*This post was written by Meg Brooke, Supervisor of School Librarians for Jefferson County.
Twenty three
years ago I interviewed for a library position in the system where I was moving
my family. In preparing for the interview, I got my interview outfit ready
(Ok…hate to say it, but this was my first thought!). I knew that I needed to get my mind and
interview skills ready, and so I prepped by doing lots of reading on what was
new in library theory as well as in
technology, and I talked to several practicing librarian friends. The CD-ROM was just starting to be used, and
I memorized what the letters stood for and learned about information that was
available on the CD-ROMS. I had a MacIntosh computer that I could use at home,
and I felt prepared. But, whoa, Nellie!
Dr.
Robert Mitchell, superintendent of the system at the time, interviewed me, and
I was amazed!!! This was 1990, and Dr.
Mitchell was envisioning students being able to access our school library from
their homes. Wow! My finite mind could never have dreamed that
big…everyone having a computer at
home and being able to retrieve information from our school library…. but I’m
thankful that others have minds to be able to see what possibilities lie ahead.
Remember: computers were just
appearing in schools around that time, and the library where I was hired to
work had no computers….ZERO. It took a few decades to get there, but his
vision did become reality. (a side note…..Dr. Mitchell was a hero to me in
several ways, but I’d love to add that he left the system a year after I was
there and started the first daycare in the area that had cameras so that
parents could log in and see what their children were doing whenever they had a
chance to do that. A real forward
thinker!)
Dreams of what our libraries will become must move
from the ideas that many were taught and have practiced, too, if we are to move
toward the vision of the library that our students will need. In Harland’s The Learning Commons: Seven Simple Steps to
Transform Your Library, we are given some questions to ask ourselves as we
think about the future of our particular library.
Ponder these:
- ·
Does your school need a library when
most information can be accessed in the classroom using the Internet? (This is a question that we need to
be able to answer!!!)
- ·
What is it that your library offers
to your users in addition to accessing information?
- ·
Are you doing it well? Could you do it better?
- ·
How can you increase and improve
services?
- ·
Could you make a shift in your
service?
We’ve heard
the term libraries without walls, and
we’re there. Dr. Mitchell got it right! Our students can access Atriuum, Nettrekker,
the AVL, and many ebooks outside of the school library. One leadership session at the upcoming AASL conference and one that was recently
presented in a webinar entitled A Library
in your Pocket is a reality NOW!
High schools are without walls, providing online courses for students
via ACCESS now. Our buildings are seeing
changes as methods of teaching are moving toward more technology, and our
library spaces will need to follow suit as well. No longer are we just protecting what we
have…our books, our AV, our equipment, but we are morphing into being the
promoters of how to use what we have
so that our students and teachers can easily
access and use that information.
This is just
a smidgen of food for thought that you’ll find in The Learning Commons by Pamela Harland. I hope you’ll check it out if you’re
interested in moving your library forward into one that will meet your
students’ needs.
Be the “Dr. Mitchell”
in the lives around you!
