Thursday, April 19, 2018

Public libraries play an essential role in advancing digital inclusion and digital literacy. To date, the outcomes achieved by technology services in public libraries for Ontario residents and communities have not been measured. Funded by the government of Ontario, TPL worked with seven partner libraries to develop an Ontario-based technology service assessment toolkit for libraries to identify priorities for technology services based on evidence, benchmark technology service levels with similar-sized libraries, measure the outputs and outcomes achieved by technology services, and advocate for technology services that support provincial and municipal priorities. The session highlights the recent work in developing the toolkit and the findings from the pilot phases, the essential role of public libraries in advancing digital inclusion and digital literacy, and how this work supports and aligns with existing tools that measure outcomes of library services including ALA’s Project Outcome and Edge.