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Public Libraries Building Digital Inclusive Communities: Data and Findings from the 2013 Digital Inclusion Survey

John Carlo Bertot: associate provost for faculty affairs and a professor in the College of Information Studies (iSchool) at the University of Maryland. Bertot has been a professor in the iSchool since 2008 and has served as codirector of the Information Policy and Access Center. He served as director of the iSchool’s Master of Library Science program from July 2011 to July 2015. He served as coeditor of Library Quarterly from 2002 to 2014 and now serves as coeditor of the Advances in Librarianship book series. His research spans information and telecommunications policy, public service innovation, digital government, and library planning and evaluation. E-mail: [email protected].

Brian Real: PhD in information studies from the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. Real’s dissertation, which he defended in summer 2015, focused on the historical intersection of film preservation and public policy in the United States from the 1960s to the present. While pursuing his PhD, he worked for the Information Policy and Access Center at the University of Maryland as a graduate research associate, supporting the Digital Inclusion Survey. His previous publications have appeared in The Moving Image, Information Technology and Libraries, and Public Library Quarterly. E-mail (corresponding author): [email protected].

Paul T. Jaeger: professor, diversity officer, and director of the Master of Library Science program of the College of Information Studies and codirector of the Information Policy and Access Center (iPAC) at the University of Maryland. Jaeger’s research has been funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation, the American Library Association, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is editor of Library Quarterly, coeditor of the International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion, and coeditor of Advances in Librarianship. E-mail: [email protected].

This article presents key data, findings, and analysis from the 2013 Digital Inclusion Survey, which is a national study of the ways in which public libraries promote digital inclusion in their communities. Survey questions addressed the provision of various public access technologies and infrastructure, educational efforts and training offerings related to technology use, and assistance of patrons with specific areas that are of interest to the community, such as employment, civic engagement, and government services. Survey results demonstrate the myriad ways in which public libraries prioritize their roles in promoting digital inclusion and view digital inclusion efforts as central to their missions to serve their communities. This article explores the successes and challenges that public libraries encounter in their efforts to build digitally inclusive communities.