Continued Community Outreach

It always catches me off guard when other educational professionals tell me that our learning resources centre is the model for other schools in El Salvador.  It seems a bit over the top and makes me a little uncomfortable for various reasons. This isn't because I doubt the impact that our centre has on our community nor do I doubt the cutting edge education practices that take place there every day. I have experienced what visionary thinking based on sound educational research and practice can do, when the right balance of technologies and resources are brought together with motivated practitioners and sufficient financial and academic support. This discomfort is likely a direct result of this question-Why aren't there more LRCs around? Yes funding is one of the main drivers in building a massive initiative, but there is plenty of scope in other institutions to  rearrange and redesign based current beliefs about learning spaces and practices. These don't  cost and arm and a leg, but rather in time and dedication of professional teams of innovative risk takers.

Over the years, it has become commonplace to see hosted groups of administrators, teachers and librarians as well as students of these disciplines touring the facilities. Using technology we have been able to further expand these tours and engage in discussions and shared practices as far away as Malaysia and up and down the Americas.  These are always meaningful reciprocal learning experiences for everyone involved. We look forward to them and always come away with that greater sense of community and the satisfaction that accompanies the sharing of ideas and practices by like minded educators.


Last Thursday we were awarded the enormous privileges of hosting a class of student librarians at the Universidad de Costa Rica.  We hosted the class via Google Hangouts, using our various cell phones and one laptop. This technique worked really well as we were all able to not only converse with the group but also tour them around the facilities and in doing so pop in and out of the conversation as it developed.  We spent an hour and a half with this class,  during this time we shared ideas for the development of learning resources centres, special projects, and purchasing ideas for equipment and resource. We shared the way we organised our print library as well as the virtual library and its functions finishing up with a complete tour of the facilities as well. The beauty of this type of meetup is natural flow of conversation punctuated by concrete examples and poignant Q and A.

The professor  in charge wrote to us the following day to thank us for coming into her classroom the evening before and working with her students. We in turn were thankful for the opportunity to do so. There is so much scope for work like this. It costs next to nothing to beam a group in via the internet and collaborate. We do it with our students in lessons, why shouldn't we collaborate through web conferences with other institutions as well. All it takes is a few people who are not afraid of taking a risk and are willing to use the technology most of us carry around as if it were an additional appendage.

We would be thrilled to hold more of these virtual meetups in future. We'll keep the updates coming.

Jen and the Librarians