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“What’s needed is a wiki-type virtual space where kids can debate, upload videos and control their own information space instead of us trying to manage the information space,” Loertscher says.

For David Loertscher, Library 2.0 advocate and author of The New Learning Commons, these changes are overdue. “There is still a tremendous role for books,” he says. “There will always be print books.” However, his ideal library—the learning commons—is “a learning laboratory where books don’t get in the way.” He wants the bookshelves pushed to the perimeter so central spaces can better accommodate groups of learners (see sidebar). Loertscher believes that “the old model of having the kids check out a book and then sending them back to the classroom doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Kids can now check out digital resources any time, anywhere. … That is the way the world is going.”