The school libraries of today are not the libraries of yesteryears. There’s definitely a new breed of librarians and a new breed of libraries on today’s scene…and this is rightfully so, because there is a new breed of students. Today’s students are fondly referred to as the Net Gen. Even more precise, Generation Y. The profile I see of today’s Net Generation in middle schools and high schools is one of children born in and around the Millennian in the mid to late 90s and forward. This is literally a generation that has been born not knowing what the world was like without a universal remote control.
(photo curtesy of www.littletechgirl.com)
Can you imagine? I’ve even seen babies use their mom’s droids as toothing rings and the other day at the hair dresser 2 little 5 year olds were texting each other and taking pictures from their mons’ phones like they invented social networking!
I, on the other hand, can remember what the world was like when there was no such thing as color TV and my portable music device was a transiter radio that ran on AA EverReady batteries that I used without earplugs because my grandparents refused to buy them for me. Children toys were bought from the five and dime store and if you wanted a book, your couldn’t get it at Barnes and Noble, because the only Barnes and Noble existing was on 5th Avenue in Greenwich Village.
To accompany this ancient form of world existence, the librarian at school was literally a part of the woodwork. She never ever ever left the library. She never left her office. EVER. Coupled with the fact that we as students of that bygone era (late 60s early 70s for me) never ever ever went to the library as a class. NEVER…and you’ve now got the schism factor for today’s school libraries. There’s the librarians (as well as some teachers) that have taught in the old traditional direct instructional ways and don’t wish to adapt to a more student centered style…wishing to force the students to learn the same way they did…in silence. It’s not gonna happen!
(photo curtesy of TheTechEtiquetteMannual by Katie McElveen)
The kids today don’t exist in those types of environments. I don’t exist in that type of environment. We walk around with our iPods and Droids, text messaging while cleaning studying looking at TV, listening to music with earplugs. and holding a conversation on the phone. Social Networking is such an intricate part of today’s society that even Emily Post, the grande dame of manners, has incorporated technology etiquette (http://www.emilypost.com/technology) as one of her categories to pay heed to.
Although in my library there are times of quiet. There are more times, however, filled with the rumble of sound gushing forth from research and study groups. Now of course I am not at the level of constant everyday open to closing research. I find that more common in the high school library environments. What I sincerely wish to develop in my middle school setting is one in which more classes are brought into the participatory aspects of learning thus causing a change in the culture of my school, students, faculty, and staff.
