Digital Literacy 52

  Several scholars discuss digital literacy in their research.  According to Ellen Tise, former president of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) (2012): "At no other time in the history of information provision has there been such a dire need for public libraries to drive access to knowledge and information. The exponential growth of information, fueled by the exploitation of media such as the web and social networking demands that there be a mediator with the skills and capacity to extract trusted and authentic information." (p. 17). Darryl M. West (2005), public policy professor at Brown University, discusses some of the barriers to access alone, citing the fact that the average government website requires an eleventh grade level of reading comprehension. This occurs despite the fact that half of the U.S.

population reads at less than an 8th grade level. Between 21-23 percent of Americans are unable to read complex instructions or comprehend a few pages of text. This limited literacy can cause a barrier to Internet use (Kaestle, Campbell, Finn, Johnson, & Mickulecky, 2001). Hargittai and Shafer (2006) observed participants' ability to search online independently for jobs, political candidates and tax forms. Fifteen percent of these individuals failed to complete the tasks, even with limitless time to retrieve what they were looking for. This could be due to a myriad of issues, including familiarity with Internet resources, or minimal basic literacy skills. Rural

communities are particularly vulnerable to digital divide issues. Warren (2007) discusses a “digital vicious cycle” where digital inclusion and social inclusion combine to create a more challenging situation for rural residents. According to Warren, solutions for the urban poor, do not work as well for vulnerable rural populations, as they lack participatory processes and peer- to-peer support within neighborhoods. Warren gives the example of a friend who may help an elderly woman send emails to her family, or a neighbor who helps a single mom without

transportation order items online for her children. Individuals learn from collaboration with other individuals, or “digital intermediaries” and lacking this support system can be an additional challenge for rural populations.

Jessamyn West (2011) talks about the digital divide that continues to exist in the

population. She identifies public libraries as important in this divide, and goes beyond seeing the library as just a point of access for individuals to use the Internet. Instead, librarians are active participants in digital literacy tasks. According to Lankes (2012), as governments withdraw direct support to social service agencies, public libraries are increasingly picking up the slack as a public contact point. As more e-government and other critical services move online,

responsibility shifts from the government agency to the community member who is to actively attempting to do things that they used to be able to do directly within the walls of an agency. Examples of this include filing taxes, FEMA forms, and Medicare applications. Many people who come to the library own home computers that they could utilize, but need assistance with this process. It is in this regard that government assistance shifts from the office itself to the library (Lankes, 2012). This transition of government services is an illustration of a consumption norm. Community members cannot function in society without access to the Internet, where most e-government resides. Filling out tax forms, Medicare and social security and job

applications are all things that community members need to do to be a functional member of society.

Bertot, Jaeger, Langa and McClure (2006) examine consumption norm issues in their article about public access computing in public libraries. Although public libraries have had the role of being the central public Internet access point within their communities for some time, it is becoming especially prevalent now as a wide range of government services are moving online. As federal, state and local government agencies migrate their services, they often do not offer community access points for these services. This is a recent role for the rural librarian, without supportive additional funding from the federal, state or local government. In fact, there are policies that affect the ability for the library to function in an e-government context. Jaeger and Bertot (2009) recommend that if public access computing and Internet access in public libraries are to continue to function, there needs to be an ongoing means of funding, and this should be a government priority. This is important because as agencies shift the burden of e-government to public libraries, they reduce their own cost.

Another issue is the shift toward more knowledge intensive industries. Mossberger, Tolbert and McNeil (2008) examined the movement away from manufacturing, which is creating a demand for higher levels of education as well as technology use. Technology use on the job is associated with greater wage increases, while the use of the Internet for distance learning is also associated with higher weekly earnings, particularly for less educated employees. These are all areas where the Internet is becoming a consumption norm.