Everything is different here!

Technology changes everything--we've all heard that many times over. But how much have school and public library children's spaces changed lately? Taking a fresh look at the problem of bringing children and information together has sparked some professional thinking of entirely new ways of operating a school library. David Loerscher's article "Flip the Library..." in SLJ this month suggests that school libraries be changed into Learning Commons where various educational professionals could offer learning materials and situations to children. Although the concentration in the article is on school libraries, it will cause public librarians to wonder how they can change children's libraries into Commons. Just as Google has made all of us think about technology in new ways, integrating it into our lives more closely than it ever has been before, perhaps the time has come to look at technology not as an add-on to library services, but as an integrated part of service. It's one more step in putting the emphasis less on bricks and mortar and more on experiential learning. The time to move is now before we lose our chance!