Playing Catch Up: My addition to our ebook intro

I wrote this for our ebook a while ago and never posted my work, so here it is!


John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of its Palo Alto Research Center, said the following after observing the learning patterns of modern adolescents. “The new literacy, beyond text and image, is one of information navigation. The real literacy of tomorrow entails the ability to be your own personal reference librarian-to know how to navigate through confusing, complex information spaces and feel comfortable doing so. "Navigation" may well be the main form of literacy for the 21st century. The next dimension, and shift, concerns learning. Most of us experienced formal learning in an authority-based, lecture-oriented school. Now, with incredible amounts of information available through the Web, we find a "new" kind of learning assuming pre-eminence:  Learning that's discovery-based. We are constantly discovering new things as we browse through the emergent digital ‘libraries.’" (Brown, John S. "Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn." USDLA Journal 16.2 (2002). Print.)

These libraries without walls are considered today to be logical extensions to libraries, as both enable people to engage with various types of information and resources of knowledge. 1 A team of researchers at the Academy of Finland published an article about these digital libraries and the benefits of using digital tools in a library setting. According to the article, “Through the technological development of electronic resources the means to collect, store, manage, and use widely distributed knowledge resources have become more effective, serving the library users even better.... Modern libraries are therefore being redefined as places to get wider access to information in many formats and from many sources.” (Holmberg, Kim, et al. "What is Library 2.0?" Journal of Documentation 65.4 (2009): 668-81. Print.)

Fortunately, the mass stores of information found in these digital libraries is not the only advantage of modern digital tools. Not only can we consume information on the internet, but we can use social media to connect with experts in the field, or even other interested people to gain greater insight into the topic.