This document discusses the role of librarians as student support specialists in 21st century schools. It provides details about Moreau Catholic High School, which has approximately 900 students, 125 employees, and has been a 1:1 laptop school since 2007. The librarians at Moreau, Mrs. Geiger and Mrs. Arriaga, along with library assistant Mrs. Stanton, view their role not as traditional book-driven librarians but as idea and learning-driven facilitators of the school's learning ecosystem through various initiatives like online classes, tech tutorials, and livestreaming school events. The document advocates that librarians must reconceptualize their role to make libraries and librarians relevant contributors to student
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Author Seth Godin’s (Go-din)explains this shift we’re seeing in his blog post, “The Future of the Library” and Buffy Hamilton’s response to it.
“The scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data” – Seth Godin . The librarian today brings domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information which cultivates those scarce resources, knowledge and insight. I would be curious to know how many students come into our library every day for a book? No longer is the majority coming for an artifact but for help creatively using and finding data AND to work in collaboration – to learn from each OTHER. Buffy introduced me to this quote by David Lankes from the Atlas of New Librarianship and it applies here: “The fundamental shift is from things to human knowledge. It changes the focus of the work of librarians from artifacts and the products of learning (like books, web pages, and DVDs) to the learning process. Rather than being concerned with some externalized concept such as information (or, worse, “recorded knowledge”), it places the focus of librarianship squarely on behavior and the effects of services on the individual. In essence, the value of a book, or librarian for that matter, is evaluated against the need of the library members’ ability to learn” (p.23).
So given this, Where does the library fit in to the learning ecosystem in 21st century schools? I would argue that the library is the river, connecting disciplines, people, information, and ideas. We are the currents bringing the learning and “library” to more people b/c technology enables us to knock down “traditional library boundaries”. The walls of the library should no longer CONTAIN OUR VALUE!!!!
I wanted to share some examples of how we’re bringing the library and learning to others – they are boundary-less! This work goes along with the idea we live in an increasingly "designed world," and if we want the design to be responsive to our STUDENTS’ needs, we must be designers too. (FROM EDUCASE)
Lib Guides example : the American Dream
LibGuides Community site : FREE!
Colleen and the library team wanted to be part of learning process and contribute at this important juncture – not just at the end.
High Tech High. E-Portfolios. Metacognition. Freshmen theology and english. Library and IT team leading the way.
Work with IT team to make this happen.
IT coordinates camp logistics. Library creates tech camp curriculum.
Supporting students by giving them a more authentic audience.
LIVEstream – IT sets up livestreams when we schedule them. BACKCHAT – enhancing learning process!!!
Mock trial senate hearing about civil rights movement
We are casting a wide net – both in tech resources we push but in learning opportunities we develop. librarians have skills to personalize and customize learning according to student needs through the incredible amount of online resources and tools available. As Brown & Duguid (Do-Guid) note, (The Social Life of Information, Harvard Business School Press, 2000) “it is simplistic thinking to assume that value (and knowledge) resides solely in content; learning science tells us that knowledge arises out of a process in which the learner engages and that this process is personal, social, situated, and active and takes place in community of learners and practitioners.”
Although now it goes without saying, we are no longer temple of the book.
These are the game changers. Each one of these devices is a learning space for its user. With each device, a student has the ability to work silently and reflect, gather information, work in collaboration, or publish.
And thus we need to reconceptualize the school library’s space. We need to think about our space like we do the learning devices I mentioned but on a larger scale. And the library, in essence, acts as a giant mirror to these devices. It IS a giant learning space for students. Each student should have the opportunity to work silently and reflect, or gather information, or work in collaboration, or publish. I like this definition of a learning commons: A Learning Commons is a dynamic, collaborative environment on campus, often physically in the library, that provides assistance to students with information and research needs. It combines individual and group study space, in-depth reference service, and instruction from a variety of sources, including librarians and information technology staff. Its key concerns are learning, writing, technology use, and research. Its main purpose is to make student learning easier and more successful. (FROM York University) This image is from Santa Clara University’s Learning Commons which was recently built and the name changed from library to learning commons. It lives up to this definition!Santa Clara’s NAME OF BUILDING: Learning Commons, Technology Center and Library. Opened in 2008!!!
Libraries are no longer archives of recorded information. Librarians must be active participants, contributing directly to the school’s strategic objectives. AND, I thought it would be appropriate to close with this quote because it is opportunities like this symposium where the information and knowledge shared and learned enables us to be able to refocus our vision for how we can best contribute to meet the NEW needs of our students.Full quote: People have to see you as a solution they need. No amount of awareness or promotion is going to make you relevant. Your vision for how the library can contribute to the institutional mission is what makes you relevant.
It’s an honor to be here with you today. My presentation is linked from the symposium’s website. Thank you.