Abstract:

The article describes the operation of the Silesian Digital Library and social digitalisation workshops on gathering and sharing resources – books, magazines, maps, documents, etc. – online. Discussed are the organisational aspects of the library as a self-organising and educational cluster organisation, as well as integration aspects of the bottom-up digitalisation activity, which creates new opportunities in the form of a volunteer initiative and activation of the elderly and people with disabilities. Volunteering carried out in this dimension yields two-dimensional benefits: thanks to social workshops the library gains valuable resources and the possibility of sharing them with users, while the activities performed in the workshops involve significant benefits for volunteers, both educational, including overcoming barriers associated with exposure to new technologies, as well as a whole range of social values, and - in the case of people with disabilities – therapeutic properties. The activity of the Silesian Digital Library and social digitalisation workshops is in line with contemporary trends of participatory culture, open culture, and the paradigm of social inclusion and empowerment, whereby the digital medium, together with available infrastructure, enables networking and the nurturing of partnerships between institutions, building resources, sharing the cultural heritage of the region and strengthening activity and promoting participation in social life through the implementation of new strategies of management.