They Told Me I Was Too Old to Learn: Challenging Ageist Narratives Through Library-Based Intergenerational Digital Projects

Abstract

This study examines how library-based intergenerational digital projects challenge ageist narratives through narrative identity and situated learning frameworks. Drawing on a multi-site qualitative case study (N = 30 participants across two public libraries in Lagos State), the analysis integrates older adults’ self-narratives, intergenerational interactions involving youth and library staff, and co-created digital artefacts. Findings identify three interrelated mechanisms through which ageist narratives are disrupted and digital agency is reconfigured: (1) narrative reauthoring, whereby older adults transform resistant self-understandings into agentic identities through digital storytelling; (2) knowledge-reversal scaffolding, in which youth and library staff actively draw on seniors’ cultural and experiential expertise, destabilising deficit-based age hierarchies; and (3) artefact-mediated legitimisation, whereby publicly displayed digital outputs generate community-level recognition of older adults’ competence. Participant accounts show that resistance functioned as a constitutive dimension of agency rather than its opposite, enabling confidence and participation to emerge through co-learning. Micro-affirmations and contextualised task framing further reduced cognitive barriers by embedding digital skills within existing identities. Collectively, these practices challenge deficit models of ageing and position libraries as informal, relational spaces for intergenerational digital learning. The study underscores the value of intergenerational reciprocity in design and public recognition of co-created artefacts in fostering age-inclusive digital participation.