Are we fighting a losing battle? Reference vs. Non-fiction

Yes and no.  Yes because I feel there is a great divide in an elementary school when it comes to seeking information.  Intermediate students and teachers instantly go to the internet for project-specific information. I know this because I work closely with most of my grade 4-7 teachers and they very rarely seek my help when researching for projects. I suggest and lure them as best I can but it is a losing battle: tech rules.  On the other hand, my primary teachers are very dependent on our (very oudated) non-fiction section and often will take out 20 books at a time for one topic.  Some of the primary boys rely on the non-fiction section for their pleasure reading, without it they would refuse to take books out.

I think one question that is an important one to ask is what kind of non-fiction books are being purchased for the library? Without Ripley's Beleive it or not, National Geographics Weird but true and other fact books like them it would be hard to keep kids in the non-fiction area.  The Basher series is also hugely popular in my library right now.  They are these small, cartoonish books that can simplify very tricky topics like Physics, Geometry, Planet Earth...Thank goodness there are non-fiction books that are being made for all levels and all grades. 

I know that the concept of 'wonder' is a hot topic with some of the primary teachers so I have been hunting for the very information books that Reidling described as important: the ones that answer questions.  It has been interesting because they are out there, we as TLs just need to stop and look for them.  I recently bought a book called 'Just a Second'  by Steve Jenkins and it is a very unique way to look at time.  It looks at a second and what else takes a second; for example "A hummingbird beats its wings 50 times" and "A rattlesnake shakes its tail in warning 60 times." It looks at a small amount of time like one second and continues until one year.  An interesting book to help kids visualize time and think about time in a bigger picture.  If you are buying non-fiction books instead of reference materials you may be able to win the losing battle, but is there that much of a difference?

Do you have a bias?

I must say that I am pretty open minded to many things and in my previous (rant-ish) posting about wikipedia I am sure many people rolled their eyes and thought I was a bit of a nut.  However, it is the truth.  All information may not have been created equally, but it can at leat create teachable moments and be used as a springboard  to a better understanding of whatever has been assigned (ie. project, inquiry question).  Right now I am team teaching with a colleague of mine and we are in the process of (trying) to teach Information Quest to a grade 6/7 class.  The teacher is not a fan of the format of Information Quest, because he feels it is too wordy for his students.  I like the bones of it, but need to tweak it so I can teach it better. So far him and I have been teaching many little mini lessons on how to focus your question, how to find appropriate material and how to filter through that material.  It has been a bit hit and miss to say the least.  Considering we are both new to this, I think we are doing all right.  Thank goodness his students have not realized yet that they are guinea pigs in this experiement of sorts.  I will say this though...we have used wikipedia and google search several times.