Recently, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission published the Action Plan for Improving Digital Literacy and Skills of the Whole People (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan" ).

The Action Plan has greatly encouraged the peers engaged in the practice and research of media and information literacy education in China, and provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for libraries to strengthen educational functions, expand social influence and achieve high-quality development. Obviously, in the next 15 years, libraries have great potential in improving digital literacy and skills of the whole people, and we must seize this rare opportunity.

Improving digital literacy and skills is necessary for the library to stick to the functions of its establishment. Education is one of the main functions of libraries at all levels. On the one hand, library has been playing an important role in educating people with culture and literature; on the other hand, by carrying out information literacy education, such as library utilization guidance, bibliographic guidance, training, lectures, literature retrieval courses and other forms to fulfill its educational function.

Improving digital literacy and skills is even more necessary for the library to innovate. The connotation, extension, scene, audience and goal of digital literacy and skills defined in the Action Plan are broader and richer than the information literacy that the library community has always focused on. Globally, the IFLA Statement on Digital Literacy, published in August 2017 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), pointed out that digital literacy includes media and information literacy and other skills, emphasizing that libraries should position digital literacy as the core service, which requires sufficient planning, budget and staff, and cooperation with external actors to provide the best service for users. In the new era, libraries should show new actions and responsibilities to improve the digital literacy and skills of the whole people, so as to better serve the national strategies such as network power and digital China construction.

Establish the important position of the library in promoting digital literacy and skills of the whole people. The three teaching documents of literature retrieval course published by the Ministry of Education in 1984, 1985 and 1992 all made clear the role and requirements of university libraries in literature retrieval and utilization course teaching. The Regulations for Libraries (Rooms) in Primary and Secondary Schools published by the Ministry of Education in May 2018 requires that "freshmen’s library education, literature information retrieval and utilization, reading instruction courses, etc. should be encouraged to be included in the teaching plan", which establishes the position of primary and secondary school libraries in information literacy education. At the same time, international organizations recognize the dominant position of libraries in improving digital literacy and skills, and put forward some suggestions on how libraries can improve citizens' digital literacy and skills. For example, IFLA Statement on Digital Literacy requires libraries to provide digital skills training opportunities, and calls on all stakeholders, such as government, educational institutions and economic departments to support libraries and use their professional knowledge to help improve digital literacy.

In order to establish the important position of the library in improving digital literacy and skills of the whole people, the library community should actively participate in the main tasks and key programs identified in the Action Plan. For example, departments and schools in the field of Library and Information Science should strengthen theoretical research on digital literacy and skills, and develop an evaluation index system of national digital literacy and skills development in consistent to domestic conditions.

Libraries should expand cooperation channels in improving digital literacy and skills of the whole people. The Action Plan proposes to cover the whole people, make all-round development of people and common prosperity of all people as the fundamental purpose, promote the whole people to jointly build and share the results of digital development, stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the whole people to build a network power and digital China, enhance the digital adaptability, competence and creativity of the whole people, expand the four scenarios of digital life, digital learning, digital work and digital innovation of the whole people, and build a lifelong digital learning system for the whole people. This means that the task of improving digital literacy and skills of the whole people is very arduous and requires the participation of the whole society. To achieve this goal, the Action Plan calls for "establishing an inter-ministerial coordination mechanism with the participation of departments such as network information, organization, publicity, politics and law, development and reform, education, industry and informatization, civil affairs, finance, human resources and social security, agriculture and rural areas, state-owned assets supervision, trade unions, women's federations, science associations and other departments, and strengthening inter-departmental policy coordination, resource integration and work convergence".

Libraries can lead or participate in cooperation via three forms as the followings:

(1) Close cooperation among various types of libraries in various regions, and cooperation between libraries and Library academic community. For example, public libraries at all levels with weak information literacy education foundation can carry out digital literacy and skills challenge for citizens, and invite library experts to design contest process, build question bank, conduct training for citizen, and serve as comment experts.

(2)Give full play to the role of Library Society of China, carry out research with the strength of national peers, build excellent teaching resources for digital literacy and skills improvement of different age and occupation groups, carry out various education or training activities, and strengthen publicity.

(3)Actively expand cooperation with other fields. Aiming at the digital social integration and digital divide of the elderly, the disabled, farmers and other groups, cooperate with relevant institutions to improve their digital literacy and skills. For example, deepen digital literacy and skills training of primary and secondary school students with local education management administration, participate in the construction of the question bank of the National Farmers' Scientific Quality Network Knowledge Contest, and carry out the rural digital literacy and skills knowledge propaganda and digital talents' activities in the countryside.

(Ruhua Huang, author of this article, Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Director of the Digital Library Institute, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of Library Society of China)

The article was translated from the Chinese version, the link to the full article of the original version:http://edu.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1201/c1006-32296635.html