iBooks

Sitting in the mobile learning conference, listening to a great session in using the iPad in elementary language arts. http://usingipadsintheclassroom.weebly.com/  Among other things they are showing how they take advantage of some of the capabilities of iBooks.  Very good stuff! They are showing some of the new features related to textbooks within iBooks as well.

A few thoughts that come to mind:

1. What does it say about our profession that more people attend this mobile learning conference than attended our state school librarians conference? I like think that it's primarily because so many of us school librarians have had our positions eliminated and that schools don't value school librarianship enough to release or pay for conference attendance.
2. During their session they showed the way iBooks automatically links to Wikipedia.  When they did so, one of the attendees , a fellow librarian, said "Boo, Hiss!"  What does it say about our profession that we resist change ? I understand that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not the greatest or only reference tool, but it is a useful tool, and we need to embrace all tools and ways to access information.
3. ebooks are already radically changing our role as librarians, just as online databases have for our periodicals, and the internet has for our reference materials.  We need to grapple with these changes, try to understand them, and help our students and teachers make good choices.