Libraries, obsolete? SHH!

I keep seeing articles and posts about libraries and in turn librarians becoming obsolete. While I agree that if your library is simply a "book warehouse" and hasn't keep up with the times, that could possibly be true, my experience with libraries is that they have kept up.

In many ways, I see that libraries have become even more necessary to communities!

Community Partners for Learning:
Our library partners with our schools to be sure our technology is compatible.  They work with our teachers, pulling book collections and other materials to support classroom learning for teachers to check out or for students to find easily. 

We are so lucky to have a community college in our small town of 8,000. It is wonderful to see so many adults pursuing learning!  Many of them need a place to study ( a quiet place, if you have kids at home!), or resources they simply don't have on hand at their house, internet access, computers, copiers, printers, research materials. advice and guidance.

Our library has a full agenda of ongoing education classes with topics ranging from keeping your kids safe online to water color painting, to genealogy, to  all kinds of technology classes, to the typical children's story hour.

We have meeting rooms outfitted with interactive white boards, small kitchens and group seating that are almost always booked for community clubs, groups and businesses.

Connectivity: 
For the students and families where I live and in so many communities, the library is a bridge across that digital divide!  Broadband internet access has become more and more necessary and not just for our students.  Many companies no longer accept any thing but  online job applications, you can do your taxes, fill out the FAFSA and so many things I take for granted because I have internet access at home.

Literacy Acquisition:
Whether you are acquiring English as a second language or made it to adulthood without learning to read, many libraries have  programs for that. Through a grant written several years ago, our library has become a safe and caring place to gain the literacy skills necessary in today's world no matter how old you are.

Our very youngest learners have access to so many books, so much music and other materials at libraries, they can discover and then explore their passions. As a young mom with no extra money to build a book collection at home, our boys fell in love with Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle and so many other authors & illustrators they discovered at our public library. They researched the frogs, turtles & bugs they found in our yard by borrowing field guides and matching photos. To suggest or even assume that all young children have a tablet computer and the internet to do this online at home is just ridiculous.
 
Becoming Media Savvy
As well illustrated in my colleague @PaulSCurtis 's latest blog post, our students may do a great deal of research online, but do they actually KNOW what they are doing?  Enter the librarian!  There is no one better suited to help our students (and us) be aware of just what a valid source is and where to find one. Critically evaluating sources is only going to become more necessary as the ability to self publish and declare oneself a guru becomes easier.

Libraries are a Place of Equity
Rich, poor, old , young, no matter what your race, creed, religion or political leanings, all may enter the library, meet, study, learn and in fact have your privacy protected.  No one is monitoring what you check out and then putting up ads for it on your Facebook page. No one is saving your credit card information for future purchases.
Libraries have a long history of defending patron privacy. This is supported by confidentiality laws in almost every state.

I know I haven't even begun to touch the surface of why libraries are important to our schools and communities, what I do know is that each time we have cut a librarian in our local school system in the name of cost containment, my heart breaks a little. For although the libraries themselves can be wonderful, it is the people in them and the expertise, guidance and inspiration they provide that truly brings them to life.

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation."                

                                                                                                            Walter Cronkite

Singing in the library ala the Music Man? YES!

Community College...because of one step

This Fall, Ivy Tech Community College is opening in our small rural town in Indiana.  I go out of my way to drive past the construction site on a weekly basis.  The story of how this came to be is a journey of a group of people who truly believe that education can change the world.

Over 5 years ago we hired a new Superintendent of Schools in Rochester Indiana.  Our school board gave her the directive "This community doesn't value education....change that."  With this in mind, she built her team and they began to ask questions, build relationships, gather data and research innovative school models.

After a year or so of many town hall meetings, public information sessions and data gathering, the decision was made to join the New Tech Network and become a school that promotes deeper learning via Project Based Learning in a technology rich environment. 

This ONE decision is the catalyst that brought Ivy Tech to Rochester.  This year in May of 2011, we graduated our first class to have gone through Zebra New Tech.  These students have learned to collaborate, compromise, lead, follow, innovate, manage their time, write and speak effectively and so many more skills that are never tested by a college entrance exam.

This first class graduated with nearly 600 hours of college credit, either from dual college credit classes taken through online courses  or from our teachers who are ACP certified.  Our graduation rate went from 78% to 93.1% in theses four years. Students are engaged, they have relationships with each other, their teachers and the community. 

This fall the students at Zebra New Tech can walk to a brand new facility they can see from the front door and take college courses side by side with adults from our community.  Because we took that one step towards New Tech, one of 3 of the first schools in Indiana to do so, we have a college in a county where less than 10% of the population has any kind of college education.  I am so proud to have been a part of the team that accepted the challenge to change the way this community views education.  Having a college presence in our town will not just change views, it will change lives.

All this, because of one step. What is your next step?

*I worked for Rochester Community Schools as the Director of Instructional Technology for the past 4 years.  A few weeks ago I was very honored to begin working with New Tech Network as a part of the team that has so inspired our community.