Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » Skills for the 21st Century Librarian

A few weeks ago, I finished a chapter I was writing (not for my book — another one) on the topic of technology in LIS Education. I think Rachel asked me to write it because I had complained about my own library school education in the past and the fact that many schools create this false dichotomy between “library work” and “information science work”. I see so many schools that seem to promote the view that learning about technology is not necessary in library schools if you plan to go into “traditional” librarian roles such as reference, instruction and other public service areas. At my school, you could easily go through the whole program without ever having taken a technology class and our traditional classes certainly didn’t have tech subjects integrated into them at all. What I realized once I started looking for jobs was that a large number of public service jobs these days require tech skills. So what skills should new librarians have in this first part of the 21st century?

digital digs: The challenge of information literacy? the faculty I've been at this blogging thing for a few years now, so I'm bound to revisit issues. It just seems lately I've been returning to old topics. No different today. There's a lot of talk about students and information literacy. I continue to be concerned that the real stumbling block on the path to this goal does not have to do with students but rather with faculty. So I'm just going to lay out a handful of basic technical and rhetorical skills I think you'd want students to have. Make simple audio and video recordings (we're not talking Spielberg here; just cruise around on YouTube for a while and you'll get the idea) Make a basic, static website using a simple application like iWeb. I think it would be generous to say that 10% of any campus faculty have all these skills. Now I'm not suggesting that you'd need 100% of faculty to have all these skills, but maybe 40%? The task of building this literacy is nearly overwhelming.

A revised manifesto Thank you all for the kind feedback you offered for my rant a few days back. As I wrote that response, in the back of my mind I considered a few realities: 1. Some administrators have never seen a vibrant library program. 2. 3. 4. 5. It is critical that we demonstrate and share. Back in October, I revised the little Manifesto I worked on a couple of years ago for my VOYA column. Please share, add, or pull it apart in your comments. Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians My prompt: A couple of summers back a young school librarian, fresh out of library school, asked a very honest question at one of our state retreats: We’re all doing different stuff. Well into the 21st century, it is clear that the concept of modern teacher librarian practice is not clear. In the past few years many of us have re-imagined school library for learners using the array of new tools and abilities in front of us today. And in my humble opinion some aspects of emerging practice are nonnegotiable. Reading 1. 2.

Eduquer à l’information En pédagogie, l’approche "instructiviste" place l’apprenant dans la situation d’apprendre en écoutant. Cette approche fonctionne lorsque l’apprenant connaît l’émetteur d’information et a confiance en lui. L’approche "constructiviste", propre à l’éducation populaire, propose à l’apprenant de se construire un savoir à partir de ressources qu’il gère lui-même. C’est le but de l’éducation à l’information [1], dont l’importance est reconnue par tous sans pour autant que de réels moyens lui soient consacrés dans l’éducation et la formation. De nouveaux outils de communication (blogs, wikis, podcasts…) ajoutés aux sites Internet "traditionnels" produisent aujourd’hui une masse d’informations de moins en moins hiérarchisées et identifiables par leurs émetteurs ou par leur niveau de validité. C’est pourquoi il est nécessaire de se construire ses propres outils et compétences de traitement de l’information. Quelle qualité attribuer à des informations trouvées sur Internet ?

caitri: Information Literacy and School Librarianship At first I was really pissed off at this article in The Post and now I just think it's kind of funny. The short short version of the article is that the writer, a DC school librarian, fiercely resents that school librarians have to teach Information Literacy. Y'know, how to pick out good information and not cite Wikipedia in research papers. That sort of thing. To which I reply: Buddy. Yes, love of reading is a beautiful thing. Also, you HAVE to teach IL. It struck me this afternoon that the author, Thomas Washington, has shot himself in the foot if his boss ever figures out that he really wrote that article. Mostly I think "Thomas" should just go back to teaching English. Information Literacy meets Web 2.0 Sirje Virkus Homepage Teaching responsibilities I am working at the Department of Information Studies of the Tallinn University since 1985. I'm responsible for the following courses: Research interests From September 1st - December 31st 1997, a researcher at the Department of Information Studies, Abo Akademi University in . From December 1st 2001 - December 1st 2005, a PhD student at the Department of Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University. Work experience 1979 - 1985 I worked as a researcher at the Estonian Institute of Scientific and Technological Information and Economic Research, at the Department of Automated Systems for Scientific and Technological Information. Professional activities Member of editorial boards Awards and Grants Guest lecturing Project activities Publications I am the author of 166 articles, book chapters, published reports and conference papers. Virkus, S. Virkus, S. Virkus, - integreeritud raamatukogusüsteem. Papp, Y-M., Virkus, S. Virkus, S. Virkus, S. Virkus, S.

ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium - TechSource Gaming Symposium S.O.S. for Information Literacy Knowledge Jolt with Jack: The dying art of information literacy Shawn Callahan is bummed that his masters-level students are using sources (Google and Wikipedia) without evaluating their reliability. Our information diets are killing us: I have just finished marking a bunch of assignments. Not surprising the topic was narrative techniques in knowledge management. This is an issue that comes up both in academics and in general business circles. Why is this important? Collectively, information literacy is important because we have to rely on one another to search and collect and evaluate sources to develop high-quality solutions in business. So, is the art of information literacy dying?