That Elusive Future - it's still here!

The elusive future of school libraries is not going away. We keep seeing the signs...ebooks, kindles, nooks, learning commons, laptops, wifi, new classification systems, web 2.0 applications, new features on existing applications, etc., etc., etc. It is confusing with so much happening. Yesterday I received a link to this information:

As people rushed to fill their freshly unwrapped e-readers – one of the top-selling gadgets this festive season – the online retailer said sales at its electronic book store quickly overtook orders for physical books. Its own e-reader, the Kindle, is now the most popular gift in Amazon's history.

The full story is at http://tinyurl.com/yg26vd5

It makes us wonder what the future holds for school libraries and school librarians...more high school learning commons are appearing over the horizon. So what is the answer, if there is an answer, on the direction we should head in. Here are some thought provoking links to articles - by no means inclusive - on this topic.

http://digitalreshift.org/files/adminguide.pdf

An Adminitrators Guide to School Libraries - a good document to have handy as brief but smart guide to school libraries present and possible future.

http://www.designshare.com/index.php/articles/school-library-future

Facilities of the future. The ideas of Doug Johnson and Rolf Ericson as applied to the future of school libraries and the way people find information.

http://www.lrs.org/impact.php

Research from Library Research Service (LRS). Documents, forms, powerpoint shows, etc. Useful items for different purposes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/books/16libr.html

A series of New York Times articles on The Future of Reading: The Digital Librarian.

http://www.slideshare.net/Anne.Robinson/school-libraries-and-the-future

Powerpoint show on future possibel directions for libraries plus related powerpoint shows.

These links underscore some of the changes we face. We are in a state of great change on so many fronts that it seems nearly impossible to keep up with. I would like to hear what others think and feel about this.