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Digital Divide and Digital Library Environment: Bridging the Gap through Information Literacy and Role of Academic Community
Sobhagyawati Gupta Assistant Librarian Central University of Rajasthan Kishangarh-305801, Ajmer, Rajasthan (India) Rajneesh Library In-charge Apaji Institute of Mathematics & Applied Computer Technology Library Banasthali University, Rajasthan Madan Singh Rana University Librarian H N Bahuguna Gharwal University Srinagar, Gharwal, Uttarakhand
Introduction
• Though
information
is being considered as
basic ingredient
for the society,
ICT
however,
rejuvenated a new dimension
to information i.e. as
commodity
has, . Connection of networks, further, strengthen to a fast communication with a real time feeling among people across the world.
•
Impact of ICT on libraries
Changing
traditional library to digital library
by building of digital collection which is leading to transformation in the society, academic environment in particular.
• • • Thus, the
academic libraries are moving into a critical take off phase
: They are
in between modernization and transformation phase
, and would be progressing as largely digital in next few years. However,
development in academic libraries and recent technological advancements
has
emerged a kind of divide or gap between information seekers and the environment
.
It
divided society into two worlds
of information seekers:
world struggling for survival
in the digital world.
born digital
; and
born in the
Therefore, all possible
efforts need to be made to fill up or close this gap
for making sustainable world in the digital environment.
Information literacy
in the society
programmes can be a trustworthy technique
in order to reduce this gap in the present academic environment.
Digital Library Environment
• • • • • ICT has brought notable transformation in many factors, particularly in the area of disseminating information speedily. As
earlier people were reluctant to make use of power of ICT
, however, today
apparently seen a complete change in peoples’ mindset
in the society.
Moreover, the
present generation
of students is
more comfortable with ICT
in their everyday life. Now, most of the students
rely on technology
to collect information and to communicate with others.
On the other hand
, in this age of
information overload
; the
availability of more than 17 million internet sites, three billion web pages
, and
more than a million items in typical medium-sized academic library
and
more importantly
,
unorganized information available on Internet
, so it is
critical to get desired information easily from internet and it affects academic success and personal learning
. In addition,
there are many students they do not possess the basic skills required in the digital environment including-the core technology based skills
“do not necessarily translate into sophisticated skills with other technologies or general information literacy”.
Only few students are having “high level of competence across a wide range of applications
” (Kennedy, et al., 2008).
Therefore,
this is creating a kind of divide among the students in the academic environment
. Here, the role of library would be major in filling up this gap and making favorable academic environment for students in the digital era.
Digital Divide
• IT has made an intense impact on the society and also influenced on lives of people immensely.
The unequal access to ICT has led the society, India in particular, to a massive divide digitally
; digitally rich & digitally poor, like: – Communities those haves access to computers and the internet and those have-nots; – Similarly,
no uniformity for accessing information
through effective use of ICT
in the academic environment
.
Challenge: Creating the equal access
to information and technology to the academic community.
Appropriate step:
Bridging this gap in the country
through digital and information literacy programmes
for the learners community would be an apt solution.
Reasons for Digital Divide
• Internet is used by only 35% of the world’s population and that some 85% of all uses and 90% of all hosts are in developed countries. Internet penetration in India is only 10% of total population.
Reasons for digital divide are: ( http://www.uneca.org
, 2007)
Contd…
• Economic status • Lack of appropriate ICT infrastructure • Lack of political will in governments to do what is needed to enable the integration of technology throughout society; • Lack of awareness & literacy of technology • Lack of interest and aspirations of individuals • Lack of confidence and skills necessary, fear of technology and fear of change in technologies have also been large contributing factors.
• Lack of training and orientation for use and access the online resources; • Lack of intellectual capital having appropriate skills in understanding how to make use of technology and resources in digital environment • Unsustainable, inconsistent and partial funding to community-based initiatives; and lacking the focus on local requirements means lack of localization efforts.
Contd…
And, the above reasons may lead to:
Social Exclusion Economic stagnation Technological isolation
The plan to achieve the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 will also be affected. Academic community will have to recognize and play their leading role and responsibility as strong pillars in establishing the building of all academic affairs and achieving the set goals.
Information Literacy
• Not only the ICT literacy is responsible for this fragmentation in the society in the present digital environment, but, all types of literacy are responsible, including- media literacy, computer literacy, visual literacy, tool literacy, resource literacy, social structure literacy, research literacy, publishing literacy, critical literacy and emerging technology.
Information Literacy Education
In the ICTs environment, modern methods have been emerging in the class room teaching and learning, so the instructional and learning needs of learners has changed noticeably. There is a
need to prepare students in different ways
like- making them comfortable with technology and digital environment, and working with different people and ideas collaboratively. Information Literacy Education is a
collective responsibility of all educators and information providers
. Thus, the need of collaboration & cooperation among teaching faculty, administrators and library & information science professionals to initiate information literacy programmes.
Role of Academic Community
All the players have a specific role to play in reducing the digital divide in the academic environment through information and digital literacy.
Role of Teaching Faculty
• • • • The faculty can talk about academic competencies, methodology, problem definition, research, the use of resources, etc. In the universities, a provision in the curriculum itself may be made to learn about information literacy by the students to become lifelong learners and also to fulfill the specific needs, both professional and personal. For strengthening information literacy in digital era, the training programmes, courses, workshops and tutorials need to be designed and implemented by the experts, including-librarians and subject specialists, faculty. This would be a major step in providing information literacy education in digital environment (Konnur & Rao, 2009).
Information literacy education based on faculty-library collaboration will also help students to access the information intellectually and use it critically, creatively and ethically. It can reduce the faculty’s burden of having to deal with issues such as plagiarism, referencing and critical evaluation of information (Torras & Skagen, 2006).
Role of Library Professionals
• • The library and information centers have a distinctive role to play in the present democratic society in order to reduce the gap between those who haves and those who have-nots through information literacy and other programmes, particularly in digital environment.
Librarian, now being more proactive information provider, should think of designing digital resources guides on various subjects, which include- search strategies for locating e-resources, and preparing a list of useful reference materials, high-quality websites, and so on.
Role of Learners
• Most of the time, students are in trouble in understanding the materials available in digital form, however, they cannot use it in a right context, so they just copy the contents. Therefore, in the present environment, students should have to be academically skilled, methodologically competent, a team worker, creative and information literate.
• So, the students can discuss the need of relevant material, how to move forward in this process, about frustrations in writing the projects and information seeking and the related problems like teaching, consulting, research, and so on. They should also collaborate in the design, application, and maintenance of information access systems.
• Apart from the teachers and librarian’s role, the role of administrators and the information learners itself is also very important in reducing the gap among digital information user and the advancements of digital information society and bridging the digital divide.
Thus, we should facilitate to provide an encouraging environment in libraries to have collaboration among all the stakeholders to satisfy their requirements.
Conclusion can be drawn:
• •
Collaborative research projects
on designing the information literacy programmes; so that the
right kind of strategies may be developed
in conducting these programmes in digital environment successfully.
• A
regular monitoring system
may be evolved to
ensure the utility as well as the quality of programmes
. This information literacy assessment programmes would be helpful to improve the ability to access digital information by the users.
Organizations like INFLIBNET
may offer a
leading role to support such programmes and to ensure proper and effective use of technology
in the libraries. More workshops and training programmes must be conducted by them in this area.
Contd…
• • • For running information literacy programmes successfully, library should have an
Information literacy department
with dedicated team of staff. The authority must determine if such programmes are worth the investment and help the library’s mission. For establishing programmes accountability,
use assessment on regular basis should be monitor
in order to report the results. This would also help
to ascertain the visibility
of the programmes.
Localization efforts: Language obstacle barriers
is one of the most
important
in using the technology for fulfilling the individual’s information needs, as 70% of website pages are in English whereas
70% of the worlds population doesn’t speak English
as their primary language Therefore, one of the most important initiatives to reduce the digital divide would be
initiating localization activities
.
Collaborative efforts
in information literacy programme with teaching academics and computer professionals would ensure students be more information literate, so that
they can access information properly, select carefully and evaluate critically and use creatively and means accurately
.
• To become an independent learner in a democratic way, the
economic, legal and social issues relating to the use of ICTs
would also be
explained to the learners through such programmes
. At last,
actual meaning of information literacy
will really work when they would
also understand the use of information ethically by acknowledging the works of others, giving credit aptly, citing information properly
and
in turn
, they would
also understand the feeling of sharing information with others
, which is
actually needed in the present academic environment
.