Davis Forum, Spring 2008:
Digital Literacy
14 Feb 2008
Part 3 of 3
Ivan Chew
www.nlb.gov.sg

I am a librarian
from Singapore

link

My personal reasons for Blogging
S’pore public library’s digital experiments
Senior Citizens & Blogging

Question

Describe how
Chicken tastes like

So...
What is New Media?

How to you explain it
to senior citizens?

If you’ve not tasted chicken…

… how would you know what
chicken tastes like?

United Nations Population Division 2002,
World Population Ageing: 1950-2050,
http://www.globalaging.org/ruralaging/world/ageingo.htm

population ageing is a
global phenomenon

by the year 2050
1 in every 5 persons will be 60 or older
1 in every 6 will be at least 65 or older

Singapore one of the fastest ageing
population in Asia

Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, S’pore
About Elderly: The Ageing Population (2007)
http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/indv_abtageing.asp

by the year 2030
1 in every 5 persons will be over 60

3-year Silver Infocomm Initiative
Intelligent Nation 2015 masterplan

75% of all senior citizens
aged 55 years and above to
gain access to the internet
within 2 years
S$2.5 million

Courtesy of Coolinsights.blogspot.com

Courtesy of Lam Chun See

challenges
senior citizens
social media

Case studies

“not keen to share their stories
They are very private”

From his experience in teaching senior citzens
to use email:
“SCWO IT Hub is a success
100% students use email”

“many of them have children
and grandchildren overseas
they can communicate
faster by email than snail mail”

“In addition, they can attach
photos and videos”

So why did my 72-year old
cousin start blogging?

“Initially I wanted to share the
family story with you via email
so that you can blog the
correct version”

“Furthermore, I did not know
how to blog then”

“Thanks to your encouragement, I
decided to blog about my life story
and later to continue with the
correct family story”

“I shall contiue to blog
as long as I can”

“I find it quite challenging as it is
not only the recollection of my
memories but also to do research to
get the facts right”

“My dream is to see a kid reading one of my
books while he/ she is waiting for the school-bus.
At home, he/ she shows the book's pictures/ stamps
to his/her dialect-speaking grandparents.
Anyway, after the book is published I would be glad
to have it digitised (scanned) and posted on
Retrievia”

“If I don't have enough time and energy
to do both blog-writing
and book-writing,
then I will sacrifice the blogging”

Another case study (from Siva the Otterman):
“… old boy started an email art of a
series that would chronicle stories
of old and also relate fresh news of
our alumni and schools…
was introduced to yahoogroups nine
years ago”

“Many subscribers were a little
uncomfortable with the Internet at the
time, and he calmed their fears. He
patiently examined problems that arose
over the years.
977 messages and we're still
counting…”

seniors are willing to share info,
even private/ sensitive ones

“they talked about death, grief and
healing, these are openly shared in their
group discussions, and several cried
during the process”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

“But they need to get comfortable with
each other before sharing…”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

“social interaction is one of the key
motivators in sustaining their active
participation in any of the activities”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

young adults
+
Seniors

“IG relationships takes time to build…”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

“the young (particularly pre-teens) are
interested in what their grandparents
have to say…”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

“… as long as they are words of wisdom
and not nagging”
- Lim Hwa Shan, Librarian, Services To Seniors

senior citizens
+
social media

Why bother?

Value
Meaning

Learn about history from
people who lived it

concluding
remarks

My personal reasons for Blogging
S’pore public library’s digital experiments
Senior Citizens & Blogging

social media
expanded roles for
libraries & librarians

Now…

Library Website
Catalogue
Books
Loan Record
librarians
Library Locations

The way forward (?)

Librarians
books Digital
Ideas &
Print resources
People

Librarians don’t necessarily
need to blog

but we need to understand
the culture/ medium

not difficult
to participate

even if Librarians
don’t have a blog

Do the
Simplest Thing Possible

we should comment

“Digital literacy”
+
librarians

enhance our abilities to serve

using digital media
+
ability to engage
create

Thank you
I’ll see you in the Blogosphere

Part 3 of 3
ivanchew@nlb.gov.sg
ask@nlb.gov.sg
RamblingLibrarian@gmail.com
ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com