Information Literacy, Libraries and Internet Universality.

I am so excited to be able to speak to the role that libraries can play in defining internet indicators. In reading background materials and refreshing my understanding of the Internet Universality principles and its progress, I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with the concepts and jotting down many notes about how libraries contribute and align. I am speaking of libraries in a holistic sense, academic, public, school, and special libraries. Strong libraries ease internet accessibility issues. Libraries provide free access to the internet to their communities, sometimes the only internet access that some users have. Libraries believe in the right to the freedom of information. Everyone should have access to the same material and content. Libraries support makerspaces and digital labs, they hold hack-a-thons and free coding classes. These make our communities into creators that contribute to open API development, open educational resources, and local, unique content. Libraries support digital preservation of cultural heritage and assets. Libraries strive to create user competencies through information literacy. We assist with creating responsible producers of content. Libraries reduce isolation and create community. IFLA facilitates the work of libraries on a global scale and is engaging in its own participatory, or multi-stakeholder, exercises to produce a vision