Hello from Cambridge, UK

I'm Director of Learning Resources running two secondary school libraries and very keen to be thinking outside the traditional library box. We are currently planning a third school and so giving alot of thought to the role and purpose of 21st century libraries.

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Roche on July 29, 2012 at 3:53pm

Hello Judith - I run a website for School Librarians called Heart of the School (http://heartoftheschool.edublogs.org ) where you may find some articles of interest around your question - Caroline Roche

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Permalink Reply by Judith Brown on July 30, 2012 at 9:48am

Thanks Caroline, yes I do use your fabulous website.

The thing about building a new school (library) is we can't know for sure what education is going to look like in the future. In order to be different we have to be brave and dream big, but we also have to encompass alot of differing stakeholders views. I have people who believe that we don't need a one-space physical library and that embedding the service around the school would be preferable. The truth is the practicalities of this are hard to envisage but I can see the pros and cons. I can see that mobile devices make it much easier to have many information-rich environments but I also think we still need some space for quiet reflective reading amidst all the exciting collaborative work. I guess it is productive to be opening myself up as much as I can to future possibilities and OK to admit to not really knowing the answers! I am fascinated at present by the work being done by Tim Wright http://timwright.typepad.com/main/walking/ on emergent technologies and storytelling.