Librarianship exists because of a recognition that managing and providing access to information is a skill. Beyond this, many cultures recognise and value those members of their communities who safeguard knowledge, and act a source of information and insights that can help in taking decisions and addressing challenges.
Nonetheless, there is always also the tendency to take these roles and these skills for granted, through impatience, disagreement with what the evidence says, or simply idealism.
In many ways, the information abundance that the digital world has brought has helped make clearer to all the importance of information skills. This includes the ability to navigate the internet safely and confidently, getting the most out of it while avoiding the problems.
This pays dividends for civic and democratic participation, as well as the fulfilment of rights. It also covers booming employment in knowledge-intensive industries which increasingly are finding it hard to identify people with the skills they need.
This should arguably be a very positive thing for libraries, given that it highlights that information and knowledge are areas deserving of both attention and investment. Both as concerns social and democratic outcomes, as well as economic ones, getting it right matters.
If successful, it promises a world where there is more meaningful, more effective, more inclusive participation, driving better decision-making, faster innovation and more.
However, with many formal education systems all too often reproducing existing inequalities (i.e. coming from a poorer background too often means poorer school results), there are some important questions about the role that libraries can play in ensuring that everyone is able to benefit.
Questions for Libraries
Because in the end, if demand (and so higher wages) for skilled knowledge workers only goes to help those who already have advantages, this will only make societies less equitable. And if some are better able to participate in civic and democratic life than others, this also risks making inequalities worse.
This raises some key questions for libraries:
- What contribution can libraries make to ensuring that education (including informal and non-formal education) is a real motor of social mobility?
- What does a holistic and effective approach to building skills look like? What combination of skills do we need to develop?
- How do we measure and demonstrate the value of information and knowledge skills supported by libraries?
The Information Futures Summit includes plenty of opportunities to explore these questions!
Our opening keynote, Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz, will be looking at what people need to be able to get the best out of their relationship with AI. Professor Jean Burgess on Day 2 will also be looking at how humans work with social media, and in particular develop the ability to stay ahead of these developments.
A key session for finding out more will be our pitch session on the Future of Reading, also on Day 2, exploring how libraries’ traditional role as centres for literacy and reading are evolving. Finally, on Day 3, Damian Cardona Onses’ session on information integrity will look at work to ensure access to accurate, reliable and verifiable information, including through skills development.
Look out for our next post, focusing on digital equity!