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Australia is blessed with a man who sometimes signs himself as a "feral word herder" but who is really a genuine and genius wordsmith. He is a teacher, a scientist, and a huge supporter of our profession. On our national radio this morning he spoke about the future of the book and how technology plays such a critical role in their entire production. The transcript (and soon the podcast) is available through http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2008/2151433.htm Amongst the gems were these ... "Today, the Internet and the computer tempt many to predict the Death of the Book as we know it. They say we will store text in digital form to carry around or download at whim, to be searched, rummaged through, annotated, re-ordered and generally treated in ways that wouldn't impress an old-fashioned book-lover ... But what of the format? My book was written, revised, edited, designed, proofed and edited yet again, to within an inch of its life. Yet we are told books are useless, that 'we can get all we need from the Internet'. True, we can get the raw materials there, but like the poison cycad seeds that nearly killed Joseph Banks, some kitchen-work needs to be done to make them palatable and nutritious. Far from killing the book, the new technology offers us new ways of making books live, but showing people how to do this demands a new form of information literacy. Fact fossicking isn't easy, clever fact fossicking is downright hard.. The vapid politicians who carry on about Australian history, meaning dead-white-male history, are also the ones who most commonly bleat about 'literacy', by which they mean simplistic reading and writing skills that can be tested. These enemies of education with their foolish lists are yesterday's men. True literacy bubbles and froths with joy, even when a dead political hand is placed on it, and the new literacy will, teachers willing, sweep their foolishness away. But who will teach this new sort of literacy? Not the teachers of English or computing or science: they lack the skills and the time. Among the professionals of education, only one group can do it. Oddly enough, they are the very people most at threat from those who say the Book is Dead. Some call them school librarians, but they're really teacher-librarians, people trained both as teachers and as librarians. Rather than getting rid of them and their libraries, we need to fund them better, far better. We need more, not fewer, libraries, more, not fewer, teacher-librarians. I care about remembering and transmitting Australia's story. The explorers weren't the sort of people who learned lists of dates, they were people who questioned things and chased a brighter future. If Australia is to have a future worthy of the explorers, we must educate our young. Testing doesn't improve literacy, teaching does, and our teacher-librarians sit at the heart of inspirational teaching. Politicians who don't understand that are selling our future short." In his response to the Australian teacher librarian list he said, "My intention in that final portion was to give people a stick with which to beat the illiterati, or a perch to stand on to make a delivery of their own." and so now the teacher librarians need to continue their advocacy. Read what a small group (growing bigger daily) is doing at http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/ Barbara Barbara Braxton Teacher Librarian COOMA NSW 2630 AUSTRALIA E. barbara.288@bigpond.com Together we learn from each other -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/ * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------