Blog Archives
The Future of Libraries?
Seth’s Blog: The future of the library via kwout
Seth Godin, thinker, social media expert, and marketing guru, set off a firestorm yesterday with his post, “The Future of Libraries.” While the post is directed toward public libraries, librarians from all walks of life jumped in with their responses:
- Toby Greenwalt, “Just Call Me Tenzing Norbook, I Guess” (featuring an outstanding post, a response from Godin himself, and several thoughtful responses from other librarians)
- Doug Johnson, “Seth Godin Gets It”
- Erin Downey, “Information Is Not Free”
- Jenny Luca, “Seth Godin on Libraries—Take Heed”
- Cathy Nelson, “A Call to Arms”
- Justin Hoenke, “The Future of the Library: A Short Response”
- Jill Hurst-Wahl, “Seth Godin and Libraries”
- Carolyn Foote, “Selling Libraries Short?”
- Kathryn Greenhill, “Leaders, Sherpas, and Teachers in Our Libraries”
- Joyce Valenza, “Seth Godin and Mike Eisenberg and me on the Future of the Library”
- Marianne Lenox, “The Future of Libraries is in Staff Training”
- Sarah Glassmeyer, “Seth Godin and the Future of Libraries”
- Andy Woodworth, “The Actual Future of the Library”
What do you think about the conversations that are taking place around this post? How does it relate to us as school librarians and school libraries?
Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
What’s On the Horizon for 2010? Peer Into the Future with the Horizon Report 2010 Preview
The New Media Consortium recently released the Short List of Horizon Topics for 2010 and the Horizon Report 2010 Preview. These documents, which you can view by visiting the Horizon Report Wiki, are the result of the rounds of discussions and voting by the Advisory Board members. The final report will be officially released on January 20, 2010.
The report preview organizes topics by “time to adoption” and includes a description of the topic; the relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression; examples of how the topic is being applied, and suggestions for further reading. In addition, the preview version of the report includes a section called “Critical Challenges” as well as a section for “Key Trends.”
Consider the six final topics:
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
Where are we as K12 libraries in preparing to utilize these technologies, particularly that of mobile computing and open source applications? How can we as school librarians help lead the way for the integration of these tools not only into our libraries but also in our school classrooms? What are K12 vendors doing to help school libraries prepare to adopt and integrate these technologies effectively?
I also find the “Critical Challenges” particularly interesting and encourage you to read the details of each challenge.
- The role of the academy—and the way we prepare students for their future lives—is changing.
- New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching continue to emerge but appropriate metrics for evaluating them increasingly lag behind or fail to appear.
- Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key 21st century skill, but there is a widening training gap for faculty and teachers.
- Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate.
These challenges leave me with many questions:
- Will it be school librarians who lead the resistance and coup d’etat, against the test driven school culture that is diametric to 21st century learning that values inquiry, creative expression, and collaboration?
- Are we teaching our students and teachers about new forms of scholarship? How do we redefine authority and find new ways to evaluate and assess authority?
- How do we help posit new literacies (media, digital, transliteracy) as mainstream literacies for students and for teachers?
- How do we as school librarians turn budget crises into innovation?
- How do we tap into emerging technologies to create even more effective programs in the face of financially challenged circumstances?
What might happen if we as school librarians formed inquiry circles with public librarians, academic librarians, teachers, technology personnel, administrators, students, parents, and vendors to explore these questions, challenges, and trends? How could we work together to find inventive and meaningful ways to harness the powers of these technologies? What might learning look in both K12 and higher education if we engaged in inquiry and problem solving together?
Although these documents represent the “preview” and not the final draft of the report, please read the draft forms and put these ideas on your radar if they aren’t there already. What is your response to the report preview? How do you see K12 libraries meeting the challenges outlined in the draft? How do you see the key trends impacting the 21st century school library and our practices? I have cross-posted this entry on the AASL blog; please share your responses there as well as here.
Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
School Library Media Specialist
Creekview High School, Canton, Georgia
June 18 Panel Discussion: “Is There a Place for Media Specialists Who Don’t Know Social Media?”
Panel Discussion: “Is There a Place for Media Specialists Who Don’t Know Social Media?” – The Future of Education via kwout
“The Future of Education” will be hosting another thought provoking and FREE web event this Thursday, June 18 at 8PM EST. : “”Is There a Place for Media Specialists Who Don’t Know Social Media?” This session will be held via Elluminate for free; you will want to log in about 20-30 minutes ahead of time to load the Elluminate platform (at no charge) and to test your audio settings. If you cannot attend, the session will be recorded and archived; you can access the session archives at the link above.
In this session, Joyce Valenza leads a discussion on the future of librarians and their role in education with Buffy Hamilton, Cathy Nelson, and Carolyn Foote.
Participants will also want to visit the wiki Joyce Valenza has set up to supplement and facilitate the conversation on Thursday evening; you can access the webinar wiki by clicking right here.
Feed, Tag, Research: Remixing for School Library 2.5 (Library Remix 2.5@NECC 2008)
If you have not heard the buzz about this NECC session, then head over to http://necclibrarians08.wikispaces.com/ to get the scoop! Here you will find the recorded Ustream video of the session, plus terrific resources from all the presenters on the panel. What was this session all about? Here is the official description in a nutshell:
School librarians are leading learning and instructional change. Discover how we are re-visioning reading, research, and “library” for 21st-century students on the Read/Write Web.
As if this link isn’t enough, feel free to check out my favorite buzz and discussion on this important NECC 2008 panel discussion by visiting http://del.icio.us/theunquietlibrary/LibraryRemix2.5 .
Creekview High School
