Abstract
Amid rapid technological change and shifting economic activities, the population of many rural British Columbia communities now requires greater development of digital skills. Today’s public libraries offer a range of digital services and, therefore, represent a significant resource for developing such skills. This study identifies the extent to which public libraries are promoting the development of technology skills in rural communities. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on technology program promotional messaging from rural public library websites in British Columbia. Results showed that these rural libraries are indeed promoting technology programs in a way that focuses on technology skill development as an emerging role. With that said, additional measures can be taken to further refine current messaging, and this study offers several recommendations towards that end.
Highlights
Amid rapid technological change and shifting economic activities, the population of many rural British Columbia communities requires greater development of digital skills
Amid rapid technological change and shifting economic activities, many rural British Columbia communities are in a transition period requiring the development of greater digital skills on the part of residents
The objectives of this study were to identify and describe how public libraries are currently promoting the development of technology skills in seeking to answer the question of what extent public libraries are promoting technological literacy in rural British Columbia communities
Summary
Amid rapid technological change and shifting economic activities, the population of many rural British Columbia communities requires greater development of digital skills. This study identifies the extent to which public libraries are promoting the development of technology skills in rural communities. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on technology program promotional messaging from rural public library websites in British Columbia. The primary objectives of this research were to identify and describe how public libraries are currently promoting the development of technology skills in rural communities. Libraries include a variety of computer and technology resources, making them ideal places to foster technology skills (Visser & Ball, 2010) In addressing these objectives, the authors sought to answer the following central research question: To what extent are public libraries promoting technological literacy in rural British Columbia communities?. The ideas underlying the theory proved useful for understanding the strategies used in library promotional messaging
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