Thing #15

I read all five of the articles from the OCLC link. The first few were the most relevant to me, I think. They related to how libraries need to change their thinking and what a librarian in the 2.0 world needs to be like. I agree with the three icebergs that Rick Anderson talked about. As a librarian and lover of books, moving away from the "just in case" collection can be hard. When I know a book and know that it is good, it is hard not to want to have it in the collection to offer my patrons just in case they need something I think is fabulous. The idea that user education has to change challenged me as a middle school librarian. The idea that our services need to be very easy to use or change and the idea that we need to eliminate the barriers between patrons and the information they need is a change of thinking for me. These ideas change my thinking in how I need to approach teaching information skills to my students. One challenge I find is that they are not in the same place in terms of their skill levels and access to technology tools on their own. This makes it difficult to find a good place to 'start' in group instruction.

Michael Stephens gave me lots of ideas for what a librarian in the 2.0 environment should be for her patrons. After reflecting on them, I think he is right. But I feel hindered by the filters in place in the school district. Many districts today seem to operate from a defensive point of view, suspicious of what is in the web and protecting students from what may be bad. This limits drastically what I am able to do to reach my students who are living in a 2.0 world. I also feel constrained by the generation of educators who are just learning about 2.0 tools and the 2.0 world and aren't proficient in it. The video posted on the Thing #15 page was very thought provoking in terms of the two generations education is dealing with: the older generation who isn't educated and proficient in the 2.0 world and the younger generation that is immersed in it daily. There seems to be a tug of war between these two groups and I am afraid of the outcome. If we as the older generation do not become educated in the 2.0 world and adapt the way we educate the younger generation to fit their 2.0 world, we are in great danger of becoming irrelevant.

After reading these articles, especially the first two, I am inspired to change but I am concerned that I may be one of the few and not the many. I am concerned that enough people aren't informed enough about the need to change and adapt in order to reach our students and patrons.