Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

World Librarians: A Peer-To-Peer Commons For Closing The Global Digital Divide, Jeremy Smith, Charlie Schweik, Carl Meyer

University Libraries Publication Series

INTRODUCTION An estimated 53% of the world’s population do not have Internet access. As a consequence, they lack information capital that could be key to bettering their lives. In this practice article, we introduce a sociotechnical system called “World Librarians.” This system, facilitated by a knowledge commons, provides educators, librarians, students, and medical professionals in remote Internet-poor areas of Malawi with access to digital content that they request. OBJECTIVE We describe the social and technical methods by which a team of educators, librarians, students, and information technology specialists in information-privileged environments share educational content to information-disadvantaged communities. METHODS After briefly …