Facing Reality

As a follow-up to my last post, I would like to touch on the benefits of accepting the realities of the world today when considering the effects of e-readers on the profession. It may be the case that the proliferation of these devices has affected the job prospects of today's librarians negatively, but it is certain that there are many other factors at play. There is another side to this coin, though. With the job market being the way it is, there are many working librarians who are forced to take on more and more responsibilities for the same pay, and who are expected to take care of it all in the same amount of time.

As an example, Michael (whom I mentioned in my previous post) told me about how his elementary school's librarian is only there for half of the day. The other half of the day is spent at another school, and parents who volunteer fill in as best they can while the librarian is out. Sure, it would be great if the school district could afford to staff the two libraries separately, and perhaps interested parties should do all that they can to help that become a reality, but we can't confuse the reality we wish for with the reality we have. By doing so, we would be saying to librarians like the one at Michael's school that we are abandoning them to their fate. The reality of the situation is such that e-readers could be an incredible benefit to employed librarians who are finding themselves shouldering much more responsibilities than they ever anticipated. Think about how much easier it would be to manage two libraries if the collections consisted mostly of e-books. It could be done from a single computer and, presumably, would be equivalent to managing a single collection. Students would not need to physically check books out and it would not be necessary to ask for parent volunteers to staff the library, which is better for everyone as parents have less and less time these days outside of work.

As with many aspects of the relationship between librarians and technology, we must keep in mind that change happens; it is not something we can avoid or that we can prevent. It is our job to look at the changes which are taking place and take advantage of them in order to benefit our patrons and our profession. Yes, it is a shame that librarians are having a difficult time finding employment. We are not the only ones, however, and we cannot use technology as a scapegoat. What we can do is recognize the prevalence of e-readers and use them to provide the best service we can for our patrons and, as I think many of our blog posts show, there are plenty of ways for librarians to use e-readers effectively.

Are e-readers truly the future?

In a world where e-readers seem to be taking control of the casual reading market, it is only natural to wonder if they can or will be as popular in other settings as well. More specifically, is it possible for elementary school students to utilize these tools effectively and, if so, how early should the be included in a child's education? To answer these questions, I spoke with two teachers currently working in elementary schools in the United States.

The first, Michael, has been teaching for almost three decades at various grade levels, including elementary, middle, and high school. He has also recently begun using an Amazon Kindle. When asked if he thought that e-readers would be relevant to education in the near future, his answer was an emphatic "yes". He went on to say, in fact, that he believed that e-readers would be the "next big thing in education, especially at the elementary level." At his school, students are evaluated twice a year to determine their reading levels and the main areas where they require improvement. Each classroom includes a small "library" of fiction and non-fiction books at various levels and the students select books to read from the appropriate level. A digital library would not only be able to cover a wider range of books for the students, but would require less upkeep than the physical libraries that are housed within each individual classroom. Students also could not really "lose" e-books, at least not in a way that would require replacement in the school's collection.

He went on to mention the ease with which teachers could track student reading, and that the software could suggest books directly to the students based on their reading level and areas of interest. Along these lines, he brought up the particular difficulty of finding books for adolescent boys. Most children's and young adult books are written with girls in mind rather than boys, according to Michael. He believes that it would be easier for picky readers to find books which they might enjoy with the introduction of e-readers, something that would encourage more students to be casual readers in the long run.

The second teacher whom I spoke to, Devin, works as an art teacher at an elementary school and has been teaching for less than five years. Though she does not have any experience using e-readers in her classroom, she has seen their implementation in the rest of the school. Often, she finds, children seem to learn their use faster than adults to, and she definitely advocates their use with children as young as four or five. Their are some drawbacks to the introduction of e-readers that Devin mentioned, such as "the expense and having to take the time to train teachers." However, she felt that "most [teachers] would react in a very positive way." The use of e-readers would also free up a great deal of space in small classrooms, a fact that both she and Michael mentioned.

The consensus from both teachers was that e-readers will, in the very near future, replace books as the preferred medium in schools. As Devin put it: "For schools, I say it is only a matter of time before books are completely replaced." She did, however, preface this with the following statement: "Personally, I like holding a physical book in my hand but that is because I am a nerd."

Amen to that, sister.