Miles's Library - Part Four

I have been asked to write a chapter on "future libraries" for a book being put together by an Australian colleague. While I had meant to write a short scenario to introduce the chapter, the scenario took over.

Below is the fourth of several parts of what a school library might look like in 2025 - the approximate year my youngest grandson, Miles, will graduate from high school (assuming one still graduates at the traditonal age of 18 - a big assumption.)

The ideas here are a combination of extrapolation of current happenings, wishful thinking and maybe a little dread. Your comments are always welcome.

Miles’s Library: A Day in the Life, 2025 - Part Four

1:00PM

“I’m very pleased with the progress you’ve been making on your senior project, Miles,” said Dr. Li with a smile. “Explain to me again why you believe that your sims are showing signs of free will.”

“It’s their preferences, Dr. Li!” Miles reports, “Kurzweil, one of my oldest sims, is choosing blue clothing at a rate outside statistical probabilities. In fact, even though he has a choice of several dozen colored garments from which to choose each day, he almost always chooses blue. He also seems to not like anchovies on his pizza.”

“And you are sure this is not a programming bug?” asked Dr. Li.

“I’ve gone over the selection routines about 20 times and asked three others in my PLN to do independent audits of the code. Everyone agrees that Kurzweil should be making random choices.”

Dr. Li and Miles confer for nearly an hour, once bringing in Ms King, a Hong Kong librarian who specializes in science fiction in popular culture and its treatment of religious and moral dilemmas. She quickly produces a qualitative list of works in which self-aware technologies are featured.

“Here’s one last dimension you might want to consider,” suggests Dr. Li. “What might be the meaning of this discovery on how we as humans view ourselves? That we humans may be merely “sims” in a great cosmic programming plan?”

Miles checks to make sure his audio note-taker caught this question.

“Oh, before you go, I also want to check how the composition of your PLN is working for you. I understand that you did not accept my suggestion of dropping your grandfather's membership in favor of adding a second programming expert.”

Miles considered his PLN. The school requires that all students have a “formal” personal learning network of twelve members. (Like other students, Miles’s informal PLN has over one hundred members at any one time accessed by a variety of networking tools.) For their formal PLN, some students create expert groups from specialized fields of high interest; others form a group with as diverse a representation as possible. Librarians are a part of nearly every student’s PLN and they take this responsibility seriously.

“With all respect, Dr. Li, I did keep Grandpa Doug on my PLN rather than choose another expert. I recognize he knows little about my major areas of study and is hopelessly out of date on anything technology related, but because of his advanced age, he sometimes adds a sense of perspective that I don’t get from other students or experts,” Miles maintains. “He’s also good for a joke now and then.”

Dr. Li nods. “Perspective is valuable, I will admit. But I've seen his jokes - pathetic!”

Miles thanks Dr. Li, and asks his librarian avatar Marian to send his advisor’s last question out to his PLN for input, thankful his senior year and this project are nearly complete. Miles is looking forward to his first year as a North Dakota State University Bison. His older brother Paul, however, has warned him that his first year of college will tough since many professors still lecture, He advises making sure his PDA has a full battery charge for multitasking during the core courses.

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2:00PM

Miles uses the next hour putting the finishing touches on his report on Reinhold Niebuhr that’s due the next day. Luckily, Marian was able to schedule Miles a full hour of time in the 3-D rendering computer lab. This is one of the few individual projects for which Miles is responsible this term so he has chosen to examine his favorite 20^th century theologian’s influence on US government policy. After listening to and viewing over eighty hours of materials on the topic, Miles’s final project will be pseudo-discussion with Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Barak Obama, each discussing major Niebuhrian beliefs in relationship to their administration’s social policies.

Miles hopes that this project will be judged to merit inclusion in the school’s student research “virtual museum.” Miles older brother Paul holds the record number of pieces of student work in the museum with three projects. Miles’s goal is to get one more of his projects added this spring – giving him four. The permanent addition of student work to the museum is considered an honor.

Like his fellow students, Miles writes very little, choosing instead to convey his ideas and research using the more natural communication methods of sight and sound. Technology makes it simpler to create audio and video reports than written ones. When a teacher does require a written “paper,” Miles uses a speech-to-text conversion program to create his first draft and then edits that version. Most video and audio reports can be done using his personal computing device, but now and then Miles likes to explore more sophisticated modes of communication like the 3-D rendering software that requires a more powerful processing. The library’s labs supply equipment for this purpose. Miles and his fellow students can write very well; they simply choose to communicate in what they feel are more powerful ways.

At one point, Miles get stuck on highly complex task he asks of the rendering program. In answer to an online call, the support librarian pops up in a window in the lower right corner of the screen and  efficiently helps Miles over the rough spot. Visual literacy is considered as, if not more, important than textual literacy for Miles and his classmates in this post-literate work environment, educational system and society. Librarians view the communications portion of information fluency models as a critical part of their curriculum.

Satisfied at last, Miles stores his simulation in his digital warehouse along with all other work he has created since he was in elementary school.  He glances at the clock on his screen and decides that he has time to get home and do his MUVE conference with Dr. Shahada there.

To be continued and concluded...