Thursday, May 24, 2012

Libraries in the 21st century

I know this is a topic everyone is writing/ talking/ reading about these days.  What's happening to libraries?  How are they changing?  Are they even relevent these days?  I think those of us in the library world know our roles but does the rest of the world?

The reason for these thoughts happened yesterday.  Once again, I get the feeling the general public thinks of us as the little old ladies with the bun and glasses shushing our way through the day.  People don't see us helping students, accessing technology--showing students how to access technology.  I was at a meeting to design a new high school.  The consultant in charge kept talking about a "distributed media center" concept.  I kept raising the question of supervision--monitoring the different areas.  Considering I'm the only librarian, a distributed space is impossible for me to monitor. 

The consultant kept telling me these spaces were for students to collaborate and work.  Again I asked about supervision.  She finally said that this was a 21st century concept and we needed to understand this is what our students needed! ARGH!!!  Like I don't all ready know that!  What does she think I do all day? 

I really felt like she was reaching over to pat my hand and telling me to get with the times.......and I was so insulted because I think, of all people, librarians understand 21st century learners, but the general public doesn't understand librarians!  I guess we need to keep getting our message out there.

No comments:

Post a Comment