Information Over Items

As with many of our resources in our modern library learning commons, we are constantly trying to figure out if it is important for print resources to stick around when there are so many benefits to using digital resources. The topics in theme three deal with many different ideas, but overall, our discussions on our course forum often came back to whether or not print resources, like dictionaries, thesauruses, and atlases, should have a main place in our libraries. This discussion around print or digital is not one that I aim to clear up in this blog post, but it is one that should be considered when thinking about building a library and types of resources that are available within in. While I agree that there should still be an availability of these library constants in print, the capabilities that digital access allows us is invaluable. Not to mention, “the cost of maintaining current volumes of [reference materials] is high…” (Riedling 118). Dictionaries can provide suggestions to students if they misspell words, provide links to blogs on topics covered by words they’re looking up. Google Maps can allow students to walk the streets and see topographical information, while an atlas could be outdated shortly after printing and does not allow the same immersive experience. The fluidity allowed by digital references is vital.

Digital Reference Links off the SJ Willis Education Centre Library Learning Commons Website

Last school year I attended a whole-school assembly at the high school I was working at. The assembly highlighted a touring rock band that discussed mental health through videos, speeches, and music. Despite these varied, eye-catching mediums the students were not wowed. While they were (relatively) polite by listening, they appeared apathetic to the live performance in front of them. It wasn’t for lack of trying of the performers and most of the teachers were engaged. In earlier years, before the prevalence of digital technology and information, these students would have experienced the assembly much differently. Instead, today, if they want, they can re-watch the assembly, or similar ones, on YouTube, or listen to this artist’s song on Spotify easily and for free. The level of accessibility for many things has changed significantly. It affects all aspects of our lives including the way we access, retrieve information and connect with it in real-time. I’m not suggesting I like it, or that it is all good, but it should be acknowledged that we’re not existing in the same world we were even five years ago and that affects how we interact with our world. For libraries, this is indicative of how students access or want to access items. 

            As stated, this topic is too big to try and tackle in one blog post. In 2005, Maxwell wrote that, “for the foreseeable future both formats of reference materials will coexist, the goal for librarians will be to fully implement and integrate the new digital resources into routine school library service” (Maxwell 62). Now thirteen years later, the “foreseeable future” continues and we are still working to “implement and integrate” digital references into our library learning commons with varying degrees of success and acceptance (Maxwell 62). Ultimately, as the Ted Talk by Bill Ptacek below suggests, the library is a concept. If we achieve our concept, and our goals, then it does not matter too much what resources we have as long as we are serving the purposes of our community and learners. Print or digital – regardless of your preference, provide access in a variety of ways to fulfill the needs of the community.

References

Maxwell, D. J. "Digital Versus Print: The Current State of Reference Affairs in School

            Libraries." The Reference Librarian, vol. 44, no. 91-92, 2005, pp. 53-68.

Riedling, Ann, Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips,

            (Third Edition). Linworth.

TEDxTalks. “The Library Is Not a Place, It's a Concept. | Bill Ptacek | TEDxCalgary.” YouTube,

            YouTube, 10 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES0zGUvZj5s.