Editorial: Leaping into Technology

Calling this month’s School Library Journal a “technology issue” is a bit misleading—although it looks smart on the cover. Yes, it’s chock-full of good tech features. And yes, we address the hottest issues of the day. But there is an underlying assumption with such an issue that technology can be captured, and that readers—in devoting an hour or so to this month’s SLJ—can happily believe they’re up-to-date.

Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. At least, not anymore. Technological change is constant and disruptive, creating many new opportunities as well as a number of dead ends. Nowadays, technology challenges nearly everything that librarians do. Scratch that. It challenges everything we do.

A better theme for this issue would be “leaping into technology.” And for libraries to survive, we need to be constantly engaged with technology, in two fundamental ways.

For starters, we need to pay attention to the latest research, like Anastasia Goodstein’s work on how today’s children and teens use social media. (See “What Would Madison Avenue Do?” pp. 40–43.) Since librarians have little time or money to conduct this type of extensive customer research, reports from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and OCLC, as well as consumer studies from the business world and conversations with our own kids, are all invaluable.

One of the smartest inquiries into teen behavior that I’ve seen was a program presented by Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix’s vice president of innovation, at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference this past February. Abram invited a dozen or so young adults up to the stage and asked them all the same questions about online content—everything from their favorite songs to how they negotiated reference issues (without ever using the r-word). Although the presentation reinforced Goodstein’s findings on teen trends, it was also a useful reminder that each member of Generation Y has her own unique way of constructing her world.

We also need to keep up with innovation, and Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson offer some great suggestions on doing that—and it only takes 15 minutes a day! (See “Boot Camp,” pp. 56–57.) Keeping up involves following the changes in content providers (like YouTube) and the evolution in social networking (like Twitter) and the interplay between the two. It also requires that you actually leap into technology, get your hands dirty—at least, digitally—and experience new online tools. A great place to start is the Learning 2.0 Program (aka 23 Things), a self-guided tutorial created by Helene Blowers of North Carolina’s Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

What can happen when you pay attention to your learners and are fearless in exploring new technology?

Here’s just one example. Last month at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference, I listened to San Jose State University’s David Loertscher use his knowledge of user behavior and technology to turn the traditional school library upside down. Instead of the current system where students flow into the library, hoping to locate what they need, Loertscher proposed a client-based model where students work in portals created through iGoogle and library content flows into their portals as needed. What would happen to the physical library? It would become a high-tech information commons, perfect for collaborative teaching.

With an attitude and a vision like Loertscher’s, there’s no doubt that school libraries will continue to thrive—in a 21st-century kind of way. And by leaping into technology, so will each of us.

bkenney@reedbusiness.com