A Manifesto and What Comes Next

http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/archives/welsh%20communist%20manifesto.jpg

Pictured above: a different kind of manifesto altogether (NEITHER one is Joyce Valenza!)


Well, ladies and gents, the first post for the new year sees us diving into some deep waters. It’s time to look at - wait for it – a MANIFESTO! No, not the Communist Manifesto or Mein Kampf, but Joyce Valenza’s Manifesto for the 21st Century Librarian. I haven’t even read Marx and Engel’s manifesto, and that was made more than a century and a half ago! Well comrades, Marx was certainly a leading thinker, and Valenza appears to be one as well. My first response was Holy Cats! What a comprehensive and overwhelming piece of writing! My second response was that the level of educational leadership presumed/proposed by Valenza was a great motivator, akin to Robin Williams as Prof. Keating in Dead Poets Society telling his students to make their lives “extraordinary” and “seize the day!” Like Marx inspiring a revolution, Valenza’s manifesto sounds like/reads like a rallying point. Even her introduction to one version of the manifesto sounds like a call to arms:

“Teacher-librarians cannot expect to assume a leadership role in information technology and instruction, and we cannot claim any credibility with
students, faculty, or administrators, if we do not recognize and
thoughtfully exploit the paradigm shift of the past two years.” (Valenza, preamble to Manifesto 2006 - http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200610TagTeamTech.pdf)

I confess that the assumption of leadership in schools was not a given in my mind. However, if teacher-librarians can embody all of the elements listed in the manifesto, it’s clear that is exactly what they should be doing. Another version of the manifesto is available online in wiki form, and you can find it here. This manifesto is one that I think should be made widely available and promoted, because I’m not sure that most people realize where teacher-librarians are now, are going to be and where they want to be. At the same time, we’ve got to be prepared for a critical backlash; check out this vitriolic rant against another librarian manifesto.


My third response to the manifesto is, “My gosh, I’ve got a lot to learn!” At this juncture I am a classroom teacher and not a librarian, so there are a number of ideas that don’t currently apply to my position. But overall, the “paradigm shift” Valenza mentions is one that all educators need to know. In the end, it is as simple (or complicated) as recognizing that what Thomas Frey identifies as “rapidly changing technologies and equally fast-changing mindset of library patrons” (http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120) are equally important to all learners and educators. In Darren Wershler-Henry and Mark Surman’s Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community, the authors suggest that these changes demand new ways of thinking:

“The Internet is a much more complex beast than it was even a couple of years ago. Its increasing intricacy demands more sophisticated models than the received ideas about virtual community. Without some new theories, we’re like the proverbial blind men disagreeing about what each is experiencing” (Wershler-Henry and Surman, 2001). They go on to “attempt to take a step backwards and get a look at the larger picture (without stepping in a big heap of elephant [doodie]”. I believe that in some ways that getting a new perspective to look at the bigger panoramic view is what can be accomplished from our reflection on Valenza’s manifesto. And who wants to step in elephant excrement, anyway?

Aside from the manifestos, other readings for this post were taken from School Libraries Worldwide Volume 14, Number 2. One that caught my attention right away because of its relevance to a definite paradigm shift was Videogames in the Library? What is the World Coming To?

As opposed to a quiet game of chess, library users may soon find themselves immersed in online games. Author Kathy Sandford has identified a number of positive aspects of online gaming, and here are a few that hit home from my personal experience:

“Players are required to constantly make decisions, problem-solve, and respond to the computer; what they do makes a difference to he outcome of the game. They are motivated to practice, develop skills, and seek out alternative ways to complete a game. In order to successfully complete a game, players must have a broad, overall understanding of the goals as well as a grasp of specific knowledge and skills”.

I’ve been watching my kids at home and I am somewhat amazed to admit that Sandford is right. A big challenge is ahead if we are to embrace widely diverse games as part of learning experiences, as well as ensuring our physical spaces are conducive to learning through gaming.

On the other hand, in Keith McPherson’s article Shaping Global Criticality with School Libraries the author references a Canadian study done by the Media Awareness Network which tells us that 75% of the 9-17 year-old respondents were not aware of advertising incorporated into the online product-centred games they were playing. This is one example which McPherson points towards while arguing that “school librarians must heighten their leadership role in teaching students the multiliteracy and critically literacy skills necessary to participate effectively in today's multilinguistic, multicultural and multimodal communication environments, and to avoid falling victim to the risks associated with unvetted information.” We’ve almost come full circle back to the idea of librarians or teacher-librarians taking leadership roles, which is, for me, perhaps my most recent revelation. McPherson’s entire article is entirely thought-provoking and logical, and he even includes lesson plans (which I have not had time to digest yet). Yet I kept finding my thoughts return to the leadership issue – it is clear that many have come to the conclusion that it is not enough to make resources, technology, experience, and so on available – teacher-librarians need to do much more to keep moving forward.