Research as part of a 21st century library & learning commons

For our week 3 we were assigned and article  written by Mirah Dow and published in School Library Monthly in November 2010. So first full disclosure Mirah Dow was one of my professors at Emporia in fact she was my teacher for many of my core library classes, we even chose her to speak at our graduations so I may be a little biases. I also see how many of her ideas shaped what kind of librarian I am and how I have struggled to educate my colleagues about the role we should fulfill in our schools. The idea that school librarians and librarians in general need to change our focus from information systems to focus on our students may be easy to understand but many to not accept it it practice because we then have to think outside of the box of tacks as shown in TED talk.

To give you a perspective I began my Masters program with Mirah in 2005, she even taught my first class that semester, and this was what we were taught should be the norm for all libraries. Now fast forward to 2016 and many of these ideas are still so outside of the box for some we may never get there.This continues to frustrate me but I know that I work for a district that values innovation and growth for all of it's teachers so I know I will ultimately have the support to develop a true twenty-first century library  and learning commons