As I read several of those articles, I am often confused and nervous that I am not doing enough for my school. I find myself becoming somewhat defensive of my library program, contrary to the advice of Laura Cohen, A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto. As I read through many of the ideas in these articles, I do wonder how can I incorporate them into an Elementary library. I find myself thinking, it may not be possible and many of the most forward thinking ideas are geared for collegiate and public libraries.
In Rick Anderson's article, Away from the "icebergs", I am intrigued by his idea of the "just in case" collection. I immediately begin to think about the Reference section of my library. In the past we were told that you should keep several sets of Encyclopedias in your collection and that none should be more than a few years old. With the influx of online references there is no need to keep as many on the shelf. I do however feel it is important to keep one or two sets on the shelf so students can use them both in the library and in the classroom when necessary. We cannot completely abandon the idea of teaching our students how to find information in print format. Just last month I discarded several sets of outdated Encyclopedias and have decided to purchase my first new set in several years. This decision has come with much internal debate due to our declining budget and the use of online resources. But I do feel it is important so I will use other funding sources to purchase this new set. While I feel I am beginning to "jump" in to many of the web 2.0 ideas I still cannot completely get my feet out of the shallow end!
The other ideas in his article also I find difficult to absorb in elementary library setting, "Reliance on user education" and the "come to us model of library service". In a Title 1 setting I am not sure how many of my clients would really use a web based library program for their day to day needs. While I do feel there are some aspects I would like to incorporate and have already begun to plan with friends, I cannot believe that my users will stray too far from the books on the shelf at this time. I don't know what the future holds, but at this time I will continue to keep my eye on new trends and try and figure out how to incorporate as many ideas as I can.
The other article that I found intriguing was A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto. Many of her ideas have caused me to stop and think about not only other's perception of the library but my own. I must continue to go out and seek ways to involve my program and myself into the everyday classrooms in my building. It has been a very stressful two years in our district with TAKS and new program initiatives (CSI) that many teacher's are just trying to survive. I must continue to make the effort to alleviate the stress and help infuse the ideas of web 2.0 into our classrooms.
I look forward to this adventure and hope that I continue to be a leader on my campus in both mind and example. I hope I can help bring my fellow teachers along for the ride!
2 comments:
Great post! You're really getting into this...good for you!
If you are in the shallow end, so am I. But I will trust our leaders to guide us safely into the "deep waters" of technology and Library 2.0 and then help us stay afloat once we get there! And, it's always more fun to try things with friends!
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