Introduction

Not Your Parents' School Library!

=Introduction= I am the librarian at Central York High School, grades 9-12. The high school has 1658 students and 130 staff members, which includes teachers, administrators, custodial staff, cafeteria staff and instructional aides. We also house a learning disabled class, an emotional support class, and an alternative education class. Classes are block scheduled and they are 80 minutes each. Ninth grade has a Skills class where the students learn technology skills that include Web 2.0. I teach database skills and I am about to begin Big6 instruction in addition to other technology skills that will support our move to one-to-one.

Every profession reinvents itself periodically and the educational system does it to a fault. If you wait long enough, whatever was popular will be so again. Cycle and recycle. Indeed, if you loved something you can be sure it will come around again. However, this change is different. The evolution of technology, the openness that it has created, has given the individual unprecedented access to information. It has placed learning smack dab in the lap of the individual. The World is Open by Dr. Curtis Bonk’s begins with the statement “Anyone can now learn anything from anyone at anytime.” What a revolutionary change! No longer am I a passive recipient of information, now I can be actively engaged in the creation and reinvention of that information. Thus, it is an exciting and terrifying time. I find myself racing to keep up rather than leading. And the extent of the change really caught me unaware. Finding myself in panic mode, I set about working to promote the services that I can offer to the staff and students. Some of the things I have tried: Database instruction Material recommendations for staff and students Articles of interest for staff members Email a Book of the Day suggestion Enable patrons to create content in circulation system Convert pathfinders into wikis Teach Big6 staff development sessions add lexiles to catalog records

Other ways I am working to grow professionally: Participate on districtwide committees Participate on the high school 1-to-1 committee Create a ning for our district’s librarians Big6 learning community Attend professional workshops and database updates Take graduate classes in library issues Collaborate with others to create a cybercafe and art gallery in the library

All these things will make me a better professional and make my program a better program. Deb Wilson