Digital Services – catalinking

As I work through this course I am continually drawn to the concept of librarians as Digital Care Workers who help their communities dissolve the barriers of accessibility and close the digital divide. I have had several interactions as a library paraprofessional which exposed the reality that this divide still exists in present day and it is not limited to age groups despite the notion that Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are digital natives (Gun, 2023). A couple of years ago I had an interaction with a shy eighteen-year-old patron who worked up the courage to ask me how to use email—from step one of creating an email address—because they never had a computer at home. I have had many similar interactions over the years which have revealed that being skillful with a cellphone did not mean those same skills were always transferable to a computer interface.

Continue reading “Reflection Blog #1: Libraries as Digital Community Hubs”

Twenty years ago, Cathy de Rosa—the head of marketing for OCLC at the time—identified two significant core themes of perception around library services: the library as a trusted information resource but also the need for increased self-service (De Rosa et al., 2005, p. ix; Stephens, n.d.). These themes continue to be identified as key components for libraries to strive for as services necessary for citizens and their welfare are becoming increasingly digitized (Rebergen et al., 2025). Taxes, banking, healthcare, billing, pay, legal, and other services necessary for life are increasing their virtual presence, however this shift does not necessarily improve ease of access for all people (Moore, 2019; van Holstein et al., 2021).

Continue reading “Assignment X: Libraries at the Intersection of Digital Information and Care Work”