ABSTRACT
I remember the sense of the importance of going to the school library of my elementary school for the first time. We were going to learn how to unlock the card catalog and the mysteries of the Dewey Decimal System. With this knowledge, we leveraged the world’s knowledge contained in all of those books on the shelf. It was a huge day, and yet, I still do not remember my teachers doing much with the librarian to build it into what we did in the classroom. There would be the occasional project where we were instructed to “see the librarian” if we needed help, and the librarian, being only one person, really could not give us the time we needed. Another vivid memory is the day my father bought for us the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia set. He said we could look up anything (in alphabetical order!) and get information. So I started getting information, then copying verbatim for reports and then getting into trouble at school for the work not being my own. To add insult to injury, our teachers claimed that encyclopedias were not the best source of material and forgot to address the fact that the citations at the end of the articles could offer an avenue for information. Again, another potential path blocked. It also boxed out my father from his path to help us. Instead of empowering the resources at hand we were made almost entirely dependent upon those who appeared before us in the classroom. I am sure no one planned this or was even aware, but, in the final analysis, it made no sense.
