Digital Mentoring as a Social and Educational Activity of a Librarian

The aim of the article is to characterise the socio-pedagogical content of the activity and the necessary competencies of a specialist in «digital mentoring» in the social and educational activities of libraries in the context of the digitalisation of society. The research methodology is based on a set of general scientific methods of generalisation, systematisation and forecasting. The hypothetical analysis made it possible to use the term «digital mentoring» as etymologically acceptable to outline the essence of the socio-educational activities of a librarian. The method of information diagnostics (express analysis) was used to study the state of educational and consulting activities of regional universal scientific libraries in the field of digital education of citizens. To outline ways to replenish the competencies of a librarian as a «digital curator», the method of information forecasting of the object was used, which allowed formulating the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of competencies, namely making changes required to the content of training future librarians by developing a special generalising discipline (or set of disciplines) under the conventional title «Educational Services in the Context of Digital Inequality», aimed at psychological, pedagogical, methodological and organisational aspects of educational and consulting activities in the field of digital technology. The scientific novelty of the study is that the concept of «digital mentoring as a type of social and educational activities in libraries» brings educational practice in line with the practice of libraries, as well as focuses on the need for further «digital mentoring» in libraries proposed measures on the formation of competencies of the modern librarian in the field of «digital» educational practices. Conclusions. Under the current condition, the function of the library in the social and educational dimension is to help overcome digital inequality through consulting and educational activities in digital technology. Digital mentoring is a type of social and educational activity of a librarian aimed at ensuring free access to information, overcoming digital inequality and digital literacy of citizens by organising and conducting events (including remotely) to advise users on the use of digital technology in different spheres of life and promoting the development of digital competencies of different groups. Implementation of educational functions of «digital mentoring» requires special necessary and sufficient knowledge of teaching methods and the organisation of the consultation process to implement the librarian’s role as a teacher-consultant in familiarising citizens with the required digital technology. It is advisable to develop a special generalising discipline (or set of disciplines) under the conventional title «Educational Services in Digital Inequality», aimed at psychological, pedagogical, methodological and organisational aspects of educational and consulting activities in digital technology.