Digital Skills in Finnish Public Libraries to Engage in the National Operating Model for Digital Support for Citizens

Abstract

During the last four years, government actions have required Finnish public libraries to take a more concrete role in citizens’ digital support. Although Finland is doing well in digitalisation, and libraries have been providing digital support since the mid-1990s, there are large groups of citizens who have a wide range of challenges in the digital world. There is a dire need to equally engage citizens to use digital services and devices. However, the digital skills of library employees have diverged during the last decades. This calls for wider further education activities for library employees. Turku City Library studied the digital competencies of 405 public library employees in South-West Finland. However, significant variation was found in digital competencies. National-level digital competence requirements have been created by the Council of Public Libraries, and further education activities have been launched all over Finland, organised by the nine regional development libraries with extra finance from the Parliament Finance Committee’s Digital Libraries Initiative, to enhance digital competency in public libraries and create collaborative networks to help citizens take part in digital society.