More talk about tech

Sometimes it seems that tech innovations get all the media attention, while librarians who push books and help kids learn how to use them get very little attention. This year's conference of the National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE) had some good sessions on bringing electronics and print together. It's good to be reminded that print and e-books aren't locked in some kind of combat; they are complementary formats to help children connect with books. Twitter, Facebook and hand-held computers can all be used in teaching and learning. School libraries are often ahead of public libraries in seeing the value of tech tools for young people. It's well worth looking over the fence to see what the schools are doing instead of focusing too closely on keeping up with other public libraries. Our audience is the same, we ought to work together to serve all children in all libraries.