Washington State Library Digital Skills Assessment

In June of 2022, Washington State Library Staff established an advisory board, inviting stakeholders in digital equity from a variety of sectors throughout the state, representing wide variety of service providers and digital equity workers.  The advisory board members agreed to participate in activities to assist WSL staff in using both the literature review and their collective wisdom to craft the best possible request, and to later assist WSL in providing an informative report with findings useful to the many sectors that support digital skills and work towards digital equity.

The advisory board met on September 28, 2022 to view the initial findings of the literature review, and participate in a design clinic.  The design clinic is a 30 minute format for respectfully engaging different parties around a specific challenge.  The design clinics surfaced important input from members of the board.  

Advisory board feedback included:

• Allow local flavor and control of survey activities.
• Compensate respondents and community organizations for providing their time and expertise.
• Leverage previously collected data that may not be utilized/shared.
• Follow up with respondents with findings in multiple formats.
• Do not make assumptions about a community & pay attention to previous unsuccessful attempts to engage.
• Trust is key, meet people where they are comfortable and have a sense of belonging.

On May 12, 2023, the Advisory Board met to hear Equity in Education Coalition's initial findings prior to the completion of the final report.  EEC presented their initial findings, followed by solicitation of feedback via the design clinic process.