IN DEPTH
Testing Google’s digital resources
Ayub Khan discusses how 10 library services worked with Google on the Libraries Learn with Digital project to help create a toolkit of digital resources.
LAST year, 10 library services in the UK and Ireland – my own, Warwick- shire, included – worked on a pilot project to test out a suite of digital resources put together by Google. Each authority received 10,000 Euros from Google for taking part in the Libraries Learn with Digital pilot, which followed a similar project in the USA involving the American Library Association (ALA). The 10 UK/Irish pilot services were also invited to send their project leads to a launch event at the EU Parliament in Brussels in October 2018 (at Google’s expense).
The pilot library services were: Fingal County; Manchester Central; Monaghan County; Norfolk; South Dublin; Stockton Central; Redbridge; Warwickshire; West Sussex; and Wexford. Our task was to test - and suggest improvements to – the existing digital resources, and to develop some new ones. For Google, this was the fi rst step in extending the ALA initiative to “everyone in Europe” by providing a digital toolkit “created by libraries, for libraries”.
Access to digital
The existing Google resources – and any new ones we produced – were grouped under three main headings: online safety, digital skills and coding. The basic aim was to create a digital toolkit for library staff to use to help customers develop digital knowledge, skills, and confi dence. The
42 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Ayub Khan MBE (@ayubkhan786) is Head of Libraries & Face to Face Services, Warwickshire County Council and is Immediate Past President of CILIP.
broader aim was to increase access and exposure to digital and computer science education for children, young people and adults – and provide everyone with the opportunity to create, have fun, learn, fi nd a job, advance their career, or grow their business.
Day-to-day management of the European pilot was handled by partner organisation Public Libraries 2020 (PL2020), which promotes Europe’s 65,000 libraries and the wider contribution they make – focus- ing on three main areas: social inclusion, digital inclusion, and lifelong learning. PL2020 organised weekly video conference
March 2019
Testing Google's Digi Resources
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06/03/2019 13:00
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