Written by Jackie Chapman, Trustee – Wimbledon Community Association.
In my last blog, I wrote about volunteering, and I touched on my favourite role of working in Colliers Wood library. Some of my time is spent supporting people in using the computers provided. This can be as simple as helping to print documents or download from the internet. I’ve been providing this help for about ten years, and in the early days, I’d say 95% of help given was of this nature. In recent years, it has become much more complicated. As digitalisation of all things is taking hold, I’m beginning to see how vulnerable we may all become.
I think it probably started with people coming in to ask for help with their Transport for London Freedom Pass application. I began to hear clients say that TFL had told them they could no longer deal with this at the tube station, that they must submit the application online, and that if they needed help, try their local library. Then came 70+ driver licence renewals and passport renewals. I took all this in my stride, and was happy to help guide library users through these applications.
During the last few years, clients have begun to highlight how much further this has gone. It now seems impossible to interact with agencies of the state in any other way. I’ve helped with applications to declare homelessness and to be placed on the Council housing waiting list; to join a GP practice; to access DWP support; to begin to access their pension; to renew a UK digital visa, and more that I can’t recall.
Libraries are not the best environment to deal with such personal data. It is a public space, and clients are having to share very personal information. I recently spent two hours with someone launching their Universal Credit application. As you can imagine, this involves a lot of financial and health data, which is as personal as you can get. Yet they seemed to have no alternative than to have this handled in the library. In all honesty, I don’t know if there are other organisations out there who offer the same practical support. I know there are organisations offering expert advice, but not necessarily sitting with their client to tackle the practical online application – none of our library clients have mentioned an alternative.
It is easy to think that this is a generational thing, that only older people in our society are struggling to deal with the digital world. The idea is that eventually, this problem will naturally fall away. However, there are issues around accessibility; very often a smart phone is the only access to the internet that some people own. This makes the whole situation much trickier and fiddly. Lack of access to a PC will still mean those individuals may have to use public computers.
There is also the inarguable fact that a good number of us will become older, and whilst we feel confident with technology right now, this may not always be the case. Reduced physical ability may make the use of keyboards tricky, or mental frailty will make it more difficult to follow. Certainly, it will become harder to memorise all those passwords!
I don’t know the answer to this, but it seems very unfair that government agencies demand that we access their services online without provision of a secure environment and support if we’re not capable or do not have access to our own private computer equipment. Much as I am happy to help, I do not believe that public libraries are the answer.
Written May 2025.