When Gary first walked into the Lincoln Branch Library this February, he wasn’t looking for help learning how to read or write. In fact, Gary is an avid writer and hopes to self-publish his own book eventually. However, Gary discovered that storytelling nowadays requires more than creativity, but also digital literacy skills. So, that’s when he visited Digital Literacy volunteer, Tricia.
With a list of questions in hand, Gary was hesitant to see if all his questions would be answered. However, to his pleasant surprise, Tricia was able to go through each of his concerns with care. Together, the two began with a simple goal of making it easier to edit and format his small collection of stories. The first session focused on copying and pasting the stories from the Pages app to Google Docs, a first step in their plan. The following week, Tricia walked Gary through how to format and edit the copied documents as he repeated the steps to confidently do it on his own. By late March, Gary could confidently move and format his stories without much assistance.
In a matter of five weeks, Gary exceeded his expectations to learn the skills he needed edit his stories! Gary still works with Tricia to learn about other digital tools to aid in his writing process. Tricia noted, “although the digital world is pretty new to him, he comprehends and evaluates new information and options quickly.” Now, the two have started conversations about hiring editors and choosing an online publishing platform, tasks with digital components to learn as well.
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