More than just a pretty face....
and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship
Stop the miracles
It is no longer very interesting to speculate on the future. Last year we
were bombarded by the futurists as they pontificated on all the miracles
that would change our lives in the new millennium. Frankly, we may be unable
to assimilate any more miracles! It is time we learned how to cope with the
ones we have now before we find new delights! It is all the Web's fault!
We used to claim that there was no new information - only remarkable new
tools that made data so much more available. I doubt that now. The new technologies
have made it easier for information to be created, even if it has little
value and less importance! Information has suddenly become frighteningly
personal. I notice how it is no longer possible to remain on the Web with
a slow machine… even one made two years ago. You will be severely limited
by the slowness of the data flow. You will not be able to cope with the whole
thing without moving (and perhaps thinking) faster.
We can now toss the "school library catalogue" into this miracle. It seemed
so long ago that we all learned about constructing cards and building drawers.
We no longer have any options - the computer is just so pervasive that to
fail to harness its power in this endeavour would be ridiculous. That many
children have more power at home for games than you have in your library
information centre is even more regrettable. It is very difficult to suggest
"that books provide important information that may be trusted" when so many
kids can prove the error or the inconsistencies in that argument after consulting
with their oracle at home. It is "at home" that the Web exerts its greatest
influence and may foretell the future of the school and us. It is "at home"
that the student (and his parents) must find the catalogue of the School
Library. If our catalogues are going to reflect the things we have and offer
to these new kids, they must be part of that new fact… they must come through
the Web.
I cannot understand why we would even consider a new library system without
specifying that Web delivery and integration is pivotal to our decision.
It is crucial to recognize that the credibility of the school library cannot
be defined within the two or three or ten old computers linked to the server
in the library. We must realize that what we have today will be completely
old in a year or two. The miracle has changed everything including us. Now
we have to make that reality a part of the educational learning experience
that every kid must engage. It is not enough that we offer books and tapes
and videos and CD ROMs! We have to provide the real links to the real information
that is out there. The catalogue has to be seen as the first link in that
process. To create a great database using the best MARC records to all the
old, tired books that are still in the collection is not the answer. We must
see the catalogue as part of the learning process recognizing that the children
who use our clumsy machines will encounter even more profound changes! Imagine
how fast the computer will be in 2010. The remarkable Web with its almost
one billion pages will seem tiny in ten years. The miracle is not going to
stop!
Our new catalogues will have to reflect all the good stuff in the school, the Web and the world.
Here are some pointed questions that I will ask you about your library if you ever ask me to visit:
• Do you have a method for including in your OPAC, the title and appropriate
keywords for major articles in the journals you receive?
Will a student dealing with Mount St. Helen's know that there is a great
article in the May 2000 issue of the National Geographic through your catalogue?
• Are all the materials in your District Resource Centre included in your OPAC?
• Are the links suggested by Network Nuggets (published through email in BC) every week included as hot links in your OPAC?
• Have you created a link to this fabulous Collection?
Children's Butterfly Site, USGS http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/butterfly/butterfly.html
Created by the Midcontinent Ecological Science Center of the US Geological
Survey (USGS), this modest site is a nice starting point for younger users
interested in butterflies. All users, however, will enjoy the butterfly photo
gallery, which offers pictures of common butterflies from around the world,
organized by continent. The section currently contains thumbnail images of
butterflies from Western Europe and Britain and North America, with sections
on Central and South America and Asia under construction. Other features
at the site include a colouring page on the Monarch life cycle, an illustrated
butterfly and moth life cycle, butterfly and moth FAQs, and a large collection
of (annotated) related links.
• Are all the text materials in the bookroom in your OPAC?
You can see the thrust of my concerns. I am not unaware that such inclusion
would be extremely time dependent. The profession and the educational community
must find ways to share such information across the traditional boundaries.
But then we also have to reaffirm our conviction that the library in the
school is far too important to be merely a conceit. We simply have to stop
seeing our school libraries as single outposts on a quiet street. We have
to pay for the value added components.
Every time I hear of another fund-raising event on behalf of the school library,
I realize that we have a long way to go. I have no desire to stop the miracle.
I do want to see it brought into the learning structures that we create
for children. As the technology becomes more a part of the way in which we
work, surely we can make it part of the way in which we learn to learn.
On the other hand, we can simply hope that someone else will come along and
change it from media into message. I thought that was our job.
Donald Hamilton