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Youth Community Informatics

Project Title: "Community Informatics for Youth: Using the Extension Network to Recruit Future LIS Professional"

Award Amount: $788,895; Matching Amount:$720,960
Grant Category: Pre-Professional Programs
Grant Dates: 7/1/2007 to 6/30/2010

Contact: Dr. Bertram Bruce
Professor
(217)244-3576; chip@uiuc.edu

The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with the Extension statewide 4-H network, proposes to recruit youth into library and information science (LIS) careers with a set of engaging, educational activities centered on community informatics in after-school programs. These activities will help underserved communities address their needs through the use of information and communication technologies. By involving youth in service projects related to the communities, the activities will show them possibilities for LIS careers and simultaneously make a case for an expanded view of LIS in the 21st century.

This three-year project reaches throughout the state of Illinois, in rural, urban, and suburban settings, in line with the land-grant mission of the University. Moreover, because similar networks exist in every state and territory, the model can be extended to a nationwide scale. Five underserved Illinois communities have been identified as pilot sites in: Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, Danville, East Saint Louis and Rockford. These communities represent a high concentration of the minority, low-income and English language learner population in Illinois. We are particularly committed to working within and with these communities to enhance future career opportunities for underserved youth. But equally important, our work is based on an assumption that the field of LIS stands to be enriched by the perspectives and experiences that these youth bring.

Identified through existing GSLIS and Extension networks, junior- and senior-high school youth, along with the adult learners of their after-school clubs, will: 1) participate in learning modules on a range of LIS topics, using both face-to-face and technology-mediated distance mechanisms; 2) work on community informatics projects in collaboration with local community partners, local libraries, graduate LIS students, and undergraduates from diverse fields; 3) participate in campus events to experience a wide variety of LIS careers; and 4) participate in the development of computer technology and information access centers in their home communities. Project outcomes will include a 12-module, field-tested LIS curriculum targeting diverse youth audiences, which will be made available through the web for use in formal and informal learning environments. In addition, undergraduate and graduate students involved with the project will expand their conception of LIS careers and understand better how LIS professionals can play a more significant role in underserved communities.

We anticipate that project activities will have significant consequences for the individual youth involved, but also for community building in each of the sites. In prior work in diverse communities, we have seen the benefits of engaging youth in work that is challenging and community-oriented. The current project will build upon that previous work, expand it to include more communities, and articulate it into a model that can be employed nationwide. We expect that the youth involved will develop a deep understanding of fundamental LIS ideas, one that is grounded in their own lived experiences in their communities. Moreover, we expect that they will come to understand how project activities, which are fun and beneficial for their communities, may also form the basis for meaningful careers. Their interactions with LIS faculty and students, with librarians on campus and in their communities, and with other youth throughout the state will show them in concrete ways how LIS can be important for their lives. The knowledge they gain and changes in attitudes will not guarantee that every youth participant becomes an LIS professional, but they will help every participant understand the valued of informed, effective, and ethical use of information in the world they will soon be leading.