Deep Thinking

We were brainstorming our visions for the future and I veered off down my own thought path for a time.

What if in the future someone called my library and heard this message:

Welcome to the library information center and the services of our professional staff members….
To ask a question and get immediate help, press one.
To request time with the librarian for instruction and planning, press two.
To access files and e-books or have documents sent to you, press three.
To participate in a conference call, press four then enter your class code.
To take the assessment on literacy for a course, press five then enter your class code.
To upload files for the librarian to read and critique, press six.
To locate partners for a class, team, or individual project, press seven.
To review and download podcasts of lessons and new media, press eight.
To reflect upon your learning and create a podcast, press nine.
To leave a positive comment on libraries, literacy, and the librarian, press zero and be sure to notify your local school board and legislators on the impact school libraries have on student achievement.

I am so fortunate and honored to have been chosen as Tennessee’s delegate to the AASL Vision Summit in Chicago Dec. 1-3. By some fluke yesterday when I didn’t receive the email notification that my 3rd attempt to fly out of Nashville to Chicago had been cancelled, I simply went to the airport and they put me on a flight 20 minutes later. Those waiting knew that flight had been there an extra 3 hours, but for me, I simply walked up and was slipped into the next flight. What are the odds?! On the plane the stewards tossed out 4 bags of snacks since they knew everyone was hungry and we had a happy time flying into Chicago with a grateful group of people so relieved to be going there (No grumblers in the bunch) My luggage even arrived first off the plane, the shuttle was right there, and my internet is free in the hotel since I signed up as a frequent guest. I met up with Julie Walker and school librarians from New Mexico, Idaho and Kansas City and we had a fun time eating downstairs and talking shop/ethics/social dynamics/etc.

One of the most fun preparing for this Vision Summit has been the suggested reading. I finally finished taking my notes, highlight, writing arguments and lesson plans/activites based upon my reading of this paper. The word librarians only shows up in 2 paragraphs and school libraries are mentioned only as places of access and as protection. Still, if you are interested in thinking, this is a wonderful article to scaffold your personal exploration of participatory culture. I really appreciated the diverse list of Sources though I’d like to note that the school library bloggers are not represented. Let’s get out there and be heard!

This is the paragraph that I originally received and the explanation:

If you are interested in some optional, provocative pre-reading, download the paper, “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” (Note: this is 68 pages). For those of you who just want to peruse, there is an Executive Summary on p. 3 - 4 and a “Who Should Respond” on pp. 56 - 60. http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029245/k.C5DF/Results.htm The paper was commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation and written by Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT.

One final note: when I happily checked in at the hotel and we laughed that I was able to escape my chaotic household of 4 teenage boys, 2 dogs, one cat, and hubby dear plus not having to work at any of the other 3 jobs I had for the weekend, the hotel staff enthusiastically told me that I had a room in the quiet zone. When you closely examine the sign you will read:

Welcome to the Quiet Zone
Please be considerate of other guests.
Our promise to all guests staying in this area is to extend the following courtesies:
* No housekeeping or maintenance activities between 9 p.m. and 10 a.m.
* No children, leisure groups, marching bands or circus animals will be assigned to this area.
We ask in return that you do your part in keeping noise to a minimum by
* Keep TV and radio to a low volume.
* Ensure guest doors do not slam.
* No loud singing in the shower.

Julie seems to think they may have assigned me to this floor to make me be quiet. I thought they knew I needed the quiet to rejuvenate. I know you won’t believe me so I took a photo here:

On my way to Chicago for the AASL Vision Summit, I met two strangers on the hotel bus. When I mentioned there would be several librarians at the hotel, one man said, “Well, I guess there will be a whole lot of Dewey Decimaling going on.” I replied, “Actually I thought I’d focus on our need to increase the library presence in the area of social participation and meeting the library patron where they were so we could proactively plan to match their needs with resources in books and online that they may never have even seen. It would have been my Grandma’s library that worried if the books were Deweyed.” This led to a fun talk about how libraries have changed. We agreed that his city of St. Louis had some mighty fine public libraries and I invited him to come check out Nashville’s.

I think about the public’s perceptions and how they never were truly accurate. They may have thought they were seeing the whole picture, but the patron may have had one library experience that colored all their others. My grandmother for instance was a voracious reader. After the death of my grandfather, she stayed up all night reading and then would fall asleep over books all day long. Her apt. was buried in books. I loved to go stay with her because I could always find a tremendous amount to read. (Even some racy books!) She often received discards from public libraries all over several county areas. I don’t know if she ever checked books out, but she always had tons to read. I believe she never read from the Dewey section, but she did learn a great deal about foreign countries from reading Harlequin romances.

My mother ran my small town (286 people) library on Wed. and Sat. afternoons from 2-4 p.m. It was never a quiet place. It was 1-2 rooms (they took the wall down) in a tiny concrete building. People came to town to stock up for the week. I was able to help out many times. We also had senior citizens call to request books and my brothers, my mother and I’d deliver them. If they needed us to, we’d have a bag of books waiting for them to pick up at my dad’s DX gas station right next door until they could come in. We pulled out the names of people when they came in and counted them at the end of the day. If we hadn’t seen someone in a couple days, we’d call to make sure they were okay. We did have tiny young children meander in and stagger out with wagon loads of books. There was even a summer storytime when you would receive a free book at the end. Always people would move the chairs in a semi-circle around the checkout desk and talk. They’d talk about the crafts and recipes in the books. They’d discuss certain authors and whether they’d let them down or not. They’d tell stories about their lives, their neighbors and everyone in the county who’d done something wrong that week. You received quite an education at the public library. I recall there was a small section of Dewey Decimal books. One year I gave up fiction reading for lent and worked my way through that entire collection and the entire DDC collection of my high school library. 40 days was more than enough time to read them all, so you understand how small the collection was.

That same library now is located inside our elementary school building in town. Every time we go back all 4 of my sons disappear from my parent’s house and end up down at the library. The librarian is my former algebra teacher and she keeps cards there for my boys to use whenever they are in town. It is the only place in town with free internet service also. Last time I was in they had 3 terminals for the town to use to surf the internet. They do have books in the Dewey section, but my boys tend to gravitate to the magazines, movies, and “what’s new” sections. Most people just browse around for what interests them. Can’t wait to see how it has changed. I wonder if anyone is blogging at the public library. I’ll have to check it out this holiday vacation.