Shhhhh...There is a revolution going on.

And it's happening right under our noses.  Over the past decade or so, the way students conduct research for school projects has changed dramatically.  And as such, the location where students find information has changed as well. Smart technology has enabled students to search the web anywhere from their phone or laptop -- in the classroom, in their home, even while riding the bus on their way to school.  Contrast that to when we were in school. Remember taking trips to the school library, pencil and notebook in hand, searching the stacks for just the right book?  It took time, but personally, I loved having that quiet, distraction-free space to do my work. My kids, well they approach things differently. Their quest for information happens while tapping away on a keyboard, sitting at my kitchen counter. "You're doing research? Are you sure?"

 

So what does this mean for the future of school libraries?  Does the digital really replace the analog going forward?  Are those silent, somewhat stuffy rooms destined to disappear from our schools completely?  If you ask Sequoia High School's new Media Specialist, Betsy Snow, I bet the answer would be, well...yes and no.  New to Sequoia but not new to education, Ms. Snow, along with Ms. Shannon Schadler, has begun to transform Sequoia's library into a "busy, bustling learning laboratory" to use the phrase from David Loertscher, professor of library and information science at San Jose State University and author of Reinvent Your School's Library in the Age of Technology: A Handbook for Principals and Superintendents. 

Since the new school year began, the stacks have been joined by Chrome carts filled with tablets for student use.  Tables have been reconfigured for more student-to-student collaboration. The windows allow in sunshine and views of the beautiful newly landscaped tea garden, and the campus quad will be accessible through the library's back doors.  Ms. Snow has plans to begin offering workshops on Photoshop and other digital media editing tools. In the words of professor Loertscher, the library will begin to transition from "a place of consumption to a place of creation." And despite the inevitable digital shift that is taking place in libraries, Sequoia's many contemporary and classic books and its significant collection of primary source material will continue to be available to students and faculty alike. 

 

Today's students are experiencing a whole new way of utilizing the school library and by extension, the role of the librarian.  Ms. Snow stands on the shoulders of past Sequoia librarians who gave so much to our students. The library team will still be on hand, as they have always been, to help students develop and refine a search question, or find that crucial bit of information for an assignment.