I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher or course to share my last few months of the program with. The structure of the class enabled me to learn just as much from my classmates as I did from Michael. I really appreciated the connections I made in 768. Having all the different paths of communication available to talk and share ideas with the class made my experience so much more fruitful than it would have been without them. I can honestly say that I am sold on social media. The potential for collaboration and resource sharing is amazing.

The things that I value most from this course are the personal learning network that I developed and the connections I made with classmates/future colleagues.

And now it’s time to send Michael my final paper, which is both my final paper for the course and final paper for the program. As soon as I hit the send button I can consider myself a Master’s Degree holder and a librarian. I start my first paying job as a librarian tomorrow morning at Harrington School of Design. The timing is amazing!

Bridging the Gap or Mind the Gap

This paper examines the growing effort of the U.S. government, private and public organizations, and libraries to extinguish the divide between digital haves and have-nots. There have been movements by several different organizations (libraries included) over the course of the past several years to close the divide by making broadband universally available. This paper will review the collaborative efforts that organizations are making to close the digital divide.

Description:

My paper has continued to evolve through the course of the semester. My research into the subject of the digital divide/new digital divide has led me in many different directions. After struggling to find sources to reinforce my original hypothesis, I decided that I should move with the current of the research and change the subject of my paper.

I have found that the digital divide is narrowing on a daily basis; 60% of the world’s citizens have mobile device subscriptions and almost 25% of the entire world uses the internet (http://bit.ly/jouEi). Nearly every library in the United States has internet access and more and more individuals are becoming subscribers at home. The government is making more information available electronically, employers are often only advertising jobs online, and more educators are using electronic tools. Happily, I found that the digital divide isn’t as great as I thought it was when I started writing this paper.

CPL is running a great marketing campaign!

I’ve been searching for the last few hours trying to find statistics, quotes, and pictures for the paper and something dawned on me. Finding information online is hard. I’ll have my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science in a few weeks. I have been doing research electronically for the last 6 years if I count undergraduate studies. There are almost 200,000,000 websites on the internet (source). I would be incredibly surprised if 5% of them were useful or up-to-date. Most people aren’t experts at evaluating sources or knowing where to find good information and there’s a lot of bad information on the internet.

There has been a lot of talk lately about librarians becoming increasingly irrelevant in the information age. As someone about to enter the job market I admit that all the talk has been a little unsettling. With everyone yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”, I thought I’d made the wrong career choice.

But here I sit. Trying to write a paper on the “Digital Divide”, with my computer in my lap and an incredible amount of resources at my fingertips and I can’t find what I’m looking for. I can’t even imagine how difficult and intimidating it must be for people that don’t use the internet everyday.

The reason I’m writing this is because I’m no longer worried about finding a job. Even if all the world’s information was available on the internet (it isn’t), it would be very difficult to find anything useful. People will always need someone to guide them to resources and librarians are experts.

After searching for hours I have finally found the census information I needed. Hooray! But, why was it so well-hidden?

Then libraries were targeted. The city library reduced the number of items that homeless people could checkout from 40 at a time to two at a time. The reasoning behind the reduction was that items homeless people were borrowing were not being returned. The city’s head librarian, Penelope Johnson, defended the restrictive policy stating that the library had a “fiduciary responsibility to make those resources available to everyone and the rules we set in place are to do that.”

You might be wondering how the library could enforce that policy. When a user applies for a library card they must show ID. If the address on the ID matched that of a shelter then the restriction would be imposed.

Several homeless people were angered by the new library measures and decided to take action. The American Civil Liberties Union came to the defense of the plaintiffs and a year later the library was forced to scrap the policy and even agreed to help host a homeless event at the library.

“We appreciate the willingness of the city and the library board of directors to come to the table to discuss equal access to the library and its materials for all,” Jonathan L. Mannina, executive director of Legal Assistance, said.

Policy
The Electronic Resources for Public Use Policy also applies to Social Media platforms. Gotham City Library (GCL) supports access to any Social Media service that will enhance the internet experience of patrons.

The Library has a presence on several social media sites for the purposes of communicating with the community. GCL believes in transparency and values feedback from users. Library management takes all suggestions and criticisms under advisement.

All social media sites affiliated with the Library will be regularly screened by library employees. GCL recognizes and respects differences in opinion, but does not permit hateful or derogatory speech and the Library will immediately remove any inappropriate posting.

Access by Minors
As with traditional Library resources, librarians do not act in loco parentis. The Library is in no way responsible for enforcing any restrictions which a parent or guardian may place on a minor’s use of this resource. However, the Library does encourage parents to talk with children about internet safety. For more information please speak with an GCL Librarian.

Policy Subject to Revision
The Library may revise its “Social Media Policy” at any time.

For my social media policy I looked at the Internet Policy/Electronic Resources Policy of several different public libraries. I found most of them very restrictive and that is not how I wanted to portray Gotham City Library. Social Media is more about can than it is cannot. I also did not want to write a very specific policy because of how quickly social media sites are transforming. Most public Libraries already have Internet Policies in place so I just wanted to add a few additional notes for social media sites, and they mostly reinforce what would have already been covered in the Internet Policy. The three most important elements to include were: the Library supports social media, the Library reserves the right to remove any inappropriate content form Library affiliated sites, and Librarians will not act in loco parentis.

Sources consulted

Ottawa Public Library: Social Media Policy. Ottawa Public Library Accessed November 22, 2009.

The New York Public Library Policy on Public Use of the Internet. New York Public Library Accessed November 22, 2009.

Illinois Library Association: Netsafe. ILA: Netsafe Accessed November 22, 2009.

The American Library Association has worked to ensure that economic position would never stand in the way of a person being able to find information. Article 5 of the Library Bill of Rights states that, “A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.”

In “Economic Barriers to Information Access,” ALA has emphasized its commitment to fulfilling, within economic realities, this important commitment. Specifically, it states that “All library policies and procedures, particularly those involving fines, fees, or other user charges, should be scrutinized for potential barriers to access. All services should be designed and implemented with care, so as not to infringe on or interfere with the provision or delivery of information and resources for all users. Services should be reevaluated regularly to ensure that the library’s basic mission remains uncompromised.”

Libraries bear a special responsibility to ensure that the public has access to computers, the Internet, and other networked resources to allow all segments of society to participate in the information revolution. [1]

However, there are a few issues that often, if unintentionally, deny a person equitable access to library resources. In order to get a library card a patron needs to have an address. There are a few libraries who have come up with creative solutions …

To be continued

Woody knew that it was cool to hang out in the Library.

My group project is on the New Digital Divide and my section is going to be on how the homeless connect to the Web through libraries. I’ve found a few resources where others have briefly made a connection between homeless and the Web. Some classmates have also directed me to relevant sources. Shockingly some communities are trying to block internet access for the homeless. A few libraries are ensuring access for homeless and most libraries don’t have a policy either way. The initial perception I have of what librarians feel toward homeless people is that they are a nuisance.

There are a lot of resources that would help homeless citizens on the internet. Especially in todays economy.

These are some of the sources that I’ll be looking at.

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/olos/poor-homeless/servicespoor.cfm

ALA services to the poor links to a lot of helpful resources. I also belong to the Social Responsibilities Round Table which is another site I’ll be looking at.

http://www.laccm.org/work/news/article070906

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/48-year-old-blogger-gone-9-years-without-money.php

http://www.sanilacdistrictlibrary.lib.mi.us/Pages/September%20is%20Library%20Card.htm

http://www.bcplonline.org/info/comm/comm_streetcard.html

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=1868

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/06/for_homeless_advocate_blogging.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16739648

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105047997

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/a_new_way_for_homeless_to_seek.html

I’m going to turn this into an annotated bibliography tomorrow when I’m back home. Right now I’m borrowing this computer while in North Carolina.

I’m sure some Librarians wouldn’t agree with this!

Now I don’t feel so bad about talking people out of buying the E-Reader while working at Border’s!
Scoreboard
Dan – 1
Sony – 1
To be continued …