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PIXELS

pixels ‘Old guard’ school libraries carving niches in new era

The Nashua-Plainfield High School Library has changed in the time since librarian Kris Griffith started working there.

The library no longer has leftover stacks of dated periodicals and magazines lining storage shelves. Griffith used to curate 13 different subscriptions for student resources.

Unused outlets line a back wall. They used to be filled with plugs from desktop computers, from the time the library served as a computer lab.

Even the foot traffic patterns are different, Griffith said, now that N-P students from grades 7 to 12 carry their own Area Education Agency 1:1 Initiative laptops to classes and home.

“We had 26 computers in here, and classes came in here to work a lot,” she said. “It has changed the traffic in and out of

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Through December, the Charles City Press will be exploring the changing purpose of school libraries: from the tech, teaching, to the future of what libraries can provide. Digital citizens: Students, focus and personal technology. Dec. 9

Word search: When research sources are infinite.

Dec. 16

Librarians: Media specialists, teachers and trainers. Dec. 23 the library just because they’re doing those things in classes coming here. I think I’ve had to work a little harder with teachers to remind them that there are still valuable resources here in the library and not just on their computers.”

As technology changes the classroom, libraries are caught in the middle –– viewed as beacons of the old guard of learning, familiar storehouses of books. Yet the librarians themselves are engaging with teachers, experts and other media specialists statewide to stay on top of the available tech and, in the end, give northeast Iowa students a competitive learning edge.

The Library toolkit

What happens when students grow up in the digital age?

They’ve likely played with their parents’ cellphones while in line at the grocery store, built a masterpiece in videogames like “Minecraft,” or listened to music on their own iPod touch during family road trips. Now, they must learn to translate those leisure-time skills into real-world applications –– and their school library, also referred to as media centers, are the start of that process, Charles City elementary librarian Anna Burnham said.

“Now we have to teach them how to browse the Web, or, what words are you going to use to find (answers)?” Burnham said. “When I go to a workshop with the teacher-librarians in our AEA area, they’re looking always for new apps, because a lot of schools have gone with tablets and not laptops. That’s a whole new range of things. Now you have to look at what’s appropriate in the electronic area.”

Lincoln and Washington Elementary each have mobile computer lab carts, with 25 to 30 laptops that teachers can reserve for students’ use inside the classroom. Charles City and Nashua-Plainfield school districts are both 1:1 using Macbook laptops, but surrounding districts choose Chromebooks, iPads, Android tablets, according to AEA records. Anything that’s on the market is considered.

Osage and Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock both begin their 1:1 programs in kindergarten, AEA says, starting students in grades K-3 on iPads before older students go on to Chromebooks (Osage) or Macbooks (RRMR).

The mobile tech “starter kit” for students can affect how usable different formats are, Burnham said, and sometimes new formats, like eBooks, can be difficult for librarians to navigate.

“You’re going to spend about 20 to 30 percent more on your budget, because publishers aren’t very friendly, at least I find, for libraries,” Burnham said. “If you buy a book, a printed book, you buy multiple copies. So when you buy the eBook if you get so many (readers) out of that, they’re going to charge you more … It’s really quite complicated, and nothing is just clear cut with it.”

At N-P, Griffith and District Teacher Librarian Carol Fry have found one way to make eBooks work in their district, through AEA’s mackinVIA portal and eReader. The product gives teachers access to all of AEA’s eBook textbooks, which cuts down on the need for districts to buy their own sets.

“Just recently both of us have had teachers needing a certain topic, and we could easily say, let’s look at mackinVIA and see if there is some ebooks on your topic,” Fry said. “Then you don’t have to order a classroom set. You could have all the students get on their 1:1 laptop, have that book available, and they can read it.”

A BASE FOR collaboration

In one sense, free reading hasn’t really changed for N-P students. MackinVIA doesn’t have a comprehensive fiction database, and N-P hasn’t started purchasing individual eBooks.

“There’s still the kids that really enjoy reading, and they still are required to free read and do book talks,” Griffith said. “You have those kids still coming in to find books. There’s now a class called “Pop Fiction,” so those kids are reading some of the newer titles. I think those things have evolved to try to get kids to still have a love of reading, to have a book in their hands but try to keep it more up to date with what they read. I think that’s a good thing.”

And although students aren’t opting to spend their study hall time in the library as much, teachers are taking advantage of that table space to encourage collaboration.

“If they’re in here working as a class, they’re in here with a purpose, doing that research might be limited to two days or three days of a class period. They’re on a pretty tight timeline, and teachers are pretty good reminding them about that,” Griffith said.

Charles City High School’s library has opened the doors to wider, louder discussions for students, Teacher Librarian Naomi Yaddof said. Now, the lunch hour –– SmartLunch at CCHS –– is the only time of the day students are asked to stay quiet in respect of other working students. Beyond that, Yaddof said, expecting students to work silently is in the past.

“They are encouraged to come in here during their study halls, because they can talk at the level we’re talking right now,” Yaddof said. “If you want kids to use the library, they have to feel comfortable using the library. Collaboration is such a big part of our curriculum, the kids have to be able to talk.”

“If they can’t communicate, what good is it to assign a project?”

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com

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