• Palaces for the People’s Digital Literacy Skills: How to Invest in the Education of Citizens

    Author(s):
    Thomas Kilduff (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Subject(s):
    Library science
    Item Type:
    Essay
    Tag(s):
    Carnegie Libraries, Digital Divide
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/8rxk-8053
    Abstract:
    The digital divide at its heart is a social divide. The two share many of the same fault lines. If we look just at the digital divide’s technological face, we see that “computer use is related to race and ethnicity, educational attainment, gender, basic household composition, and, most dramatically, income.” (Bishop, et al., 1999, page 363). Public libraries, as part of its esprit de corps, are already doing much to help connect disadvantaged groups to the infosphere, including providing information that is health-related and life-saving. (Cabello and Butler, 2017) In the absence of a universal basic income and a strong education system in the US and UK, libraries are taking the lead. The aim of librarians is not to eradicate the digital divide but to mitigate its effects, (Van Dijk, 2020) and to give libraries the tools to do so. This essay will explore reasons for the digital divide in the US and the UK and consider approaches to remedy it. Like most research, there are many instances here supporting correlation over causation. What emerges again and again in the research are the fault lines aforementioned. From this list of factors, we will pay particular attention to age as a guide post in the digital divide and look at how resources, or lack thereof, play a role in the digital divide.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
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