Presented at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh June 4th, 2012

1. The Role of the Library in a
Digital World
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Bobbi Newman
http://librarianbyday.net
@librarianbyday
Bobbi@librarianbyday.net

2. The 21st
century is when
everything
changes.
And we have to
be ready.
-Captain
Jack
Harkness, Torchwood

3. The future is here it is just not
evenly distributed – William Gibson

4. The Digital Divide

5. 100 million Americans do not
have home broadband access

6. Who Doesn’t Have Access?
• less than 33% of the poorest Americans have
home broadband while over 90% of the richest
have high-speed internet access at home
• less than 50% of African Americans
• less than 50% Latinos
• less than 50% of the elderly
• less than 50% of rural populations

8. Broadband access for all is
essential to meeting the
information needs of
communities in a democracy.
Without it, we’ll end up with a
new category of second-class
citizens.
-Alberto Ibargüen, President, CEO Knight Foundation

9. Not every member must
contribute, but all must believe
they are free to contribute and
that what they contribute will be
appropriately valued.
-Henry Jenkins

10. Why Does it Matter?
• more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies
require online job applications (including major
employers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Costco,
and ExxonMobil)
• students with a computer and broadband at
home have 6 to 8 percentage higher GPA than
similar student who don’t have home access to
the Internet
• Consumers with broadband at home can save
more than $7,000 a year.

11. In 64.5% of communities
the public library is the only free
provider of public access to a
computer and the internet

12. 77 million Americans used a
public library to access the
Internet In 2009

14. Connection
Opportunity
Education
Employment
Civic Engagement

15. The New Literacies

16. It is no longer enough simply to
read and write.
- Ernest Boyer, President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching: Former U.S. Commissioner of Education

17. The illiterate of the 21st century
will not be those who cannot
read and write, but those who
cannot learn, unlearn, and
relearn. - Alvin Toffler

18. Digital Literacy is the ability to
use information and
communication technologies to
find, evaluate, create, and
communicate
information, requiring both
cognitive and technical skills.
-ALA Digital Literacy Taskforce (2011)

19. A Digitally Literate Person -
• Possesses the variety of skills – technical and cognitive –
required to find, understand, evaluate, create, and
communicate digital information in a wide variety of formats;
• Is able to use diverse technologies appropriately and
effectively to retrieve information, interpret results, and judge
the quality of that information;
• Understands the relationship between technology, life-long
learning, personal privacy, and stewardship of information;
• Uses these skills and the appropriate technology to
communicate and collaborate with peers, colleagues, family,
and on occasion, the general public;
• Uses these skills to actively participate in civic society and
contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged community.
– -ALA Digital Literacy Taskforce (2011)

20. We are exposed to more
mediated messages in one day
than our great-grandparents
were exposed to in a year
-Center for Media Literacy

21. Rheingold’s Five Literacies
• Attention
• Participation
• Collaboration
• “Crap detection”
• Network smarts

22. 21st Century Skills Framework –
Adapted for Libraries and
Museums
by
Institute of Museum and Library Services

23. Learning And Innovation Skills
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Visual Literacy
• Scientific and Numerical Literacy
• Cross-Disciplinary Thinking
• Basic Literacy

24. Information, Media, And
Technology Skills
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• Information, Communications and
Technology (ICT) Literacy

25. Life And Career Skills
• Flexibility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Self-Direction
• Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
• Productivity and Accountability
• Leadership and Responsibility

26. 21st Century Themes
• Global Awareness
• Financial, Economic, Business, and
Entrepreneurial Literacy
• Civic Literacy
• Health Literacy
• Environmental Literacy

27. Transliteracy
the ability to read, write and
interact across a range of
platforms, tools and media from
signing and orality through
handwriting, print, TV, radio and
film, to digital social networks.

28. Privacy

29. What To Do?

30. Stop looking for your lost
keys under the lamp
post just because that is
where it is easiest to
see.
It is not where you are
most likely to find them.

31. Start Learning

32. Assess What You Don’t Know

33. Get a Gadget Garage

34. Fail. Fail Again.

35. IMLS 21st Century Skills
Assessment
• Vision
• Alignment of all departments
• Infrastructure
• Partner
• Progress
• http://imls21stcenturyskills.org/

36. Get Connected

37. 23 Things

38. If you don't like change, you're
going to like irrelevance even
less.
-General Eric. Shinseki

39. Great. So How?

40. Accept that there is no end.
This is the New Normal.

41. Managing Personal Change
• Learn as you breathe.
• Learn only what is required to accomplish the task
before you.
• Don’t be afraid of forgetting.
• Don’t clutch old technologies when you should be
tossing them aside.
• Don’t blindly embrace the new.
• Continually reassess your assessments.
• Look back.
• Look forward.
• Be grateful.
-Roy Tennant

42. Suggested Reading
• Switch: How to Change Things When
Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan
Heath
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We
Do in Life and Business by Charles
Duhigg
• Change Anything: The New Science of
Personal Success by Kerry Patterson et al

43. Questions?

44. References
• ALA supports FCC proposal to fund digital literacy training through public libraries. (2012, April 3).District Dispatch. Retrieved from
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/04/ala-supports-fcc-proposal-to-fund-digital-literacy-training-through-public-libraries/
• Aspen Institute to Advance Recommendations of the Knight Commission. (2010, May 18).Knight Foundation. Retrieved from
http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/aspen-institute-to-advance-recommendations-of-the/
• Becker, S., Crandall, M. D., Fisher, K. E., Kinney, B., Landry, C., & Rocha, A. (2010). Opportunity for American Library Association.
(2011). The state of America's libraries: A report from the American Library Association. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
Retrieved from http://ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/mediapresscenter/americaslibraries2011/state_of_americas_libraries_report_2011.pdf
• DiMaggio, P., & Hargittai, E. (2001). From the ‘digital divide’ to ‘digital inequality’: Studying internet use as penetration increases.
Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University: Center for the Arts and Cultural Policy Studies.
• Federal Communications Commission. (2010). Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan. Washington, D.C: Federal
Communications Commission.
• Genachowski, J. (2011, November). FCC & “Connect to Compete” tackle barriers to broadband adoption, Face Sheet for Chairman
Genachowski Remarks on Broadband Adoption, Speech presented in Washington, D.C. Retrieved from
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-310924A1.pdf
• Hoffman, J., Bertot, J. C., Davis, D. M., & Clark, L. (2011). Libraries connect communities: public library funding & technology access
study 2010-2011. Chicago: American Library Association. Retrieved from http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/857ea9fd.
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (2009). Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills (IMLS-2009-NAI-01). Washington, D.C.
Retrieved from http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/21stCenturySkills.pdf
• Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media
education for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-
E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
• The Knight Commision on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. (2009). Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy
in the Digital Age. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.
• Lippincott, J. K. (2007). Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies. EDUCAUSE Review, 42(6), 16–17.
• Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart: How to thrive online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Saveri, A., Rheingold, H., & Vian, K. (2005). Technologies of cooperation. Palo Alto CA. Retrieved from
http://www.rheingold.com/cooperation/Technology_of_cooperation.pdf
• Tennant, R. (2010, September 29). Managing Personal Change. Digital Libraries, Library Journal. Retrieved from
http://blog.libraryjournal.com/tennantdigitallibraries/2010/09/29/managing-personal-change/
• Thoman, E., Jolls, T., & Center for Media Literacy. (2008).Literacy for the 21st century: An overview and orientation guide to media
literacy education. Santa Monica, CA: Center for Media Literacy.
• Why Broadband Service in the U.S. Is So Awful. (2010).Scientific American. Retrieved from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=competition-and-the-internet
• Zickuhr, K. (2010). Generations 2010. Washington, D.C: Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.
• Zickuhr, K., & Smith, A. (2012). Digital differences. Washington, D.C: Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

45. Bobbi Newman
http://librarianbyday.net
http://twitter.com/librarianbyday
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