"Traditional," Digital, and Electronic Libraries

According to Pawley’s article there are many different uses for a “library.”  Depending on the type of library it is, it is designed with a specific patron in mind.  There are different genres of libraries, and even large differences in libraries in the same categories.  I can remember being a child in our public library, amazed at all of the books and looking through the old card catalog cards to try to find a research book for my fifth grade reports.  In school, I can even remember when we would play BINGO using card catalog cards to try to familiarize us with how to read the entries.  Then when I was in middle school, there was a shift to the online card catalog.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever!  So much easier than looking through the thousands and thousands of cards to find the one book I was searching for.  And now, in our school today, the library hour is actually divided into two different classes: one for reading stories, checking out books, and learning about what the library has to offer; and the other a technology based class where students are learning various aspects of how to use computers appropriately and effectively. 

                Towards the end of Pawley’s article and the beginning of Rusch-Feja’s article on digital, hybrid, and electronic libraries, I began to wonder about the future of libraries.  As an adult in the working world, and even as a high school or college student, I can see a number of advantages to having digital and/or electronic libraries.  In this day and age, it seems that there is an almost endless supply of information written about specific topics.  When doing research, people used to be limited to the information that was contained in the library that they were searching in.  Now, those boundaries have collapsed, and with the digital age… people can locate anything, anywhere (provided that they know it is available).  With this shift from more “traditional” libraries to more electronic/digital libraries, the role of the librarian changes too.  Still vital to the library, the librarian needs to adapt to the needs of the patrons.  

                As a school teacher, and hopefully one day a school librarian, where does this leave our school libraries?  I teach kindergarten and first graders, and one of their favorite things is library.  They love to go, listen to stories, pick out books to read, and even use the scanner to check out books (no more are the days of date stamped cards).  Many times I have seen the librarian show “movies” of favorite books, set in motion with celebrities reading the text.  The kids love it!  In turn there are many websites, such as Tumblebooks, that are collections of hundreds of children’s books shown electronically.  Is that what the school library will someday become?  It is interesting to think that 5 year olds are already being taught computer literacy in school, and possibly in just a few years they can navigate their way around a computer- and potentially an electronic or digital library too.  Yet, will be it as enjoyable for them?  Will they miss turning the pages and reading the words themselves and jumping to different parts of stories?  And if we say no, the kids still need physical books… then at what age do they jump into digital/electronic libraries?  Just something to think about.  I don’t think that I know if there is a cut and dry answer to this question.  Most likely, it will have to be something that works itself out over time.