INTED 2008, Valencia 3 – 5 marzo

New libraries in the learning society

Patrizia Lùperi Biblioteca di Lingue e Letterature Moderne 1, Università di Pisa

Learning society

• fluidity of information on paper, electronic and digital supports

• digital literacy and digital skills

• personalized educational courses, without classrooms and teachers

New libraries as post-modern libraries in the learning society

Traditional functions

Post-modern functions

gathering and preservation

multimedia resources

loan and reference personalized counseling

services given to individual users

services given to collaborative groups

assistance in bibliography compilation

libraries meant as information laboratories

firm separation between users and library staff

border line figures as trainees

New libraries or laboratories?

• Direct contact with documents, information and web

• Beyond school we need laboratories and multimedia institutes, where we can select, revise and personalize data, in a context of lifelong learning

New libraries as learning environments

• Developing of potentials (scaffolding concept)

• Personal identity built by a participation that facilitates the growth of cognitive and social skills

• Library as a community of practice and learning

New libraries as centres of flexible learning

library as a centre af informal learning

the user could develop an aptitude of critical research

opinion independence

thanks to moments of socialization and debate regarding the use of digital resources

In the flexible environment of a library:

• There aren’t just students, users or library’s staff, but also trainees and tutors:

• Different kind of trainees:

• student trainees • graduated trainees

Focus on tutor’s role

• Tutor will organize:preliminary knowledge moments between trainees and introductory lessons,

• individual and group exercises in computer classrooms meant to introduce the use of digital resources and encourage electronic skills,

• discussion, collaboration and simulation,

• decision making moments, choice of the kind of library where practically perform the training, problem oriented training’s project elaboration, individual study phases,

• elaboration of a final account.

Educational model of trainee

• Problem oriented approach, with the aim of fitting the trainee period in the operative needs of the current or completed academic course: elaboration of a personalized project

• tutorial teaching methodology, based on laboratory, modeling and apprenticeship techniques

• presence is crucial

• importance of motivation

Many players are involved

• Educational manager and teachers

• tutor and library staff

• users with their different skills and needs

• trainees and students…

Everyone is acting in the (not only) physical library’s space…

Focus on trainee’s role1. Mediation function between library

standards and users needs

2. higher psychological closeness with users

3. synchrony in the subjective problem perception with students and library staff

4. complicity between trainees and users, that:

increases of the trainee’s motivation level

relieves the “library anxiety” user’s feeling

trainee as a vehicle

trainee

he will comunicate a new model of the library’s representation

even in the social environments where there still is a purely conservative idea

he will help to define a new library’s culture

as a formative place where common meanings are elaborated, used and personalized

in the appropriated context of a new kind of knowledge, open to discontinuity, surprise and uncertainty

Resultus of an opinion poll effected by exhaustive interviews

trainees of Biblioteca di Lingue e Letterature Moderne, Università di Pisathanks to this

experience they increase their information literacy’s level

they will get a larger and lifelong independence in personal information management, as a student and as a citizen

after taking a degree in literature, philosophy or foreign literatures and languages, they specialize as professional mediators of information

their librarian experience stimulates the research of new professions, different from the traditional ones (teacher, translator)

Let’s give trainees leave to speak!

“nell’immaginario collettivo, la biblioteca viene vista come luogo statico, un mondo legato alla

tradizione e ben lontano dalla tecnologia. Anche su questo punto mi sbagliavo: la biblioteca è un luogo aperto, sia dal punto di vista del patrimonio che cambia continuamente, sia dal punto di vista degli strumenti, visto che si sta aprendo alle nuove risorse della rete. […] Voglio considerare questa esperienza non come una piccola parentesi nel mio percorso universitario ma come un punto di partenza dal quale iniziare a vedere le cose sotto una prospettiva diversa”

“In the collective imagination, library is conceived as a frozen place, a world bound to tradition, far away from technology. That’s not true! A library is an open place where collections change constantly and where there’s a big increase in the use of the web’s new resources. […] I don’t consider this experience as a tiny digression in my academic course. This is a starting point from which I can see everything from a different point of view…” October 2007, Silvia Profeti

Let’s give trainees leave to speak!

“ho capito che le biblioteche sono strutture attive, vive, sono luoghi di socializzazione e di scambio relazionale sempre affollate di giovani, di studiosi e di semplici appassionati, sono punti di incontro dove l’utente può usufruire di un’assistenza continua da parte di operatori di contatto considerati un po’ come sensori sempre accesi sull’esperienza delle singole persone e per questo capaci di educare all’uso della biblioteca stessa”

“I have understood that libraries are active, living structures, sites of socialization and relationships, crowded with young people, researchers and lovers of culture. Libraries are meeting places where users take advantage of a continuous assistance by librarians who are seen as a kind of “sensors” switched on to catch everyone’s experience; that’s why there are able to educate people in using library’s services”December 2007, Cristina Vincenzi

Let’s give trainees leave to speak!

“Che la biblioteca si soprattutto uno spazio sociale mi è apparso chiaro particolarmente in questi ultimi mesi, in cui a me si sono affiancate altre tirocinanti intraprendenti e piene di iniziativa con cui ho instaurato un rapporto estremamente positivo sia sul piano umano, avendo conosciuto persone con le quali condivido interessi e pensieri, che su quello professionale, vista la collaborazione, lo scambio di idee e consigli, l’intesa che si è venuta a creare fra noi”

“In the last few months I understood that every library is first of all a social space because I have been partnered with other proactive and initiative trainees; with them I built an extremely positive relationship. We became friends, as we share interest and thoughts and we have been great colleagues, we have collaborated, we have exchanged ideas and pieces of advice and we have had a mutual understanding ” November 2007, Denise Cammilli

• Thanks for your attention!

• Patrizia Lùperiluperi@rom.unipi.it