ED521 A19

Libraries and Librarians in 2023

A media center in the year 2023 needs to be a media-rich area for people to learn.  It needs to be a place for people to collaborate and share their work.  The media center will have no deficiency of technology.  The technology that will be available will have access to online databases, the catalog, and the Internet.  The media center will have print and electronic resources available to students and staff.  Online availability to the library will be possible when the person cannot get there physically by using the media’s website that connects them to the media center.

The librarians will support the efforts of the classroom teachers by meeting with them to introduce resources and plan on how to incorporate these resources into the curriculum.  They will develop relationships to help the staff form a community.  They will remain flexible.  They will guide students to evaluate resources for correctness and reliability.  They will offer a justifiable, accountable strategy for sharing resources across grade levels.  Librarians will address essential reading, information, and technology literacies to the students.

Media centers and librarians do not look much different today than what I’m predicting they will be like in 2023.  I must remember that education challenges of tomorrow will require explanations that go far beyond today’s solutions.