I had the chance to listen, learn, and share some ideas about the Common Core State Standards, public libraries, and nonfiction at the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference last week in Cambridge, MA.

I was honored to meet and join these great people at the panel discussion, The Common Core and Nonfiction:  How Does It All Fit Together? –

- Author Deborah Kops (among her books: The Great Molasses Flood)

- Author Kristine Carlson Asselin (among her books: The Real Story on the Weapons and Battlegrounds of North America)

- Lou Pingatore (of independent booksellers Pingi Bookstore).

Each of us brought our perspectives on what the Common Core may hold for kids and nonfiction.  Kops shared some insights on her writing and research process (and the requisite and valuable trips to her local library), and reflected on the potential for a heightened interest in literary nonfiction.  Asselin explained some things I never knew about work-for-hire nonfiction writing with school library market publishers (read more here), and compared the research behind writing a book about Jennifer Lopez (many transcribed TV/online interviews) and one about Martin Luther King, Jr. (many archival newspapers).  Pingatore described some new nonfiction coming from publishers, including one I’m curious to read about using and contributing to Creative Commons.  I talked about how school librarians are embracing the CCSS as an opportunity to collaborate and lead in the teaching of 21st century skills, inquiry, and reading of complex texts.

The questions and comments from the audience were challenging and well-considered, including concerns about the cost of nonfiction books, the potential to build partnerships across small public library systems to offer more titles for kids, and the need to collaborate with school librarians or classroom teachers, especially in school systems without elementary school libraries (which many librarians in attendance reported were common in their communities).

It was a pleasure to meet the dynamic leaders of the MLA Youth Services Section (YSS) Noelle Boc, Sharon Colvin, and Erin Daly (who lived tweeted the day’s events @mla_yss).

What connections can school librarians foster with public librarians?  Here are a few ideas and resources in this developing Listly.  Please share your ideas in the comments!

Image: Children’s Room public PCs, by Newburyport Public Library on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

–Rebecca Morris

John Palfrey continues The New York Times “Room for Debate” conversation on whether we still need libraries at his blog, with a post that explains why this is even a question today – “because too many people think that we don’t need libraries when we have the Internet” – and offers ten steps for establishing a strong and promising future for libraries.

By way of background, John Palfrey is Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA and Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School.  Among other books he has written or co-written, Palfrey is the co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.

Palfrey’s list of ideas for libraries relates primarily to public and academic libraries, but his thoughts on the future directions, relationships, and spaces of libraries can relate to school libraries, too – though not necessarily in ways that are immediately evident.

For instance, here is Palfrey’s #8: “Library spaces should function more like labs, where people interact with information and make new knowledge.”

This one is easy to imagine in the school library.  It’s the learning commons, a collaborative space for discussing, questioning, reading, information seeking, creating, and sharing.  School librarians are already working to introduce the learning commons into rooms and schedules that previously may not have allowed for these kinds of interactions.

But what about #5? “Librarians should only seek to do those things that need doing and where libraries have comparative advantage in serving the public interest.”

This one is trickier to picture in a school, at least at the outset.  If we focus “the public interest” into the realm of the school community, in what areas do the library and school librarian have the competitive advantage?  What do librarians do better, or maybe differently, than other educators?   How is the library space different from other classrooms?  These questions remind me of conversations I’ve shared with school library graduate students as they write lesson plans that integrate content areas into library collaborations.  “You don’t have to BE the science teacher,” I tell them, “just focus on the 21st century skills, the ‘library skills’ in the science lesson.”   To situate Palfrey’s suggestion in schools, think about what school librarians bring to the table: collaborative energy, a school-wide perspective on curriculum and assessment, information and technology expertise and leadership – and the competitive advantage becomes easier to envision.

What do you think about John Palfrey’s list?  Does it translate to school libraries? How?  And remember to check out the Room for Debate essays and the growing conversation of comments.

–Rebecca Morris

Image: Libraries Are Creepy by Paul Lowery, on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

The December 28 New York Times‘ “Room for Debate” features four perspectives and comments on the topic, “Do We Still Need Libraries?” Here is a glance at the topics of discussion–

Susan Crawford (visiting professor at Harvard Law) cites reports of public libraries’ role as Internet provider, and argues that the growing dependence on libraries signals trouble in Americans’ basic access to information.

School librarian Buffy Hamilton (who soon begins her new position as learning strategist for the Cleveland Public Library) describes libraries as places of innovation, community participation, and relationship building.

Luis Herrera, city librarian of San Francisco, emphasizes the relevance of today’s libraries and maintains that no matter the technology, the library mission remains steady: “to inform, to share and to gather.”

Matthew Battles (fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University) explains the changing nature of the place that we call “the library.”  He argues that the library can be a place for “gathering points for lively minds” as well as “sites of seclusion and solace.”  He also considers the meaning of books, and the significance and outcomes of reading.

These brief articles, and Battles’ in particular, call to mind the letters to the editor that appear every so often in newspapers, questioning library video game tournaments or complaining about a lack of quiet, as part of this bigger question of whether we still need libraries, or what libraries should be and do.  What libraries do, in so far as I see it, is attend to patrons’ needs as best they can interpret and forecast them, though it’s understandably impossible to be everything to everyone at every moment.

The debate links to the related NYT article, “Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close,” (by Karen Ann Cullotta) about public libraries’ evolving efforts to provide the books and services that people demand.  The article describes various iterations of a philosophy familiar to school and youth librarians: “get them in the door.”  From auto-reorders for popular titles to spaces designed for meetings and technology trainings, Cullotta explains how today’s libraries provide what patrons need, plus unexpected rewards and finds.  Cheryl Hurley of the Library of America (a nonprofit publisher, according to the article) explains the serendipity of library browsing as “one of the joys of visiting the public library.”  These are sage words!

Even for me, a fervent supporter of all kinds of libraries, it’s a challenge to resist the temptation to limit my browsing to the online catalog and get myself to the public library or campus library in person.  When I need a little push, I remember one of my favorite moments in my graduate school experience, an assignment from Professor Leigh Star at the University of Pittsburgh.  Leigh instructed our class of doctoral students to go spend time in the university library and “see what books fall on your head.”  It wasn’t an exercise in aimless wandering, but an opportunity to shake off narrow windows of time and ideas, and shift to a more relaxed and open approach to inquiry.  This may be one of the things that libraries do best: inspire and introduce the “new” in the surrounds of the familiar.

–Rebecca Morris