Big news of 2014: Libraries reinvented?

The educational press and social networking world have been kind to school libraries recently. Among the positive stories ...

• eSchool News highlights some of the 10 most significant ed-tech developments of 2014, and school libraries are No. 1
• School Libraries Matter: The Changing Role of the School Librarian
• Sense and Sensibility: Why librarians remain essential to our schools.

Wow - in about one week, three powerful affirmations of school libraries. Is this an omen for 2015? Have educators outside the library profession begun to recognize the value of school libraries? Will this lead to a renaissance for the profession? Am I on some kind of drugs to suggest these things?

Here is what I think may be happening. School leaders are facing some serious problems and looking to progressive library programs to help them solve them. Here are some needs going unmet which library resources, library facilities, and librarians can, willingly or not-so-willingly, meet:

• Space needs for interventionists, ELL teachers, social workers, and computer labs. We may all become learning commons whether we want to or not.
• Schools are seeing the value of productivity labs and makerspaces that all students, not just those registered for tech ed classes can access. Where to place these but in the library where both equipment and expertise reside?
• Resources are needed for differentiated/individualized/personalized instruction. The library's collections - print and non-print - may be the single best go-to place for finding materials on a variety of reading levels and on a variety of topics of interest. As much as publishers would like to see every classroom its own collection of texts, the cost will prove to be prohibitive in the long run.
• Schools need specialists in selecting and maintaining e-resources. Yes, ebooks, databases, and electronic reading programs do require maintenance, including logons, cataloging, links to school websites, and trouble-shooting. Who is the building-level guru of your CMS?
• Buildings need in-house specialists doing embedded PD if technology is to be used to actually change how education is done. When the librarian is tasked with this role, schools get a two-fer - a tech specialist and a reading specialist. Assuming, of course, the selection is made carefully.

So maybe the time is ripe for the school library to rise from the ashes. Be warned - this phoenix will not be the same-old, same-old bird of the past, but a new creation, technology-infused, best practices-drive, with a new kind of librarian in the lead.

Personally, I am both excited and optimistic. Even without the drugs.

See also: Libraries re-invented from Australia -  http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/2015/01/13/libraries-reinvented-no-1-of-the-top-10-list/#.VLcDiorF_0o

How many times did you check your phone today?

 

http://kindofnormal.com/wumo/2014/10/10

In New Year's Resolution: 3 Ways to Cut Back on Digital Distractions, Dave Eisenmann writes:  "... one of my resolutions for 2015 is to cut back on digital distractions" and he linked to "Trying to Live in the Moment and Not on My iPhone" by Jenna Wortham and to Seth Fiegerman's "You've been on Your Phone for 160 Minutes Today" which suggest using apps like Moment and Checky to track one's personal iPhone use.

Dave reflects:

The totals that I'm confronted with from these apps have also caused me to think about what I didn't do because I was looking at a screen. Time spent talking with others, being with my family, looking up, listening, being outside...  all things I used to do more of before having constant access to a screen and the Internet. I'm glad I finally took the time to install both of these apps, and encourage you to do so, too.

I put Checky on my phone. Saturday, as the screen shows, I checked it 15 times.

So is 15 times obsessive, restrained, normal, abnormal? Does the number of times one accesses one's phone actually mean much?

I know that most of the times I checked my "phone" it had nothing to do with telephony (ironically my least used use of my phone), e-mail, text messaging, or other forms of communication.

I used it to check my location on a long walk in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I checked it to see when a movie would be showing. I read the book I was working on for awhile. I took pictures of my grandchildren. I used it to record a workout. I used it as my watch simply to check the time.

Yes, I checked my e-mail a couple times and I looked at my social networking sites. But did I disengage from others around me because the virtual world was more interesting than a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old opening Christmas gifts? I don't think so.

For as long as I can remember, I've carried a book with me. When eating alone, when waiting for someone or something, or simply when I am tired, I read. Should I instead be thinking deep thoughts, be solving the world's problems, be attuned to the world happening around me?  Hmmmmm?

Dave, I would suggest that it's not how much you use your phone, but what you use it for - and when. Yes, stay engaged with the world. Don't be looking at a screen when you should be looking at your children who will be grown and out of the house in about the next 30 seconds. (See cartoon above.)

You are a good and thoughtful person and it will take more than a piece of silicon to change that.

Happy new year!

I shipped in 2014 - you can too

Doesn't matter whether it was a hit or not, it just matters that you shipped it. Shipping something that scares you ... is the entire point.. from What did you ship in 2010? by Seth Godin

"What did you ship?" is a great question for all of us to ask ourselves. What, beyond just doing one's job, did you accomplish (not try to do, not intend to do, not think about doing, not hope to get done, not plan to do - but actually DO) in 2014? What did you do that was a little bit scary? That you might have drawn criticism for? That may changed the world just a little bit?

Considering what one "shipped" is a good thing to do every year as it closes (or as a new year begins).  So here's my 2014 shipping list, as best I can recall:

1. Gave presentations and workshops for the West Chicago Community High School, Broome-Tioga BOCES, GaETC in Atlanta, Tennessee Association of School Librarians, South Dakota Library Association, and WISCNet in Madison, WI. I spoke at our state conferences ITEM (MEMO) and TIES. I was guest speaker for the classes at St Thomas and St Katherines. I participated one of the TLChat Live sessions with fellow ITEM members. (I somehow whacked my calendar events from January to August, so this list may be missing some things.)

2. Presented internationally at the Learning 2.014 Conference in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia and the 21stCenturyLearning Conference in Hong Kong. I did a program evaluation for the Anglo-American School of St Petersburg.

3. Turned in the manuscript for my new 40,000 word book Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner. for Corwin Press. To be released this spring or early summer.

4. Published these articles:  

Why Do I Still Need a Library When I Have One in My Pocket?: The Teacher-Librarian’s Role in 1:1/BYOD Learning Environments. (with Jennifer LaGarde), Teacher-Librarian, June 2014

Library Facilities for Schools Where Every Student Has a Device (with Jennifer LaGarde), Informed Librarian Online, April 2014.

Build an awesome class website with GoogleApps (with Marti Sievek) Explore online magazine of ISTE, July 23, 2014.

5. Published these columns:

Head for the Edge in Library Media Connection:

• School Libraries - a Student Right, January/February 2014
• Collaboration at a Higher Level, March/April 2014
• Easy Changes for a More Student-Friendly Facility, May/June 2014
•  It’s Personal, August/September 2014
• Libraries in the Age of Plenty, October 2014
• The Librarian as Technology Integration Specialist, November/December 2014

Power Up! in ASCD's Educational Leadership

• Teaching Above the Line  Dec 2013/January 2014
• Why Facebook Belongs in Your School  February 2014
• Open Educational Resources: On the Web, and Free March 2014
• The Illusion of Creativity April, 2014
• 10 Questions about 1:1 May. 2014
• Using Technology for Transparency September 2014
• Who Owns That Course? October, 2014
• A Letter to Parents Shopping for Technology November, 2014
• The Responsive Staff Meeting December, 2014/January 2015

6. Published 204 blog entries.

7. Servedas co-chair of the state library tech association legislative board and IF liaison, as the school library representative on the regional library board, and a member of a state digital learning advisory committee. I joined MASA - the Minnesota Association of School Administrators and participated in their meetings.

8. Spend a week-long road trip with the LWW and two oldest grandsons on a great trip to St. Louis. Bicycled for 5 days along the 250 mile long KATY Trail with my son-in-law.

9. Walked 3-4 miles a day, 5 times a week; worked weights at the Y twice a week; and still gained a few pounds! Camped out for a third year in a row with my grandsons at the Boy Scout's Camp Klaussen. Read a lot of books - mostly for pleasure, but plenty on creativity as well.

10. Got a new job. Put the house up for sale.

Writing and speaking and most of this stuff is more fun than work. My home (usually) contains no small children or other dependents to care for. I don't play golf, fish, or square dance. Television bores me. My Saturday and Sunday mornings and many an evening are spent writing and designing presentations and workshops. I have, through plain dumb-luck: good health, a supportive wife, an interesting job with great co-workers, and lots of opportunities work toward the betterment of education. At least that's what I hope I'm doing.

I measure my days not whether they were happy or unhappy, but whether they were productive or unproductive. Did I have a fruitful conversation or meeting? Did I get something finished? Did I write something worth sharing? Did I read something challenging? Did I do an hour's worth of physical activity? Did I clean up a mess, revise an article, or organize something for the future? Did I do something that made my own life or someone else's just a tad better?

All of us need to "ship" - do more than is necessary beyond our jobs and professions (especially librarians and tech integration specialists), at home (as spouses/partners/parents/grandparents), and for ourselves (exercise, healthy eating, recreation, and the occasional reward). We should strive to do the maximum in our lives, not the minimum. Wear out, don't rust out. I am by nature a lazy person of middling intellect - so if I can ship, you can ship.

What did you ship in 2014 and what will you ship in 2015?