School Libraries:Technology Trends and the eBook Challenge

Stephen Abram, MLS

Monroe County BOCES

Rochester, NY

April 2, 2012

These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

Change

Several Things Should Happen Today

You should have fun first.

You should get too much information

You should share with each other

You should get new viewpoints and perspectives that challenge the norm

You should question the status quo

You are responsible for your own learning

We Only Get So Many

Once-in-a-Lifetime

Chances To Do Great

Things

News Flash

“The Internet and technology have now progressed to their infancy”

So how must library and educator strategies change?

Change can happen very fast

Sensemaking

What is an EXPERIENCE?

What is a library experience?

What differentiates a library experience from a transaction?

What differentiates public libraries from Google/Bing?

The Evolutionof Answers

Why do people ask questions?

Is your library experience conceptually organized around answers and programs?

Or collections, technology and buildings?

Why do people ask questions?

Who, What, When, Where How & Why Data – Information – Knowledge - Behavior To Learn or to Know To Acquire Information, Clarify, Tune To Decide, to Solve, to Choose, to Delay To Interview, Delve, Interact, Progress To Entertain or Socialize To Reduce Fear To Help, Aid, Cure, Be a Friend To Win A Bet

News Flash

News Flash

Tech Shift Happens

Seth Godin on Decisions (June 8, 2011)

o Which of these are getting in the way?

o You don't know what to do

o You don't know how to do it

o You don't have the authority or the resources to do it

o You're afraid

o You believe that money matters most

o Once you figure out what's getting in the way, it's far easier to find the answer (or decide to work on a different problem).

o Stuck is a state of mind, and it's curable.

What Are Libraries Really For?

• Community

• Learning

• Discovery

• Progress

• Research (Applied and Theoretical)

• Cultural & Knowledge Custody

• Economic Impact

Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Libraries: Searching for the corners of the earth, the edge of the

oceans and discovering dragons ...

-

Cook’s Voyage

Columbus, Cabot, Cortes

Magellan Columbus Cook

Questions for Libraries Today:

1. Are our priorities right?

2. Are learning, research, discovery changing materially and what is actually changing?

3. Books. Meh…

4. What is the role for school librarians in the real future (that is not an extension of the past)?

Grocery Stores

Grocery Stores

Grocery Stores

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Meals

Let’s chat

What is a meal in education and learning terms?

The new

bibliography and

collection

development

KNOWLEDGE

PORTALS

KNOWLEDGE,

LEARNING,

INFORMATION &

RESEARCH

COMMONS

Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians

Librarians play a vital role in building the critical connections between

information , knowledge and learning.

Service Metaphor

o Cafeterias

o Take Out

o Private Dining Rooms

o Private Chefs

o Variety

You have the tools.

Stop Making it So Hard!

Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills

Reading literacy

Numeracy

Critical literacy

Social literacy

Computer literacy

Web literacy

Content literacy

Written literacy

News literacy

Technology literacy

Information literacy

Media literacy

Adaptive literacy

Research literacy

Academic literacy

Reputation, Etc.