Graduation is over and now I’m gathering books, articles and reading postings in the Vision’s blog.
I’m jumping in!

I’ve read part of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins. Commonalities of organizations or companies that have moved beyond “good” to “great” are identified by Collins. One shared element is that almost all their CEO’s or leaders who lead the group from “good” to “great” came from within. Drawing on this point, libraries should look to a cooperative management approach to create great leadership. In school libraries, this would involve the faculty, staff, students, administrators, counselors and the community. The physical presence of our school libraries will be morphed and so must the staff and the system by which new leaders are developed.

Tomorrow I leave for Greece and will not be back until July. I’ve packed two paperbacks, Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson and The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, by Ray Kurzweil. I’ve got audio books in the Ipod and hope to find Internet Cafes to keep blogging. I have The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution, by David Kusek on order at Borders. The rules-to-be on recording and distribution of copyrighted music may help us see how books will be shared in other than the printed format.

As a school librarian, I’m seeing these assertions:

• Library patrons right now want easy access to all types of information not matter where they are. We are finding new ways to share information and will form specialized learning groups through whatever avenues are opened or we may develop. Libraries need to lead in access and sharing.
• Patrons of all ages need access to and training in how to use a flood of ever changing information sources. Without this help, they will get their information where it is open to them or most convenient. Information skills should be a basic part of earliest education; they’re fundamental. Skills will determine access.

On the Road, Sue Bello