Not So Distant Future

technology, libraries, and schools

Not So Distant Future

Highlight the best of library blogging

May 1st, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

salem pressDo you have some “go-to” library blogs?   The Salem Press Blog Awards 2011, started last year,  gives you an opportunity to give credit to those bloggers that you rely upon and value.  There’s still a little time to submit nominations–nominations can be submitted until May 13 by emailing ptobey@salempress.com with the link of the blog and a brief summary.

Once the judging is completed and finalists are selected, the list of blogs will be open to voting.  Another excellent thing about the Salem Press awards is that the judges are all librarians;  they’ve also increased the number of judges this year, including some of last year’s winners.

(Caveat: I’m honored to say that as a previous winner in the Salem Press Awards (2nd place School library category in 2010), I’ve been asked to be a judge this year, and am the only school librarian on the panel.  I want to see more school librarians on this list next year!)

For your nominations, categories this year include:

“Categories
The following are our expanded categories for 2011:

General: Blogs providing broad discussions of library topics and
trends

Academic: Blogs targeting academic librarians and academic
institutions

Public: Blogs addressing the challenges and triumphs of public
librarianship

School: Blogs covering topics relevant to school libraries and K-12
education

Local: Institution-specific blogs promoting the interests of a public,
academic, or school library

Commercial: Professional blogs written for profit, generally tied to a
trade publication

Newcomer: Blogs by next-gen librarians who have only recently
started blogging

Quirky: Character-driven blogs covering an array of library topics
that defy categorization”

When the awards are over, Salem Press posts a comprehensive list of all of the blogs nominated.  Last year’s school library list of nominees is an excellent starting point for discovering “star” library bloggers, or  to get ideas for nominations for this year.   (Last year’s final winners have to sit out a year before their nominations can be considered again).

Please contribute to the nominations and represent the diversity of school library blogs!

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Mapping School Library Cuts in Texas

April 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Web 2.0

Texas school libraries have been agonizingly hard hit in the budget crisis in Texas, losing staff across the state. A few days ago, I created this map to help chart some of the losses in Texas in the hopes of bringing attention to the overall impact on students in our state.

In 24 hours, over 55 districts had posted losses–losses of campus librarians, library clerks and assistants, and losses of district library positions; many more have been added to the list since then.
View A state without librarians in a larger map

We all know how vital librarians are to the instructional process in our schools–they work hand in hand with teachers, teach information literacy, connect students with literature, incorporate new technologies into the school’s curriculum, and much more. We know that the presence of school librarians significantly affect achievement scores. (see previous post)

Yet this map belies that, a fact that I shared in my recent testimony to the House education committee on HB 1505. (Blog post to come on that).

If you know of library cuts in your local area, please add them to the map, and help keep publicizing the story of how the state budget is impacting libraries specifically. Let’s help preserve those services for our students.

postscript:  another blog highlighting the map

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Training for the marathon

April 16th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Web 2.0

flickrmelissamaplesWhen you run a marathon (I don’t know this but so I’ve been told) there’s always the part of the race where you think you can’t finish, and want to stop.  But then someone cheers you on, or you get a second wind, and you know you can keep going.

This school year has seemed more like a sprint for many libraries–trying to salvage their programs in the midst of a state budget catastrophe.

Behind the scenes and in the hallways, this year’s Texas Library Association conference was filled with stories of libraries under siege.  In every informal conversation I had, I found myself speaking with a librarian who had either been laid off themselves or lost librarians in their district.   The verses were different, but the chorus remained the same–Texas school libraries, once the jewel of our state, are being decimated due to draconian state budget cuts coupled with poor decisions in some local school districts.

Some of the verses I heard:

  • districts cutting their district librarian position
  • a district cutting back from 21 librarians to 5; hiring NEW clerks to run the libraries
  • a district cutting from 21 librarians to 2 librarians; using pre-existing clerks to run libraries
  • a district cutting all library staff and closing ALL the libraries
  • stories of librarians supervising multiple schools, upwards of 5,000 students, visiting a school once a week, with nonexistent materials budgets, etc.

Story after story of programs that serve our students being decimated and of experienced, dedicated staff being cut.   Story after story that sadly demonstrate how often districts consider libraries warehouses for storing and retrieving books, rather than dynamic places of learning that support the schools’ missions.   And this in a state where the SAT scores are 45th in the nation and high school graduation rates are 43rd in the nation.(Texas On the Brink report)

It’s clear that we must continue telling the story of what libraries actually are–not warehouses of information, not silos of books, but part of the instructional learning community of our schools.

What We Know

mansfieldStudy after study conducted by Keith Curry Lance and many others confirms the importance of school libraries and librarians to student achievement and success.   A new publication from Mansfield University, School Library Research Summarized, effectively sums up the findings of over a decade’s worth of studies which have shown that students in schools with librarians perform significantly higher on achievement tests, have more success on research assignments, are better writers, and more.

According to the Mansfield summary, 22 different studies have found that:

The relationship between the presence of a full-time, certified librarian and student achievement on PSSA reading scores is significant at all three grade levels. (Pennsylvania 2000)

Elementary students in schools with certified SLMSs are more likely to have higher ELA achievement scores than those in schools with noncertified SLMSs. (New York 2010)

The presence of a school librarian was the single strongest predictor of reading enjoyment for both grades 3 and 6 students. (Ontario 2006)

Higher library staffing levels are linked to higher reading performance for elementary, middle, and high schools (increases of almost 13 percent, over eight percent, and more than seven percent, respectively).

At elementary and middle school levels, the positive relationship between better-staffed libraries and writing performance is even stronger (increases of more than 17 and 18 percent, respectively.) (Illinois 2005)

Proportional differences in the impact of school librarians on the lowest achievers indicates that school librarians at the elementary school level can play an important part in closing the achievement gap. (Colorado 2010)

When comparing school with and without librarians, the study indicates that the presence of a qualified school librarian can make a tremendous difference in reading achievement. This difference ranges from eight percent for high schools to 35 percent for elementary schools. for instance, schools with librarians have 35 percent more fourth graders who score proficient or above than schools without librarians. (Michigan 2003)

Schools without trained library staff tend to have lower achievement on the grades 3 and 6 reading tests (both in terms of average achievement and attaining level 3 or higher.) (Ontario 2006)

Somehow this information is not getting to (or being believed by?) the decision makers in our districts.   The Texas Library Association has led a powerful effort to train administrators with their Strong Libraries, Strong Scores institute  just for administrators, and this has had a positive impact on those who have attended. (Did you know you can invite your administrator to attend?)   But how do we reach out to other administrators around the state?

Some of the librarians I spoke with seemed resigned to the situation or didn’t seem to be feeling a sense of control or ability to educate their stakeholders, and it certainly is difficult to impact the budget cuts once they start happening.  It can also be very demoralizing to have to fight for the importance of a service so vital to students’ education and literacy.

Gearing Up

But it’s a fight we have to gear up for and to keep plugging away in.  We need to share our own work, as well as documents, videos, pamphlets from studies like Keith Curry Lance’s and Scholastic’s School Libraries Work and the Mansfield materials with our decisionmakers (even if our programs are being cut.)

Because it’s not just what happens this year, it’s how we fight our way back from this year.   Every one of us can be an advocate.  We can write letters to our legislator, share these materials, even AFTER this budget session is over.  We can invite a legislator, school board member, superintendent, principal, or other administrator into our library to see it in action. We can suggest they attend a library conference or meeting.  We can send materials like the above studies to our principals, superintendents and school board members.   We can turn this printed content into youtube videos that make the information easily accessible.   We can share this same information with teachers and parents in our districts.

The Power of Story
enchantment_kawasaki1In his book Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki speaks to creating an enchanting vision for those you are trying to persuade.  We can take out our paintbrushes and dream alongside our administrators of what our library could become and is capable of.     We can tell memorable stories of success with one student or one teacher or parent.   Similarly, in their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath emphasize the power of story to make an idea memorable.   How can we tell our story in a memorable way?  If you had two minutes to tell a story that epitomized your library’s services to children, what would you say?

Fighting an Epidemic

It is difficult when you are weary, feel downtrodden, feel demoralized and are tired of fighting forces that seem beyond your control to fight back.  Cuts are happening to educators of all kinds around the state.   But we have to remember, it’s not just our one school or our one library.  It’s an epidemic.

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg coined this the “broken window effect.”  When grafitti was allowed to stay on the walls of New York City buildings,  then that gave tacit permission for further vandalism and lack of care for the community.   When the city made a concerted effort to clean up the physical spaces of New York City,  crime rates went down and community involvement increased.

We’re observing the broken window effect in libraries.  When one district cuts their library, the neighboring districts are aware of it.   It creates a standard that everyone agrees is “acceptable.”  Likewise if large districts make efforts to save their librarians, it affects the decisions of other districts nearby.

If we don’t ALL fight back, we are giving tacit permission to not only our district to cut our positions, but to other districts in our state, and in other states.

It’s a marathon

It’s hard not to feel bitter when other programs aren’t having to fight for survival–but in this budget climate, we need to remember that many programs are in the same boat.  And districts are having to make tough choices.   The best thing we can do is be professional, bring the data to our district, show our value, invite others in, and continue to share the information even after we have had positions cut.

This isn’t just a sprint–it’s a marathon.  What we do this year may not fix this year, but it may affect more positive changes next year (as schools see the effects of not having librarians).  The data we share now may inspire positive changes in the future.   We have to continue to find ways to make our voices heard.

flickrwhatnot

Why?

Because it’s not really about our egos, our dismay that maybe our work isn’t considered meaningful by decisionmakers, etc.  It’s really about the students we serve.   What we are fighting for can’t be “our jobs.”  It’s got to be their future.  It’s got to be about our students and the marathons they face.

flickr credits:

Pushing It

sweeties

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What are YOU sacrificing for our children?

March 30th, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

During this budget crisis in Texas, there’s been much talk, including from the Governor, of how school districts are to blame, and plenty of implications that teachers and administrators are living high off the hog and not doing their fair share in this budget environment.

So I asked colleagues around the state to share just some of the cost-cutting measures their districts are taking to save money, to show how districts are scraping the barrel trying to save funds.

But what I want to know is this–are our legislatures, state agencies,  and businesses going to the same penny-pinching lengths?   Are they working in the dark, shutting out all hallway lights, unplugging every computer in their buildings every weekend, printing on the backside of paper, being issued one ink cartridge a year, driving state vehicles with advertising on them, being prevented from traveling more than 50 miles from their offices, etc?

Yet it is okay to ask the schools serving our MOST important state client–our state’s children–to do this?    And is it okay for our children to see that this is how we are treating schools?  That their state doesn’t value them enough for them to even be able to keep the lights on or have books in their libraries or computers in their schools?

Legislators need to hear that districts ARE cutting costs and hear stories like these that I collected from all over the state of districts who were finding ways to trim costs by:

  • saving paper
  • reducing energy costs(including working in the dark, turning out all hallway lights, disallowing personal refrigerators or space heaters, monitoring a.c. and heating costs, etc.)
  • cutting summer school
  • teachers receiving one ink cartridge per year and limited paper; after that, it’s out of their own pocket
  • cutting back travel for junior varsity teams to only short range travel
  • increased class sizes, increased student:teacher ratios
  • teachers performing extra duties for less pay or teaching additional classes for same amount of pay
  • teachers paying more of health care costs
  • discontinuing mental health services at some facilities
  • unplugging every device in the building during longer breaks including computers
  • installing solar panels via a grant
  • not replacing school buses as often
  • allowing advertising on school buses or buildings
  • printing on the back sides of already used paper to reduce paper costs
  • discontinue reading programs
  • reduce or eliminate library budgets
  • eliminate computer purchases
  • allowing building rentals
  • reduce or disallow field trips
  • holding 2 “paperless days” per year
  • salary freezes; eliminating stipends for extra duties
  • purchasing new items for libraries by book fairs, selling hot chocolate

And many more items as well.  Not that I agree that some of these cuts are wise or good for students, but seeing them are why it makes me extremely angry when I hear legislators or lobbyists implying that teachers and schools are wasting money.     And as you can see some of the items– like cutting libraries, computers, class sizes, etc. –directly affect student learning, as do the many draconian staffing cuts across the state–staffing cuts made because the cost cutting efforts above cannot make up the budget difference alone.

And by posting this list, I’m not trying to ridicule the efforts of these districts–far from it.  I admire and applaud(as every legislator should) their persistence(and creativity) in trying to cut costs wherever they can, and preserve at least some teaching and instructional positions like librarians and technologists for their students.

But I have to ask again,  is our legislature going to these lengths themselves?  Are taxpayers?  Are state agencies?

We, as parents and adults are supposed to sacrifice for our children’s wellbeing–to always want them to have more than we had, to lift them up, to provide them with a good education and good health care.

I applaud districts who are doing everything they can to keep services for children intact, but I have to ask the Texas legislature and taxpayers–What are YOU sacrificing for our state’s children?

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Libraries in a democratic society

March 25th, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

Every morning a number of scenarios for letters to the editor or to the state legislators run through my head on the way to work, hoping to explain, convince, chide, persuade, and inform about the woes facing Texas schools and the impact on our students and on the profession of teaching as a whole.

In researching where some of the negative messaging is coming from, I’ve been disheartened to realize that much of it has been fomented behind the scenes by powerful political organizations like Americans for Prosperity, but unfortunately rather than seeking out information for themselves, too many of  our legislatures are taking in their figures and talking points hook, line, and sinker.

Which brings me to a point about one thing our schools need to be doing better (since obviously the legislators are products of our public schools in this state–albeit decades ago).   And that is teaching a strong array of information literacy skills, particularly in relation to the internet, but also in relation to evaluating the sources of information received.  But part of information literacy is also teaching us to think for ourselves–to research, gather evidence on both sides, and form an opinion, make a recommendation, etc.

According to Wikipedia(and one of the more interesting definitions I have found),

“Jeremy Shapiro & Shelley Hughes (1996) define information literacy as ‘A new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure and its social, cultural, and philosophical context and impact.’”

It seems that the apparent lack of desire or ability for many (not all) legislators to “critically reflect” on the “nature of the information itself” has become a real problem in our political climate.

One thing we have recently been working with  students on during their sophomore research project on emerging technologies/privacy issues  is how to look for the bias inherent in any foundation/organizational website, to search the “about” page, and to consider what point of view that foundation’s work might has that might permeate through the website.   We teach them to Google authors of blogs or websites when they are uncertain of their credibility or point of view.   We engage them in an exercise where they have to practice these discerning steps themselves by asking them to annotate their sources for their paper with a summary and a discussion of any possible bias.   While this whole assignment is certainly just a beginning, it is an effort to develop more critical thinking.

Why is this important, and why is this sort of instruction in libraries important?

As the number of websites continues to explode, one fact-challenged “storyline” can easily get picked up and be repeated across thousands of politically focused websites.   It’s hard when trying to dispute a story or research the actual data that is presented misleadingly to even wade past the thousands of sites that have reiterated the false information.   Sometimes it takes a combination of determination, perseverance, search abilities, critical thinking skills, mathematical and statistical skills and logic to detect bias, dig to find primary source material to double check information being disseminated, etc.    One thing the web has afforded is the power to do this more easily, and the power of citizen journalists to highlight misleading information more easily–but again, researchers and students need the ability to evaluate these sites critically.

President Obama explained this well in his Presidential Proclamation for Information Literacy Month in 2009:

“Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it. Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace. At the same time, Americans have unprecedented access to the diverse and independent sources of information, as well as institutions such as libraries and universities, that can help separate truth from fiction and signal from noise.”

When I hear legislators in my own state and others this biennium repeating verbatim information fed to them by  websites that are funded by large corporate donors or think tanks, I see the impact of this dearth of “original” thinking, of critical ability to analyze the information, and of a desire to dig past the platitudes.    I don’t care if someone disagrees with my viewpoints if they have some original information to share, can listen to opposing viewpoints, question the source of information they are being handed, and bother to Google or analyze statistics they are espousing.

When states and school districts wonder why librarians are an important part of a democratic society, these are exactly the reasons.  They can help us have a more civil discourse.  They can teach our students(and future leaders) to be more critical in their thinking, to employ their research skills to dig deeper, to scope out distortion or misinformation and by doing so, to protect our democratic values as a nation.

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SXSW Interactive Reflections

March 16th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Web 2.0

Yesterday was one of those perfect days at a conference, where the confluence of the setting, the people, and the sessions all come together in symphony, which makes me already feel nostalgic that SXSW Interactive is over.

Spaces

Ever since I designed our library, I’ve developed a fascination for how spaces are created.  At SXSWi, the conference hall and the conference’s lounges, which are scattered about the building on various floors, were inspiring for anyone interested in design and occasional spaces. My favorite–the Beacon Lounge, which was a “lounge with a conscience.” Mainly intended as a gathering spot for nonprofit attendees, it was outfitted with comfy couches, artwork on the walls, soft music and occasional food for attendees. These sorts of lounges, each unique in design and theme, were scattered throughout the convention center. Wouldn’t it be great for students to have these sorts of spaces in our schools or our libraries?

sxswtearoomThe other space that was unexpected was the Guardian UK’s tea room, plunked down in the midst of the exhibit hall floor, complete with china tea mugs, free tea and English biscuits, milk and sugar, and little round tables with flowers. It created a “location” in the convention center, as did many of the other international spaces on the exhibit floor, like the Ireland space–again, making me wonder how schools could replicate these spaces. (I have been waxing nostalgic all morning for the tea in the Guardian’s cafe).

Sessions

From the sessions I attended on archiving and libraries, which was fascinating when one thinks of all the artifacts that we potentially should be archiving or digitizing, to the session on making books digitally interactive, to the sessions on education and technology(one with Dennis Littkey, Jon Kolko, and Steven Tomlinson(Acton) and Building School 2.0 with Chris Lehmann), to a fascinating session by the authors of Gamestorming about changing meeting dynamics to encourage innovation. (a book I would definitely recommend reading)  sxswinteractivepanel

Mixed in with that were sessions with technology companies debating whether and how tech can “do good” and sessions like the SXSW Accelerator. The Accelerator sessions are ones where a set of upcoming companies, chosen as finalists, have two minutes to present their business plan, and then are questioned for ten minutes by a panel of judges from such companies as IBM and Pandora. Fascinating model for student presentations, and intense–but it was also fascinating to hear some of their product ideas, as well.

In general, the panel presentations were my favorite, because the panels spoke for a very short time, and the rest of the time was opened up to the mic in the room for questioning, so it led to a lot of interesting back and forth. In fact, most of the sessions were organized with a mic in the room and the “question-asking” time was formalized as a part of the conference process–something I think would be a great addition to any conference.

As an educator and librarian as well, it was also fascinating seeing both so many web 2.0 companies in the exhibit hall who don’t attend our conferences typically (booths from Animoto, Mapquest, Google, and others), but also hearing presentations by the business side–trying to “incentivize” user activities on websites, developing new tools, talking about the tools we all use every day from a business vantage point.

The other thing about the conference that was so interesting was the confluence of interests there–educators next to entrepreneurs, next to librarians, next to software programmers, next to nonprofits, next to social media managers, next to university technologists, next to authors and visionaries. Just a fascinating mashup of people and even though I was on the “fringes” of all of it, also a lovely sense of how everyone there was welcoming and there for the conversations.

So I leave the experience having made new contacts, and seeing how this type of conference could “seed” ideas. What a powerful combination a conference like this could be bringing in more education strands to interface with the technology/innovation strands.

I’ll be unpacking some of the learning in more posts, but overall, SXSWi was

Interesting.
Thought-provoking.
Valuable.

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Blogging SXSW Interactive

March 14th, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

I’m lucky enough to be at SXSW Interactive today.  Will be live blogging when I can in CoverItLive.

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Empower us, don’t cripple us

March 9th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Web 2.0

Last week, one of our Student Council members, Danielle Suh, wrote this powerful letter to her legislators regarding the cuts to education budgets in  Texas, and I felt it deserved a wider audience.  When I asked her for permission to include it on my blog, she agreed, commenting, “There’s often this sense of helplessness, like no matter what we do, we’re not affecting any sort of change….”  

Danielle, your voice and that of all our students deserve to be heard in this debate.  Maybe sharing this will help.

The Honorable Kirk Watson
State Senate
Austin, TX

Dear Senator Watson:  

I am a student  in Austin, Texas. I am writing you because I am concerned about the Texas State Legislature potentially cutting $4.8 billion from schools over the next two years and refusing $830 million in federal aid.

I encourage you to stand against this budget cut, to agree to the stipulations necessary to receive the federal aid, and to properly utilize the rainy day fund to fix the education crisis today.

Texans are proud of being Texans. “Don’t mess with Texas,” our billboards scream. “Ford is the best in Texas,” advertisements brag. In a state where so much pride abounds, it is embarrassing to have to boast about our dismal literacy rates (47th in the nation), and our equally distressing testing scores (49th in verbal SAT scores, and 46th in math scores.)

Education forms the foundation upon which our future leaders—my peers—will build towers of progress and development. We must learn the basics of government, economics, algebra, and chemistry before we can function as responsible citizens in tomorrow’s world.

To ask us to do so when we will have less time with our teachers, and less resources to take advantage of, is reprehensible. Instead of bemoaning the rising oil prices, the disturbingly high teen pregnancy rate, the environmental degradation, our current leaders ought to look for solutions by enabling my generation. Empower us—don’t cripple us in an increasingly competitive global society. Invest in our futures—we can’t change the world if our teachers can’t give us one-on-one attention or demonstrate nebulous concepts with hands-on labs.

I was appalled to learn that Governor Perry used $3.2 billion in stimulus dollars—that had been designated for schools—to plug other holes in his budget. Education must not become the ugly duckling who is slighted and ignored when other “more pressing” issues come to hand. Education must be the most important issue in legislation today. The rainy day fund exists for crises such as this; when our state is so precariously low in education statistics, there is no justification for further putting our intellectual maturity at risk.

Thank you for your support.  I look forward to a response.

Sincerely,

Danielle Suh
Student

cc:  Representative Donna Howard, Representative Paul Workman, Representative Scott Hochberg, Senator Florence Shapiro, Representative Rob Eissler, Senator Dan Patrick

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TCEA tools “brain dump”

February 16th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Web 2.0

The sessions I attended at this year’s TCEA conference in Austin were wide-ranging, so it’ll take a little reflection to post all of them.  But first, a little “tool-sharing” is in order.

First off, Elaine Plybon’s session on paperless classrooms and how she maximizes the use of various tools to reduce paper use in her classroom was very intriguing. Some ideas she shared that I thought were of value:
–Use Voicethread or a flipcam to record instructions for your lessons when you are absent. That avoids a lot of confusion for students, and brings your presence into the classroom even if you aren’t there.
–Use Google forms for data collection for assignments like science labs instead of using worksheets.
–When grading an audiovisual project, she uses a screencasting tool like screen-cast-o-matic to record her notes right onto the student presentation. Not only does that save paper, it is quite a bit easier for the teacher and probably more likely the student will be attentive to the comments.
–Using zoho.com — Zoho functions similarly to Google docs. It’s often forgotten as a tool, but is user friendly and has some nice embedding capabilities for photos and video.

What I liked most about her presentation was her creativity at coming up with ways to reduce paper and make her classroom run more efficiently.

A few tools that I picked up on in sessions were helpful as well–

In Robert Pronovost’s session, he shared a number of applications that he uses with elementary school readers.   Names in a Hat is a fun iPad app that allows you to put student names in a virtual hat, and it selects the name for you.   He uses iTalk lite, a recording app, to help students with literacy by having them record and listen to their own reading.

exhibitareaA number of other tools and apps were part of the EdubloggerCon Cool Tools duel , which pitted Stephanie Sandifer and Brian Grenier against Randy Rogers, and the “cool” tools they shared, including myfakewall.com(fake facebook page creation site) are listed on the Edubloggercon wiki.

I plan to share more in later posts about Ryan Bretag and David Jakes’ session on Learning Spaces and also Steve Hargadon’s talk on web 2.0 and the changing story of education.

I also want to extend kudos to Scott Floyd, particularly, for piloting the new Web 2.0 area of TCEA.  It was packed for most of the sessions, demonstrating the real desire of attendees at TCEA for more content relating to web 2 tools. (In fact, it was overflowing.  It was a creatively designed space, based on Ryan Bretag and David Jakes’ learning space at their own campus, utilizing whiteboard walls and light pillars that could be written on and comfortable seating arrangements.)  

Lastly, I also want to thank Scott for including so many library related sessions in the Web 2.0 area.  There weren’t many librarian specific sessions at the conference this year, so it was much appreciated.  The sessions that were specific to libraries were packed to overflowing, so clearly there is a place for librarians in TCEA and I appreciate Scott’s efforts in providing for that.

It was as always excellent to have a week of face to face conversations with so many other passionate learners, meet up with colleagues and friends, and make new acquaintances and connections.   The web 2.0 area provided a flexible and comfortable gathering space for that. (as did as the Hilton bar’s leather chairs ;) )

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TCEA 21st century libraries

February 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

In addition to my post below about my TCEA library session, I wanted to share the opening slideset that I used to stimulate our thinking.  The intention of these slides was to portray images of events, signage, physical spaces and virtual spaces of many libraries around the country who are embracing bringing 21st century libraries into being.

Thanks to all of the many librarians and flickr users for sharing your photos so that we can all learn from your work!

I also wanted to be sure to recommended that you explore the Teacher Librarian Virtual Cafe which hosts a monthly webinar in the evenings for librarians. Join in becoming part of the library “Geek Tribe!” on TLVirtual Cafe or twitter.

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