The Role of Libraries, Archives and Museums for Metaliteracy in Smart Cities: Implications, Challenges and Opportunities

The concept of smart cities is gradually gaining popularity within both academic and policy circles. Smart cities are intended to be self-sufficient via cutting-edge technologies, purposive innovations and inventions. However, while the technology is growing at an unexpectedly fast pace, one of the essential components of smart cities – humans –is lagging behind. The need for and scope of literacies to survive in smart cities pose challenges for their citizens. The evolution of human learning is not matching the pace of technology. There is a growing emphasis on developing learning capabilities through various ongoing literacies. This study aims to identify the range of literacies required in smart cities and the roles of libraries, archives and museums (LAM) in supporting citizen literacies for social and digital inclusion. The LAM sector is one of the major stakeholders in the digital transformation sphere and needs to work in collaboration with other stakeholders. Therefore, the LAM sector must identify the nature of required literacies, the roles and strengths of other stakeholders, and the opportunities to increase its presence in the process. This study systematically identifies and addresses these issues through a conceptual framework process and proposes future research directions for the LAM sector.

Syed Adnan Adil is serving as Team Manager: Systems, Subscriptions and Licensing at the Library and Learning Resources, London South Bank University, UK. He is also a PhD Scholar at The UCL Department of Information Studies.