Warlick's CoLearners
Return to Redefining Literacy
The Issue of Libraries
Doug Johnson recently wrote a blog entry, about a meeting he and other education leaders where having about the question, "How can the MS/HS library program and facilities be improved to support student learning and achieve the ISB Vision for Learning?" The question seems to have morphed into, "Does a school need a library when information can be accessed from the classroom using Internet connected laptops?"
Doug then shared a listing of article he has written since 1998, addressing this question.
- Why do we need libraries when we have the Internet? Knowledge Quest, Vol #27 no. 1 (1998)
- Are Libraries (and Librarians) Heading Toward Extinction? Teacher-Librarian, Dec 2003
- Letter from the Flat World Library Corporation, LMC, March 2006
- The Importance of Bricks, LMC, August/September 2006
I posted the following reply to Johnson's blog:
I think that this is one of the most interesting questions in education today, "Why do we need libraries when virtually all of the information we need on a daily basis is only a mouse-click away?"
I ask the question a lot, and the answers often seem to fall into two categories. The first is about books and the need to keep them. Why? The answers frequently seem to be personal (I like the feel and smell). The second reason is about librarians. We need librarians to teach students how to be critical users of information.
Frankly, I do not believe that either reason will fly in the face of budget cuts and an increasingly ubiquitous information landscape.
That said, I also do not believe that there has ever been a more exciting time to be a librarian. Reinvention thrills me.
The traditional vision of the library portrays a place, where you go to consume content, to find information, read information, and sometimes to check it out. Certainly many, if not most, library have extended beyond this limited function. Yet the vision continues to be the same.
As you know, I talk about literacy a lot, and try to tie it to the old and recognized structure of the 3Rs. I think it's a good place to start, because it is about accessing, working, and expressing information (reading, arithmetic, & writing). It seems that if the library could come to be seen as a place for all three...
- Find, access, understand, critically evaluate the appropriate information for your goal
- Add value to the information by utilizing tools of analysis, translation, and manipulation of information
- And compelling express ideas through text, sound, images, video, animation
...if the library might come to be seen more as a workshop where information isn't so much a product, as it is a raw material (a Kinkos for kids, if you will), then it may remain not only become viable, but an essential institution.
That's my 2¢ Worth.