Tag Archives: digital inclusion

The importance of public libraries for digital inclusion

The European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) on March 18, 2014 adopted an own-initiative report on new technologies and open educational resources. The report was drafted by rapporteur Cătălin Sorin Ivan (S&D/RO) in response to the European Commission’s communication ‘Opening up Education’. Among others, the report (item 36) mentions the important role public libraries play in this field, both by providing free internet access and ICT skills training for citizens.

The Commission’s communication sets out a European agenda for stimulating high quality, innovative ways of learning and teaching through new technologies and digital content. The communication discusses in depth access to open education resources (OER) in general, including massive online open courses (MOOCs). As the report points out, many Europeans do not have the ICT skills or Internet access needed to take advantage of these new resources. By providing people with access to free Internet and opportunities to take ICT training classes, as well as helping individual visitors, public libraries contribute considerably to the EU 2020 objectives in digital inclusion.