Laura makes good points but the notion that bothers me most from her post is
the whole "we're at the crossroads" idea. It seems to me that there are no
more crossroads. This metaphor implies that you are going one way or the
other. Think of Robert Johnson, there's a reason he met the devil at the
crossroads. I think that a better metaphor might be those blasted circular
exchanges on the roads, (they just built one near our house). Folks are
getting on and off seemingly at will, anywhere they please. They use the
circle to get from one point to the other, with little regard to what
traffic flow may have been originally planned.
Why does this work for information literacy and libraries? Well, the way I
see it this morning users are going to come and go as they please, taking
what we have that they need and leaving the rest for another time. We can't
design their route, we shouldn't. What we can do is provide the circle,
encourage safe driving, and help those who get on but can't get off where
they want.
As for "book huggers vs informancers", please, stop with the name calling.
Do we really need all of these titles? Let's give our users access to what
they need, where they are right now.
I teach elementary students, and I've got to tell you, all the blogging,
questing, synthesizing won't take place if kids can't read. How do you learn
to read? Well, boil it down and you have to read to learn to read. It, like
everything else, takes practice. What encourages you to read, to practice?
Good books, good stories. Who in my school, your school, knows more about
that than me, the librarian? Our title people can sort word sounds with
anyone, but I find the titles they come looking for are the ones on the
bottom of the page of some handout someone gave them. It's as if that book
only is the one to fill the need of the moment. Overwhelmed teachers operate
from bibliographies in the back of texts, dated and sometimes created from a
commercial point of view.
No, I'm not going to be trapped into choosing to be something that is the
skill of the moment. I adopt and use technology as it becomes useful in
helping my students learn and is developmentally appropriate. My kids are
different from your kids are different from their kids are different from
any kids. That's why teaching is still about connecting at a personal level
with children.
Herb Wilburn
NBCT Library Media
Ashby Lee Elementary School
Quicksburg, VA 22847
http://letsjustsuppose.blogspot.com/
hwilburn@shentel.net
hdwilburn@shenandoah.k12.va.us
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