| The vision of the successful community and community member has changed
dramatically in the last decade. What defines "quality of life" for these
communities and their residents throughout the country varies significantly,
however, any current definition now must include "access to the necessary
and appropriate technological resources and services." A few public
and private leaders have stepped up to the plate to deliver these resources
and services to wire the communities of today for the communities of tomorrow,
however, the process is slow and the task is enormous.
As the technological revolution moves through the smallest and largest
environments, and, as these larger projects gain momentum throughout the
country, information professionals are grappling with the enormous education
and information sharing needs emerging. Existing education and information-sharing
commitments first and realistically lie with a professionals first patron
or client responsibilities. School districts focus on their employees and
students, higher education focuses on their employees and students, and
profit environments focus on their employees and clients. Each "focus"
must be general in nature to address the basic needs but most focus must
be on the issues and requirements of each particular environment.
As people and entities work individually toward their respective goals
several issues are emerging:
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Many community members do not fit into pre-defined environments
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Entities are teaching different technological "basics" and more is taught
- and rightly so- that is specific to environments
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Not all community members have the economic resources to purchase or seek
the education or information-sharing training needed
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All technology is changing at a pace so rapid that even organized entities
are having difficulties keeping the education and information-sharing critical
to training employees, must less primary patron and client groups
The reality is that there is an enormous digital divide... that
is the availability of hardware and software and resources but an even
larger information literacy divide. What are the basic competencies that
community members need? Who is going to teach them the basics? How will
everyone learn the basics? Who knows what resources are really out there?
How can people what they want? How can they use the technology to the fullest
potential? How can they choose from among the vast array of resources available?
How can they keep up?
The public library has always been seen as an environment that "speaks
to everyone" and meets everyone's needs. But the public library can't do
it alone, just as higher education and K-12 school environments can't do
it alone. And they can't work successfully together without talking to
their respective communities and the broader community.
These groups must form partnerships among themselves as well as partnerships
with other public and private members of their communities. These
groups - working through these partnerships - can set an agenda of education
and information-sharing that identifies the:
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critical aspects of the information literate community;
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the basics of information literate education and training;
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the necessary core competencies for the community and for all communities
members, and most importantly,
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these groups can define a process for beginning and maintaining a dialogue
so that the process can be replicated and used by others.
The American Library Association's incoming President, Nancy Kranich, has
such as vision and based on a community partnership project in the planning
stages is seeking assistance in beginning this dialogue at the national
level in libraries and in five to seven communities in the United States.
The process in communities - led by library and information science environment
partners - would, through a process and information literacy toolkit:
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begin the dialogue;
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define the information literate community;
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move communities forward with techniques that would identify structures
in place, education structures about each other, provide a community plan
that incorporates basic skills and competencies and existing education
and training;
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develop a marketing strategy; and,
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initiate a plan of action that would move a disparate wired community to
an educated, information-sharing and information literate community.
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