Edging toward the FWLC

From American Libraries, September 2006, "Straight Answers from George Cigale," p. 23:

Explain the "Ask a Librarian" service. Ask a Librarian (AAL) is similar to our Live Homework Help tutoring service, but instead of connecting students with an algebra or chemistry tutor, the library user is connecting with a reference librarian for live, one-to-one help. Librarians do reference interviews and help people find the information and answers they seek at the moment they need help.

What does this service offer that a library does not? We sell AAL software to libraries that want to have their own librarians provide the live help, and we have "Librarians by Request" that our clients can use to extend (replace?- DJ) their reference services 24/7 or provide backup help. With Google and other self-service options available to library users, AAL allows librarians to position themselves as the information experts they are in the eyes of tech-savvy people. 

I told you so.

Zero-sum budgets and technology

I was asked to write a guest editorial for i.e. interactive educator, a publication put out by Smart Technology. The theme of the coming Winter issue is budgets (everyone's favorite topic), so I stuck with that subject for my editorial. I revisited some work I had done on library budgets and was struck by the concept of zero-sum once again and how its implications are for technology as well as libraries.

I'm not sure they'll like what I have to say. Here is how it starts:

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Zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). Wikipedia

David Lewis’s pithy article, “Eight Truths for Middle Managers in Lean Times” (Library Journal, Sept. 1991) had a major impact on the way I approach budgeting for technology. His first “Truth” is as applicable now as then: “It is a zero sum game.” About public library budgets, he explains: “There is no more money...The important truth is that those who provide the cash...will not give the library any more. They can’t because they don’t have it.”

Schools, too, seem to have reached a level of funding that is unlikely to substantially increase (if not decrease) given today’s anti-tax climate. School boards and administrators may sincerely want to provide more for technology, but “they don’t have it.”

Does this mean no additional funds for your technology program? Not necessarily. Mr. Lewis suggests a way that middle managers (like technology coordinators) can get more money for their programs: “You can take it away from somebody else. If you believe in what you are doing, you have an obligation to try this.”

Fighting for an adequate budget isn’t much fun. Want to make an enemy? Threaten the funding of a program that is owned by another educator. How many teachers when looking at a lab of shiny new computers think, “Is THIS how the funds to reduce class size were spent?”

... 

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Maybe a good technology director I need to be either more faith-driven or have less conscience. I honestly shudder when I hear of some of the dumb ass ways school funding is spent on technology and try to minimize such expenditures here in our district. (E-rate waste seems particularly egregious.) I am quite sure that makes me a grinch, a fuddy-duddy, and (to tech vendors) a traitor to the cause.

But one of the thoughts that likes to come visit at 3AM now and then is... "What other things could our district buy, with which it is now buying technology?"

A last quote from Mr. Lewis, something to think about when you have a few quiet moments: “It is unacceptable for others in your organization to misuse resources that could be better put to use by you.”

I suppose... 

Sink or swim: a reaction to Joyce's meme

Last month, my very smart friend Joyce Valenza explored in her blog how libraries and librarianship have changed since she graduated from library school in 1976 (when she was only 6 years old). She did a whiz-bang job that it would tough to improve upon. It's a lovely, comprehensive chart. Be sure to read it.

 

I've been thinking about her "meme" off and on since then. And I'd like to approach "library change" from a slightly different frame, if you will.  What are some ways society in general has changed over the past few years and what have those larger movements meant for school libraries? OK, so the list won't be comprehensive, but I'm going to pick what I see are the most important (or maybe most obvious) things that have directly impacted school libraries. And while my blogging software allows me to insert these annoying things , it doesn't do anything so useful as create tables. Forgive the formatting.

1. Big change: Networked, ubiquitous information technology. Cacophony of voices and opinions, unedited and equally accessible. Move from the information desert to the information jungle. The read-write world of blogs and wikis.

Impact on schools and school libraries: Questions about value and need for traditional print resources and  for physical libraries (really any sort of library). Who needs libraries when you have the Internet? Who needs librarians when you have Google?

How we need to react/change. We must be the info tech gurus now more than ever. Teaching evaluation and use is more important than teaching location and access. We need establish other purposes for our physical spaces than holding print materials for passive access.

2. Big change: Tech-savvy kids who have grown up with IT. Kids for whom visual and auditory information is preferred. Kids who are always connected; want immediate responses; function well in virtual environments. Kids who need stimulation and relevance.

Impact on schools and  school libraries:  More demanding students than in the past. School may be less relevant as more learning goes on outside school. More alternatives for attention, for learning opportunities.

How we need to react/change: Provide resources in formats students will use and benefit from. Make libraries social/group work spaces. Acknowledge information in formats other than print has value. Be virtually available.

3. Big change: Political conservatism. Movement from valuing  "social good" to "individual responsibility/choice."  No new taxes. Stronger right-wing religious voices and political strength.

Impact on schools and school libraries: Tight budgets. School choice via charters, vouchers, open enrollment, etc. Schools must be "marketable." De-professionalizing library positions to save money. Libraries compete with other school needs for funding. Greater censorship challenges for both print and nonprint materials.

How we need to react/change: Promote good library/tech programs as part of school marketing package. Imperative to communicate with parents and community value of libraries. Budgets must be tied to building objectives. Greater need for enforced state standards??? Must strengthen our role as intellectual freedom fighters on multiple fronts.

4. Big change: Global economic competition and automation. Fewer jobs and poor pay for those without post-secondary education.  Workforce with communication and sophisticated problem-solving skills vital for continued economic strength. Greater need for understanding of other cultural values.

Impact on schools and school libraries: Schooling now critical for all children, not just college-bound. NCLB misguided attempt to assure all students have skills. Life-long learning skills growing in importance. Differentiated instruction attempt to meet needs of all children.

How we need to react/change: Libraries need to meet the needs of all learners, not just college-prep. Role of libraries in providing learning opportunities for struggling students rising in importance which we must articulate to other school personnel. Need for librarians to serve on curriculum committees, site leadership teams, etc..

5. Big change: Greater demand for educational accountability from parents, businesses, communities, and government.

Impact on schools and  school libraries: State mandates come in the form of results (on tests), not means (library standards). Traditional practices being questioned in light of data-driven assessments of educational effectiveness.

How we need to react/change:  Immediate need to demonstrate ways to show library programs are having an impact on student achievement at the local level. Greater need to reporting of activities, results of surveys, etc. to decision-makers. Greater need to establish ourselves as primary teachers and assessors of required skills. 

We don't have to like any of these changes. But liking or not liking isn't the point. What we cannot afford to do a profession is to DENY societal changes, to not think about how must adjust to stay relevant, to stay employed, to be subversive when necessary.

 A quote of Joyce's bears repeating:

I see an urgent need for librarians to retool. We cannot expect to assume a leadership role in information technology and instruction, we cannot claim any credibility with students, faculty, or administrators if we do not recognize and thoughtfully exploit the paradigm shift of the past two years.

One of my college professors had on his door a little sign. It simply said, "Grow or die."

Exactly.

And the trends YOU see impacting libraries and how we must "grow?"