Things are looking up…

The idea of the High School Library holds quite a bit of excitement for me. As an aspiring soon(ish)-to-be-qualified Librarian, the challenge of engaging teenagers with reading is something to which I may reasonably look forward to, one day.

Source: flickr.com via Randy on Pinterest

 

 

Just think of it – those young minds taught to enquire effectively, to understand clearly about their world, and to dream big regarding how to change this world – hopefully, for the better.

That’s been the aim behind these entries this last couple of weeks. How to use even just a few of the multitudinous number of Web 2.0 tools, to improve the High School Library – into a place where not only is it seen to be a place of relevance, but that it might actually become the place of choice for teenagers seeking information. This would be much more preferable than their turning to just a simple google / Wikipedia search!

Using RSS feeds, explaining and teaching about copyright and Creative Commons, leveraging the hundreds of thousands of wikis for collaborative learning, going mobile (as in, connecting with patrons ‘on the go’ – where they are) and even using gaming as a valid tool, were all ideas explained in this High School Library series.

In my opinion, it’s just so important to capture the minds of the children – especially in a day and age where information is ubiquitous, and not all information is accurate or free from bias. If our children can be taught that google and Wikipedia do not hold all the answers, and that discernment of information is a valuable if not crucial skill to have, then our future as a whole society, looks better.

Would you agree?

Game on!

“The time has come for games to be reintegrated with education, ending a longstanding rift between work and play” writes Diana G. Oblinger in Educause Quarterly, 2006. A statement I agreed with (even though I had never read it) when attempting to teach the workings of Ancient Rome to my Year 7/8 SOSE class in 2007. Why learn boring facts and figures by rote from some well worn textbooks when it was much more fun to play ‘Caesar 3’ instead?! So we did, in spite of flack from certain members of the staff, Administration and parent bodies. But only until the results of the tests came back. Students performed significantly (and I mean SIGNIFICANTLY!!) better – probably due to their enthusiasm and engagement with the topic from an ‘immersed’ perspective. So, gaming in education works. Does this necessarily translate into the Library sphere though?

I guess the question needs more detail. What sort of Library is being referred to – School? Academic? Public? Special? Context will play a big role in determining the answer. It’s my opinion that gaming is more important for Libraries which teenagers could access – the School Library and the Public Library, rather than the Academic or Special.

Meredith Farkas, back in 2007, made a convincing argument: “Within a decade, most of today’s teens will be tax-paying citizens with a say in the future of their libraries. If their experiences as teens lead them to view libraries as irrelevant and obsolete, they may not see them later as a valuable service to spend their tax dollars on… Gaming may be the way to lure them back to libraries” (2007, 211 / 222) Indeed, if her conclusion, “Gaming nights offer teens an activity unlikely to be found elsewhere in the Community” (2007, 231) is true, then it would seem that Gaming in the Library sphere is not just ‘workable’ but also necessary for future survival – of Public Libraries, at least.

Unfortunately, reaching that conclusion and owning that opinion is not the final goal. Gaming in Libraries is a polarising topic, so it’s wise to be prepared to fight for what you believe in. Just like in my SOSE program, there will be flack. There will be nay-sayers. There may even be fearmongerers. So if you believe that Gaming in the Library is worth it? Then treat it as such. Have a ‘Game on!’ attitude to those nay-sayers; work hard to ensure the Gaming Program is a success, then let the results speak for themselves!

Image courtesy Blake Paterson athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/2379756675/in/pool-1017777@N20/

“Expand the walls of the Library”

I’ve written some posts recently about the how to make the High School Library more relevant. Re-reading them earlier this morning reminded me of a piece I wrote late in 2010 on the same topic, on my very first (and now inactive) blog. It’s amazing how much of it is still relevant! The blog entry is below…

Text a Librarian? I love this idea. “Expand the walls of the Library”. Especially seeing as the three High Schools I have regular contact with, are all in the process of building beautiful, large new Libraries thanks to PM Julia Gillard’s BER. I didn’t think of this phrase myself though, I nicked it from a promotional comment on Mosio’s Text a Librarian website. But I think it encapsulates the attitude that libraries – all libraries, without exception – need to adopt as we head into a mobile-intensive world. Technology is changing at a rapid pace, and those who want to hold onto the past will be left behind. Back in July, TechCrunch’s MG Siegler started a furore with his prediction that Apple’s new Magic Trackpad signalled the beginning of the end of the mouse. An interesting post, he also referred to the trend of tablets and smartphones replacing desktops. Which is why we, as up-and-coming Librarians, need to be thinking about, and planning for, our patrons and user groups who are already, or will be soon, wanting to use Library services from the convenience of their mobile devices.

The ‘Text a Librarian’ service, powered by Mosio, is one such tool, offering libraries the ability to ‘connect with more patrons on-the-go’. They state: “We manage mobile so you don’t have to” – a line which I’m sure many time-poor librarians would jump at, as the product they offer certainly sounds promising! Within the School Library context, systems such as LibCode already allow for borrowers to be emailed notification of overdue resources, but I wonder how much more effective text messages would be, considering the user group.  Even a number of years ago now,  teenagers saw email as ‘old school’ – just another reminder of quickly the tools are changing, and another strong argument for why we need to keep current awareness with the changing pace of technology!

So, no longer should the phrase ‘mobile libraries’ conjure up images of large  buses or trucks. Instead, we need to be in the same space as our users, offering them the services they need, where they need it. Let’s expand the walls of our libraries – right into the palms of our patrons’ hands.

CC Image “Text a Librarian Booth at ALA Midwinter” courtesy noelieo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/41993437@N00/3687133143/

My ‘crystal ball’ view of the School Library

I was trying to decide on a title for this post, but kept coming back to the idea of ‘Through the Looking Glass’; which, of course, had connotations of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis’ Carroll’s drug use, and all things ‘curiouser and curiouser’. Why? I hear you ask. Well – it’s that whole ‘what implications does X have for Y’ topic. The discuss ion surrounding the possibilities that lie in our future; specifically, the future of Libraries. Following on from yesterday’s “How to improve your Library’s reputation”, I started thinking about what else a School Library should probably be doing. And that’s when my thoughts turned to Creative Commons.

What’s this? I hear you ask. This is them – in their own words:

And again, in mine…

http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf

The copyright story on Prezi

So – my prediction? The School Library – in fact, all Libraries, and their respective Librarians – will be needed to show people how to use Creative Commons, and how to attribute properly. We all know that students plagiarise wily-nily from the internet – images, text, etc. Often teachers, too, when planning worksheets, happily copy and paste pictures off the internet without attributing. I am not suggesting though, that teachers are malicious in their intent! Just uninformed. As are the large majority of people in professions other than teaching, who do the exact same thing. Hence my prediction that Librarians will be needed to inform their users regarding how to attribute properly, so as to not infringe on the copyright of the creators of that content.

Of course, Libraries can also use the CC licensed content for their own use, in websites, promotional documents, and the like – just as they can create content, upload it to Flickr etc, and license this content within whichever category they feel is appropriate. However, I feel the main implication Creative Commons has for Libraries is to add one more thing to the role Librarians have to fill; that of teaching their users how to approach this whole issue of copyright. So there you go… my crystal ball view of CC and Libraries. What does your crystal ball show you?

CC Image courtesy PR at http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolorestifo/24926633/