Juanita Leatham e-portfolio

Competency O: Understand global perspectives on effective information practices that are

supportive of cultural, economic, educational, or social well-being.

Introduction

It is important to note that well-being is accomplished through cultural, economic, educational, and social means. COVID has shaped our worlds and through economic and cultural means. While social well-being is done through the use of the public library. And educational literacy is done through writing and reading which leads to well-being.

Economic and Cultural Well-Being

Being literate is not a given in all countries and cultures. Economic well-being goes hand in hand with literacy and brings more economic stability. Previous to this quote the author was discussing COVID-19’s effects on economic literacy. “Although awareness of the potential benefits of increasing the digital reach of scholarly articles has grown substantially, pockets of resistance to change and cultural barriers remain. And as adoption of open access publishing grows, new questions about the nature and sustainability of business models being used to support it are arising.” (Hirsh, 2022). The rise of business models or just plain businesses are increasing with economic awareness. This economic awareness comes from publishing open source scholarly articles. However, culturally one would have to be literate in order to read any articles and have cultural and economic well-being. 

Literacy is a cultural issue. Oftentimes, literacy skips girls and women. Girls in various countries like Africa, and other cultures often miss school just because of their periods. Under the title Job Qualifications, “The top four challenges the respondents encountered when working with groups from various cultures (ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic…) were knowing how to: communicate effectively; gain an entrée with groups from other cultures; understand cultural nuances; and be approachable” (Mestre, 2010). Being able to fit in with other cultures sometimes means learning a new language and becoming culturally literate like picking up cultural cues. For instance, moving into the United States and learning cultural literacy like how to read and write a resume and get a job is important to an individual’s cultural well-being and thus, economic well-being.

Social Well-Being

Having social well-being and being socially literate means knowing some of the same language, being able to communicate back and forth, as well as being able to navigate a social environment as with emotional cues for instance. “For Gibson and Martin, the more chronic issue of information poverty is characterized by the “persistent lack of information access as experienced by a group or individual, usually as a result of social factors, embodied by various types of information-related inequalities”” (Hall, 2021). Having social well-being also means for instance, “a Pew Research Study (Horrigan, 2016) found that more than 60% users of library technology or connectivity did so for school or work, while another 53, 38, and 26% of users stated their reliance on libraries for reliable email access, health information, and online education” (Hall, 2021). That’s a large number of people who rely on library technology for school and work and also for email, health information and online education which helps with social well-being. Without technology and digital information, that means there is a large group of people who don’t have individual internet access or no library access, which cuts them off socially.

Educational Well-Being

In Botswana, it was “Viewed from another perspective, 28.3% had never attended school, 55% had been to school for a maximum of 7 years, and the remaining 16.7% had attempted junior secondary education. The younger women had been to school for a longer time than the older women […] Literacy rates were lower in older women and that corresponded with the inability to gain information needed by reading and writing.” (Mooko, 2005). Having seven years of education did help the women in Botswana overall. It is noted that the future looks brighter for the younger women who attended school over the older women who didn’t. Those that went to school could read and write better than those who didn’t. Being educationally literate means to have better educational well-being, which also means having better financial well-being.

Evidence

1 – INFO 232: Issues in Public Libraries: Trends Impacting Southgate Library

For my first piece of evidence of Competency O, or economic and cultural well-being, I will discuss my part of the paper I wrote with two other people. The parts I wrote were: Stacking up when it comes to a comparison of DEI and Garmer reports as well as the Conclusion. “In working on the process to become a better library, Amy Garmer focuses on “New Tools for Librarians.” Garmer says that, “Mary Lee Kennedy spoke of the importance of giving staff tools to empower them to meet the new demands placed on them. When library staff saw the need to educate immigrant populations on financial literacy, NYPL provided “knowledge security” in the form of financial literacy experts who provided tools and training alongside the frontline library staff. “We give library staff permission to not have to be good at everything, and we bring users the expert skills they need,” said Kennedy” (Herrera et al., 2024). What drew me to this quote was “that they give library staff permission to not have to be good at everything” (Herrera et al., 2024). Giving library workers and visitors a financial lesson on financial literacy was also a lesson in economic and cultural well-being. Having economic literacy even at the beginning stages is better than none. It is also cultural literacy and well-being when information is shared through their family, friends, and co-workers. 

2 – INFO 204: Information Professions: The Horizon Report – Environmental Trends

For my second piece of evidence of Competency O, or having social well-being, I will discuss how COVID-19 affected workers. In the numbers, “During the pandemic, people were scared to contract the disease and were also remote working at a higher rate. According to Census.gov, “Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people primarily working from home tripled from 5.7% (roughly 9 million people) to 17.9% (27.6 million people), according to new 2021 American Community Survey” (Leatham, 2024). One of the social benefits to working from home (if you had internet or was able to work from home instead of outside) was that a “reduction in the use of personal vehicles and mass transit systems [that] will reduce our consumption of natural resources and the emission of harmful gases” says, 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® Teaching and Learning Edition” (Leatham, 2024). So, social distancing has had a positive impact on lowering harmful gases in the air, which is good for our bodies and our environment. As for more of COVID’s impact on social lives, “Gaming in Pandemic Times: An International Survey Assessing the Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Young Video Gamers’ Health said, “The onset of COVID-19 coincided with the peak growth in video game usage, reaching 2.7 billion gamers in 2020. This number is expected to increase to 3 billion by 2023 [4]” (Leatham, 2024). So, while bodies weren’t being around each other, they gathered online at a faster and larger rate. However, one must also take into account those that had to shelter in place but did not have the directive or means to work at home at a computer or library. Their social lives must have been non-existent.

3 – INFO 231: Issues in Special Libraries and Information Centers: Special Libraries for Video Gaming

For my third piece of evidence for Competency O, I will discuss educational well-being as it relates to video gaming. Many will say that video games will rot your brain. However, the following applications and websites prove the opposite. “Edutopia is a website that hosts educational games as a library. Currently they have what Shanon McGrath explains as a “3 Skill-Building Activities for Upper Elementary Math”, and also “Making Math Review a High-Energy Game” using a Smartboard that projects numbers onto the white board” (Leatham, 2024). These are games that can be played on a laptop or tablet. I see these types of games played with kids I tutor as an Instructional Assistant for Torrance Unified School District. They show progress and also a lack of progress in math and language arts daily, weekly, and by semester.  

As for higher education’s impact on secondary education and educational well-being, “MIT, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has their own special library called Scheller Teacher Education Program Education Arcade. They have a Virtual Reality simulation called CLEVR: Collaborative Learning Environments in VR. This simulation helps students at the 9th grade level to learn cell biology called Cellverse. There’s also a math and biology game called The Radix Endeavor. Students solve quests in a VR world that changes as they go and analyze biological parts of the plants and animals” (Leatham, 2024). The students who participated in this simulation learned cell biology but also did it through Virtual Reality which is gaming on steroids. The student wears a headset and holds onto two controllers and walks around in real life while clicking on objects and teleporting as well. There are other higher education games, all that’s needed is a quick search. Libraries have been known to be pioneers as hosts of VR games, which leads to further educational well-being. 

Conclusion

When libraries were given economic tools they gave the public and the librarians economic and cultural well-being. When people worked from home during COVID lockdown, the public was shown to have worked from home using their own computers which helped some people with social well-being when it came to not having to travel to work and also increased the number of people to play video games. However, the study did not cover how libraries were affected by the shelter in place. Higher education like MIT hosted a VR game for 9th graders. While websites like Edutopia and other games helped with educational well-being.

References

References

Hall, T.D. (2021, May). Information redlining: The urgency to close the digital access and literacy divide and the role of libraries as lead interveners. Journal of Library Administration 61(4). (pp. 484-492). DOI:10.1080/01930826.2021.1906559. 

Herrera, L. Leatham, J. & Lopez-Gutierrez, X. (2024, December 8). Trends impacting Southgate Library. [Google Doc]. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UPfCnrrvT-KTSXTJokWX32s9jvumtDIJJx1NnoZDyho/edit?usp=sharing. 

Hirsh, S.A. (2022). Information services today: An introduction. (3rd Ed.). (2022). Rowman & Littlefield. 

Leatham, J. (2024). Special libraries for video gaming. [Google Doc]. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11bOWSk4SBOpLndQ_boqfkkWeoDawg-q_Svv8Yf06uxk/edit?usp=sharing. 

Leatham, J. (2024). The horizon report-Environmental trends. [Google Doc]. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11btAVG-0MOAhpjPEQBl7tII0bt9qRI2e2iTdCZ_L_fI/edit?usp=sharing. 

Mestre, L.S. (2010, November). Librarians working with diverse populations: What impact does cultural competency training have on their efforts? The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 36(6). 479-488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2010.08.003. 

Mooko, N.P. (2005, Winter). The information behaviors of rural women in Botswana. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 27(1). 115-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2004.09.012.