--- title: How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age description: How local libraries can thrive in the digital age, the anti-colonial birthright of ISIS, hacking diversity in tech and more. canonical: https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-04T17:01:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:03.523Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 4, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 4, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Here’s how local libraries can succeed in the digital age.**](http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/10/30/building-better-board-of-trustees/) By Maria R. Traska in American Libraries **2\.** [**How ISIS spread in the Middle East and how to stop it.**](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/how-isis-started-syria-iraq/412042/) By David Ignatius in the Atlantic **3\.** [**Black colleges aren’t waiting for the tech industry to fix its diversity problem.**](http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/hacking-the-pipeline-how-hbcus-are-taking-techs-diversity-is#.ftmPBDbKp) By Charlie Warzel and Brendan Klinkenberg in BuzzFeed News **4\.** [**These neighbors couldn’t get reliable Internet service. So they built their own ISP.**](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-a-group-of-neighbors-created-their-own-internet-service/) By Jon Brodkin in Ars Technica **5\.** [**In the 2016 election — and every election — the Native vote matters.**](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/about/blog/why-native-vote-matters-tribal-communities-our-country) By Amber Richardson in the Aspen Idea  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/"},"headline":"How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age","datePublished":"2015-11-04T17:01:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:03.523Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/","keywords":["Innovation","Internet","ISIS","Election","Library"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4099517/libraries-thrive-digital/","name":"How Local Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age"}}]}] ```