Thing 15

I read the article "Away from the Icebergs" by Rick Anderson, Director of Resource Acquisition, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.  The first thing he says is that libraries need to move away from the "just in case" collection, or the habits of librarians to order more print resources for patrons to use - in case they come in looking for that information.

At my school, we are in the process of becoming an International Baccalaureate school, meaning that research happens continually.  Each six weeks there is a new topic for the students to work on, subjects that are related to the TEKS but are expanded to fit a 4-6 week format.  For example, 3rd always has a big unit on animal habitats, kinder has one on families and homes, 4th on explorers.  Especially with 3rd and 4th grades, teachers send students into the library to research their chosen topic.  The past two weeks I have had 4th graders come into the library looking for anything they can find on Neil Armstrong, Cortes, Marco Polo, etc.  The teachers are requiring the students to have a certain number of print resources along with the other resources they are using. 

Rick Anderson is saying that the patrons are not using print materials as much as in the past.  I wonder if that is more true for public libraries than school libraries.  Schools are full of teachers who have not all embraced the "new" way of doing things - for example, the new way to research rather than relying so heavily on print resources.