American Libraries

Dan Pink: The book makes the argument that the abilities that used to matter the most in work, the kind of left-brained abilities still matter but they matter less and a different set of abilities matters more: The right brain abilities. And those are abilities we haven't taken seriously enough this in country. If that's right—and I'm pretty convinced that it is—it calls into question how we're running schools, the nature of the curriculum. I think that librarians play a big role there, as educators, but also as more and more kids have to be able to navigate their own learning and have to be able to master certain kinds of tools and have to be able to master technology and research and a whole array of things. I remember my high school librarian, who was Mrs. Trendergast, who actually was your classic-looking librarian but she actually had a dark and subversive side. So she would actually smuggle books that were not perfectly the kinds that parents would want for kids. So I always admired her for that because she was doing this massive head fake and she looked like this nice old woman. But on the surface, she was actually peddling some very sophisticated ideas to kids.

AL: And you came out all right?

Dan Pink: So far.

Donna Mullen: Well, the project is designed for ninth graders. Each group of four or five get a bedsheet and a magic marker, they read the act outside of class, we spend two days discussing, they have to do a rough draft, and then they are allowed to put the rough draft on the bedsheet. Prior to that, we research in the library. They research weddings, hair design, the costumes.

AL: So how successful has this project been for the school?

Donna Mullen: 100% successful. Students are not late to class.

Omar Wasow: So today I talked about how libraries—school libraries in particular—compete in the age of Google and Wikipedia and Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And the core themes I emphasized are one, that libraries really need to focus on the physical experience and how that can be better. If it is better, then students will be that much happier to study and reflect and work and collaborate in libraries. And then also focused on how libraries need to focus more on how they educate young people and really think about what would it look if every person in K-12 education was getting a library and information sciences training so that everybody had those skills, research, and other skills that allow you to tell truth from fiction so that they can succeed in the modern economy.

Sara Kelly Johns: I think that people are ready to go back and give back—give back in their local situation and then give back to AASL because we introduced our standards, we have next to totally rewrite our guidelines. And so much input into the standards they're going reflect on these and then as we develop our learning assessments and indicators, they're going to be able to give back. I think that because of AASL's Pushing Out Initiatives that with our digital conference available, that even the people who weren't here are going to get it.