21st Century Skills for Librarians

Interesting discussion of job description for new position at Karen Schneider's library. You can see the the 21st century librarian is going to have to know a lot about a lot in order to be able to function and to be successful...

With so many hats and more in the making, at least librarians won't be bored!

More about the future that is heading our way...

This article reminded me of a visit to Jefferson, Texas which used to be a major hub in Texas until its citizens turned down a connection to the railroad. Publishers need to plan for a digital future to prevent their own extinction. This article is a good start for getting them to think about what that future might look like.

As research library leaders confront turbulent times, they sorely need new tools to facilitate thinking about the future of the institution and to foster dialogue within the community. ARL's new project seeks to envision library futures and will engage the Association's member community in looking decades out at the situations that will confront research libraries. At the heart of this work will be the creation of a set of future scenarios and a toolkit to facilitate research library leaders in their planning and decision making.

It will be interesting to see in twenty years if any of the scenarios pan out. Would someone doing scenarios twenty years ago have predicted just how digital today's libraries are?

So how do you take these Digital Native realities and build a set of strategies that support your organization's digital initiatives, especially when technology is quickly and constantly shifting? More information about our users and their expectations--and as a result, the skills we will need in order to make these new tools and experiences a reality.

"build your strategies to support the core values of your users, not to support the advancement of technology. " - Yes, but the article just showed how these values were shaped by technology, noting how the digital generation is different from older generations because of technology.

I think the "engagement, enrichment, and empowerment" ideas are really important for us and our future skill sets. We don't know how to do any of these really well, imo, (but especially the enrichment part) and we need to learn more techniques and strategies for interacting with our users in the spaces they prefer. Whether these user needs are the result of nature or nurture, we are going to have to pay attention to them if we want to continue to be of value.

John's literature search

Virtually there, almost: educational and informational possibilities in virtual worlds (just keeping track of the title)

These are my slides from the panel I did at TLA with Stephen Abram and John Blyberg. You know, if you look at these slides, you will find out everything I am secretly planning! :-)

National Bureau of Economic Research paper discussing a decline in student study time from 40 hours per week in 1961 to 27 hours per week in 2003. How might this impact libraries?

Addresses this question: If iPads and other new mobile computers catch on, libraries might not need to offer rooms full of computers for students to do their research, writing, and Facebooking. But if that happens, will students have any reason left to visit the library?

In the 21st century, ARL libraries are increasingly exploring and adopting a range of new roles in serving research institutions, researchers, scholars, and students, making the time ripe for ARL to organize a new report cluster focusing on key new roles. The series will identify and delineate emerging roles and present research on early experiences among member libraries in developing the roles and delivering services.

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John's literature search

John literature search