IMLS director, Susan Hildreth to visit Bangor, Maine on October 18 for Digitally Inclusive Communities forum

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) director, Susan Hildreth will visit Bangor, Maine on October 18, 2011and work with state librarians to lead community and leadership forums. If you’re up there anyway, or if you always wanted to participate in a nation-wide forum, this is your shot.

According to IMLS, as access to broadband becomes increasingly important to full participation in society, the need for communities to develop plans that address the needs of all of their residents is urgent. Answering the call of the National Broadband Plan, IMLS has worked with more than one hundred organizations and individuals with deep knowledge about public access to technology and the diverse information needs of communities to develop a "proposed framework for digitally inclusive communities."

Libraries and other community-based organizations play especially important roles in meeting the needs of hard to reach residents and ensuring opportunity for all. Libraries are recognized community anchors with the capacity to convene public officials, businesses, schools, hospitals, public safety and cultural institutions so that they can work together to fully and effectively realize the value of a digitally inclusive community.

"We are looking forward to hearing directly from community members and local officials about the challenges they face in creating digitally inclusive communities" said Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director. "Every voice helps to strengthen this work which we hope will result in a resource that is truly effective and useful."

Bangor was selected in part to assure participation by diverse audiences from a mix of rural and urban environments.

The forums will help accomplish three important goals: 

1. Finalizing the framework with meaningful feedback from the general public and relevant stakeholders.
2. Building support for digital inclusion and fostering relationships with communities and partners who can facilitate future piloting of the digital inclusion framework.
3. Developing implementation and communication plans with meaningful feedback from community leaders.

IMLS is working with the University of Washington Information School and the International City/County Management Association to finalize the framework incorporating insights gathered from the forums. The framework will serve as the foundation for development of tools and resources to help communities across the United States in realizing the benefits of digital inclusion.

For more news and information about IMLS’s digital inclusion and broadband initiatives, please visit http://www.imls.gov/about/broadband.aspx.