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Digital Learning Commons: Libraries in the 21st Century
Libraries are quintessential information commons. They embrace, embody, and practice the democratic values that characterize commons. The library’s mission is to provide communities with open, equitable, sustained access to ideas. They offer individuals the essential tools, skills, and spaces necessary to participate in democratic discourse.1
Libraries are so deeply woven into the fabric of our communities that we take for granted the vital role they play in access to and the free flow of vital societal knowledge. We do not consciously appreciate how integral libraries are to the ways in which learning happens in our society.
While the classroom has traditionally been the place where teachers transfer knowledge to students, the library has been the place where knowledge is stored, exchanged, and rediscovered by new generations. As technology has dramatically changed traditional classroom and teacher-student paradigms, it is also altering the role of libraries, creating new challenges and opportunities.
The Sophist recently spoke with three representatives from different parts of the library community about the influence online learning and collaboration technologies have on their work.
From Place to Function
For Greg Raschke, assistant head of collection management for the North Carolina State University (NCSU) libraries, libraries are in the midst of shifting from "an in-person environment--library as place--to a hybrid--library as function." Within the next five years, Raschke believes "libraries will have to be able to offer a suite of online learning tools and push the library out to the user as we see less and less of users at our reference desks. People will continue to come to the library, but not necessarily to complete research."
Virtual reference via Web-based chat tools is already a high-growth area for NCSU. In the future, Raschke thinks there will be demand for what he describes as "point-of-need, pre-packaged online learning modules" that will give users just-in-time support for completing more effective searches and other common library tasks. Getting to that point, however, requires not just a technological shift, but also a cultural shift. Library staff must adjust to providing services online and doing parts of their own training online.
Technology for Better Customer Care
Mary Wegner, state librarian of Iowa, sees the potential for online training as a significant opportunity in the current budgetary climate. "One of our goals at the State Library," says Wegner, "is to improve library services to Iowans through knowledgeable, customer-oriented library staff--so it is important for us to provide education on a variety of topics and in a variety of formats to librarians from all parts of the state."
There are more than 500 independent public libraries in Iowa, and budget cuts have made it increasingly difficult to send State Library staff to locations throughout the state to teach classes. Like Raschke, Wegner recognizes the potential for Web-based chat tools as well as message boards.
She also imagines working with librarians to develop "online tutorials and other Web tools for library staff to use in teaching information literacy skills (how to find, evaluate, and use information) to their customers." These tutorials and tools could provide affordable, high-quality training to dispersed audiences while also making it possible to offer the training again and again as staff turns over.
Equality Online
Betsy Crone, a public school librarian in Guilford County, North Carolina, agrees with Wegner’s belief that "any benefit to the library staff allows them to be more available and helpful to the real stakeholders, our individual patrons."
Crone says that, while public schools generally lag behind the rest of the library world in adopting new tools, technology is integral to public school libraries' offerings. For instance, North Carolina's WiseOwl program offers a suite of online sources--such as encyclopedias and a periodical database--to any student registered in the public school system. "The online access is important," argues Crone, "because it offers equal access to resources for all students. This is one way the schools are 'leveling the playing field' for the digital divide as well as the No Child Left Behind Act."2 The key for moving forward, she believes, is "to convince local legislators that these services offer equal access to all students. Then, I think, services could be expanded even more."
Democracy and Learning
As with other advances that learning technologies have made possible, the developments described by Raschke, Wegner, and Crone should benefit the individuals seeking knowledge and information--"the real stakeholders."
Combining online access to resources traditionally provided by libraries with well-designed online learning management and collaboration systems ensures a continued democratic flow of information and ideas and an increased opportunity to learn and act on information and ideas. If they rise to the challenge and are supported in their efforts, libraries are well positioned to assume the role of digital learning commons, as well as digital information commons, for the 21st century.
1 “Libraries and the Information Commons: A Discussion Paper Prepared for the ALA Office of Information Technology Policy,” December 3, 2003. http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/oitp/icprins.pdf.
2 The act is designed to improve student achievement. New Child Left Behind builds on four pillars: accountability for results, an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research, expanded parental options, and expanded local control and flexibility. Find out more about the act on the Department of Education’s Web site at http://www.ed.gov/nclb.
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