Information literacy and the Digital Divide

A recent article by Dylan Jones-Evans Information Literacy and the Digital Divide  (Daily Post, 10th August 2009) discusses the Welsh Affairs Committee report which "highlighted the problem areas with limited or no access to high-speed internet connects".

Whilst attention has been drawn to the following quote:

The report by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee is a welcome first step but if we are to create a truly digital society, we must not only build a world class broadband network in Wales but also give everyone the skills to access it properly.

If not, it is like buying a seventeen year old a Ferrari without paying for the driving lessons first.

I hope that it is not just the last sentence that is remembered but the rest of the article where he highlights a pressing problem that of the

inability of many of those within our poorest communities to access the information they need to conduct their daily lives from the internet.

As a result of this lack of information literacy, some of the most vulnerable groups in Wales are becoming even more excluded from modern society, yet it remains an area which has yet to be properly addressed by policymakers. This is despite overwhelming evidence that the growing gap between those who are "information rich" and "information poor" within our society has the potential to create significant social and economic problems in the future.

Certainly, there is little evidence that information literacy forms a part of any initiative to support the educational and training needs of those within our more deprived communities. Indeed, as government services, educational resources and information move online, those who have not been adequately trained to access such services become increasingly excluded and increasingly financially disadvantaged if they cannot access support.

Yet the importance of information and a clear strategy to ensure its dissemination to the wider community is being ignored even by those who should know better.

This is an area that John and I have been giving some thought to over the last couple of years particulalry in conjunction with Government Digital Divide Reports that have seen the answer to the digital divide as providing more access to computers and information rather than making the link to information literacy / the skills people need to access, evaluate reuse etc. and Public Libraries. Last week we were in Greenock doing some learner interviews from recent employability courses that Inverclyde Libraries have been running. We hope to do more in this area if funding is secured.

He also makes a sound statement regarding 'search engines and Google' in that

if individuals are not supported properly in how to use search engines such as Google effectively, then it becomes a completely useless tool that may, worryingly and potentially dangerously, provide wrong and misleading information.