About the Digital Equity Research Center
Our Work
The Digital Equity Research Center is an applied research center that assumes digital inequality research must include analyses of economic injustice, systemic racism, and other structural inequalities in order to understand and address the root causes of the digital divide. Our research uses critical theoretical insights along with participatory research methods to ensure those most impacted by the digital divide are included, whenever possible, in interventions to advance digital equity and social, economic, and racial justice.
We partner with academic institutions, community-based organizations, and philanthropy to produce high-quality, applied research to inform digital equity practice and policy at the local, state, and national levels.
Our work is focused on the following three research areas:
Mission
The Digital Equity Research Center located at the Metropolitan New York Library Council engages in community-based and participatory research to inform digital equity practice and policy at the local, state, and national levels. We work with individuals, organizations, and communities to advance digital equity and social, economic, and racial justice in the Metropolitan New York region and around the world.
Vision
The Digital Equity Research Center imagines a more just and equitable world where everyone has access to the social and community supports and technological skills needed to advance freedom and self-determination.
Visual Identity
The Center’s identity was designed by Sophie Greenspan in 2023. Learn more.
About METRO
The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) works to create a sustainable culture of creativity, collaboration, and open exchange for libraries, archives, museums, and cultural institutions in the Metropolitan New York region and around the world.
We accomplish our mission through leadership, grantmaking, resource sharing, professional learning, research, technology services, creative practice, and more.
METRO engages in this work with the Digital Equity Research Center because METRO’s member libraries are institutions charged with providing equitable access to information for local communities in New York and around the world. In addition, information is now delivered via digital networks rather than books alone. It is essential that libraries and their partners promote equitable network access and digital literacy. The DERC will help METRO members achieve greater network awareness and literacy and will prepare them to be better digital equity and social justice advocates for their communities. The DERC will also work to strengthen relationships among the METRO libraries and other practitioners in the region to collaborate on digital equity and, ultimately, to be more responsive to the people they serve.
METRO is an affiliate of the following digital inclusion advocacy organizations:
