Kids Will Find a Way

Those of us working in schools and school libraries are always monitoring what's going on in media and communications. We do this because we want to help young people find and use the tools they need, but we also want to shield them from harm and time-wasting distractions. We librarians are usually on the side of freedom and possibilities, while school personnel naturally are concerned about safety as a first necessity. This puts us school librarians right smack in the middle. I think we need a lot more public discussion of this and other issues, through our blogs and other media we use to communicate. Previously I've listed a few of the leading blogs relating to new technologies in libraries and schools. Then there's me, and you. Not at all famous or widely read. So far I haven't found a groundswell of discussion among our rank and file. Yes, we're busy -- but we need to talk more.

Especially those of us in school libraries, often isolated within our schools. We need to use these tools to keep up our discussions and encourage one another to continue the discussions into our schools, with faculty and administrators.

Here's today's word from the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02net.html?ref=business, confirming what we already know: that whenever we adults jump in and try to take over, or promote safe use of popular media, the young will migrate to other places. Someone's always out there, making new hideouts, new amusement parks, secret playgrounds, away from the eyes of the grownups. (And of course in the media world, it's offten other grownups who, for profit or principle, are providing these playgrounds.)

The title of this article, on the front page of the business section, is "Using Web Cams but Few Inhibitions, the Young Turn to Risky Social Sites."

There's not an easy answer for us. Many schools just block all access to anything that might be (and often is!) objectionable. Web filters abound, and many schools swear by them. But are we just shutting our eyes and pretending this is the answer? If we really want our schools to prepare young people for the world of today and tomorrow, are we right to ignore these parts of their lives? What do you do in your school? What would you like to do? Let's talk.

Open World Cat

Check out this service, which individuals can use for free to find books in libraries in your town and region: http://www.worldcat.org/ This comes from OCLC, and libraries that want to download records or ADD their records must do so on a fee basis. But open access to seeing what's in near by collections is free. And you can use it, I hear, to look at catalog records from any participating libraries, if you need some data. Link to this on your webpages.

Cat is Tater, of Asheville, NC. He can't help you with your books or catalog records, but he enjoys sitting on a book now and then, when he can't find a box.

Swimming in a Sea of Possibilities

It's been nearly a month since I posted here and sent the link out, and I apologize to anyone who came here looking for inspiration. The truth is that I'm in that stage of research where you're delving into all sorts of wonderful material but haven't wrestled it into shape. I've decided to prepare a slide presentation for our faculty giving an overview of some of the new technological tools we should be using with our students. The current TIME magazine cover story is my springboard. I emailed a mention of it, with the image, to the faculty yesterday, suggesting that we all read it. Our head asked for a photyocopy of the article, and I know he's interested in bringing our curriculum and teaching into the 21st century. So my next task is to summarize some of what I've been reading and prepare an overview for the school. Call it Internet 2.0, or Library 2.0 if you're talking among librarians, or School 2.0 -- it's all the same conversation.

Here are a few of the best sites/blogs I've discovered so far. In some cases, the writers have a larger site and then a blog within the site. Here are some blog titles and where you can find them:

2 Cents Worth http://davidwarlick.com

Blue Skunk Blog http://doug.johnson.squarespace.com

Infinte Thinking Machine http://www.infinitethinking.org

Joyce Valenza's Never Ending Search http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org

Stephen's Lighthouse http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com

and one more site,

Webblog-ed http://www.webblog-ed.com

I'm using Google Reader for my blog subscriptions and am replacing less useful ones with better ones as I find them. So these are some great places to start exploring. But you'll get to the point, as I have, where your head is swimming and you need to sit back and decide on a starting point for local action

Library 2.0, or no?

It's time to start thinking aloud on this blog and to share in dialogue with other librarians who are thinking about the future. So -- for some weeks now I've been reading blogs and articles about Internet 2.0 and Library 2.0 and thinking of all the cool things we could be doing here -- blogs, wikis, podcasts, and all those things. And tonight I'm brought down by Christopher Harris's piece in the current SLJ, p. 24, in which he says that we can't actually break loose in our schools and public libraries and let kids use these tools without a lot of moderation. Obviously, there's a difference between high school kids and younger ones, but my first reaction to Harris's piece is dismay and discouragement. There's too much going on tonight here in study hall for me to give this any more thought now, but I'm just putting it out for a start.

Dunstan Too

Dunstan Too

The music master, an educated, intelligent and thoughtful man, says he was asked only one question in the planning of the new chapel.  That was, “How many seats did I need?”  Otherwise, the planning was “outsourced,” he says, and before he could beat out 32 bars  the plans appeared on paper.  And now the chapel is nearly built.

For months now, from fall, through the winter, and into the spring a large crew of men has been working daily to enlarge and rebuild the century-old chapel.  Now in the last days before graduation there is suddenly a fleet of white trucks, bearing different insignia, converged along the roads.  A furniture van was unloading large boxes today, presumably the seats for Sunday.  Tomorrow at 5 there’s to be a bell rung, inviting people to gather briefly in the chapel for some minutes of appreciation and looking around.  The school community, at least those there at 5:00  will be able to meet and greet the workers, and vice versa.

This brings me to thoughts of the next big project, or vision, the big and impressive academic center, which will house a variety of vaguely hinted at functions.  I will attempt to articulate what I see as desirable, but talking with the m.m. today does not encourage me to think that I’ll be listened to.  Certainly a preemptive strike is called for.  After that, well, that’s existential.