Public library opportunities – a connectivist approach

Abstract

Libraries in our age must simultaneously correspond to the cult of speed and be human-scale. Connectivism (network-based learning), the learning theory of the conceptual society, has evolved in the virtual world. It requires a new approach. The connectivist approach to libraries manifests itself mainly in the following fields: the use of tools, marketing, online services and adult education. The web 2.0 tools – since they are connection- and community-oriented – enable co-operation in various areas (such as learning, thinking, professional work, creation). Nowadays there is an ample choice of free internet services and applications (blogs, social networks, instant messaging, conceptual maps, online office packages; link, video and image sharing solutions, catalogues, wikis, aggregating tools). The image public libraries build about themselves using these tools in the virtual space depends only on the creativity, fantasy and attitude of librarians. We need, however, real spaces and real communities as well, to support the existence of communities and to provide facilities for reader development. We start to realise now how important it is to stop for a moment in our hectic world, therefore we need quiet places as well which serve immersed study and reading. There are such spaces hidden within the walls of libraries. It is libraries and librarians who can do the most – in addition to parents and teachers – for educating children and other individuals to reading, through developing well-devised virtual and real spaces and through their communities.