Twenty years ago it seemed like I lived at the public library, now I don't think I've been in almost 10 years! We used to go there three times a week or more when my kids were young. As my kids grew up and the internet came into our lives we spent less and less time going to the library. Now that my youngest is 21 I guess he can go on his own.
Seeing that Thing 5 was about libraries I thought I'd better get going and take a look to see how much things have changed. After getting into Thing 5 I started finding all kinds of paths, searches, and links I never knew were there. I did find out real quick that my 10 year old library card needed updating. So I started looking on a Sunday to see if I could find one open and sure enough they are now open on Sundays. I jumped in the car and headed right down there, the place was packed. When I told the librarian that I thought I needed a new card, one I couldn't find my old one, and two, it was over 10 years old, she just smiled and said yea their only good for two years.
So now I have my new card and I am able to get into all kinds of places on my local libraries home page. I've been looking at getting some books sent out to my local library from those at other libraries and its really cool to be able to look online, find it and then "get it" sent to the library just down the block.
I've also introduced my engineering students to the find art of deep searching. Some of them looked puzzled when I told them that when they do a google search that it didn't find everything that was out there. Some were under the impression that if google couldn't or didn't find it, it wasn't worth looking at. They found out real quick that if they wanted to get at some of the latest research and papers from universities and trade journals that google wasn't going to do it for them. They too found that for some of their searches they needed an updated library card. They jumped right in, but I can see that it is going to take some of them some time to figure out the best way to search this new environment. As always I'm looking forward to what they find and can show me!
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I often compare libraries to church -- some people go at different times of their lives. Anyway, I'm glad the librarian smiled when you said you needed a new card :) And yes, there is a wealth of stuff available with that card beyond printed books! Glad you are having fun with it!
I think it is great that you introduced your kids to the deep web -- this is where reading blogs from teachers who teach similar classes can be useful because they tend to share about these types of resources. Good luck!
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