Lifelong/Lifewide Libraries for Living/Learning in BC

 

 

 

A keynote presentation for the BC Library Community

Library 20/20 Symposium

 

October 22, 2007

Ray Doiron, PhD

University of Prince Edward Island

 

---

 

Introduction - Welcome - My plan for the hour

 

Key Thesis Statement

In today’s complex world, it is not enough to say that at some point in their lives, everyone needs a library. We need libraries at all points in our lives and we need to support the full development of a strong, integrated, accessible network of libraries. We need to build lifelong and lifewide libraries.

 

Wiki address

 

Opening comments .... LibrariesNOW. 

 

---

Welcome to the Human Network - Cisco Ad

 

In its advertisement, Cisco thinks of the planet as one large, interconnected human network.

Information travels instantly to all parts of the world;

People communicate instantly with each other;

Events are celebrated locally and globally simultaneously;

Knowledge is growing cumulatively, collaboratively and exponentially faster than any of us could imagine, even five years ago.

Business is conducted globally; markets are conceptualized as global; travel is interconnected; and world cultures are connecting and mixing more than they ever have.

 

People are not passive consumers of knowledge and information, but actual creators and distributors of new knowledge,

knowledge that is drawn from multiple text forms, multiple media formats and multiple perspectives and experiences.

This vision of a global human network raises many issues as we move forward in libraries.

 

The World Digital Library - Video

 

This is not a world without books.

This is not a world without libraries.

In fact, it is a world where libraries and people are fully integrated.

Cultures and languages are not barriers to learning.

Texts are multiple modal/dimensional - visual, aural, print - the Book as Experience.

Libraries are not just places; they are an infinite number of learning spaces.

 ua

 

And for me, it forces us to re-examine libraries and see them not just as places; they are spaces ---- virtual and real --- an infinite number of networked, learning spaces.

They are spaces that respond to the local learning and living needs of people and provide access to the global human network.

 

However, even with these exciting and challenging visions everywhere around us,

there are questions that continue to plague me in my career...

 

 

When it comes to school libraries, why don’t people get it?

How do people think we can prepare information literate citizens when we have such disparities among library communities?

How can we have a learning society without a comprehensive and province-wide, international network of libraries accessible to all citizens throughout their lives?

 

And even internally as library professionals, why can’t we see ourselves as one library community (instead of referring to, and operating within, various library sectors)?

Could we not be one library network ready to interface with the global, human network?  One library community with many cultural groups within that community?

 

These continue to be barriers to us moving forward and to truly embracing a new future for libraries in BC and around the world.

 

---

Let's continue to have a look at what some say that future will be like...

 

 

The Future of Libraries

 

I like to look at futurists - people spend their lives writing and talking about the future. What will it like? What will people be doing for work and leisure/ and most importantly, how do we prepare now for living and working in that world? It is not that I feel these people necessarily have the answers for sure, but they usually shine a light on what we are currently doing and that we may want to reconsider.

 

So I explored what some people are saying.

 

 

 

1) The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be

 

        David Thornburg site: www.tcpd.org

 

                1) Content was king in the past. Now context is king.

                2) Two key skills:     the ability to locate information specifically related to the question, and

                                            the second is to establish the veracity and utility of this information.

 

 

Thornburg says....

 

Quote:     “These are non-trivial skills – ones that librarians have long honored, but which are often lost on the public at large and, tragically, lost on some educators as well. The richness of                  high-quality educational Web sites, such as NASA, National Gallery of Canada, Civilization.ca, Library of Congress etc., is free for all who have a grasp of these skills.

                 Without those skills, the Web reverts to another piece of “thumb candy,” a video-game-like experience that may be pleasurable, but not necessarily of great educational value.”

 

               

3) From “earning a living” to more complex and lifelong one: “Learning a Living.”

 

                4) Learning in a transition from the “Just in Case” paradigm to a “Just in Time” paradigm.

 

Thornburg cautions us to remember:

When the rate of change inside the institution is less than the rate of change outside the institution,

then the end is in sight!

 

 

 

2) The Future of Libraries - DaVinci Institute

 

Thomas Frey  Beginning the Great Transformation

 

He traces a quick history of libraries and then outlines 10 Trends that affect the development of Libraries for the Future.

    Trend #1 - Communication systems are continually changing the way people access information.

    Trend #2 - All technology ends.   All technologies commonly used today will be replaced by something new.

    Trend #3 - We haven’t yet reached the ultimate small particle for storage.  But soon.

    Trend #4 - Search Technology will become increasingly more complicated.

    Trend #5 - Time compression is changing the lifestyle of library patrons.

    Trend #6 - Over time we will be transitioning to a verbal society.

    Trend #7 - The demand for global information is growing exponentially.

    Trend #8 - The Stage is being set for a new era of Global Systems.

    Trend #9 – We are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy.

    Trend #10 - Libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture.  (Retrieved Oct 12, 2007 from http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120

  Frey's recommendations for libraries....

 

 

                1) Evaluate the library experience. (Users rule!)

                2) Embrace new technologies. (Your users sure will.)

                3) Preserve the memories of your own communities. (Libraries - the new Town Square - a Commons for all.)

                4) Experiment with creative spaces so the future role of the library can define itself.  (It is not one size fits all!)

3) The Web-as-Brain Hypothesis - Kristina Lerman     All functions of the brain are a result of its architecture as a highly connected network of neurons.   

 

All communications between neurons occur at the specialized connections between them called synapses.

Web pages act in the role of neurons, and hyperlinks as synapses that direct the flow of information from one page to the next.

 

 

As we have moved into Web 2.0, we see that  "the machine is learning" and becoming more responsive and intuitive. 

Lerman Quote: "Consciousness is a feature of the human brain. As the Web becomes more complex and dynamic,

                        I believe a kind of global consciousness will emerge from the interactions between Web servers and users;

                        moreover, as various observation satellites, Web cams and the like, get hooked in to the network,

                        the world will acquire self-consciousness."    (For more on these ideas, see the video:  The Machine is Us)

 

---

 

What was interesting for me as I explored these writers is that they were not saying this just applies for public libraries or school libraries or some other library community.

These are factors, pressures, and issues that affect all learners at all stages of their lives.

These are issues that cross the boundaries in society and create a whole new world.

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale for coordinating multi- library perspective

 

    What happens (or doesn’t happen) in one library sector affects other library sectors

 

    Different needs at different life stages

 

    All libraries create/strengthen communities

 

    We need to stop referring to ourselves as "support services" - it is self-limiting to say we provide resource access and resource management.

    We need to be more aware (and make others aware) of the key educational role we play, within and across library communities.

 

We need to think of the library as a destination - the place to  be.

 

I like the concept of "the infused library." Instead of "If you build it, they will come", where we try to get people into the library, we need to think of how can we infuse libraries into all aspects of human life. Spread the library out into people's lives.

 

    If you read Alan Bundy's work in Australia, you will be excited by how he envisions school and public libraries forming united fronts to lobby for children

    and build partnerships in ensuring the literacy of all. Who could refuse us, if we formed stronger partnerships.  

                                                       Article: Essential Connections: School and pubclic libraries for lifelong learning.  Alan Bundy (2001).

 

    Together, we weave the fabric of a rich, fulfilling, learning society.

 

    We are more than Information Literacy. What is Information Literacy?

 

    It’s the multiple literacies that bind us … Literacies and Libraries: THe Concepts that Bind Us

 

 

 

 

New Literacies, New Learning and New Libraries

 

 

Who are the Learners of the Net Generation?

    Meet Kaitlyn Video clip Kaitlyn

    Characteristics of the Learners of the Net Generation -Slideshow

    Chart for:  How They Learn and Their Identity

 

What are the literacies learners need today?

  Literacies needed by the Learners of the Net Generation

                                                                    -Slideshow

 

 

What is Learning like for the Net Generation?

    The Web 2.0

    What is Web 2 0? Kathryn Greenhill - a slidecast

    Learning for the Net Generation. Article by Don Tapscott

    EduSpaces: The world's largest social networking site about education and learning

 

    Learning on the Internet

    How to Find a book

    Library 2 0 Cookbook

 

    The New Workers - I am Knowledge Worker 2 0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Library Leaders:  Teacher-librarian and The Teaching Librarian

       Article: School librarian as teacher: Learning outcomes and evidence-based practice.  Ross Todd (2002).

                - Research that shows the contribution of the school teacher-librarians’ instructional role in supporting student learning.

                - Many ways the collaborative teaching/learning partnerships plays out.

                - Big problem for school libraries is inadequate staffing and inconsistent programming from K through 12.

                - The implications of site-based management.

 

 

       Article: Faculty-librarian collaboration in building the curriculum for the millennim. Hannelore B. Rader (1998).

                - Big chanmges have energed for the way academic librarians work with faculty and students.

                - Very similar to the way teacher-librarians collaborate with teachers to support student learning.

                - Rader (2002) suggest these are key teaching roles of academic librarians

• facilitate the integration of electronic information into the curriculum,

• offer their expertise in teaching information skills to students,

• help faculty become knowledgeable about electronic information formats

• provide physical learning facilities for students and faculty.

   

  The infused library .....

   

 

       Article: Learning about learning rather than about teaching. Sharon Markless (2002).

                  - Traditonal teaching in libraries is too often information transmission.

                  - Study the "New Learners' and learn more about how adults learn.

                  - Effective learning is best supported by linking together doing, reflecting and conceptualising. (Fire first and then aim.)

 

Library professionals are showing leadership.

       - A collection of videos on libraries now - Library Videos

       - Two Canadian graduate classes for teacher-librarians explore 21st century teacher-librarianship in a Social Network.  iBrary

       - Libraries are creating multimedia tools to support learners and they are posted for use when the learner wants to access them.

 

The "small library" may feel, that is all well and good for the big urban centres, but we will never have access to all of this. "This will never happen for us." It is important to remeber that there are great benefits for all libraries from the united newtrok that could be created and with the power technology has to make much of it accessible, anywhere, anytime.

 

The challenge for all Library Leaders.     Librarian's Web 2.0 Manifesto - Manifesto

 

 

 

Lifelong/Lifewide Libraries for lifelong learning/living

        - A framework for thinking about the role of libraries in our lives. (lifelong.libraries2007.doc - Doiron.)

Now I realize this framework is a simplistic summary, but I think it does show how libraries fulfill different roles at different times in our lives and how we rely on libraries for a wide range of information services and programs and for indendent reading. What I hope it shows to those of us in various library communities is how we are linked in a continuous, pervasive, and integrated network that may focus on different jurisdications and clientele, but that is deeply rooted in similar goals and ideals.

 

Where we stumble I believe, is when we focus exclusively on our principal jurisdiction without considering where we sit on the continuum or as part of the network of libraries, how we fit within the network and how the work we do in our constituency leads to the overall success of all people.

 

We end up with a problem like the one that exists across this country --- young adults arrive in post-secondary institutions not knowing their basic information skills.  We end up with a patchwork of programs and services , each one having strengths and weaknesses and in some cases working outside the scheme of what others are doing.

 

I see great hope however, in that new technologies have pushed us to the brink of taking major steps in bringing our libraries together and in giving users a role in creating the library network.

 

Examples:

        - Providing access for seniors - Lifelong Libraries Access Initiative

        - Users creating the library they want/need/use -

        - What might libraries look like, act like - Visit The Transformation Lab - Prototyping the Library of the Future

 

Models for "New Libraries" are emerging.

 

 

A Closing Thought . . .

Thomas Frey- in another article on The Future of Education, talks about the classroom as a "touch-point" (points where we come in contact with the rest of the world).

Perhaps Touch Points is a good metaphor for all libraries – information places and cultural spaces where we interface with society

 

So I leave you with more questions than answers, more challenges than solutions. But I also know, this is BC; you take on all kinds of big challenges, even olympian size ones. You have a Premier who is committed to making BC "the most literate jurisdiction in North America."

 

My experience here taught me this is a land of many resources, rich cultural traditions and a wealth of human and social capital from which you will forge your own vision of LibrariesNOW or Libraries 20/20.

 

And as always, I rely on the words and wisdom of young children. They may not be noted futurists, but they are the future.

 

This drawing was made by a 6-year-old girl who I feel has created useful Words to the Wise...

Good advice from a six-year-old