IS 510 Mary Rayme, August 2013
Question A. What is literacy? What is digital literacy? Discuss the models and
historical/current thinking about digital literacy. What do you see as the challenges in ensuring
that our library users/patrons have strong digital literacy skills?
Literacy used to refer to a person’s ability to read and write well enough to function in the living and
working world.1 While many may still continue to think about literacy in this way, the term extends not
just to someone’s ability to read and write, but refers to a person’s ability to function and navigate in
the written world.
Today “digital literacy is the set of attitudes, understanding, and skills needed to find communicate and
use information effectively, in a variety of media and formats.” (Bawden & Robinson, 2012) Older terms
such as computer literacy and information literacy have fallen by the wayside as our understanding of
literacy and technology has grown significantly.
The phrase “information literacy” was first introduced in 1974 by president of the American Information
Industry Association Paul Zurkowski. Later, in 1989 the American Library Association wrote,
“Information literacy is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to
identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.
In the 1990s, SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) came up with seven aspects,
or pillars, for information literacy. Around the same time, Australian professor Christine Bruce came up
1
"Do You Know the Facts About Literacy?: What Is Literacy?" Do You Know the Facts About Literacy?: What Is
Literacy? Ohio Literacy Resource Center, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2013.
<http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Workshops/facts/whatis_lit.html>.
with a way to define an information literate person. These are both attempts to define information
literacy and to show the process of finding and synthesizing information. (Bawden & Robinson, 2012)
SCONUL revised their seven pillars model in 2011 to express a more circular and cyclical method of the
information literacy landscape. (Identify, scope, plan, gather, evaluate, manage, present.)
Americans Jeremy Shapiro and Shelley Hughes created a definition of computer literacy that attempted
to include such aspects as tool literacy, resource literacy, social-structural literacy, research literacy,
publishing literacy, emerging technologies and critical literacy.
“Digital literacy” was first introduced as a phrase by Paul Glister and was defined as “the ability to
understand and to use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is
presented via computers.” 2 This theory is enticing as it is very broad and requires no charts.
There are many challenges facing digital literacy today to ensure that people and library patrons may
have skills that will enable them to find the information they need.
Thirteen percent of the population was illiterate in West Virginia in 2003.3 At the same time, the
national average for illiteracy was 14.5%. While West Virginia may have a slightly better literacy rate
than the national average, the digital literacy rate is probably far less. Another interesting statistic is that
only 17.6% of the 25+ population in West Virginia have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to
28.2% as the national average.4 As such, this statistic shows that West Virginians are not as well
educated as the rest of the country, which may create more problems in encouraging and nurturing
digital literacy in the state.
2
Gilster, Paul. Digital Literacy. New York, NY [u. A.: Wiley, 1997. Print.
"State and County Literacy Estimates - State Estimates." State and County Literacy Estimates - State Estimates.
Institute of Education Sciences, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2013. <http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx>.
4
"West Virginia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." West Virginia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau.
Census.gov, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2013. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/54000.html>.
3
West Virginia has a median age of 50. This generation gap has also created a digital literacy gap and as a
result, many older West Virginians do not own nor use a computer. This lack of familiarity with
technology makes older West Virginian’s even less likely to achieve digital literacy. In support of this
idea, a recent study at Florida State University revealed that “only 39 percent of adults between 65 and
74 use the Internet.”5
West Virginia has one of the lowest median annual incomes in the United States at slightly less than
$40,000/year and 17.5% live below the poverty line. 6 Because of lack of financial resources, many West
Virginians cannot afford to purchase goods, such as computers, perceived as luxury items.
Another challenge to providing digital literacy to library patrons is lack of funds for libraries. Many
schools no longer have libraries and many county government factions do not want to support local
public libraries. Recently in West Virginia, Kanawha County Public Libraries lost its funding from the state
Board of Education. Many library systems in West Virginia rely on financial support from their local
county commissions and boards of education to provide books, technology, and other resources for
patrons.
Because of the challenging terrain and rural population of West Virginia, there are still big chunks of our
region that have no access to broadband.7 Many local residents who don’t have access to broadband in
their homes rely on libraries for their digital connection, but not having the technology available in their
5
Mark Alvarez. "Researchers: Technology Gap Turns Seniors into Second-Class Citizens."L'Atelier: Disruptive
Innovation. L'Atelier: Disruptive Innovation, 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 04 Aug. 2013.
<http://www.atelier.net/en/trends/articles/researchers-technology-gap-turns-seniors-second-class-citizens>.
6
"West Virginia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." West Virginia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau.
Census.gov, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2013. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/54000.html>.
7
"WV Broadband Mapping Program." Broadband West Virginia. Wv.gov, n.d. Web.
<http://www.broadband.wv.gov/maps/Regional_Coverage/Documents/PDF%20Region%20Maps/Region%207%20
PDF%20Maps/20110331_WVBBMap_r07_No_Coverage.pdf>.
homes may hinder digital literacy. Additionally, many cable companies are not interested in investing in
sparsely populated regions as it is not financially beneficial to the corporation.
Even for local residents who have computers and have sufficient Internet access, problem-solving skills
may not allow them to fully develop their digital literacy skills. Many computer sites and softwares
require a familiarity with a basic computer interface, and many of our older patrons find this unintuitive
because it is not native as it is for younger users. Without a solid foundation in digital literacy it is almost
impossible for anyone to keep up with ever-changing technology.
Even at the state level there is a technology gap in digital literacy. In 2010, the state of West Virginia had
to spend millions of grant dollars on new routers for public buildings. Instead of buying different levels
of routers for different site needs, the unwise government officials bought expensive routers worth
$20,000 per and installed them into tiny libraries such as my own. These routers would only run on fiber
optic cable, which will probably not be installed locally for another 5-10 years. This huge mistake cost
the government of our state a lot of money and a lot of embarrassment. The router that had sat
installed (and inoperable) in my library for almost a year was recently uninstalled and sold back to
Cisco.8
The advent of Big Data also presents a digital literacy challenge in that the data sets are so large they
present an immense challenge in storage, organization, navigation, sharing, security, and analysis. While
this may not overtly have an impact on my library patrons, our libraries already feel the impact of Big
Data in that we have found books with duplicate bar code numbers in different libraries within the same
network. It seems that long ago, no one had imagined that the Northern Library Network of WV would
be so big that bar code numbers would start to overlap. No one has come up with a suitable fix for this
8
"- Wired for Waste - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -." - Wired for Waste - The
Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -. The Charleston Gazette, 07 May 2013. Web. 04 Aug. 2013.
<http://www.wvgazette.com/News/Wiredforwaste>.
issue which still occasionally occurs. Big Data is a sticky wicket that will continue to present new
challenges in all domains for years to come and in ways we cannot yet imagine.
Finally, I think one of the major barriers to digital literacy is shame. I think many older patrons are aware
of their lack of digital literacy skills and have an enormous amount of shame that they have not been
able to keep up with the pace of technology.
The major challenges that face our region and our library patrons in developing and maintaining digital
literacy skills include lack of funds for patrons and libraries, lack of broadband availability, lack of
literacy, lack of education, the avalanche of Big Data, and a culture that does not necessarily value
higher education.