hello everybody I am here today to talk
with you about future librarians as the
world becomes increasingly digital we’re
required to know how to use digital
tools but especially for the lowest
income communities and families access
to skill building programs to learn
digital skills are few and far between
in this world I see now two trends one
is that access to information is
increasing while the accessibility of
information is actually on the decline
technically most Americans have access
to computers and internet accessibility
so for example in rural Minnesota where
we’re working with the national
libraries of medicine it’s not uncommon
to see folks huddled around outside of a
library after hours to try and get a
Wi-Fi signal we’ve even seen folks
Proctor exams sitting on the sidewalks
that’s an access challenge here’s an
accessibility example so in Detroit some
of the families that we’ve been working
with have had their utilities cut off
since this plan the low-income
self-sufficiency plan has moved from
in-person to web-based application
processes a lot of the families we work
with do you have a cell phone that do
have cellular data but they don’t know
how to find these forms or how to fill
them out that’s to me an accessibility
challenge and especially in the winter
the librarians we work with get
at libraries a lot borders our mission
is to expand both access and
accessibility of information and how do
we do this so I’ll give you one example
in 2015 we pitched an idea to the New
York Public Library to work with us to
build pop-up digital classrooms and
libraries in the South Bronx
we started by building out programs in
public parks and moved to lobbies of
low-income housing legal aid waiting
offices hospital waiting rooms churches
community centers subway stations and
what we found was that the best best
best spot to build these programs was
outside of the laundromat and it seems
pretty obvious right it’s a time when
families are almost necessarily they
have to go weekly it’s a time when you
have 90 minutes or so while you’re
waiting for your laundry to wash and dry
and for us this was a really exciting
find because a lot of these families are
the ones that have fallen through the
cracks of other social service systems
and required us to in the past do
expensive home visits to be able to get
back into our programs so with this
learning from the South Bronx we built
something called the wash and learn
initiative here’s a photo from one of
our programs in Detroit it’s now a
national program that we are working on
to not only build out as you can see not
only build out bookshelves with curated
texts for families to take home and
materials from our partners like too
small to fail for parents to learn more
about early learning but also building
in curated Wi-Fi hotspots that go in the
back office of the laundromat so that
people can use their own cell phone
devices to learn about new education
technology
and also with laptops and computers
installed but most most most importantly
I think the reason why this program has
been successful is that we’ve been
working with local libraries to convene
any and every local nonprofit to bring
their programs to these laundromat
libraries at the laundromats busiest
times so whereas a lot of programs have
had to spend a lot of resources on
outreach and recruitment and enrollment
if we design them in a way that fits
between wash and dry cycles on Saturdays
and Sundays and in the evenings we don’t
need to do any kind of outreach so what
are the barriers though that that this
is really overcoming why is this program
successful I think that the first one is
a scheduling barrier so in Detroit one
of the women that had participated in
our program and not come back after the
second session I asked her you know what
feedback can you give us to to make this
more accessible for you and I was
expecting her to tell us some stories or
feedback on the curriculum design or the
pedagogical methodology but what she
said to us was she works in a restaurant
she gets her schedules on Sundays it’s
different every week our program at the
library was meeting on Wednesdays at 6
p.m. and if we have a consistently
scheduled program it’s very very hard
for folks who work in service industries
to be able to make it she dropped out of
the third session because it conflicted
with one of her shifts she couldn’t
afford to miss that shift she was
embarrassed that she dropped out and
hasn’t signed up for another
second I think there are skills barriers
and what I mean by this area you know as
the world is becoming and holding people
responsible to not only ask but answer
their own questions online
who are who are who is teaching these
people how to in everyone how to have
the basic literacy digital literacy
information literacy and media literacy
skills to do so effectively and most
complicated and and I think this this
deserves a whole talk on its own
there are psychosocial barriers with
with this crowd I’ll give this example
which is when we think about why
CrossFit or SoulCycle is is so popular
and why people are paying so much money
for it I don’t necessarily think that
it’s because by enrolling in those
classes you’re learning a new skill or a
new technique each class I think that
there’s something around the social
community and the social support network
around that that you’re really paying
for right but if you are in a low-income
community a low literacy community
what are your social support networks
that help you as a lifelong learner in
the same way that a private trainer
fitness trainer might be really working
with you with pep talks and and talking
you through how to reimagine your your
identity as an athlete who are the ones
that are helping folks who might be
intimidated by Yale by libraries to
reimagine themselves as lifelong
so we have my three bullet points
written in black on this board so we
have our three barriers scheduling
barriers skills barriers psychosocial
barriers to make up what I’m calling
accessibility barriers to information at
libraries at borders we have been
breaking these barriers down at local
levels we do this through programs like
wash and learn we’ve run programs with
UNHCR in refugee camps in Colombia with
ex FARC and demobilization zones in
Greece in Italy with migrants and
homeless shelters in France each of
these I think we’ve we’ve done a lot of
thought and inclusive designs around how
to make information more accessible for
those particular communities but I think
the bigger question to ask for all of us
is how do we take those best practices
and think about how to break down
accessibility barriers systemically to
answer that I think the first question
we need to ask is who do we trust to be
responsible for that for breaking down
those barriers is it private companies
who are going to be most efficient at it
but might not be able to move themselves
away from the business structures that
hold them accountable to their
advertisers there’s a Pew Research poll
that says that more people trust their
local librarian than any national
newspaper any local newspaper or even in
a local their own health provider I
think there’s something that we can
build from that to really and really
leverage that trust to be doing
something here I think that the person
the people that we should be holding
responsible and giving authority to to
today in library school you’re not just
learning how to stack books sign people
up for library cards the best library
schools are teaching human centered
design they’re teaching information
technology librarians around the country
are doing everything from being right
now at the frontline of the opioid
crisis to revitalizing Native American
languages offering 24/7 homework help
think that we should be putting more of
our trust in these future librarians
here’s another example
so in Idaho librarians offer a program
with resources provided by the national
library services to help blind and
visually impaired gain access to audio
books and other technologies here in
Connecticut the law library actually
provides digital resources for folks who
are representing themselves pro se in
courts which as you know are some of the
most vulnerable folks in our communities
both of these and many other programs
like these that are making information
more accessible are currently at the
threat of being cut because the federal
government’s the federal ministrations
proposed new budget cuts funding to
libraries completely no funding for
libraries at all campaigns like every
library which is our small and scrappy
library super PAC are not just fighting
for the reap bringing back in
revitalization of this nostalgic idea of
shelves library advocates like every
library like libraries Without Borders
what we’re trying to do is to put more
resources and give more resources to
local trusted experts who are innovating
dynamically innovating solutions to
information access and accessibility
I think that as we move into an
increasingly digital age what we’re
doing right now with libraries is
creating an army of information warriors
the theme of this TEDx event is
uncharted and more than ever I think
we’re moving into an uncharted territory
of misinformation in that space
librarians have a more important role to
librarians will be the ones that work
alongside big tech firms apps algorithms
that currently aren’t working at
fighting against these misinformation
campaigns to be dynamically creating
culturally emotionally and socially
sensitive innovations and solutions to
these information challenges to me that
is the present the past and the future
of librarian thank you
[Applause] [Music]