deal with the housing and other needs 317 00:32:58.170 --> 00:33:02.870 of the most disadvantaged to the community, the idea, how do you break the cycle of poverty? 318 00:33:02.870 --> 00:33:12.240 How do you change root behaviors? And we actually had people from each one of the agency's group 319 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:19.160 of patrons to be on a committee to help us to outline things that would be of interest 320 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:24.500 to them at the outset. And then we were able to use what they had proposed, and actually 321 00:33:24.500 --> 00:33:30.150 put that in a proposal. Kind of like what Alison had recommended. But again, this was 322 00:33:30.150 --> 00:33:39.520 a group of the very neediest people. And so from that, we had really good response, and 323 00:33:39.520 --> 00:33:45.360 we went, of course, to the centers that they were accustomed to going to. We always try 324 00:33:45.360 --> 00:33:49.940 to provide a lot of food. And that's one thing that I wish that federal programs would permit 325 00:33:49.940 --> 00:33:55.670 us to do. If that could ever be changed to feed people, because they love it. They love 326 00:33:55.670 --> 00:34:00.240 it. And with the GULA program that we did, we paid through the friends of the library 327 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:06.610 for food to be made available. We had a lot of people come, a lot of even nonGula people, 328 00:34:06.610 --> 00:34:09.010 when they learned about the food, they came and they really enjoyed it. So those were 329 00:34:09.010 --> 00:34:16.049 a couple of the things. So playing off of you, I'm now going to Ruth? 330 00:34:16.049 --> 00:34:20.960 >> RUTH SMALL: I'm just smiling because when you said food, I always teach my students 331 00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:27.720 that my area of research is motivation, and so I always tell them that if they want to 332 00:34:27.720 --> 00:34:32.300 motivate and this is school library students if they want to motivate the teachers in their 333 00:34:32.300 --> 00:34:37.191 schools to come to their training, or whatever they're going to have in the library, make 334 00:34:37.191 --> 00:34:42.679 sure you have food, because they will come, and they do. 335 00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:52.929 So, you know, well, another area of my research, and it has to do with motivation, is in the 336 00:34:52.929 --> 00:35:01.270 area of innovation, and I started looking at this will relate, promise I started looking 337 00:35:01.270 --> 00:35:11.480 at adult inventors, and what they did, how they did it, and why they did it. And I got 338 00:35:11.480 --> 00:35:20.520 really interested in how they started. And many of them started as children, with ideas. 339 00:35:20.520 --> 00:35:27.250 And pursuing those ideas, even when other kids may not have thought it was very cool 340 00:35:27.250 --> 00:35:33.390 or parents may have not thought it was very a very good idea. 341 00:35:33.390 --> 00:35:40.560 So then I started looking at child innovators, kids who want to do things that are out of 342 00:35:40.560 --> 00:35:47.860 the box, but how do they do that, and who supports them, and what allows them to succeed 343 00:35:47.860 --> 00:35:57.890 or not succeed? And one of the things that I found was that they had a strong mentor 344 00:35:57.890 --> 00:36:04.350 in their life, either a parent, a teacher, someone. And by the way, it was rarely the 345 00:36:04.350 --> 00:36:09.750 librarian, okay, which was a signal going off in my mind immediately. 346 00:36:09.750 --> 00:36:19.770 But anyway, and so but one of the things we also found out was that the kids who usually 347 00:36:19.770 --> 00:36:25.440 participate in those kinds of activities are also rarely from an underrepresented group. 348 00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:33.490 They rarely minorities and they're rarely kids with disabilities. And so this is now 349 00:36:33.490 --> 00:36:43.380 my new passion, to try to find out how, first of all, librarians can serve as mentors to 350 00:36:43.380 --> 00:36:49.770 the kids who don't have mentors in terms of encouraging their creativity and innovation 351 00:36:49.770 --> 00:36:57.980 and their ideas, and to follow their passions. There's so many kids who don't have that person 352 00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:05.250 in their life to help them do that. So one of the things I was going to recommend 353 00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:20.300 to IMLS, if I may be so bold, is to make sure that in your RFP, that those who submit proposals, 354 00:37:20.300 --> 00:37:28.190 think about people with disabilities in particular, and how they can make sure that what they're 355 00:37:28.190 --> 00:37:33.180 doing is going to be accessible and inclusive to all people. 356 00:37:33.180 --> 00:37:38.450 So one of the ways of doing that is to incorporate universal design, universal design for learning 357 00:37:38.450 --> 00:37:44.050 principles into their project deliverables. Universal design are those principles that 358 00:37:44.050 --> 00:37:50.050 guide us in terms of facilities design, how far apart, for example, tables should be in 359 00:37:50.050 --> 00:37:55.830 libraries so that wheelchairs can get through, how high tables should be so people with braces, 360 00:37:55.830 --> 00:38:04.360 or who have other kinds of mobility issues can sit at a table or bring a wheelchair to 361 00:38:04.360 --> 00:38:13.320 a table. And universal design for learning principles have to do with how we design learning 362 00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:20.000 deliverables such as even a Web site. Is the font large enough. Is the background color 363 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:26.880 and the color of the font, is there enough contrast so the people with visual disabilities 364 00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:33.530 can actually see what's on that site. People with hearing disabilities, is there alternative 365 00:38:33.530 --> 00:38:41.950 to videos, alternative transcript for videos, things like that. We don't normally think 366 00:38:41.950 --> 00:38:50.550 about those things, but they keep other people from participating in what we produce. So 367 00:38:50.550 --> 00:38:59.490 I would suggest that maybe IMLS put in their proposal RFPs, all of them, that those who 368 00:38:59.490 --> 00:39:06.060 submit a proposal do address UD and UDL principles in their project deliverables. 369 00:39:06.060 --> 00:39:10.830 >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Thank you, Ruth, and I'll turn it over to Dwight for his recommendations 370 00:39:10.830 --> 00:39:17.010 and then we'll open it up to the audience. >> DWIGHT McINVAILL: Ruth's ideas are so exciting 371 00:39:17.010 --> 00:39:21.330 and when she mentioned the idea about the right kids are not coming. I mean, that's 372 00:39:21.330 --> 00:39:27.570 so true, you know, the privileged can so easily be there and we're glad to be working with 373 00:39:27.570 --> 00:39:33.840 the privileged as well, but the right kids aren't coming, and I think one thing that 374 00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:39.150 I would agree with you on and disagree with you on at the same time is librarians become 375 00:39:39.150 --> 00:39:45.720 mentors. Yes and no. I think we have the opportunity to not reinvent to avoid reinventing the wheel 376 00:39:45.720 --> 00:39:55.460 by having the IMLS and this is a recommendation really emphasize partnerships. Now, not formal 377 00:39:55.460 --> 00:40:01.140 partnerships that cut potential partners out budgetarily, you know, that's sometimes the 378 00:40:01.140 --> 00:40:05.300 case. I think people need to be paid if they're going to be helping us, but people who already 379 00:40:05.300 --> 00:40:10.730 have connections, people who are already friends of the kids that we really would like to see, 380 00:40:10.730 --> 00:40:16.940 and again, you can think of the whole list of people who already are mentors of poor, 381 00:40:16.940 --> 00:40:21.640 rural, isolated kids. So I won't go into that but I think that's a key thing. 382 00:40:21.640 --> 00:40:27.590 The next thing is I would encourage the IMLS and profession as a whole to try to get the 383 00:40:27.590 --> 00:40:35.609 right kind of people in our field. And what I'd say is get passionate, asymmetrical people. 384 00:40:35.609 --> 00:40:40.080 You know, I don't think we need people who can do everything. And we don't need people 385 00:40:40.080 --> 00:40:45.370 who are selfsatisfied. We need people who are edgy. We need people who are passionate. 386 00:40:45.370 --> 00:40:51.440 We need people who are fiery and we need people who have a real special skill, that that skill 387 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:56.170 is working with well with people, that's great. If it's doing editing of videos, that's great. 388 00:40:56.170 --> 00:41:02.200 If it's working with technology with teens, that's great. They need to be edgy individuals. 389 00:41:02.200 --> 00:41:05.410 And again, you're going to have to have some administrators that can corral the cats. But 390 00:41:05.410 --> 00:41:11.859 at the same time, that's what I think we need. And so the next committee, I the next group 391 00:41:11.859 --> 00:41:17.290 I hope will talk about that some. And I hope the IMLS will make that happen. 392 00:41:17.290 --> 00:41:22.880 >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Great. So with the time that we have left, we'd like to open this 393 00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:29.320 up to you all, and to respond to any of the points that we've talked about today, but 394 00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:34.740 also additional ideas, recommendations for other approaches to funding digital literacy 395 00:41:34.740 --> 00:41:41.470 and inclusion, particularly those that have communitywide or communitybased approaches. 396 00:41:41.470 --> 00:41:47.510 >> Hi. I'm Mega and I'm from the University of Maryland. So one of the things that I see 397 00:41:47.510 --> 00:41:56.140 as a clear need is training librarians in terms of digital literacy pedagogy. That's 398 00:41:56.140 --> 00:42:05.520 an area that I see is extremely needed. I work with young adults from Title I schools, 399 00:42:05.520 --> 00:42:11.690 and let me tell you, the digital literacy skills is pretty dismal. The way they assess 400 00:42:11.690 --> 00:42:21.200 credibility of information is just I'm just in awe when I see them assessing credible 401 00:42:21.200 --> 00:42:30.150 information. And I think I know what the reason is. It's the way that we teach digital literacy, 402 00:42:30.150 --> 00:42:38.520 in schools, in libraries. We've our most tragic thing in schools, and also in other libraries, 403 00:42:38.520 --> 00:42:44.440 is our databases, right? So we encourage our young people to use this databases but when 404 00:42:44.440 --> 00:42:49.020 they need information, where do they go to? They go to Google and Google information, 405 00:42:49.020 --> 00:42:53.440 and it gives you a lot of information, and they don't know what type of information they 406 00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:59.930 should trust, and how can they aggregate all the information that they are seeing. So I 407 00:42:59.930 --> 00:43:06.890 think that's one of the need that I do see in terms of digital literacy is we need to 408 00:43:06.890 --> 00:43:14.960 reenvision how we teach digital literacy. >> RUTH SMALL: Can I just comment on that? 409 00:43:14.960 --> 00:43:23.690 It isn't just Google. It's also Wikipedia. One of the questions we asked these young 410 00:43:23.690 --> 00:43:31.390 innovators was how do you find the information you need to be successful as an inventor? 411 00:43:31.390 --> 00:43:40.720 And one child wrote that he asked his father. His father was his mentor. And his father 412 00:43:40.720 --> 00:43:51.190 he said, one of the things that we teach young innovators is to use the patent office, the 413 00:43:51.190 --> 00:43:56.200 U.S. Patent Office database to find out whether a particular invention has already been invented. 414 00:43:56.200 --> 00:44:03.670 That's what should be taught. His father, however, had a better idea. He said, we're 415 00:44:03.670 --> 00:44:08.820 going down to the drugstore and we're going to pick up every current magazine on the shelves 416 00:44:08.820 --> 00:44:12.450 and we'll look through it and if we find what you want to invent there, then we know it's 417 00:44:12.450 --> 00:44:19.410 already been invented, and if we don't, then you can go ahead. So it's funny, but it isn't 418 00:44:19.410 --> 00:44:26.590 funny, because we need digital literacy for parents, too, I guess. But I think there's 419 00:44:26.590 --> 00:44:32.760 a definite lack of digital literacy understanding in kids of all levels. 420 00:44:32.760 --> 00:44:42.090 >> Greg Michaels, Madison Public Library. You mentioned earlier about digital divide 421 00:44:42.090 --> 00:44:46.880 but I didn't hear a whole lot of conversation about this. I don't know if this is a question 422 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:57.340 or more of a rant on my part. But I look at Susan's report, where only 30% of the tribal 423 00:44:57.340 --> 00:45:05.060 have access to the internet. We face a lot of the similar problems in certain sections 424 00:45:05.060 --> 00:45:11.000 of the City of Madison, you would think everybody would have access to internet, but it doesn't 425 00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:18.140 happen. Your program in Philadelphia providing the free hot spots, rural Wisconsin, another 426 00:45:18.140 --> 00:45:27.730 major issue. The companies don't find it profitable to provide internet access. How do we gain 427 00:45:27.730 --> 00:45:35.970 access with those barriers in place? I mean, there's a monopoly on who provides access. 428 00:45:35.970 --> 00:45:44.770 You look at countries around the world. Sweden, you can get a gig access for $25 a month. 429 00:45:44.770 --> 00:45:50.039 You know, why can't we achieve that in the United States? 430 00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:55.950 >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Yes. Well, let me just tell you. Well, I think one of the exciting 431 00:45:55.950 --> 00:46:02.109 initiatives, as many people know, about the Broadband technology opportunities program, 432 00:46:02.109 --> 00:46:08.320 was incredible initiative, unprecedented to increase access to infrastructure across the 433 00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:13.140 United States. That was successful. I don't have the numbers in front of me to tell you 434 00:46:13.140 --> 00:46:18.540 sort of, you know, the impact of that, but one of the things that I want to stress is 435 00:46:18.540 --> 00:46:24.440 that while there has been actually a lot of funding for promoting infrastructure, a lot 436 00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:30.330 less money has been set aside for what you do once you have access. And so digital so 437 00:46:30.330 --> 00:46:34.510 yes, and I think that's a real credit to the IMLS building digital communities report as 438 00:46:34.510 --> 00:46:39.980 they define digital inclusion as they have, that the first part of that is access, and 439 00:46:39.980 --> 00:46:43.970 then the second part is really the adoption, and you can't have adoption without access. 440 00:46:43.970 --> 00:46:49.960 But I think that again libraries and trying to understand the role of libraries, including 441 00:46:49.960 --> 00:46:55.150 the digital inclusion access, I've been arguing that actually we might be able to understand 442 00:46:55.150 --> 00:46:59.500 adoption in different ways but understanding adoption outside of the home. Because if some 443 00:46:59.500 --> 00:47:05.330 communities simply aren't going to get access in the ways that you have outlined here, that 444 00:47:05.330 --> 00:47:10.150 we need to understand other ways that adoption is meaningful for those populations. 445 00:47:10.150 --> 00:47:15.890 >> And Colin, could I chime in here, too? Sorry. IMLS, Greg, in response to your question, 446 00:47:15.890 --> 00:47:22.050 IMLS is part of an interagency. There's 25, 26 agencies that are part of the new White 447 00:47:22.050 --> 00:47:26.960 House Broadband Opportunity Council and so what we're looking at because there's not 448 00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:34.700 this big flood of money out there now, so we are looking at policies that we have within 449 00:47:34.700 --> 00:47:42.010 our agencies that might be utilized to help deploy Broadband around. And I would encourage 450 00:47:42.010 --> 00:47:48.080 you to go back to your communities and talk to your city managers, talk to people, you 451 00:47:48.080 --> 00:47:53.970 know, about do you have a dig once policy so if you're trenching for plumbing, you know, 452 00:47:53.970 --> 00:48:00.060 a new sewer system, can you lay conduit for Broadband. So we're hoping we'll have a report, 453 00:48:00.060 --> 00:48:05.960 I think it's due out August 27th to the president, and so we're hoping that that can push this 454 00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:09.880 forward, too. >> Just wanted to add in Southern Georgetown, 455 00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:14.380 South Carolina, there are about 4,000 people that don't have internet access. The lines 456 00:48:14.380 --> 00:48:19.040 just aren't there. If we put a library in that portion of the county, they have to put 457 00:48:19.040 --> 00:48:24.050 a line in, and so that's what we're aiming to do. It may take us five years, but again, 458 00:48:24.050 --> 00:48:29.920 it's the idea of librarians themselves can create, through attention to proximity, the 459 00:48:29.920 --> 00:48:34.500 same the exactly what you're talking about. We've established two of our libraries right 460 00:48:34.500 --> 00:48:40.780 beside schools as well, and one area that's fairly wealthy, but where kids are going to 461 00:48:40.780 --> 00:48:44.910 come from the poor areas because that's kind of the central place that they all show up, 462 00:48:44.910 --> 00:48:48.690 and then the other in the most poor the poorest area of our county, where the kids can just 463 00:48:48.690 --> 00:48:53.440 flood over every day, and they do, and fill up the library after school. So proximity 464 00:48:53.440 --> 00:48:59.330 is important. >> Hi. This is Jill Castek from Portland State 465 00:48:59.330 --> 00:49:05.250 University. I thank you for having this topic on the agenda, general literacy and inclusion, 466 00:49:05.250 --> 00:49:10.210 and I just want to mention and point out the very obvious connection that we are in Kansas 467 00:49:10.210 --> 00:49:18.240 City and this is one of the most progressive communities in thinking about digital inclusion, 468 00:49:18.240 --> 00:49:24.880 Google fiber, and some of the ways that the digital inclusion networks and opportunities 469 00:49:24.880 --> 00:49:30.860 are starting to pervade these kinds of communities. And so I encourage us very strongly. I know 470 00:49:30.860 --> 00:49:36.240 there's many experts in the room on this topic, but to look at the community around us and 471 00:49:36.240 --> 00:49:40.670 look at the efforts that are putting being put forth towards digital inclusion through 472 00:49:40.670 --> 00:49:46.599 organizations like connect for good and others so that we're having these communitybased 473 00:49:46.599 --> 00:50:00.069 institutions as a part and parcel of examining our own practice and our own impact. 474 00:50:00.069 --> 00:50:04.640 >> So time director of the Kansas City Public Library. We're dealing with Google fiber. 475 00:50:04.640 --> 00:50:09.250 We have Google fiber in this library you'll be happy to know and you're exactly right. 476 00:50:09.250 --> 00:50:16.870 There is a large strategy. My deputy director, wave, is in charge of our digital inclusion 477 00:50:16.870 --> 00:50:23.240 efforts, is on the national Digital Inclusion Task Force have I got that right? I'm involved 478 00:50:23.240 --> 00:50:27.859 we're both involved with Shelby, the schools, hospitals, libraries and Broadband, et cetera, 479 00:50:27.859 --> 00:50:32.900 but you're exactly right. That one of the issues here, you look at this building, which 480 00:50:32.900 --> 00:50:39.720 cost us about $30 million to renovate, or our library, our big branch, which cost about 481 00:50:39.720 --> 00:50:47.540 $15 million, or our regular branches, which cost anywhere from 5 to $10 million, we need 482 00:50:47.540 --> 00:50:51.921 to think about our outreach in different terms, and what they are doing in Philadelphia, and 483 00:50:51.921 --> 00:50:59.290 I believe there's a large citywide venture in Philadelphia, what Chicago's doing, Seattle 484 00:50:59.290 --> 00:51:06.030 is doing, et cetera, is pushing all this technology out in ways with things like mobile hot spots. 485 00:51:06.030 --> 00:51:12.310 And one of our ideas is to do more wired locations, but smaller branch locations that are partnering. 486 00:51:12.310 --> 00:51:15.940 You mentioned connecting for good, which is a great organization starting in Kansas City, 487 00:51:15.940 --> 00:51:21.780 Kansas, a guy named Michael is part of our team. Here we're working with the housing 488 00:51:21.780 --> 00:51:26.910 authority in Kansas City, we're working with the adult literacy organization, Literacy 489 00:51:26.910 --> 00:51:32.820 KC. We could go on down the road. And the city itself. And the city is kind of bumping 490 00:51:32.820 --> 00:51:38.120 along on this and we're pushing this, but it's actually not that expensive. We're really 491 00:51:38.120 --> 00:51:43.720 focused, and I've tried to reorient Shelby on this. We're really focused on the connection 492 00:51:43.720 --> 00:51:47.780 to the individual home. It's one of the reasons I said what I said at the very beginning in 493 00:51:47.780 --> 00:51:53.490 my welcome about the 70% of kids in the Kansas City school district not having a connection 494 00:51:53.490 --> 00:51:58.820 at home, the 40% of the kids in the school district who have at least two addresses during 495 00:51:58.820 --> 00:52:02.690 the school year, and you think about public housing, you think about breakdown of the 496 00:52:02.690 --> 00:52:08.240 family. With we need to think in terms of institution, anchor institutions, the library 497 00:52:08.240 --> 00:52:12.680 being the primary institution seems to me, but lots of others, public housing, our community 498 00:52:12.680 --> 00:52:17.720 centers, which are the parks department in Kansas City, partnering with us to move not 499 00:52:17.720 --> 00:52:21.090 just and the other point that's been made in this discussion, which is exactly right, 500 00:52:21.090 --> 00:52:26.140 not just in getting access, access is a start. You have to one of the things that Michael, 501 00:52:26.140 --> 00:52:30.470 in connecting for good, does so well, better than the library does right now, is training 502 00:52:30.470 --> 00:52:34.460 people how to use the devices, and actually starting out by explaining to them why the 503 00:52:34.460 --> 00:52:38.540 devices are so important, why the connection to the internet is so important, because a 504 00:52:38.540 --> 00:52:43.200 big percentage of the people that 20%, in a city like Kansas City, of people who don't 505 00:52:43.200 --> 00:52:46.680 have a connection, don't have the connection because they don't really understand why it's 506 00:52:46.680 --> 00:52:51.070 important. And we can tell them about job searching. We can tell them about healthcare 507 00:52:51.070 --> 00:52:58.099 information. We can tell them about advancing their educational credentials, et cetera. 508 00:52:58.099 --> 00:53:03.460 But you have to start there, it seems to me. And libraries are the center of this, but 509 00:53:03.460 --> 00:53:10.230 we can't look at it in terms of our connection in a large branch, and we need to look at 510 00:53:10.230 --> 00:53:14.850 what we do for people who are probably never going to be connected at home, at least in 511 00:53:14.850 --> 00:53:19.760 the lifetime of anybody in this room. >> Well, and I also just wanted to just quickly 512 00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:25.349 add also since John Horrigan is in the room, really we have him to thank also. I think 513 00:53:25.349 --> 00:53:31.240 it's a public shoutout to understanding some of the barriers to adoption, and for home 514 00:53:31.240 --> 00:53:37.160 Broadband adoption. And that's incredibly important as we try to tackle issues of access. 515 00:53:37.160 --> 00:53:43.840 And so it's just thank you. >> Hello. My name is Mark, I'm with the Association 516 00:53:43.840 --> 00:53:47.430 of Research Libraries in Washington, D.C., and my question is for Ruth, but really for 517 00:53:47.430 --> 00:53:54.030 anybody else in the room. I'm delighted to hear about the work around accessibility and 518 00:53:54.030 --> 00:54:00.700 ARL has most recently fairly recently really been engaged in this conversation, particularly 519 00:54:00.700 --> 00:54:06.141 with respect to accessibility of digital content and trying to push the marketplace, and force 520 00:54:06.141 --> 00:54:10.200 vendors to be a little bit more nimble and allow their content to be more accessible, 521 00:54:10.200 --> 00:54:16.580 but also in creating collaborations to make analog content more accessible to more people 522 00:54:16.580 --> 00:54:20.680 as well. But my question is, this is all from the user 523 00:54:20.680 --> 00:54:27.700 perspective, and what we're trying to initiate is a conversation about accessibility around 524 00:54:27.700 --> 00:54:35.530 the workforce issue, that is given the there's another explosion of a demographic explosion 525 00:54:35.530 --> 00:54:39.370 is also the number of people that have both physical and cognitive disabilities in the 526 00:54:39.370 --> 00:54:45.200 United States, and so my question is our conversations, I was going to do some research about this, 527 00:54:45.200 --> 00:54:49.820 but since I have a group of experts in the room, why not ask you, are there conversations 528 00:54:49.820 --> 00:54:56.930 happening around recruitment of people with disabilities in to our workforce and accommodating 529 00:54:56.930 --> 00:55:01.570 them, finding appropriate roles for them, and whatever capacity, as advisory capacities, 530 00:55:01.570 --> 00:55:06.200 as professionals in our organizations, what do we need to do, if it's not happening, what 531 00:55:06.200 --> 00:55:10.290 do we need to do to initiate that conversation? >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Ruth, did you want to 532 00:55:10.290 --> 00:55:13.420 respond? >> RUTH SMALL: I don't know if I'm capable 533 00:55:13.420 --> 00:55:21.210 of answering that question. I've seen some evidence of it when I was in at the state 534 00:55:21.210 --> 00:55:27.041 State Library of Illinois, I saw some people I heard some people there talking about that 535 00:55:27.041 --> 00:55:35.109 issue, but I don't know about the research or any of the more of a national level effort. 536 00:55:35.109 --> 00:55:39.849 So maybe someone else in the room does know that. Sorry. 537 00:55:39.849 --> 00:55:44.430 >> Maybe one basic need again is just through the simple collaboration between the local 538 00:55:44.430 --> 00:55:51.010 board of disabilities and special needs and the library, because, for instance, we have 539 00:55:51.010 --> 00:55:59.250 had two longterm disabled individuals as library shelvers, as library pagers. One has is autistic, 540 00:55:59.250 --> 00:56:06.690 but he is super with numbers, you know, he can walk by a display case and he'll look 541 00:56:06.690 --> 00:56:12.210 at it and say that's the same calendar as in 1938, you know, and he just knows. 542 00:56:12.210 --> 00:56:19.359 And so even if it's on that level initially, to try to bring some people in. 543 00:56:19.359 --> 00:56:26.750 >> 30 seconds. So we have been given money by a local foundation to work with an internet 544 00:56:26.750 --> 00:56:32.720 startup that has an online app for folks with disabilities to prequalify them for library 545 00:56:32.720 --> 00:56:35.969 jobs. Be happy to pass that information along to anybody. 546 00:56:35.969 --> 00:56:38.720 >> Colin, would it be okay with you, Sandy had her hand up earlier, to let her say the 547 00:56:38.720 --> 00:56:44.350 final. Sandy from Iowa Tribe. >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Yes, please. 548 00:56:44.350 --> 00:56:53.900 >> Hello. Hi. I'm Sandy Tharp. I'm the librarian for the Iowa Tribe. And I was hoping that 549 00:56:53.900 --> 00:57:01.450 you all listened to what Susan said that Colin shared, and I just wanted to share my story 550 00:57:01.450 --> 00:57:08.460 just a little bit. When I walked in to this beautiful place this morning, I almost cried 551 00:57:08.460 --> 00:57:16.310 because it was so big. My library is very small. In 2009, I found out I had no budget 552 00:57:16.310 --> 00:57:25.540 and no money, and my library's very similar to what most tribal libraries face, and there's 553 00:57:25.540 --> 00:57:33.170 566 federally recognized tribes across the nation, and a lot of them don't have tribal 554 00:57:33.170 --> 00:57:41.060 libraries, and it makes me very sad that so many state agencies don't work with tribes. 555 00:57:41.060 --> 00:57:51.270 Had it not been for the Oklahoma State Library, I would not have even had any new children's 556 00:57:51.270 --> 00:58:02.731 books in my library. I had 150 used books. But IMLS, they were my first real money for 557 00:58:02.731 --> 00:58:13.310 my library, $7,000. But we offer a GED program. We just finished a program where we put laptops 558 00:58:13.310 --> 00:58:20.080 with homebound elders, and teaching them how to use online health resources. It was very 559 00:58:20.080 --> 00:58:29.270 effective. But when I had to pick up the laptops, the elders could not afford internet at their 560 00:58:29.270 --> 00:58:41.120 house. It cost $60 a month. And my children do not have computers at home. They don't 561 00:58:41.120 --> 00:58:49.190 have smartphones. So I just hope, if you're from a state, and that state agency does not 562 00:58:49.190 --> 00:58:56.609 support tribal libraries, I hope you'll call them and I hope IMLS will create some incentives 563 00:58:56.609 --> 00:59:01.970 to have them work with tribal libraries. Thank you. 564 00:59:01.970 --> 00:59:05.880 >> COLIN RHINESMITH: Well, thank you, Sandy. I want to thank the speakers. Thank you to 565 00:59:05.880 --> 00:59:07.730 Susan, who couldn't be here, and thank all of you. Thank you very much. 566 00:59:07.730 --> 00:59:08.290 [Applause]