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EuroDIG 2021: Takeaway messages for libraries

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The 2021 edition of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance offers an opportunity to take stock of recent developments in the policies and practices within the digital ecosystem which can be of interest and impact libraries in Europe – and around the world.

1)    Moving ahead to champion Open Science

Open Science, particularly its digital dimensions, was among the key topics of interest in this year’s EuroDIG. Noting the many helpful local, regional and international (e.g. discipline-specific) open science initiatives, UNESCO and other stakeholders discussed the value of developing a comprehensive shared definition and normative approach; and UNESCO itself offered an update on its draft Recommendation on Open Science.

Here, a summary of key points raised by various stakeholders and Member States during the UNESCO consultation (to which IFLA also contributed) included references to the importance of infrastructure (e.g. internet connectivity), of Open Science monitoring, and of non-profit and sustainable services and infrastructures to support Open Science in light of the risks of commercial monopolisation. In November 2021, the draft Recommendations are due to be submitted to the UNESCO Geneva Conference with a view to their adoption, followed by anticipated adoption among Member States.

Open Data. A closely related topic which may be interesting for libraries working in this area is open data – particularly how to open and share data which is more sensitive and requires further safeguards. Noting the current legal provisions which govern the lifecycles and usage of such data (e.g. laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation), the speakers pointed out some of the existing and possible approaches which can help enable such data-sharing to take place securely in practice. These include, for example, various licensing models, or setting out rules on access to such sensitive data – e.g. for specific purposes, or to limited types of stakeholders.

This discussion also pointed to the importance of investing in infrastructural support, education, and awareness-raising, to help researchers navigate the questions around opening sensitive data. These discussions are of course highly relevant for libraries offering support or training on research data management, licensing or copyright for their institutions.

2)    Online learning: where do we stand today?

Digital divides and inequalities. The 2021 EuroDIG also offered an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned from the rapid shift to digital in learning and education, which has taken place in many parts of the world over the past year. One of the most prominent challenges here is, of course, the widely-noted digital divide – inequalities in access to suitable connectivity or devices (or even suitable spaces) for learners, and the ability to use them effectively.

The social element. The social dimension of learning is another consideration – with concerns expressed over the possible impacts of all-digital learning on students’ social interactions and wellbeing. Some survey data suggests, for example, that parents reported positive impacts of remote learning for students’ math and reading competencies – but see it as having a more negative impact on their social skills. This raises the question of whether it is possible to leverage existing (and develop new) applications and digital mediums to further promote meaningful interaction and wellbeing.

These points relate to the questions many libraries themselves have been grappling with since they introduced virtual programming to support learning and social interaction for children – from storytimes to creative workshops or clubs.

Platforms, walled gardens, educational content discoverability. Another part of the discussion focused on digital learning platforms and tools themselves. Here, stakeholders noted that it is crucial for platforms to not only optimise learning – but to also take fully into account learners’ digital autonomy, digital self-determination, privacy and ethics.

Another consideration is the  “walled gardens” of some commercial learning platforms – those characterised by limited interoperability and a lack of access to their learning materials from outside of the platform (e.g with access cut off once a course ends). For libraries, this latter point relates to their own concerns over equity and availability of access to digital learning materials. One of the draft take-away messages also highlights the importance of tools that increase the discoverability of educational content across the various available platforms.

3)    Privacy and data protection – not an obstacle to productivity

Built-in privacy. Another well-noted impact of rapid digitalisation is the immense increase in the amount of data being generated and collected in the process. Naturally, this puts into the spotlight questions around data privacy (especially for personal data) and data protection.

This echoes some of the questions libraries themselves had to answer during the pandemic – which platform can be used for virtual programming? How to minimise data collection? What initiatives targeting particular user groups are possible?

Some of the suggested measures to address these concerns included clear internal policies and processes which build in privacy at the outset, increased transparency and accountability, and, importantly, actively promoting the idea that “data protection is not an obstacle to productivity and innovation”.

Digital skills. Another element that can help preserve privacy and data security is, of course, learning – both for staff members (to help guide internal processes) and users (to help understand and navigate their own use of the internet – e.g. online financial services). This will be familiar to many in the library field who are increasingly focused on supporting digital literacy and confidence within their communities.

4)    Paths towards a greener digital future

The complexity of the relationship between the ongoing digital transformation and environment and sustainability is, of course, well-noted. Technology has immense potential to help track and mitigate today’s environmental challenges. Yet it also contributes to these challenges in various ways, from energy consumption and resource extraction to e-waste.

A part of the EuroDIG discussions dedicated to environmental sustainability focused on a broader public perspective: the impacts of lifestyles and consumption patterns around technology.

As such, one of the key needed changes the participants highlighted were policies, practices and infrastructure facilitating the reuse and repair of technology. Another important element was raising public awareness and education, to enable communities to make sustainable choices – which also requires access to quality information and transparency about technology.

Such questions are of course of interest for libraries: from public procurement, to repair workshops held in libraries, to raising awareness about sustainable consumption patterns.

A related point focused on the link between sustainability and equality of access. Here, it can be worthwhile also to examine models of access that support equitable digital inclusion while keeping the number of new devices entering circulation lower (whether it is distributing refurbished technology, free public access to ICT, and others).

These are just some of the discussions from the 2021 EuroDIG which can be worthwhile and interesting for libraries to keep track of – with more sessions exploring questions around freedom of expression and content moderation practices online, formal and informal media literacy learning practices, and more.

You can take a look at the draft EuroDIG2021 takeaway messages, access all session recordings, and stay engaged with internet governance discussions to share insights, perspectives and good practices from across the global library field!

Digital Day 2021 – Towards a More Green, Creative and Diverse Digital Future

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19 March marks the European Digital Day – an occasion for stakeholders from Member States and the EU to discuss the challenges of navigating the digital transformation, and commit to action towards a greener, more robust, fair and sustainable digital future.

This gives libraries – not just within the EU, but around the world – an opportunity to reflect on their own roles in this transformation. The Digital Day agenda points to a few key topics at the forefront of the discussion: these include fostering green digital solutions and a diverse and robust tech startup ecosystem.

What is the library angle on this – and how can libraries contribute to these priority goals?

Together for a greener digital future

Clearly, library field’s ambition to support sustainability and help reduce damage to the environment is longstanding (with many initiatives, for example, spotlighted and launched by the Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section of IFLA). What does this mean for their role in the digital information society?

On a larger scale, the relationship between environment protection and digital transformation goals is fundamentally two-sided. Reflections on this duality can clearly be seen, for example, in the conclusions and main take-aways from the 2020 Internet Governance Forum Environment track.

On the one hand, participants underlined the vast potential of technology to measure, monitor, examine, and help address the current environmental crises. On the other hand, the ICT ecosystem consumes vast amounts of energy, and the CO2 emission is produces cannot be ignored – not to mention other environmental considerations such as e-waste.

In fact, the summary of takeaway messages notes that there are studies indicating a negative correlation between digitisation and progress towards climate and environmental SDG goals. One of the key questions this raises is how to bridge the digital divide in an environmentally sustainable way – and what is needed to leverage ICT to build a more green and sustainable future.

Open Data

Crucially for libraries, one key part of the answer here is that of opening data – a key prerequisite for developing technology solutions to help meet environmental and sustainability goals. IGF stakeholders reiterated that a lot of relevant and crucial environmental data is already being collected – but not always shared by private or public bodies, or is not easily available for others to access, use or act on.

In an earlier blog, we have looked into the diverse roles libraries play in championing and supporting the open data movement. Academic libraries assist researchers in using and contributing to available open data, curate and help ensure easy use and access to open datasets. There are excellent examples of public libraries helping engage the wider public and non-experts in open data initiatives – or partnering with public bodies to help build user-friendly open data portals which support and encourage engagement.

These competencies and potential can certainly be leveraged for opening data that helps address environmental crises. Similarly, libraries are in a unique position to offer equitable opportunities to learn skills of working with data, programming and coding to better address these challenges (see e.g. Brooklyn Public Library’s “Coding Environment” virtual offering).

Digital device economy

An equally pressing question is the sustainability and environmental impact of connectivity devices. Association for Progressive Communications has recently released a preview of a Guide to Circular Economies of Digital Devices, which highlights the current impact of a linear digital device economy model, and makes the case for circular digital device economies.

One of the interesting points the guide raises is:

“If we consider that devices are valuable for their computing resources, then we should focus on the right to use a device, not on the right to ownership. Maximising circularity asks us to see devices as collective property that circulates among users until they are finally recycled.”

Naturally, the key insights this points to focus on reuse and circulation of devices, as well as recycling to extract the value of raw materials.

However, for libraries, this also raises interesting questions about the value of the kind of collective use and public access to devices libraries offer – from PCs and printers to creative equipment like cameras and 3D printers. So it would certainly be interesting to further examine what kind of role public and shared device use models can take in the discussion of device use, as opposed to device ownership.

Together for a robust and diverse tech innovation ecosystem

Another key element of the Digital Day agenda emphasises dialogue and commitments to foster a robust, diverse and sustainable tech startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Certainly, this goal and ambition isn’t unique to Europe (see, for example, the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa).

One of the persistent challenges the IT sector has been working to address are gender and diversity gaps in tech startups. While this is certainly a complex issue requiring comprehensive and multi-level solutions, is there a way for libraries to contribute their part – and support tech innovation at large?

As the experience of some libraries suggest, they are well-positioned to deliver a unique combination of two outreach initiatives that can help make a difference.

On the one hand, from Singapore to South Africa to the United States, libraries offer digital skills learning opportunities – from classes to makerspace workshops, helping nurture people’s interest in, and even develop competencies that can useful for employment in, the IT field.

The idea of diversifying the tech sector through such clubs and learning opportunities is not new, of course. But the unique position of libraries as a wide network of trusted and open institutions shows how much scope there is for amplifying these efforts and reaching more people.

And on the other side, there is libraries’ experiences with helping people find employment – including their support for business and entrepreneurship. Library support can range from access to databases with valuable information, market research and company data, to helping navigate questions IP rights, and more.

Taken together, these library capacities can help bring more people into the sector, foster creativity and tech innovation – and mode towards a more fair, sustainable and diverse digital future.

World Information Society Day: The Case for Public Access in Libraries Beyond 2020

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During the 2003 and 2005 sessions of the UN-based World Summit on the Information Society, representatives from 175 countries charted a roadmap towards a digital society which would be open and accessible to all. A series of documents – the Geneva Plan of Action, WSIS Action Lines, the Tunis Commitment and Agenda – lay out the agreements and measures to overcome the digital divide between and within countries.

One of the key WSIS targets was connecting all public libraries with ICTs: as repositories of crucial information, public internet access points and learning hubs, libraries were among the actors that could help build the information society WSIS envisioned. This year marks the WSIS+15 milestone: an opportunity to take stock and reflect on what public access in libraries means today.

Over the years, public libraries have brought many new users online – with millions having accessed the internet for the very first time in a library. However, public access can sometimes be seen as a stepping stone towards individual use and subscription/device ownership – a transitional measure on the way to a more universally available home access.

But is that the case? What value can public access solutions offer as a complement to individual home or mobile access, rather than a temporary substitute? What shapes could they take in a post-COVID world, as we work to overcome the persistent digital divides?

Digital skills learning opportunities

For libraries and similar facilities, an important part of the public internet offer has long been the digital skills learning opportunities and on-site support for their users. A lack of digital skills can prevent people from going online even if access is available.

But the need for ICT skills goes beyond the connected/unconnected binary: once a person becomes an internet user (which could, of course, entail getting an individual subscription and device), their digital skills continue to impact both how they make use of connectivity and what outcomes they can achieve.

A safety net

Even when home and individual access is prioritised, public access facilities can be highly valuable – and valued – when such access is temporarily unavailable (on an individual level – e.g. among people experiencing homelessness; or community level – e.g. anchor institutions offering internet connectivity and electricity during emergency or disaster situations).

It is also worth considering whether, as some of the societal adaptations from analog to digital may be here to stay; and a UN/DESA brief points out that governments and economies may want to speed up the adoption of digital innovations to boost future resilience. This could mean that the cost of staying offline – as more and more public and economic activities go digital – may continue to rise, and so the need for alternatives to assuming private access grows.

The complement: keeping the costs down

Globally, mobile-only internet use is on the rise, and new subscriptions for mobile broadband are growing at a significantly faster rate than fixed broadband. While mobile broadband subscriptions and access devices may be comparatively more affordable, many mobile broadband users remain cost-conscious and limit their data use to keep the costs down. As a 2019 Alliance for Affordable Internet report points out, in such cases users can combine public and individual internet access, relying on the former for most of the data-intensive tasks.

And of course, while at the moment some Internet Service Providers are lifting data caps or postponing price raises, once these temporary measures are lifted public internet access can offer a free/low-cost alternative in case future price raises make individual access less affordable – especially in light of potential poverty and unemployment rises – as well as providing a back-stop that prevents private providers from over-charging.

A robust individual network

There may also be benefits to having the opportunity to access the Internet from several locations. Reisdorf et al (2020), for example, suggest that a broader range of internet access modes (home, mobile, library, work, etc) may be able to support a broader range of online activities, because different types of access more easily lend themselves to different tasks and activities. Fernandez et al (2019) also mention that breadth of internet access points could be particularly important for vulnerable communities, where a single point may become restricted or temporarily unavailable.

The COVID pandemic also pushes us to further consider our online privacy and data security, and what could be the role of public internet access in a post-COVID world – especially in libraries, places dedicated to upholding the privacy of their users. It could offer a connection and workstation that can help separate your data from pervasive advertisement tracking, profiling and data collection – and learning opportunities on how to protect your security and privacy online.

Helping deliver end-user connections

Finally, some libraries have been able to use their connectivity to deliver internet access to patrons’ homes or other in-demand locations, bringing their experience closer to that of individual connectivity. From offering Wi-Fi through bookmobiles (or even parking bookmobiles in areas with known connectivity issues), to mobile hotspot loans, to using TV WhiteSpace to set up remote hotspots for their communities.

 

These are just a few ways that public access in libraries can complement and add to private and individual subscriptions. Over the last few weeks, the challenges of the digital divide have been amplified manifold by the ongoing pandemic as work, study and socialising all moved online – and many who lack reliable home access have been further isolated. We have seen examples of libraries working to adapt and continue offering internet access whenever possible: for example, through WiFi in their parking lots, or even by offering access to library workstations with a strict safety protocol.

The social distancing measures in some areas begin to gradually soften, but we still don’t know how and for how long it will continue to affect the world. However, the pandemic has already shown us in no uncertain terms the full urgency to overcome the digital divides as soon as possible. All tools need to be mobilised to help bring the remaining billions online – and public internet access is part of a comprehensive approach to ensure inclusion.