Unboxing more sustainable communities – Digital skills & learning together!

Abstract

Up-to-date digital skills are the core of librarian’s sustainability toolbox. The skills include not only know-how and sharing information, also lifelong learning and responsible use of technology. The Pikeboksi (Pikebox) is a digital equipment lending concept for the Finnish public libraries in Pirkanmaa and Central Finland (abbr. PiKe). Boxes include electronics and applications on five themes: VR/AR, games, audio, social media and filming. They help the librarians to learn independently or in facilitated workshops, to start producing content and give ideas for utilizing the equipment together with library customers or other interest groups in the community. To facilitate the implementation of the boxes we organized workshops for librarians from municipalities nearby each other, to gain certainty in using the tools, to share ideas and to create content for their communities’ needs. They also revealed a variety of cooperation possibilities within the municipalities, e.g. youth workers, teachers, elderly care or culture and leisure professionals. Having been touring in our libraries since March 2021, now it’s time to present the concept of the boxes, the workshops and their virtual, auditory, visual and memorable results to global library audience. The poster describes the evolution and timeline of the boxes, outputs and feedback on the experiences.