Digital Power!

Pixabay Image

I am excited to see the publication of two milestones for those interested in bringing digital literacy in to the library for kids and families.

One is the publication of the full Young Children,New Media, and Libraries:A Guide for Incorporating New Media into Library Collections, Services, and Programs for Families and Children Ages 0-5. This book has been written as an online serial over the past year or so by some of the true movers, shakers and thinkers on this issue in the nation. It can be downloaded or accessed online.

The second is ALSC's new White Paper on Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth. This paper was adopted by the ALSC board in March and is now available for downloading. It is a straightforward, well-reasoned, well- researched and helpful guide that places libraries and librarians squarely in a digital literacy role we so beautifully performed with print and nonprint literacy over the years. It is available on page chuck full of information on the many ways libraries are working on media mentorship.

While some see attention to digital literacy and evolving our roles in libraries to include being media mentors as THE.DEATH.OF.LOVE.OF.BOOKS.AS.WE.KNOW.IT, I remain remarkably sanguine.

Could be I've seen four decades of growth, evolution and radical change in libraries since the heady days of the 1970s. Could be I think that Ranganathan's Fifth Law posited in 1931 (The Library is a growing organism) is actually true. Could be that transliteracy and the remarkable resiliency of libraries to meet the community's needs trump any fear we might have of change. Could be I just like change.

Whatever.

I welcome the great work being done nationally, regionally and locally to embrace digital literacy and media mentorship and applaud everyone who is stepping up and on. Go you's!!!

More Tech Talk

Need more ways to polish up your thoughts and planning on technology and kids.

You can start with the ongoing online chapter-by-chapter publication of Young Children, New Media and Libraries in Little elit, and reading this blog for ideas on using ipads in programming, seminal thoughts on librarians as media mentors and much more.

You can attend these nifty LITA (Library Information and Technology Association of ALA) webinars Technology and Youth Services Programs: Early Literacy Apps and More in May with Claire Moore of Darien CT Library followed the next week by After Hours: Circulating Technology to Improve Kids Access with Megan Egbert from Meridian Library District (go LITA! Go Youth services colleagues!)

You can stay updated on libraries that have been using ipads in-house at blogs like Reading with Red.

And now we're thinking about the nifty and new to the market Launchpads.

There's a world of things to discover! Let's do this!!

Just to See if I Could

I love technology even when I'm less than facile with it. Having come from the horse and buggy days when overdue notices were handwritten, check-out cards (by the thousands) were hand alphabetized for each due date and slowly searched to unite card with returned item, and phone notices ate up a morning each week, how can I not love?

Back in the day, to reach out to your colleagues meant a drive or a long-distance phone call. It wasn't unusual for a director, sweating the bottom line, to ask you to use snail mail. Not exactly conducive to a conversation.

Technology has been powering our work and connectivity since the '80s. Each year it gets better, faster and more interwoven. Social media gets us brainstorming, learning, commiserating and celebrating with pals, new and old, near and far. Travis Jonker just wrote this article on power-using. Combine that with chats, google doc collaboration and we can be right there with each other all the time. I'm with you, buddy!

Bringing technology into our work with kids has also been great. Watching parents using iPads with their kids, kids gaming and solving in Minecraft, kids learning animation, coding, filmmaking, using iPads for trivia/scavenger hunts on tours and more in libraries (check out Jbrary's recent post on iPad programs) has been way exciting. I will never be the Luddite that screams "Books! Books! Nothin' but books!" There is room for all the ways to interact with print and discover and learn information.

So where is all this going? Well with new iPhone I bought last night in hand, for the first time I am free to blog wherever and whenever. So I did, just to see if I could!

Sigh! Technology I heart you!

[Although I couldn't *quite* figure out how to get the links and photo in...more study ahead!)

A Little Library-Linky Love

Since it was such a good morning of blog posts on my feeds, I wanted to share a little of it with all of you. Here's what woke me up this morning...plus a fun post from last week.

LJ's Digital Shift got me going with a fantastic list of apps and programs to help teach kids - well, and us!- coding mightiness. I can see some great programs growing at the library!

Cen Campbell of Little elit, along with colleagues Elizabeth Gray and Genesis Hansen, developed a list of core tech competencies in youth services. I think we need these kind of benchmarks to measure and plan for service to evolving communities of young, tech-savvy parents - and kids.

And since humor makes everything better, the ubiquitous xkcd comic posted some simple answers on what happens when new tech appears.

And speaking of competencies, with YALSA doing a soft launch of badges that teen librarians can earn as they practice competencies for librarians serving youth, Christie and Karen over at TLT (Teen Librarian Toolbox) , put the brakes on with some thoughtful questions on how those badges might- or might not - work.

Finally on the "service to our very youngest patrons"-front, two posts:

I love our La Crosse Public Library new staffer Brooke's story of how she saw a need to serve babies, came up with an initiative, wrote a grant and designed and pioneered Baby Book Bees at her blog Reading with Red.

I appreciate Rebecca's research, wise words and suggestions on Sturdy for Common Things on sharing great reads to "the bump" for expectant parents. Priceless!

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Stop Making a Divide!

It has been a rambunctious few weeks on the alsc-l listserv and then followed up on the ALSC blog. What is ruffling feathers and raising tempers?  The basic question of how we as youth librarians incorporate and curate digital content for kids - including very young kids.

A simple request to share thoughts with an app developer passed on to the listserv by Cen Campbell over at Little eLit blog elicited more action than I've seen on alscl in a while.  Some people got quite off topic with flame-worthy insistence that digital content had no place in the library lives of kids between 0-5. The ALSC blog guest posts followed - here, here and here.

I never weighed in on this brouhaha except in comments. I will tell you, though, I was dismayed at some of the attitudes displayed and the arguments made against including digital content for young kids. Although we haven't made much of a leap at our library, it is a direction I expect our team will be going much sooner rather than later.  Again, Cen pointed the way in her Wrestling Your Bear post at the beginning of November. That  coupled with the provocative posts in the Libraries and Transliteracy blog (now finished) really informed my thinking.

Cen's thoughts dovetail with mine. This semester I have been teaching a graduate level Children's and YA Services course for UW-Madison.  One of our textbooks, Adele Fasick's From Boardbook to Facebook, published in 2011, makes the case for the direction youth libraries will inevitably be moving in. It's a direction that seamlessly blends traditional print with digital content to meet the needs of our families. I would be remiss as an instructor - and as a practicing librarian - not to look further and more deeply into the future that is truly happening right now. My students need to be open to the possibilities they will experience at the beginning - as well as at the end - of their careers.

While I appreciate the hesitation and worry about screen time expressed by people, I also think it is incredibly short-sighted and darn near dereliction of duty not to stand-up, research-up, read-up, learn-up, understand-up AND change-up for positive support and curation of digital content for kids. Arguing as Luddites that screen time is a no-no below a certain age ignores the rich (and sometimes stupid and banal) content that parents are tapping into already. As youth librarians we need to understand and lead, model and recommend to help our families find the best for their kids.

I hope people stop thinking of why not and start thinking of why and how. We serve our communities best when we add to our knowledge base, bridge the divides - and change and evolve with the times. By learning from and collaborating with each other we all gain.

Image: 'Canyon do Buracão' http://www.flickr.com/photos/58817442@N00/352819555 Found on flickrcc.net

I Spy Ipads

I love the post over at the ALSC blog by Kiera Parrott from the Darien CT Library about their vision and success in circulating Early Literacy Ipad kits to children.  This is the kind of red meat "how-to" post that gets my blood pumping.  Thanks to the Youth Services team there for leading the way towards ebook/technology circulation use for kids.

And more importantly, thanks for sharing the information in a way that helps all Youth librarians begin or improve their own technology plans!

Image: 'Eye See You' http://www.flickr.com/photos/21314760@N00/518956588

Wicked Funny

From our friends at xkcd via LIS News, a hilarious cartoon:

Digital PR is a Snap

We have had a digital picture frame at our Children's Dept desk for about a year now.  It has been a fun way to load pictures of our programs that kids and adults stop and look at.  We haven't thought about uses beyond this - that is until now!  The Strange Librarian has a wonderful list of suggestions on additional ways to take advantage of these frames.  We must try more of these cool ideas!

Everything Old Is New Again

My colleague Georgia over at Come into Delight has a great post about an American Girls program she did recently as she paused between the calls of technology. It was focused on Addy who lived during the Civil War era and featured hand squeezed lemonade and entertainment that would have been part of a child's life in that era. The kids were delighted. Keeping Up with Kids blog has additional details provided by Georgia.

It has been interesting to see how popular some of the programs are with kids that reach back to share customs and activities from pre-computer times.  I've seen fascination with butter churning, flint making, sowing seeds, stitching and weaving and so much more.  It echoes what we see in some of our adult programs...people are just as hungry to find out how to make soap, preserve foods and garden as they are to learn how to use Skype and ipods and facebook.  It is an interesting balance and part of what makes program planning and creation so much fun.  There is always something new to try and everything old is new again!

Image: 'Pioneer Dream House' http://www.flickr.com/photos/57402879@N00/98264661

Is the Book Future Now?

Travis over at 100 Scope Notes found a verrrry interesting post with a video of a publisher using Ipad to demo how its books might be accessed and it is pretty interesting. The Ipad to Kindle looks like a Maserati to a Model T. Whoosh!

As someone who spent her tween/teen/and early adult years voraciously reading science fiction (I kind of skipped the children's literature of that time) and thinking about what the future might hold, I have to say that the Ipad is getting pretty close to what I envisioned reading to be like -someday. Ipad potentially could combine the power of reading with the power of interconnectivity - and that is where I think I start moving away from books - whoops, did *I* say that?

I hope there is a way for publishers and authors to be part of this amazing gestalt - and earn the money they deserve. I am not looking for free content - I am looking to free the content up!

Image: 'robot invasion' http://www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2458233987