My district recently received Race to the Top funds and initiated a Learning Technology Plan. A major part of that plan involves deploying personal devices, which currently means 1:1 mini iPads for students and staff. As part of the Race to the Top grant monies, the district will also be purchasing supplemental digital texts for the English classroom (12 per grade level) and we have a team researching and purchasing a digital district library.

Selecting which titles to purchase to kick off our district digital library is a difficult task. One of our principals has suggested that he wants to move to 100 percent digital content in the next few years. Several others schools value print content and are resistant to promote any digital content whatsoever. Most of our schools, however, fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

Since many of our students will have devices by the start of school, we feel the pressure to have an initial collection in place by this fall. That is where the wicket gets sticky. The district has selected a provider (Overdrive), but choosing the titles themselves provides challenge. The committee wants to make strong choices that will hook students’ personal reading choices and get them excited about using the digital resources.

We all have so many questions about what this digital library will look like. What items will need single use or multiple use licenses? What about the popular titles? Will we have to enter a 12-month lease? What about usage? Some licenses allow only a limited number of checkouts before we need to purchase another license. Should individual school libraries contribute to a pool to make additional purchases to the district collection? What if one school hogs all the digital titles? Who manages the district collection once it is purchased?

While we won't know the answers to many of these questions until we make purchases and evaluate our usage statistics, we will begin to understand how our physical collection relates to our online selections. This is evidence of the quickly evolving role collection development plays in our libraries. It’s tough to wrap your brain around. The sooner we can get a handle on how to manage, promote, disperse, and budget for the 21st-century library the better.

Now that our students and staff have devices, I believe we librarians will find our role expanding to provide support for online textbooks and free classroom resources, such as CK 12, iTunes U, Khan Academy, and more. Schools will be naturally developing their blended classroom resources, so it will be up to us to research, suggest and support applications or extensions. I wonder what it looks like to collaboratively teach with our staff in a blended environment?

School librarians really have to think about our evolving library role, and it continues to be a vital one as schools march forward. We will be on the frontlines as we research, evaluate, and select content for our patrons, and the platform which will deliver that content. We will be vital through collaborative instruction as we work to be, and support, 21st-century technology educators. We will all need to develop a clear vision for the future of libraries while continuing to support our students and staffs in their quest for quality information.