Miles's Library - Part Two
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 06:00AM 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 second 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 Two
8:45 AM
“Hey, Juan. Hey, Liz,” Miles says with a wave as he plops down on one of the sofas occupied by his learning team. “Any word from Carlotta?”
“She’s having an emergency with some stuff at home and will be audio conferencing with us,” Juan reports. “Sounds like the emergency is a bad hair day.” And with that, Carlotta’s voice says, “I heard that. And just for your information, I never have a bad hair day! But I do have a little sister with the sniffles.”
“OK, OK, I’ve got lots to do today,” Liz chides. “I think at the last meeting we decided that our project was going to be looking at creating self-reporting devices for the green plants here in the library powered by the small voltage they themselves actually produce. Are we still agreed?” Heads nod. (85% of all energy needed to power the school is generated by projects designed by the students themselves over the past 15 years.)
“So, Miles, what did your search on similar projects turn up?”
“Yeah, your creepy Marian avatar dig anything up?” asked Juan. “Do you still have her affection module running so she calls you sweetie, sweetie?”
“She’s not creepy, just 20th century,” Miles replied. “She looks and sounds just like Shirley Jones’s character Marian in The Music Man. If you weren’t such a cultural Neanderthal, you’d appreciate the reference. As for her obvious and well-placed fondness for me, I’d say you’re just jealous.”
Carlotta laughed, saying, “Miles and Juan, if you weren’t such good friends, I’d say you couldn’t get along.”
Miles is the acknowledged expert at data acquisition in the group. Liz’s strength is in leadership, organization and historical knowledge; Juan’s visual communication and math skills are outstanding; and Carlotta’s interpersonal abilities keep the team moving and working well together – plus she is the acknowledged science whiz of the team. Miles considers each of these fellow students an integral part of his Personal Learning Network.
Miles himself does not conduct data searches – he programs bots that search for him. Ever since helping his older brother Paul create and modify creatures in the primitive simulation game Spore as a pre-schooler and later learning how to design custom Google Search engines in elementary school, Miles has been devising ever more sophisticated programs that help him meet his information needs. The librarians have been instrumental in helping Miles develop these skills, and several thousand other students – and adults - use some of the search bots Miles has created. Lately, he has been giving the bots physical form as avatars and personalities using code from a new bank of 20th century entertainer models.
“Marian found about 750 gig of materials related to using plants’ own electrical production properties to power sensors. I asked her to condense and audio-synth this data to five, ten and 15 minute summaries. I’ve sent the audio files of the three top reports to you. In my view, this project is increasingly doable…”
Encouraged by Miles’s findings, the group discusses next steps, creates a timeline, and debates the format of the final report on the project. Their next meeting on the coming Friday will be virtual using the library’s video portal.
To be continued...
