Lit vs. Technology People

Although my current attendance at the monthly COLG (Canyon Owyhee Library Group) meetings is shameful and embarrassing, I am still reaping the rewards of our group’s resource sharing, profession development, and camaraderie.

A few years ago, while meeting at Vallivue High School Library, Marlene shared a copy of Library Media Connection (LMC) The Magazine for School Library Media and Technology Specialists and I have been a faithful subscriber every since. Thanks Marlene!

In the November/December 2008 article, The Other Shoe Redux, Doug Johnson clearly explains the great divide (schizophrenia) between teacher/librarians. We are split between the children’s/young adult lit people and the research skills/technology people. He explains that the lit people are in control and that our profession is more concerned with students’ access to Harry Potter books than to Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs and wikis.

Now, I am passionate about children’s/young adult literature but as a teacher/librarian it is secondary to my responsibility to teach ICT (Information and Communication Technology skills.)

I agree with Doug’s warning, “Until our profession sees its primary instruction focus as teaching information and technology literacy skills, we will lack both credibility and voice in technology implementation efforts.”

Teacher/librarians are the natural link between students, classroom teachers, and 21st century learning skills. This is the message we need to send to administrators throughout Idaho, but first we must follow Doug’s advice and “have some hard conversations about who we are, what we do, and how we do it.” Sounds like a great round table discussion for the next ILA (Idaho Library Association) annual conference.

Which type of teacher/librarian are you? Lit or technology?

LMC is also available online at Lili.org in Gale’s Academic OneFile database. Unfortunately, the online version is an issue behind the print copy.

School Libraries and 21st Century Skills!

If you haven’t read the October 2008 District Administration, find a copy and share the article, School Libraries Renewed with your school administrators.

As the 2008-2009 AASL President, Ann M. Martin knows how to pick her audience. She emphasizes that, “School library programs provide content to learning, synthesis of curriculum, and real-life applications of concepts. They can act as the great equalizer when it comes to educating all students and preparing them for 21st century, and they can offer all students resources and information that can support every facet of their life and learning.”

Ann M. Martin is also the educational specialist for library information services at Henrico County (Va.) Public Schools where they have produced the Today’s Library, video. The video begins in black and white in a school library very much like my school library of the 1970’s and transitions to color in a current 21st century school library. The video is available at www.henrico.k12.va.us/hcpstv/vv_library.html.

After emailing the link to my administrators, I was invited to share it with our school board at the monthly meeting. As teacher/librarians, we must take every opportunity to advocate for and move our school library media programs into the 21st century.

District Administration, the Magazine of School District Management, is available on www.liLI.org but the October 2008 issue isn’t available yet.

For more information, read Ann’s President’s Column in Knowledge Quest Volume 37, No.1 September/October 2008. www.ala.org/aasl