Thing #15 (Week 6) Web 2.0/ The Future of Libraries/ Library 2.0

This exercize has really come at the right point in the course for me. All the investigating that I've been doing into new technologies has me overwhelmed with the possibilities for the future of our profession. And I'm wondering what this will mean for the future of school libraries. At my school, I already see that students use the internet as their primary information source. Try as I might to convince them that they should start their searches with the catalog, they invariably gravitate to the easiest method for them - usually Google or Wikipedia. I've tried educating the teachers, but it all seems to fall on deaf ears.
I enjoy a healthy book budget, but I wonder if all that money is just being wasted on books that students never read.
I read all the articles from OCLC and was most impressed with "Away from the icebergs" by Rick Anderson. He advocates against building comprehensive print collections, when patrons can access the information online anyway. This makes so much sense to me, but the alternative (i.e. more digital content) would be a tough sell in my school. Our students are now so used to using Google and Wikipedia, they probably won't use what I buy no matter how superior it may be.
To find out what others are saying about changes that might affect school libraries, I also read the article "School Library 2.0" from the Wikipedia references. The author believes that in order to survive, the library needs to extend it's services beyond the boundaries of the school. As a staff member at the Genesee Valley BOCES in western New York, he's planning "two educational centers to support career and technical and alternative education programs. It is exciting to imagine what a library that serves culinary arts and automotive technology programs could be. We are looking to create something akin to an information commons, which will feature a print and audio fiction collection and primarily digital reference and nonfiction resources."
Since I work at a technical high school, I'll put some serious thought into redesigning the existing library collection to suit the needs of our students.