School Libraries 2.0

[Trish Webster]

I attended a day course facilitated by the Auckland National Library team at Mt Albert Grammar this week. We spent the day learning about Library 2.0 and had some fun playing around with Library 2.0 applications. The familiarity with the Library 2.0 concept ranged from 'don't know anything about it' to 'I use it all the time'. The National Library staff have set up a Wiki for participants and I wanted to share the link with you, there are some interesting things on here. I have taken the liberty of putting a link to this ning on the 'Additional resources and further reading' page. School libraries face a lot of challenges in trying to use Library 2.0 in their libraries, particularly as most schools block social software. But it is my belief that students are already using many of these applications outside the school environment but not necessarily safely. Whose responsibility is it to teach children and teenagers how to keep themselves safe in the web environment? Personally I think libraries should be actively involved in this. Be interested in hearing what others think about this. Trish

[Penny]

Interesting question Trish, not sure I have a definitive answer. One thing is for sure, unless parents and teachers are familiar with the Web 2.0 environment themselves, they will not have the knowledge to easily teach pupils how to be safe. So, if we as librarians could fill some of that role then I think we have some responsibility to do so. My son goes to a school that has implemented a national "Keeping ourselves safe" programme that covers everything from road safety to alerting children to things like bad touching... but I notice in the material I viewed there was nothing about Web safety.

[Trish Webster]

Hi Penny, sorry I have taken so long to reply, I have been finishing off a paper through the Open Poly. This issue of cyber safety is going to grow in importance, I think, especially in schools where they are beginning to use blogs and wikis as part of their teaching spaces. Netsafe is a great site for information and resources for children, parents and teachers. Well worth checking out. Trish