School Library Monthly/Volume XXVII, Number 1/September-October 2010 43 From Libraries to Learning “Libratories: ” The New ABC’s of 21st-Century School Libraries

With nearly 100,000 school libraries in the United States (ALA 2010) serving millions of students, teachers, and community members, it is more important than ever to have a clear answer to the ques-tion, “What does the future hold for school libraries in the 21st Century?” From a shortsighted, cost-cutting perspective, we’ve all heard one disturbing response, “With everything online, why do we even need physical libraries and librarians? ” (New York Times 2010). From the perspective of the 21st-cen-tury learning movement, however, there is a very different and much more encourag-ing answer: School libraries are essential learning resources and librarians are the essen-tial “guides inside ” our schools, leading everyday teaching and learning toward methods and outcomes that best pre-pare our students for the challenges of the 21st century. To see why this is true, we first need to step back and ask, “What must students now learn to be successful in our increas-ingly information-driven, technology-powered world—what are the knowledge and skills most needed for our times?” From this vantage, we can see how well school libraries and librarians are equipped for the future of learning, and we can then outline the ways school libraries and services must evolve through the 21st Century. Over the Rainbo