State of America's Libraries Report 2015 | News and Press Center Skip to main content ALA User Menu Search form ala homepage quick links Right Nav You are at: ALA.org » News » State of America's Libraries Report 2015 Share this page: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Digg Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Share on Pinterest Share on Tumblr More Options Send via email Print Cite State of America's Libraries Report 2015 Academic, public and school libraries are experiencing a shift in how they are perceived by their communities and society. Press release: New State of America’s Libraries Report finds shift in role of U.S. libraries 2015 State of America's Libraries Report (PDF) Flipbook version at American Libraries Magazine Accessible text-only version (PDF) Reporters should contact:
The Future for Teaching and Learning What does the future hold for librarians’ participation in teaching and learning in colleges and universities? Many are already taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the emergence of new technologies and faculty interest in giving students assignments that will engage them in their learning. I believe that the greatest opportunities for librarians lie in deeper connections to the curriculum, adapting to new modes of pedagogy, linking technology-rich and collaborative spaces in libraries to learning, and ensuring that individuals who enrich the library’s role in teaching and learning are on staff. Overall, the trajectory is for the increasing integration of librarians and libraries into the teaching and learning program of the college or university. Librarians, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Departments, colleges, or individual faculty might deliberately add the development of technology and information skills within the discipline as new objectives in the curriculum.
10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians | Trust me, I'm a librarian 1) We hate quiet. Oh, sure, the typical view of a librarian is an older woman, in a cardigan and cat-eye glasses, with a tight bun, shushing everyone who dares to make a sound. That may have been the case a long time ago, and may still be the case with some dinosaur librarians (they still exist, sorry!) This isn’t to say we don’t appreciate students working alone or a student reading alone, but the library is a common place where everyone can work together and communicate. 2) We love collaboration. We love to see students collaborating, but we also love to collaborate with you, our classroom teachers! 3) We are technology people at heart. The printed page may die at some point (most of us hope it won’t). If you have a new Web 2.0 tool that you want to try, ask us. 4) We don’t read all day. We wish we did. 5) We don’t know everything. Sadly true. 6) We’re all passionate about something. 7) We network like crazy. We don’t just network with people, but we network with libraries too. Like this:
School Culture and the Library In preparation for tomorrow's edweb.net/emergingtech webinar, Pitching the Library: How to Explain What School Librarians Do, I wanted to share a project one of our New Canaan High School seniors created for his documentary filmmaking class last year. His assignment was to make a video that addressed school culture. He emailed me the day before he came down to capture most of the footage. I am currently taking a Documentary Film class and our assignment is to create a film on a school "climate" Our group decided to choose the library media center as a focus for the film because when most if not all students think of the library, ... the library as enjoyable as it is. We were hoping to interview you about the library media center and factors about it. Hope to hear back from you, Andrew On the day of the interview, I was presented with 3 questions right before the filming. About three weeks later, he sent me a link to this: My response follows: OMG!!!
Top 10 Academic Library Websites 2014 Here are my favorite academic libraries of 2014. I expected this year’s sites to be: Unified - I wanted a seamless, integrated research experience. I looked for cross-platform search tools, integration with courses, and built-in, non-siloed research guides.Instructive - I wanted the site to teach me how to be a better researcher. I looked for embedded information literacy instruction and point-of-need help features.Accessible - I wanted the site to be accessible by anyone from any device. Here are the 2014 winners: 1) North Carolina State University Detail of NCSU search dropdown 2) Cornell University 3) Portland State University This library is all about teaching users how to become better researchers: I love their interactive and modular DIY Library teaching tool. PSU’s Library DIY interactive tutorial 4) Wake Forest University This site is my pick for Most Accessible – this was the only library I found that got a perfect score when tested for conformity with website accessibility standards.
The School Librarian as Learning Alchemist The landscape of learning is changing. Children and young adults learn not only in school but fluidly across home, school, peer culture, and community. This transformation in learning and the school environment has prompted educators to ask challenging questions about how to develop learning spaces to meet these needs within the sometimes competing economic, social, and political realities. At the same time, school librarians continue to serve their communities by linking children, young adults, and teachers with both the information they need and the skills to use it. We’ve identified three trends that we see as most affecting the role of the school librarian in the near future. Information on demand In the near future, there will be a significant reduction in physical library space and collections. Even as some schools move to virtual collections, the opportunities for school librarians to influence learning will actually increase. Connected learning The school librarian of the future
4 Ways Academic Libraries Are Adapting For The Future For academic institutions seeking to thrive amidst the constantly shifting world of higher education, libraries have become the heart of the spirit of collaboration and innovation—going beyond being places to merely access knowledge to become hubs to truly explore and create. The institutions at the frontlines of this change are thinking beyond the days of the library as a collections repository to something much more powerful. At a recent meeting with the University of Virginia Executive Vice President and Provost John Simon, he described the library as the great "Intellectual Convener." Despite all the dire predictions for the future of academic libraries in the digital age, when people believed the digitalization of print and other emerging technologies would make them irrelevant, universities around the country are evolving their libraries and intellectual centers into catalysts for discovery, learning, collaboration, and scholarly breakthroughs. Libraries Must Embrace Flexibilty
The Future of MLS We’ve all seen various reports and discussions around the future of libraries. From Pew (“The Future of Libraries: 7 Questions Librarians Need to Answer”) and the Aspen Institute (“Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries”) to forums (ALA Summit on the Future of Libraries) to articles (Slate’s “What Will Become of the Library?”), and our own white paper (“Re-Envisioning the MLS”), there is no shortage of data or discussion on the topic. State and local government workforces have faced significant reductions since 2009. Given these challenges, there is need to engage in a parallel discussion regarding the future of librarians. To seed this discussion, the iSchool at the University of Maryland launched its three-year Re-Envisioning the MLS initiative. Our first year is focused on engagement, with years two and three focused on redesign and implementation. What have we learned to date? Adaptable. Lindsay Sarin is MLS program coordinator at University of Maryland’s iSchool.
What does a good library tell you about a school? Your library is your portrait. - Holbrook Jackson... children in one set of schools are educated to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being governed. The former are given the imaginative range to mobilze ideas for economic growth; the latter are provided with the discipline to do the narrow tasks the first group will prescribe. - Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities. Had I any say in the decision, my grandsons would never attend a school that did not have a good library program.* You can tell a lot about a school's philosophy of education - in practice, not just in lip service - by what sort of library it supports. A school with a good library: It's in times of budget cuts that a school's true values come starkly into focus. Which kind of school do you want your grandchildren to attend? What does your library reveal about your school?
Marketing for Libraries In this section, we'll examine the design of communications and explore the stories that bring library products alive. Key Questions Each of the following questions will be addressed on this page. For quick access, click on the question of interest. What's the message? Each library and service has a story to tell. The photo below is courtesy of the Utah State Library (Flickr). Example: The Lafayette College Library was looking for a way to increase use of their Personalized Research Assistance (PRA) service. According to Rebecca Metzger, "PRA cards get the faces of reference librarians out to students in a comedic format that shakes up the stereotype of librarians as stodgy and serious, hopefully making us more approachable. Each semester all students are mailed the current postcards that feature reference librarians superimposed on movie or TV skills that reflect pop culture (an example is shown blow). Accessibility - Can people easily navigate the library building and website? Timely.
Libraries and Librarians: Essential to Thriving Schools - Road Trips in Education I love libraries! I'm composing this blog post in a recently opened library in Palo Alto, and have always loved visiting libraries big and small, in schools and in some of the largest cities in the nation. And despite the competition from monuments and government buildings of great renown, The Library of Congress is my favorite site in Washington, D.C. It's not just the love of reading and books, but the nearly sacred atmosphere of libraries that draws me in. My year-long project visiting schools and teachers in California has been particularly enjoyable in the past few weeks as I've seen some wonderful libraries and dedicated librarians. In my day at Merced High School, I observed how Sarah carries out the mission of a librarian to function as a teacher of every student in the school, and a key support to the teachers as well. This week, I spent a morning with Kay Hones, a National Board Certified Teacher librarian in San Francisco Unified School District.
The TL Toolkit for Student Success Home Think you don’t? Yes you do! Teacher-librarians can and do make a difference. There is a considerable body of documented evidence that proves that schools having a good school library and program have a positive impact on student achievement. Although the data is mounting globally it is also clear that school administrators need to have evidence at the local school level when planning for school improvement and making tough financial decisions. Evidence-Based Practice is not complicated. Some Benefits of Evidence-Based Practice: Improving and demonstrating student achievement Becoming learning central Empowering the learner and the professional Highlighting the school library’s role in school improvement Providing accountability: funding, staffing, scheduling Planning more effectively Increasing your job satisfaction Reflecting on your practice Moving beyond advocacy
The Library of the Future Back in April I wrote a blog post about “Teaching the Class of 2025“, my opinions on what I think the classroom of 2025 would look like, feel like and sound like (click here to read). I had some amazing feedback on this blog post that got me thinking and reflecting on what I wrote. One response in particular was related to my comments on Libraries from Karen Clarke, a Library Manager at St Patrick’s College in Wellington, New Zealand. In the blog post I said: “Libraries and Books will be no more – I have already noticed the move away from this in the past few years. In response to this comment Karen got in touch with me and I was so inspired and excited by what she told me that I asked her to write a response blog post. The Library of the Future In 2025 the library will still be the main hub of the school. A venue for research – Students, even though they will have their own devices, will still need to be guided through the myriad of information available. Image by Karen Clarke 2015
The EBSM Methodology