Improving Digital Fluency

Being able to navigate a digital environment to conduct research, complete assignments and eventually perform job duties is a necessity for all students. This is referr  to as digital fluency and is consider a key 21st century skill nee for success in both ucation and work. Teaching students how to navigate digital resources such as the Open Library can help build digital fluency as they search for information, develop lists of relevant materials and add its to library entries if nee for their studies.

Building Out the Library Collection

The reality for most school districts is that they have a limit collection due to funding and physical constraints. Adding a free resource like the Open Library can augment a school library’s collection. From Where the Sidewalk Ends for younger students to The Great Gatsby for high school students, there are popular titles for every grade.

Offering Accessible Materials

Finally, the Open Library allows school districts to offer digital material in an accessible format, as well as offering additional digital titles to print disabl students. When viewing a book online, students can click an icon in the lower right to use screen reading software and have the book read aloud. Print disabl books specially formatt in DAISY are also available for those who are visually impair and have special software to use this format (learn more about the program). Digital books can also be download to the Adobe Digital itions application for offline access.

School district leaders have a lot on their minds in planning to reopen in the fall. Thankfully, the Internet Archive’s Open Library can be leverag to increase safety, digital literacy, library collections, and resource accessibility. The fall checklist just got a bit shorter.