Create

Historically, librarians have collected and circulated books and other materials to support the consumption of knowledge. The library has often been referred toas the poor man's university. Now in the age of the Internet and advanced technologies in the palm of the hand, librarians are encouraging not only consumption, but the creation of knowledge. Thus, in a school or public library the patron could

Read a book and also write a book
Watch a video and also create a video
Listen to music and also create music
View art from around the world and also create art in many forms
Use artificial intelligence apps and also use AI software to create apps.

Below are two videos that demonstrate this shift in the role of libraries, particularly the school library learning commons and innovation center model:

Dr. David Loertscher & Carol Koechlin

21st Century Learning Commons

Superintendent Buddy Berry

Innovation Center & Learning Commons Increase Student Achievement

Creativity

The uTEC Maker Model shows the various stages of a person of an age who uses the inventions of the present but then begins to tinker with those inventions, gets serious about creating something, and finally succeeds at actual invention. During this process, the creative person is learning a number of helpful skills as they fiddle, fail, try again, experiment and text some more, and finally have something that works.

As a parent, do you have a creative child or teen? Of course you do! Creativity is a learned skill; you are not born with it. Just to demonstrate that idea that librarians will use to stimulate creativity is to go to YouTube and search for "child inventors" or, "Teen inventors."

Use the Tools

Ask for and help your school librarians acquire the tools, space, encouragement, and exhibition space both in the physical library space but also in its virtual space. Here are a few ideas that will help you start the conversation and take advantage of opportunities and tools that most homes cannot afford to provide for their children and teens while they experiment, lose interest, gain new interests, and most importantly, embrace creativity as a way to change the world around them.

Writing Tools:

Google Docs

Chatgbt

Music Tools:

GarageBand

MusiQuest

Melody Jams