A short report by Jacqueline Geekie, Public Library Representative for the CILIP IL Group committee, on the recent Digital inclusion TeachMeets held in London and Leeds, in partnership with the Tinder Foundation.
Representatives of the CILIP Information Literacy Group and the Tinder Foundation met at the CILIP Conference in Liverpool last year and were keen to work together to promote digital literacy and inclusion. An idea quickly formed where Higher Education/Further Education librarians and Public library staff could attend an event to share and learn ideas from each other in the form of a TeachMeet.
The event ran twice; at the University of Liverpool in London campus on Thursday, 4th February, 2016, and again on Wednesday, February 10th , 2016 at Leeds Central Library,
The TeachMeet format worked well, with speakers giving short 10 minute presentations, then the attendees having opportunity to share ideas on key themes.
The key themes were: basic digital skills for the over 50s; using social media effectively; use of volunteers for digital sessions/augmented reality; welfare reform – digital by default supported by library staff; and using different digital devices & keeping up to date with new apps and digital services.
Each of these themes were discussed on a different table, with everyone having the opportunity to move round to glean and share as much information as they could. The key points were noted by facilitators, and this will help to form a report on the two events that will be published by the Tinder Foundation.
Over 30 people attended the event in the University of Liverpool in London campus, and the Leeds Central Library event was at full capacity with other 35 attendees. If the learning and enjoyment was measured in the amount of ideas shared and how hard it was to bring the participants’ discussions to a close, then each day can be regarded as a great success.
If you want to find out what others thought, you can read two excellent blog posts that have been written about the events – one by Stéphane Goldstein of InformAll called An influx of new library users, and a second by Sarah Wolfenden of Brunel University in her Wolfenden Report.
And if you want to find out more about digital inclusion and digital literacy, then the ideal place to go would be the Tinder Foundation Digital Hub.
