Saturday, August 22, 2009

You know you are a 21st century school librarian if you . . .

Listened to Librarian Joyce Valenza's Manifesto today on a 2007 NECC Podcast. Click on SIGMS Forum at NECC. Wondering how it missed it since I am such an avid fan. She turned it into a wiki which seems to be her collaborative way of doing things lately.

* Make sure your learners and teachers can (physically & intellectually) access developmentally appropriate databases, portals, and websites in multiple media.

* Organize the Web for learners. You have the skills to create a blog or website or wiki to pull together resources to meet the information needs of your learning community. That presence reflects your personal voice. It includes your advice as well as your links.

* Make learning an engaging and colorful hybrid experience. You intervene in the research process online while respecting young people’s need for independence.

* Think outside the box about the concept of “collection.” That collection might include: ebooks, audiobooks, open source software, streaming media, flash sticks, digital video cameras, and much more! You lend this stuff.

* Think of your web presence as a knowledge management for your school. This is collection too, and it includes student-produced learning objects, handouts, policies, and collaborative wiki pathfinders to support learning and research in all learning arenas.

* Think Web 2.0. You know the potential new technologies offer for interaction–learners as both information consumers and producers.

* Are thinking interactive service: materials suggestion forms, book review blogs, surveys, online calendars, etc.

* Know your physical space is about way more than books. Your space is a libratory. You welcome media production—podcasting, video editing. You welcome telecommunications events and group gathering for planning and research and social networking.

* Include, and collaborate with, the learner. You let them in. You fill your physical and virtual space with student work, student contributions—their video productions, their original music, their art.

* Expand your notion of searching. You work with learners to set up RSS feeds and tag clouds for research.

* Are concerned that when it matters, your students move beyond information satisficing. They make solid information decisions.

* Are concerned about a new digital divide. Those who can find quality information in all media formats effectively, and those who cannot.

* Consider new interactive and engaging communication tools for student projects--digital storytelling, wikis, podcasts, streaming video as possibilities beyond the mortal powers of PowerPoint. (And you are rethinking what PowerPoint, what presentations should or could be!)

* Consider just-in-time, just-for-me learning as your responsibility and are proud that you own the real estate of one desktop window on your students’ home computers 24/7. (My own website is used as much after school as it is during.)

Try adding your 2 cents to the wiki.

Consider following Joyce Valenza on Twitter. I am always learning from her expertise.

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