How Can Librarians Get Back in the Education Game?

San Jose State is streaming onto our island this Friday noon to 1 (SL
Time) a talk presented by two people well known both inside Second
Life and in the world of school libraries. Dr Loertscher is a fixture
in the school library space and Robin managed the project building the
ALA Island in SL. They recently co-wrote a book on technology literacy
for kids.

Here is the formal announcements:

Dr. David V. Loertscher, Professor at School of Library and
Information Science, San Jose State University and student Robin
Williams will speak on “How can librarians get back in the information
game?” on Friday, 7 March 2008, noon - 1:00 p.m. (Second Life time). A
live video feed of their presentation will be viewable at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/185/100

Abstract: The learning commons has been defined as a learning
laboratory where books don’t get in the way. In the face of
digitalization and the dominance of Google, the question is, “How can
librarians get back in the information game?” The idea of a learning
commons is now being tried in a number of academic libraries and the
idea is being discussed for school libraries. This lecture will go on
the offensive to push the library into the center of teaching and
learning K-20 in the areas of competing directly with Google,
collaboratively building high-level learning experiences with faculty,
making the learning commons a one-stop place for expert assistance,
developing a 24/7/365 presence, and experimenting to build in the
library models of the very best teaching and learning. We will join
Andrew Keen in his book The Cult of the Amateur in examining the role
of expertise in information but with the realization that we must
aggressively push in different ways if we are going to keep this
profession relevant.