TASCHA Research Seminar offers students an opportunity to get involved

October 26, 2016

We are often asked how students can get involved with the work that we do at TASCHA. During Winter Quarter 2017, TASCHA is leading a Research Seminar in the Information School (INFX 571), offering students a chance to get real world ICTD and research experience. INFX 571: TASCHA Research Seminar How can information and communication…

Event: Come meet TASCHA

October 25, 2016

Are you interested in the effects of technology on economic and social development? Do you wonder if smartphones will replace PCs? Interested in the role libraries play in community development? Curious about questions that can be addressed through big data? Passionate about digital inclusion & literacy, access to technology, communication, and information resources? Well, we…

Advancing MOOCs for Development Initiative creates evidence-based guides

October 6, 2016

The advent of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) boded major shifts in alternative education across the globe; suddenly anyone with access to the internet could take a course from a world-leading university, usually free of cost. The implications for education and international development were wide and complex, opening a new channel of fresh questions for…

TASCHA finds major successes and challenges in first evaluation Namibian libraries

October 5, 2016

Three regional libraries – officially called Regional Study and Resource Centers (RSRCs) – designed to promote a “learning culture” through services and activities, opened two years ago in regions across Namibia as an outcome of the Compact between the Government of Namibia and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), contracted…

TASCHA project will highlight the role of libraries and access to information in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals

September 27, 2016

Access to information is a critical tenet of successful community and international development, and in many places around the world, public libraries play a vital role in providing access that is universally and freely available. With this in mind, the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions…

Myanmar information symposium paves the way for change

Myanmar is undergoing unprecedented changes — politically, culturally, digitally — all while moving from a highly-censored information environment to embracing openness and freedom of information. The country’s digital revolution includes leaping over numerous “digital divides” propelled by the widespread use of smartphones and growing pervasiveness of the internet. TASCHA co-sponsored a Myanmar information symposium just…

TASCHA is hiring a Research Assistant

August 3, 2016

The Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) has an outstanding opportunity for a student to provide key support to TASCHA’s research communications activities. The student in this position will play an integral role by working directly with TASCHA’s Communications Specialist, along with the leadership and researchers at TASCHA. The student will have an opportunity to learn…

The future of libraries in the US & around the world

June 23, 2016

TASCHA’s work with public libraries is well-known throughout most of the world, ranging from the Public Access Landscape Study, which was the first attempt to identify and describe public libraries and other Internet public access centers and their services in 25 countries, to the Global Impact Study, which looked at the effect of libraries and other public access centers and their services on the users and non-users in eight countries. But with the selection of TASCHA as one of the three Legacy Partners by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Program, along with the United States Public Library Association (PLA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), more work by TASCHA in the United States will be seen in the coming years.

Event: Towards a Mobile Information Literacy framework

May 12, 2016

iSchool PhD candidate and Technology & Social Change Group’s (TASCHA) Sheryl Day will be presenting at an iSchool Research Conversation about our Mobile Information Literacy work in Myanmar.

Ecologies of innovation and public libraries

April 23, 2016

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spent more and more time in the “innovation” space, attending conferences and workshops, speaking with leaders in the public library field, visiting innovation hubs from Africa to South America, doing a bit of research on innovation spaces, and otherwise trying to grapple with what this all means for international development generally (and as it pertains to all of TASCHA’s work), and public libraries in particular (for our public library research).