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The New York Times is publishing a series of articles looking at how the Internet and other technologies are changing the way people read.

This week’s article, In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update focuses on school libraries and the role school librarians play in teaching kids information skills for the 21st century. There is also a great video that emphasizes the idea that today’s school librarians believe that “literacy includes, but also exceeds, books.”

Previous articles examined the debate over the value of reading on the Internet versus reading in print and how educators are using video games as bait to lure children to read.

All are worth a read.

When Wikipedia was first launched, librarians and teachers were adamant that it should never be used as a valid and authoritative reference source. As time has passed, however, some educators have come to believe that Wikipedia has a place in teaching information literacy and critical thinking.

Scott McLeod’s post on his Dangerously Irrelevant blog gives some good reasons why we should be using Wikipedia with students and why we should talk about its use with our administrators. It’s worth the read.

Where do you stand on the issue?

A recent post on the AASL blog has me thinking about pathfinders today. You know what pathfinders are, right? Those lists of resources that librarians make for every research project that is done in the library. The author of the post wonders if we aren’t sending students mixed messages when we talk about how they need to learn searching strategies and then be able to evaluate the information they find, but turn right around and hand them a list of “approved” resources to use. Why should they bother to learn anything about searching or evaluating information when they know that we’re going to tell them where to find the stuff they need? In a world of infoglut, I’m not sure that we are doing them any favors.

The author also mentions that she has started using a wiki site for her pathfinders and allowing teachers and students to help in their creation. Joyce Valenza has blogged about this idea also. While I love the collaborative aspect of all stakeholders contributing to a wiki pathfinder, I’m wondering now – are we leading our students down the wrong path? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Image citation: Chopwell-path to the river. Uploaded on March 24, 2008 by immarkcz. Attribution-Noncommercial-Share alike license.