Creative Centers: Libraries, the Digital Gap, and Blooms Taxonomy Model

The great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. stated the importance of education when he said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character ‐ that is the goal of true education.” In a globalized socioeconomic framework, education in basic computer competence and access to the “World Wide Web” continues to be the groundwork from which creative innovators and entrepreneurs build products, services, and influence. Creative Centers: Libraries, the Digital Gap, & Blooms Taxonomy Model, includes a poster of an applied Blooms Taxonomy model, which demonstrates how African libraries may capitalize on historically embedded forms of communication and innovate for modern applications within new technologies. The methodology is illustrated graphically with examples of how innovation can move through rapid‐cycle systems change in African community‐based Creative Centers to increase access to information throughout Africa in the 21st century and beyond. “Libraries”, in the traditional sense (rooms full of books, “Quiet Study” areas, and often secluded sections) will become a thing of the past in Africa, as cities across the continent continue in experiments of modernization, electronic investment, and utilization of the internet to grow and share information. The creation of content particular to African places can be accompanied by new technologies and methods for sharing ideas. “Creative Centers” where students, parents, and community members are encouraged to formally and informally learn, analyze, and create under new applications are considered progressive in today's libraries across the United States and can be applied within the African context. Developing appropriate platforms for Africans should come from the intellectual capacity of Africans, which starts with remembering relevant predecessors and applying locally adapted methods to their own needs. An applied Blooms Taxonomy model can fuel innovative cycles of creation adapted out of the African experience and utilizing existing and new technologies fueled by Creative Centers. Collaborative and iterative learning can be fueled in these Creative Centers by local and international social entrepreneurs who will use the Centers as a meeting ground to not only build upon existing technology but also invest in new growth. Investments in technology can be centralized in the Centers, making it efficient for local people to come together and utilize resources. Peer‐to‐peer programs will be implemented through which learning, analyzing, and creating is used as a tool for sustainability. An ultimate goal of the Creative Centers is the closing of the “Digital Gap” that prevents Africans from utilizing embedded knowledge and skills to fuel social, economic, and creative transformation at the same speed and scale as individuals and communities in other nations. My personal experience in Senegal creating The Niombato Library Project demonstrated to me the need for investing not only in youth education and creating sustainable access points for learning and creativity, but in the potential a collaborative learning center has for using technology to fix some of neo‐colonial Africa's largest problems: energy, food and water security, and education.