Last version of the paper "New libraries in the learning society", presented at the International Tecnology Education and Development Conference, IATED 2008, 3 rd-5 rd March 2008, Valencia

1. INTED 2008,
Valencia 3 – 5 marzo
New libraries in
the learning society
Patrizia Lùperi
Biblioteca di Lingue e Letterature
Moderne 1, Università di Pisa

2. Learning society
• fluidity of information on
paper, electronic and digital
supports
• digital literacy and digital
skills
• personalized educational
courses, without classrooms
and teachers

3. New libraries as post-modern
libraries in the learning society
Traditional
functions
Post-modern
functions
gathering and
preservation
multimedia resources
loan and reference personalized
counseling
services given to
individual users
services given to
collaborative groups
assistance in
bibliography
compilation
libraries meant as
information
laboratories
firm separation
between users and
library staff
border line figures as
trainees

4. New libraries or laboratories?
• Direct contact with
documents, information
and web
• Beyond school we need
laboratories and
multimedia institutes,
where we can select,
revise and personalize
data, in a context of
lifelong learning

5. New libraries as learning
environments
• Developing of potentials
(scaffolding concept)
• Personal identity built by a
participation that facilitates
the growth of cognitive
and social skills
• Library as a community of
practice and learning

6. New libraries as centres of flexible
learning
library as a
centre af
informal
learning
the user could
develop an
aptitude of
critical
research
opinion
independence
thanks to moments
of socialization and
debate regarding
the use of digital
resources

7. In the flexible environment of a
library:
• There aren’t just students,
users or library’s staff, but
also trainees and tutors:
• Different kind of trainees:
• student trainees
• graduated trainees

8. Focus on tutor’s role
• Tutor will organize:preliminary knowledge
moments between trainees and
introductory lessons,
• individual and group exercises in
computer classrooms meant to introduce
the use of digital resources and
encourage electronic skills,
• discussion, collaboration and simulation,
• decision making moments, choice of the
kind of library where practically perform
the training, problem oriented training’s
project elaboration, individual study
phases,
• elaboration of a final account.

9. Educational model of trainee
• Problem oriented approach, with the aim
of fitting the trainee period in the
operative needs of the current or
completed academic course:
elaboration of a personalized project
• tutorial teaching methodology,
based on laboratory, modeling
and apprenticeship techniques
• presence is crucial
• importance of motivation

10. Many players are involved
• Educational manager and
teachers
• tutor and library staff
• users with their different skills
and needs
• trainees and students…
Everyone is acting in the (not only)
physical library’s space…

11. Focus on trainee’s role
1. Mediation function between library
standards and users needs
2. higher psychological closeness with users
3. synchrony in the subjective problem
perception with students and library staff
4. complicity between trainees and users, that:
increases of
the trainee’s
motivation level
relieves the
“library anxiety”
user’s feeling

12. trainee as a vehicle
trainee
he will comunicate
a new model of
the library’s
representation
even in the social
environments where
there still is a purely
conservative idea
he will help to define a
new library’s culture
as a formative place where
common meanings are
elaborated, used and
personalized
in the appropriated context
of a new kind of
knowledge, open to
discontinuity, surprise
and uncertainty

13. Resultus of an opinion poll
effected by exhaustive interviews
trainees of
Biblioteca di
Lingue e
Letterature
Moderne,
Università di Pisa
thanks to this
experience they
increase their
information
literacy’s level
they will get a larger
and lifelong
independence in
personal information
management, as a
student and as a citizen
after taking a degree in
literature, philosophy or
foreign literatures and
languages, they
specialize as professional
mediators of information
their librarian
experience stimulates
the research of new
professions, different
from the traditional
ones (teacher,
translator)

14. Let’s give trainees leave to speak!
“nell’immaginario collettivo, la biblioteca viene vista come luogo statico, un mondo legato alla
tradizione e ben lontano dalla tecnologia. Anche su questo punto mi sbagliavo: la biblioteca è un
luogo aperto, sia dal punto di vista del patrimonio che cambia continuamente, sia dal punto di vista
degli strumenti, visto che si sta aprendo alle nuove risorse della rete. […]
Voglio considerare questa esperienza non come una piccola parentesi nel
mio percorso universitario ma come un punto di partenza dal quale iniziare a vedere le cose sotto
una prospettiva diversa”
“In the collective imagination, library is conceived
as a frozen place, a world bound to tradition, far
away from technology. That’s not true! A library is
an open place where collections change
constantly and where there’s a big increase in the
use of the web’s new resources. […] I don’t consider
this experience as a tiny digression in my academic
course. This is a starting point from which I can see
everything from a different point of view…”
October 2007, Silvia Profeti

15. Let’s give trainees leave to speak!
“ho capito che le biblioteche sono strutture attive, vive, sono luoghi di
socializzazione e di scambio relazionale sempre affollate di giovani, di studiosi e di
semplici appassionati, sono punti di incontro dove l’utente può usufruire di
un’assistenza continua da parte di operatori di contatto considerati un po’ come
sensori sempre accesi sull’esperienza delle singole persone e per questo capaci di
educare all’uso della biblioteca stessa”
“I have understood that libraries are active, living
structures, sites of socialization and relationships,
crowded with young people, researchers and
lovers of culture. Libraries are meeting places
where users take advantage of a continuous
assistance by librarians who are seen as a kind of
“sensors” switched on to catch everyone’s
experience; that’s why there are able to educate
people in using library’s services”
December 2007, Cristina Vincenzi

16. Let’s give trainees leave to speak!
“Che la biblioteca si soprattutto uno spazio sociale mi è apparso chiaro
particolarmente in questi ultimi mesi, in cui a me si sono affiancate altre
tirocinanti intraprendenti e piene di iniziativa con cui ho instaurato un
rapporto estremamente positivo sia sul piano umano, avendo
conosciuto persone con le quali condivido interessi e pensieri, che su
quello professionale, vista la collaborazione, lo scambio di idee e
consigli, l’intesa che si è venuta a creare fra noi”
“In the last few months I understood that every
library is first of all a social space because I have
been partnered with other proactive and initiative
trainees; with them I built an extremely positive
relationship. We became friends, as we share
interest and thoughts and we have been great
colleagues, we have collaborated, we have
exchanged ideas and pieces of advice and we
have had a mutual understanding ”
November 2007, Denise Cammilli

17. • Thanks for your attention!
• Patrizia Lùperi
luperi@rom.unipi.it