Join our discussion to see how four academic librarians are working to advance digital equity and inclusion for their users, by removing barriers that inhibit student access. The presenters will discuss the current digital divide in Montana and how access to, or lack of access to resources impacts student success in remote learning environments, including personal device ownership, access to internet or cell service, remote authentication, and digital accessibility. Libraries serve as an integral IT access point for many students, faculty, and staff, and play a critical role in the higher education IT community. The session will outline a variety of ways academic libraries are connected to information technology including through online instruction, acquisitions and remote access to resources, and public and digital accessibility services. Finally, they will share perspectives and strategies to promote digital equity and inclusion and increase the accessibility of library and online resources.

1. Re-bridging the
Digital Divide:
Academic Libraries as a Source
for Digital Equity
Jacqueline Frank
Instruction & Accessibility Librarian
Hannah McKelvey
E-Resources & Discovery Services Librarian
Rachelle McLain
Collection Development Librarian
Meghan Salsbury
Instructional Technology Librarian

2. Speakers
Meghan Salsbury
Instructional Technology Librarian
Jacqueline Frank
Instruction & Accessibility Librarian
Rachelle McLain
Collection Development Librarian
Hannah McKelvey
E-Resources & Discovery Services Librarian

3. Agenda
• Defining Digital Equity and Digital Inclusion
• Access as an Essential Student Need
• Removing Access Barriers with Instructional Technology
• Ensuring Access through Purchasing Resources
• Digital Accessibility - How it all ties together!

4. Who is watching?
There will be a few poll questions throughout the presentation. You
can simply pause the video and complete each question as it comes
up or complete the survey at the end of the recording.
Survey link: https://montana.libwizard.com/f/eli2021

5. Digital Equity
and Digital
Inclusion
Digital equity is a condition in which all
individuals and communities have the
information technology capacity needed for
full participation in our society, democracy
and economy.
NDIA Definitions
Digital inclusion refers to the activities
necessary to ensure that all individuals and
communities…have access to and use of
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs).
NDIA Definitions
The digital divide is the gulf between those who
have ready access to computers and the
internet [and the skills to use them], and those
who do not.
Oxford Languages

6. Internet Access in Montana
• 63.6% of population have broadband available
• Average cost of internet access per month is $91.54
• 21% have no home internet access
• Less than 50% of the population have access to broadband internet in 20+
counties
• 23% of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana
have access to wired broadband
• 72% of the populations on Montana reservations have wired broadband
access
https://www.imls.gov/data/data-catalog/imls-indicators-workbook-economic-status-and-broadband-availability-and-adoption

7. Access as an
Essential
Student Need
All information resources that are
provided directly or indirectly by the
library... should be readily, equally, and
equitably accessible to all library
users.
American Library Association Core Values
Users in general prefer not to come to
the library and expect access to library
materials from remote sites. They
expect to access all the resources
seamlessly.
Sunithaland & Sreekumar

8. Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2019
ITHAKA S+R U.S.
Library Survey 2019
What percentage of your library's
materials budget is spent on the
following items?

9. Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2019
Pt. 2
ITHAKA S+R U.S.
Library Survey 2019
How much of a priority is each of the
following functions in your library?

10. Access as an Essential Need
• Libraries require support from campus information technology departments in
order to provide remote access.
• Many of the remote authentication methods available to libraries require
interfacing with campus Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software (e.g.,
Banner, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar).
• Federated access to library resources is becoming more popular, but this
requires library providers to use campus federated network memberships (e.g.,
InCommon).
• The biggest barrier is still the lack of access to the internet.

11. Hotspot Lending Program
• Funded by NNLM Technology Innovation Grant and IMLS Grant funds
via the Montana State Library.
• Seventeen hotspots with unlimited data plans available to students for
medium- to long-term checkouts (2 weeks to full semester).
• 30+ check-outs from mid-October 2020 through April 2021 ranging
from 2 weeks to 16 weeks. All student grade classifications
(undergraduate and graduate) represented.
• Goal - obtain continued funding to extend the pilot program for another
year to obtain more data.

12. Internet Speed Test
If you are completing the poll questions as we go, then it's
time to complete an Internet speed test.
Go to speedtest.org and find out your upload and
download speeds.

13. Removing Barriers with
Instructional Technology
Low-Bandwidth Options
• Downloadable transcripts for all videos
• Reducing the number of participants on video calls
• Turning off cameras and screen sharing during synchronous sessions
• Allowing call-in options for WebEx or Zoom meetings
• Provide independent student learning options (readings, podcasts,
worksheets) that can be downloaded for offline access
• Use collaborative tools like Google Docs
• Limit the use of animations and transitions
https://edredesign.org/files/edredesign/files/low_bandwidth_teaching_strategies_2.pdf?m=1596823789

14. Mobile Optimized Learning
Removing Barriers with
Instructional Technology
Mobile Optimized Learning
• Collapse content to one or two columns
• Insert section breaks so students do not miss important information
• Reduce the number of clicks required to access materials
• Keep navigation obvious and simple
• Scale media to limit download size
• Clearly indicate interactive elements as there is no cursor or hover function
• Chunk your content in a way that can be divided into various arrangements
• Maximize space with icons
https://elearningindustry.com/mobile-learning-8-responsive-design-techniques-optimize

15. Purchasing Resources for
Library Users
• Work with vendors who are reliable, responsive, and affordable
• Determine that the resource will work with our current authentication
methods
• Ensure the resource meets our accessibility standards
• Determine if the resource can be integrated into our discovery layer

16. Questions to Consider for
Purchasing
• Unlimited number of simultaneous users?
• How long is length of license?
• Closed-captioning and transcripts
• Free of Digital Rights Management for ease of use
• Hosted by platform or will the library need to host?

17. Is the library letting our users down?
• Gap in library service
• Small staff
• Managing film license purchases
• Library staff requires guidance from Library IT
staff

18. Library Hosted Film Licenses
What Could Go Wrong...and How Can The Library Get it Right?
• Poor quality videos
• Extra maintenance required
• Library staff + Library IT staff + Campus-wide IT staff

19. Digital Accessibility
• Underlying access is Digital Accessibility
• Shared and distributed responsibility
• Library + Campus-wide IT + Instructors + ...

20. Accessibility Impacts Access
• Access impacts success
⚬ Even with a device and the internet, the resources still might not meet a
users accessibility needs
• What works for one person, does not work for another
⚬ Following accessibility best practices is a fundamental first step to
ensuring access
• Improving accessibility helps to advance digital equity and inclusion
by removing barriers that inhibit student access

21. The Prevalence of Disability
• Disabilities can be invisible
• Students are not required to disclose a disability
• 26% of the U.S. live with disability (CDC)
• 19% of undergraduate students report a disability (NCES)
• 100%, of people will experience a disability (Sethfors)
• Disability can be permanent, temporary, or situational (Shum et
al.)

22. Accessibility
Benefits
Everyone
Accessibility is, and should remain,
focused on users with disabilities
Henry, Abou-Zahra, & Brewer
However, following the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines will benefit
everyone in the end
W3C

23. Promoting Accessibility
• Accessibility takes time
• It's easier and faster to incorporate accessibility
best practices from the start (Gerard & Bronsema)
• Libraries + IT can promote accessibility
• Shared goals, shared conversations

24. Conclusion:
Access is
Critical
• Access is a critical component of
digital equity and digital inclusion
• Libraries are a critical point of
access for students
• Libraries + campus IT can help
support digital equity and inclusion
by facilitating access & removing
barriers
• Libraries should be involved in
conversations with the campus IT
community

25. Strategies to Support Digital
Equity & Inclusion
The library + IT can support access through:
• Facilitate remote authentication
• Provide technology checkouts & hotspots to enable access
• Offer low-bandwidth solutions for students with access barriers
• Maximize mobile accessibility
• Suggest ways to maximize bandwidth, such as downloading resources rather
than streaming
• Ask questions when procuring resources to ensure they are accessible
• Offer on-demand library acquisitions in the preferred format of the user for print
or digital; etc.

26. Strategies to Support Digital
Equity & Inclusion Cont.
The library + IT can support access through:
• Follow digital accessibility best practices
• Utilize the UDL Framework when developing instruction
• Expand in-person services to offer remote options as well
• Offer the option for users to submit accessibility requests to get material in a
more accessible format
• Form a committee to help implement and/or advance accessibility, digital equity
and digital inclusion
• Get direct feedback from users, including how to help improve their access and
address any barriers

27. References
American Librarian Association. (2019). Core Values of Librarianship.
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues
CDC. (2020, September 16, 2020). Disability Impacts All of Us. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html
Frederick, K. & Wolff-Eisenberg. (2019). Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2019.
https://sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SR-Report-US-Library-Directors-Survey-2019-040220.pdf
Henry, S., Abou-Zahra, S., & Brewer, J. (2014). The role of accessibility in a universal web. In International Cross
Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (pp. 1-4): ACM.
Institute of Museum and Library Services. (2020). IMLS indicators workbook: Economic status and broadband
availability and adoption. https://www.imls.gov/data/data-catalog/imls-indicators-workbook-economic-status-and
-broadband-availability-and-adoption
LoBue, A. (2020). Low-bandwidth teaching strategies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Addressing technology
access inequity in distance learning and online education. The Education Redesign Lab: Harvard Graduate
School of Education.
https://edredesign.org/files/edredesign/files/low_bandwidth_teaching_strategies_2.pdf?m=1596823789

28. References Continued
NCES. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/ch_3.asp
Sethfors, H. (2017). Statistics on disabilities – the one stat you need to know. Axess Lab.
https://axesslab.com/statistics-on-disabilities/
Shum, A., Holmes, K., Woolery, K., Price, M., Kim, D., Dvorkina, E., & Malekzadeh, S. (2016). Inclusive: a microsoft
design toolkit. https://download.microsoft.com/download/b/0/d/b0d4bf87-09ce-4417-8f28-d60703d672ed/
inclusive_toolkit_manual_final.pdf
Spencer, T. (2019, June 11). 8 responsive design techniques to optimize mobile learning. eLearning Industry.
https://elearningindustry.com/mobile-learning-8-responsive-design-techniques-optimize
Sunithal, T., & Sreekumar, M. G. (2011, February). A Single-Sign-On and a Remote Login Solution to Library E
Journals and E-Resources. In International Conference on Digital Libraries and Knowledge Organization (ICDK
2011) (pp. 14-16).
W3C. (2019). Introduction to Web Accessibility. https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/

29. Take Away
For the last poll question, please tell us your biggest take
away from this session.

30. Contact Us
Jacqueline Frank - jacqueline.frank@montana.edu
Instruction & Accessibility Librarian
Hannah McKelvey - hannah.mckelvey@montana.edu
E-Resources & Discovery Services Librarian
Rachelle McLain - rachelle.mclain@montana.edu
Collection Development Librarian
Meghan Salsbury - meghan.salsbury@montana.edu
Instructional Technology Librarian
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