Library 2.0: Enter the Teacher Librarian Enthusiast -- THE Journal

What will the new school library look like? In this first installment of our two-part library tech series, we explore the evolution of the school library--and the school librarian--and look to the opportunities that await once some basic challenges are overcome.

• By Natasha Wanchek
• 03/25/10

This is an exciting time to be a K-12 school librarian. Five years have passed since the Library 2.0 concept was coined in a blog, but only in the last couple years have school libraries fully started to embrace social networking and other 2.0 tools. For the advocates--many of whom are connected by learning networks--the enthusiasm for incorporating new technologies is palpable.

"This is the beginning of a tide that changes everything we know about teaching and learning," said Joyce Valenza, librarian at Springfield Township High School Library in Erdenheim, PA. "If school librarians are information specialists then they have to be users and producers of information in our time."

Changing Libraries
Technology is changing the role of libraries--and the responsibilities of librarians--at schools internationally. Libraries are now expected to provide "information literacy" and a "24/7 digital workspace." The 2009 School Library Journal Summit was called "Librarians as Leaders of 21st Century Learning," and experts in the field talk about the need to move from literacy to "transliteracy," the capability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media.

The American Library Association (ALA) describes the evolving role of the school library media specialist (often referred to as teacher librarians or TLs) as working with both students and teachers to facilitate access to information in a variety of formats. With the help of TLs, students should become "effective users of ideas and information."

Doug Johnson, director of media and technology for Mankato Area Public Schools in Minnesota, said that libraries are now serving a "post-literate" clientele, which he described as a place that provides materials in non-print formats as much--or more--than print materials.

Johnson said that students often prefer getting their information and recreation from non-print sources and that school libraries need to acknowledge this development without bias. From his perspective, the shift away from print material can be viewed positively--as a return to storytelling, debate, and dramatization.