Why physical libraries are the perfect place to bridge the digital gap.

From ‘digital inclusion’ to an ‘inclusive digital education’.

When Wikileaks was initially launched, online communities got really excited about the potential of knowledge it would unlock: conversations, figures, names, everything was finally available in the broad daylight. However, except for a few documented cases, the platform never really went mainstream. Why so? Probably the gap between the digital promise and how to effectively address it: Wikileaks is raw data that lacks context to help understand what’s really at stake.

This raw material is already accessible across the Internet in many forms and can be equally distributed to whomever: Wikipedia will let you access an updated encyclopedia for free and even by text messages. This doesn’t mean this information comes structured or with a specific potential: digital inclusion isn’t about having an email address or a cheap tablet, it’s about the power digital tools give you.

How do you therefore build the digital inclusion bridge beyond mere access? Wouldn’t our simple yet effective physical libraries be amazing catalyzers for this broader inclusive education?

Digital inclusion: why skills matter more than mere access to hardware or data.

When the first computers reached Brazil in the 1990s, Rodrigo Baggio realized they would create a massive gap between those inside this budding «information era » and everyone else. He then created the Centre for Digital Inclusion (CDI) to empower low-income youth with relevant digital skills. Far from bringing a laptop per kid (as others would try 10 years after), he introduced the potential for new technologies through the training of ‘ad hoc skills’.

Here’s a quick example of what it changed. The favela where CDI was started had a crazy amount of garbage, no longer collected by local authorities. Setting it on fire would have been a simple way to make them disappear. Instead, young people were introduced to two options to make garbage collection embarrassingly visible to local politicians: replicating an assault of garbage by e-mail (sent to officials’ inboxes) or learning to shoot a video that would be broadcasted locally. Unsurprisingly, the garbage problem was soon resolved: quite a pragmatic example of digital inclusion (and one beyond the simplistic access to data or hardware).

Inclusive digital education = access to information + skills + usage + people.

As CDI shows, you don’t have to own a digital device to be digitally included, and you’re not necessarily included in the global education system simply by owning a digital device. A more inclusive education can be imagined when it comes to learning with digital tools. For example, Medellin, the former capital of narcotraffics is now home to the inspiring Ruta N and its network of libraries.

Located in what used to be the epicenter of the city’s worst favela (San Domingo), Biblioteca Parque Espana is the biggest of those. Its focus: to promote the inclusion of the local population in one of the brand new libraries. Tech-savvy and cost-effective, it experimented with a program aimed at sharing knowledge: interchange.

Launched last year, the program is designed to kids and features introductions to topics such as nanotechnologies with professionals throughout the globe. Here again, no need to own a computer but a great way to see the powerful potential of worldwide collaboration with a free tool (Google Hangout). A great example to follow.

Turning libraries into inclusive hubs?

It may sound simplistic and loads of initiatives have already been launched in this regard but physical libraries appear more consistent than ever to play a major role in a more inclusive digital education. Even though associated with hardcovers and paper, they are very appealing to scale “gap-bridging” for at least 3 reasons:

• They are inter-generational. The older generation knows what to look for and young people might be more likely to have the skills to find it online. Libraries can be a special public place for them to meet and go to, in addition to schools.
• They are free, local and open. France for instance has more than 7,000 physical libraries (and evenly distributed across the country). They are already well entrenched in the public sphere.
• They are already in the process of changing. With the rising for digital books, physical libraries need to reinvent themselves and to support the access of information by new means.

The first libraries dating back to 2600 BC featured clay tablets, let’s just update them now in order to keep on sharing information on relevant supports. In the ‘information era’ we’re aiming for, it’s more necessary than ever to know why you’re here (digitally educated) than to be here (digitally included).

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