Heading to Charlotte this afternoon, so I am at home, catching up on professional reading (or actually, links and stuff in my email inbox that I don’t delete “for later”…there’s quite a bit of Martha Stewart emails in there too…), anyway, what I just read was this article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-26-kindle-school-library_N.htm
From USA Today, about a private boarding school that has purchased Kindles and is upgrading their library to be mostly digital. They’ve also added a coffee shop and seem to be trying to create a “hip” place for the students to go. They state that the library wasn’t being used at all and that hardly any books were ever being circulated. So, the headmaster has taken out book shelves and put in cubicles for laptops and other digital toys and a coffee shop. I like that all of that was added…he even hired MORE librarians to help students decide what information from the internet is reliable and to teach them how to find the good stuff and how to download the digital media to their toys. But, why doesn’t he ask these librarians to give book talks, purchase popular fiction, ask students what BOOKS they want to see in the library? Why didn’t he start there? Why not have 5 (or 50) print copies of Twilight and then some on digital media as well?
And, the fact that they have Kindles leads me to my next thought: I have a Kindle for my library. Just one, purchased with book fair funds to play (principal said “go for it!” when I was jealous that he had one). So, how can I use this in my library? Haven’t figured it out yet…I’m in an elementary school, so I don’t know about checking it out??? What do you think? About everything I said? 
VBF
