Changing the Conversation About Librarians | Mark Ray | TEDxElCajonSalon

[Music] [Applause] I'm sitting in a classroom at Portland State University I am becoming a school librarian the year is 1990 card catalogs and encyclopedias still roamed the earth Al Gore has not yet invented the Internet's most people don't have personal computers let alone mobile phones and Ted as in Bill and Ted excellent my professor dr. Joyce Petrie is very serious about librarianship I've noticed that she doesn't laugh very much today she looks out at the crowd at the class and deadpans never let them see you shush this is the Nancy pearl librarian action figure with amazing push button rushing action it's named after a real librarian from the Seattle Public Library it has all the features you've come to expect from librarians like reading glasses mild mannered clothing sensible shoes and that amazing shesha action I'm pretty sure that Joyce Petrie rolled over in her grave the day this toy hit the market now I have a hunch that you remember a librarian from your past wait okay I've got a quick question for you was it the librarian who found you just the right book or perhaps wait a minute the librarian who kicked you out of the library for talking too much for me it was the latter dr. Harry sternman's Hudson's Bay High School 1982 10 years after he kicked me out of the library I became a teacher librarian myself and has spent most of my professional career teaching in a school library including several years with Harry's Germans in spite of loving my job I've semi seriously fought against the stereotypes I've I've invented I've invented alternative job titles like slayer of information ignorance with a black belt in fink quando it's true google it you'll find me I've also made a point of never wearing sensible shoes I've recently traded the library for a job as chief digital officer for Vancouver public schools to many in the IT community I represent the fourth Horsemen of the Apocalypse but today I want to talk about school libraries and librarians I have no idea if in 1990 Joyce Petrie predicted the changes that were coming to libraries and information and technology but she was on to something I have a theory in a question that I like to explore with you today the theory is is that we're very good at associating librarians with our past the question is is do you see them as part of the future fast forward to 2008 I'm a librarian and I've been invited to a district budget meeting I've never been in a hurricane before but I can now imagine what it's like to be at the briefing when the meteorologist tells the decision-makers that a category 5 storm is on its way in its place of a hurricane there is a projected 20 million dollar budget shortfall and for the first time in my professional life I feel existential fear despite years of support for school libraries in our district this could be the hundred year storm here in California according to the Department of Education the storms have already hit less than 10 percent of schools in California have school librarians that ranks them last among 50 states and during the last decade and the Great Recession a great many other districts have followed suit cutting or reducing library programs but in 2008 in that room I decided to change the conversation instead of asking what are you going to do for school libraries and librarians I asked what can we do for you so I went to my boss and I convinced her to train librarians as trainers for a new digital service that was being deployed in our district it went so well that we expanded it to other topics and suddenly despite really tight budgets we had building technology leaders that we didn't have before and more importantly librarians were connected to the strategic work of our district they could be seen as having value beyond the library later that year in fact the storm did hit but in Vancouver Washington the libraries stayed open and the librarians continued to support students and teachers and we've never looked back just this last week my superintendent dr. Steve Webb tweeted about teacher librarians he said something to the effect of Thiel's are indispensable to our strategic vision hashtag future ready graduates period and we're not alone an effort called Project Connect started back in 2012 and it pulled together superintendents and district leaders around a common belief that school libraries and librarians are essential parts of 21st century schools and more recently I've been really excited because we've been working with Joseph South and the Department of Education and the Alliance for excellent education to connect libraries to the future ready initiative and pledge which over 2,100 superintendents have already signed well what does this look like in a library librarian Tracy Chen at Sky View High School has long noticed that kids don't come to the library for information anymore and if they do they go right to the computer lab this year every kid got an iPad talk about a perfect storm but Tracy is also changing the conversation she's reinventing herself and her and her library she is taking those things that have always been great about libraries and then re mixing it to meet the needs of her students and teachers today the important thing about Tracy is that she understands that she's a teacher and so she has learned the new apps and then she's turning around so that the students and teachers are the first one to understand how to use them and she's also teaching important things like digital citizenship and information literacy and if they don't come to the library she goes to the classroom Tracy also understands that people intuitively come to the library for help so she's made a home for the techies that are supporting the iPad deployment and she's made a student-run Genius Bar so it's the first place where students go for questions about how to fix their iPad she still has bucks in the library but she's removed the unused reference section and replaced it with flexible furnishings so that students have a place to work and collaborate something that's kind of hard to find in a school with 2,000 students Tracy's also noticing that when it comes to information kids today consume less and make more in her library she has two resident student hackers and they're currently developing a rubric to evaluate all of the making kits that are coming on the market the hope is that they can be a maker test kitchen for the district if you ask Tracy what her library is gonna look like in another year she would probably admit she has no idea so for now she's bringing in both sewing machines and makey makey kits Tracy told me the other day that she was she was collecting and she had just received the makey makey kits and and a high school girl comes up and asked can I borrow one of course Tracy says yes and the girl takes it off to a corner of the library comes back some time later with a big smile on her face and she says thanks thanks mrs. Chen he seems so cool I've really wanted one of these but I can't afford one that's why we have libraries what makes Tracie stories so powerful is that few of these ideas were original she's borrowed them from other librarians that are already doing these things around the United States future-ready librarians they're out there so the next time you're in a conversation with someone about libraries and librarians make sure they're talking as much about the future as about the past and if you want to shush them that's up to you thank you very much [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 45,399

Rating: 4.9749479 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Technology, Book, Education reform, Library

Id: IniFUB7worY

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 07 2016