Washington State Library Digital Skills Assessment

The Washington State Legislature awarded $100,000 for fiscal year 2023 to the Washington State Library (Office of the Secretary of State) to design and carry out a statewide baseline assessment of Washingtonians’ “digital literacy.” As the Library planned to contract the work out, it conducted a preparatory literature review of best practices and worked with an advisory group of digital skills support providers statewide to form its request. Based on this review and advisory group recommendations, the Library refined the assessment’s scope to emphasize the following:

• Focus on historically underserved audiences – those identified as priority “covered populations” in the 2021 U.S. Digital Equity Act, along with a few other audiences recommended by the advisory group (e.g., youth, urban populations);
• Use mostly small-scale, qualitative methods, rather than large telephone surveys, in order to gather richer, deeper content;
• Work with trusted community partners/liaisons to reach Washingtonians, with portions of the project budget dedicated to compensation or support services (e.g., childcare) for liaisons and respondents;

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$100,000 of the general fund—state appropriation for fiscal year 2023 is provided to the state library to develop a digital literacy assessment tool and protocol to be used by organizations that provide digital literacy support; conduct a baseline assessment of digital readiness for a representative sample of Washington residents; and publish the assessment tool, protocol, and baseline assessment findings on the state library website for public use by June 1, 2023. The office must also submit a report to the governor and legislature by June 1, 2023, that describes the tool, protocol, and assessment findings.