Funding opportunity to expand digital skills opens next month

Every day, community members go to their local public libraries to access the internet for email, education, work, and more. But some people lack the basic computer knowledge and skills to do so. The Public Library Association (PLA) is proud to partner with AT&T to expand upon our work helping libraries and their communities close the digital divide. With support from AT&T, PLA has added and improved courses on our digital literacy training site, DigitalLearn.org. The online courses are freely available to everyone and teach basic skills such as: tips for getting started with email, navigating websites and commonly used apps, operating search engines, mastering cybersecurity, and more.

In May, applications opened for the PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive supported by AT&T, which will provide public libraries with financial support ($4,000–$7,000) to conduct digital literacy training in their communities and promote the new and improved DigitalLearn courses and training materials. Workshops can be conducted either in-person or online. There was a free “office hours” style webinar  (that was recorded) on May 19^th with more information provided to learn more about these digital resources and the PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive supported by AT&T.

The incentive application deadline is June 10, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Central. Applications will be reviewed and selected by PLA member reviewers this summer, and recipients will be announced in August. Learn more about the applications process at https://www.ala.org/pla/initiatives/digitalliteracy/incentive.