21st Century Skills for Libraries-Rebecca Teasdale

Great opening session! Her main 5 skills for the 21st Century:

• Dealing with change--confusion and being overwhelmed IS part of the process
  
• Tech Skills--be flexible--you will need to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn
  
• Continuous learning--the rate of change is going to increase
  
• Project management--be proactive instead of reactive. Sell our ideas and visions
  
• Connecting with Community--make ourselves mobile, go OUT into the community and ask questions and LISTEN

Interesting Stats:

• 97% of U.S. teens ages 12-17 play computer games
• 22% of the World's population is online
• 11 million people in the U.S. are nonliterate

Gaming--teaches diplomacy, problem solving, working in groups, gathering space, fun. We have plenty of adult programs at our libraries that are for fun--movies, knitting clubs, gardening talks, etc--there is nothing wrong with having library programs available for teens that are for FUN.