Dear Martha…
I am sorry it’s been a little while since I tweeted offering to write to you about what museums, archives and libraries can do for Digital Inclusion. I’ve been busy, though, talking to people across the sector about our offer and how it might help people who aren’t active users of digital media, whether through choice or circumstance, to get involved and perhaps more importantly to feel that getting involved is something they want to do.
There are approximately 10,000 museums, archives and libraries in the UK. When people talk about our sector, they usually think of the big nationals like the Tate, the British Library or the British Museum. But the reality is that the vast majority of cultural organisations are much more like Post Offices once were - trusted, local institutions embedded in the hearts of local urban and rural communities.
And like Post Offices, their civic function goes far beyond books and objects. They provide connections to the web, information and guidance, out of school sessions, mother and baby groups, book clubs, remensicence sessions and hundreds of other interactions that are about improving people’s quality of life, self-esteem, confidence and aspiration.
Whether funded by their Local Authority or as independent charities, these are places that people go to feel connected - to each other, to relatives overseas, to civic values, to a sense of place or of community. And the consensus seems to be that one of the most important things our sector can do for digital inclusion is to give people both a place to be digital and a purpose for engaging.
Because many of the librarians, archivists and curators I have spoken to feel that in the phrase ‘digital inclusion’, the most important phrase is ‘inclusion’. You know this already, but people are people first and foremost, and irrespective of their age, ethnicity, social, cultural or economic circumstances, they respond to things that are genuinely beneficial to them. That the means of distribution, and the interfaces to interaction, happen to be digital should always be mostly incidental to the value they are offering.
I won’t pretend to understand the motivations, experiences or circumstances which lead to the digital disenfranchisement of a significant proportion of the population. But I am sure that the response, if it is to lead to lasting improvement, has to address a number of layers, from simple technical ability to proximity to affordable integrated technologies. I imagine that the most basic and intractable problem of all, though, once you’ve removed all the barriers, is to focus on what exactly it is that would motivate a person to decide to pick up a keyboard, mouse or joypad and have a go.
So…what can museums, archives and libraries offer to digital inclusion? We can offer proximity - freely usable technology and connectivity on the High Street, in your rural community or even, thanks to mobile libraries, down your lane (in much the same way as the UKOnline infrastructure). We can offer a nurturing, trusted environment with a century-old legacy of connecting people to interesting information. We can offer a workforce of commited public servants who have devoted their lives to helping people to find out about stuff. We can offer motivations in the form of content, both narrative and factual. We can connect people to services, to civic life even to opportunities like employment and volunteering.
of course, it’s not entirely that simple. Some people still have a very Victorian view of what museums, libraries and archives are, and there are still too many who feel that our buildings are not for the likes of them. But organisations like the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and others are working very, very hard to reverse this perception.
I really hope that some of this has been of interest, and thanks for reading this far. I’d be really interested to know, from your experience in digital inclusion, whether there is more we can do to ensure that more people feel entitled to walk into a library, archive or museum and use the technology and support they will find there!
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I think you’re absolutely right to be pointing out the value of museums, libraries & archives as an inclusive community learning infrastructure. I think there is a key factor missing from your account of the sector’s value; that is culture itself. You’re describing them as something like warm and friendly civic spaces. But they are spaces of spectacle, colour, extraordinary immersive experiences, rich deep seams of layered narrative, mystery, contestation, creativity, performance….I could go on. I think this great idea of MLA’s as a base for digital inclusion will be an even greater programme if it builds on all this fantastic practice of educators, interpreters, participatory curators and artists who have worked for years with communities, with digital tools or without. Mostly without, which is why much of this practice is less visible than it could be. The work to digitise collections is often very separate from work to interpret collections and heritage sites and develop cultural & creative skills with visitors. Let’s join them up.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Just to clarify, I mean ‘this great idea of MLAs being a base’. I realise it’s your idea, Nick, not the MLA’s. Poor grammar, sorry.