University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Community Engagement & Infomediaries: challenges facing libraries, telecentres and cybercafés in developing countries

Gould, Elizabeth A.; Gomez, Ricardo

Content Files
infomediaries_iconference_2010.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14929

Description

Title
Community Engagement & Infomediaries: challenges facing libraries, telecentres and cybercafés in developing countries
Author(s)
  • Gould, Elizabeth A.
  • Gomez, Ricardo
Issue Date
2010-02-03
Keyword(s)
  • telecentres
  • libraries
  • cybercafés
  • public access computing
  • infomediaries
  • community engagement
Date of Ingest
2010-02-22T16:09:00Z
Abstract
Effective infomediaries and community engagement can produce a successful environment to service information needs for underserved populations. This paper analyzes data from libraries, telecentres and cybercafés in 25 developing countries, to assess how infomediaries and community engagement help support the social mission of venues that offer public access to information and communication technologies (ICT). Our results show that while infomediaries and community engagement are critical to facilitate access to information for underserved communities, cybercafés are thriving as public access venues without very strong infomediaries or community engagement, and yet they are perceived as being well staffed and serving community needs. Telecentres and, in particular, libraries, face a particular challenge to fulfill their social mission in the face of the proliferation of cybercafés: they must provide access to ICT, train their staff to be digitally literate and able to support the ICT needs of their communities, and ensure that their community engagement activities include ICT as part of their tools and services.
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Conference Paper / Presentation
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14929

Owning Collections

iConference 2010 Papers PRIMARY
Conference Papers