October
6,
2011
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"K20 Librarian"
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| Bridging
school s,
public
libraries,
colleges,
&
universities |
Bridging schools, public libraries, colleges, & universities
Historically, our nation’s public institutions providing education services; K.12 school
systems, public libraries as well as colleges & universities, have had only minimal success in
creating sustained partnerships and sharing resources across the K.20 organizational
spectrum. The barriers to developing cooperative programs, and day.to.day interaction
arise from serving mostly different populations with different needs and having widely
dissimilar governance structures, funding sources, internal cultures and traditions.
Yet seen as a whole, these institutions constitute the sum of the nation’s publicly funded
educational system and can serve anyone from pre.school to post graduate; both for the
traditional formal grade levels as well as for life long learning and self.guided inquiry.
With over 66,000 of our nation’s K.12 schools, public libraries, colleges and universities,
museums, and other cultural, artistic, historic, and scientific organizations connected to a
national, indeed international, fabric of non.profit advanced research and education
networks, the technical infrastructure is now place, and improving each year, to support
unprecedented trans.institutional cooperation and daily working relationships.
“K.20 Librarians” can become the connective tissue of a new national education continuum
where all institutions of learning can function more as an integrated whole to serve the
needs of each learner at any level of accomplishment across any distance by providing
tailored resources and expanded educational opportunities.
Who better than librarians, with their deep professional kinship and common traditions, to
help standardize technological, procedural, administrative and other trans.institutional
resources for students and instructors to extend learning opportunities and services!
Actions:
• Facilitate formation of “K.20 Librarian” collaboration projects among school, public, academic and special librarians to serve as institutional bridges.
• Serve as an information.sharing conduit between local/regional/state efforts to leverage the different strengths and natural alliances among “K.20 Librarians”.
• Provide a forum for librarians and library advocates to explore, share, and experiment with the uses of advanced broadband enabled services, applications, and resources in libraries and the communities they serve.
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Contact:
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James Werle, Director, Internet2’s K20 Initiative
jwerle@internet2.edu
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Don Means, Principal,
Digital Village
don@digitalvillage.com
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