Thing #15

I read Michael Stephens' article "Into a new World of Librarianship". I especially liked what he said about the library being "human". How it needs to be a "...socially and emotionally engaging place for learning and experience". I agree with this statement 100 percent. The library needs to be an emotionally engaging place, this means, magazines, books, computers, ipods, music, etc. Students should be allowed to "plug in" in the library to whatever technology they prefer. They should have access to many sites that are being blocked by many school districts. I do think that Mr. Stephens is living in a fantasy world when it comes to librarians designing and providing state of the art equipment. This takes MONEY!! Funds are short, budgets are cut every year. How are we supposed to keep up with technology that changes daily when we don't even have enough money in the budget to upgrade from VHS to DVD? I like what he has to say, but I do not think he is grounded in the reality of limited resources for schools.