The US' Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced that the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has been awarded a $291,178 grant through the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. PLA will partner with the ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) to develop an online collection of digital literacy resources that will be accessible to libraries, patrons and other community-based organisations.
In addition to user-directed resources, the grant activities will include the development of training curricula in English and Spanish, technology trainer competencies, handouts and patron skills assessment. PLA has also decided to launch the online beta resource centre at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, with plans to continue demonstrations of the resource centre at ALA and PLA conferences throughout 2013 and 2014.
Key steps throughout the two-year grant period will include gathering and evaluating existing state and public library resources related to digital literacy, promoting these resources to increase library awareness, developing and implementing instructional resources, identifying gaps in resources as well as solutions for remediating the gaps and assessing and possibly developing materials for special populations.
PLA aims to ensure the sustainability of the resource centre by continuing to vet and add high-quality digital literacy tools to the collection based on practitioner feedback, including materials for the Latino and Spanish-speaking communities with the help of REFORMA, establishing a community of practice, and determining viable partnerships for continued training and evolution of the centre.
