terry weech: public computing: libraries and volunteers

Public Computing, Libraries and Volunteers

Terry Weech Graduate School of Library and Information

ScienceUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

USAOctober 18, 2010

Public Computing

• Content: – Early Public Computing Projects:

• Project Gutenberg• Free-Nets

– More Recent Activities• European Efforts• Community Informatics movement• CyberNavigators at Chicago Public Library

– Volunteers– Future

Public Computing

There are some barriers and limits to the successful application of the Project Gutenberg model internationally

To explore these barriers and limits, some specific examples will be examined.

Public ComputingProject Gutenberg DE http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/

One example in Europe is the German “Project Gutenberg.” The website is hosted by the German magazine “Der Spiegel”

The project is managed by a publisher, Hille Partner.

Project Gutenberg DE has claimed copyright on all its postings, although this has been disputed by the courts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projekt_Gutenberg-DE

Public Computing

Definition: The provision of free or low cost access to resources on the internet often to overcome the digital divide.

Project Gutenberg (1971-) is seen as the first digital library and thus a role model for public access to e-books world-wide and one of the oldest examples of public computing.

Public Computing

Project Gutenberg Europe http://pge.rastko.net/ (Last updated in 2005)

Distributed Proofreaders Europehttp://dp.rastko.net/

Project Rastkohttp://www.rastko.net/

Public ComputingProject Rastkohttp://www.rastko.net/

“ Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture (Serbian: Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе, Projekat Rastko - Elektronska biblioteka srpske kulture) is a non-profit and non-governmental publishing, cultural and educational project dedicated to Serb and Serb-related arts and humanities. It is named after Rastko Nemanjić.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Rastko

Public ComputingOther e-book efforts based on public domain

e-materials:

La BitBlioteca (Venezuela)

L'Association des bibliophiles Universels (ABU) (France) 

Public ComputingLiber Liber (Italy)

• Liber Liber is a non-profit cultural association whose aim is the promotion of any kind of artistic and intellectual expression. In particular, it is an attempt to draw humanistic and scientific culture together thanks to the qualified use of informatic technologies in the humanistic field

Public ComputingLiber Liber (Italy)• The Manuzio project (named after the famous publisher

who in the XVI century improved the printing techniques created by Gutenberg) has the ambition to make a noble idea real: the idea of culture available to everybody. How? Making books, graduation theses, articles, or tales available all over the world, any minute and free. Via modem, or using CDROM, it is already possible to get hundreds of books. And the Manuzio project needs only few people to make such a masterpiece as Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia available to millions of people.

http://www.liberliber.it/comunicare/english/index.htm

Public Computing in Czech Republic

From the March, 1997 Project Gutenberg Newsletter(http://sci.informika.ru/text/books/gutenb/gutind/TEMP/9703.html)

“… our newest site in Europe: • ftp://ftp.pinknet.cz/pub/etext/gutenberg/ in the

Czech Republic.

• No further mention of the Gutenberg site in the Czech Republic could be found after 1997.

Public ComputingFree-nets

• A free-net originally referred to a computer system which provides public access to a large number of resources including community information through text-based dialup. Once registered, users can typically access e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, chat rooms, and often other services.

• In 1989 a non-profit organization called the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) was founded to promote the creation of free-nets. It distributed the FreePort software from Case Western Reserve University.

• Free-net - From Wikipedia

Public ComputingFree-nets

• Unlike most modern ISPs, free-nets originally provided direct terminal-based dialup. The increased availability/affordability of cable and DSL has largely obsoleted the original free-net community, and so a number of the free-nets, including the original Cleveland Free-Net, have shut down or changed their focus. Free-nets have always been locally governed, so interpretation of their mission to remove barriers to access and provide a forum for community information, as well as services offered, can vary widely. User education was an important part of early free-net missions.

• Free-net - From Wikipedia

Public Computing

• Cyber Navigators

(The following slides are based on research by a colleague, Kate Williams on the use of Cyber Navigators at the Chicago Public Library

– “The CyberNavigators of Chicago Public Library and the ‘Informatics Moment: On a budget, democratizing information flows in low-income neighborhoods”

Tracking the arrival of public computing in US public libraries (Bertot and McClure)

Libraries are helpingpatronsin new waysat ChicagoPublic Lib.

History of Chicago Public Library

1833-1871, Social libraries: 48+ libraries created by elites of an emerging global city … most destroyed by 1871 Great Chicago Fire, others continue today

1872-present, Public library: After these elites mobilize support from state capital and UK, CPL opens; decades of institution-building follow

1981-present, Public computing library: Librarians, patrons collaborate in introducing computers for public use; computer provision becomes central in each branch

1981 1

1986 2

1992 3

1994 7

1996 9

1997 79 (all)

Locations with public computers

1872-present: The reference interview

1981-present: The informatics moment

Structure and process:Computersand user supportbegan together

History of CyberNavigator program

1999-2002, Experimentation: 30 Chicago-area engineering students hired as part time summer workers, funded by telecom ATT, managed by part time librarian

2003-2007, Affirmation: In response to branch needs, foundation raises funds to keep 5-7 part timers on year round

2008-present, Expansion: Fundraising supports 40+ CyberNavigators, managed by community computing professional

CNs today: 78% Afro/Latino/Asian … 82% Chicago born/raised … 95% non-engineers … adept at infotech, helping-oriented

A leap across the digital divide, involving four kinds of literacy

• Basic literacy: reading or writing• Computer literacy: managing passwords;

using a browser; purchasing equipment • Library literacy: using the print or reservation

system; searching the catalog• Domain literacy: looking for work online, filing

for government benefits

Social ties are important…

…CNs are local, peer helpers

Comments of users on Cybernavigators in a branch

“They look at you more like a friend”

“Technology is very awkward for people: It requires a lot of patience for this job”

“She started schooling me”

Public Computing and Volunteers

The Role of Volunteers in Public Computing in the U.S.

Volunteering part of U.S. Culture

One report (World Values Survey-2002) placed U.S. volunteering at 66% of population

Challenge of finding and sustaining volunteers

Public Computing and VolunteersRole of Volunteers in other

countries and cultures?

The same report places volunteering in Europe between 7 % in Russia and 54 % in Sweden

Public Computing and Volunteers

Role of Volunteers in the Czech Republic:

In the Czech Republic – 30%

Public Computing and Volunteers

One author (Knechtlova, 2007) suggests that Czech citizens still have a wariness about volunteering. They are becoming more receptive to volunteering as the civil society becomes stronger in the Czech Republic according to this author. Czechs still favor political volunteerism as opposed to social volunteerism.

Community Informatics

“Community informatics (CI), also known as community networking, electronic community networking, community-based technologies or community technology, refers to an emerging field of investigation and practice concerned with principles and norms related to information and communication technology (ICT)”

(From Wikipedia, accessed August, 2010)

Community Informatics Initiative (CII)

The Community Informatics Initiative (CII) is a research and teaching center at the University of Illinois focused on working with communities to address their information and technology needs.

• http://www.cii.uiuc.edu/• http://www.communityinformaticsprojects.com/

Thank you

weech@illinois.edu