Educating all students to be lifelong learners, citizens, and workers is the major challenge of education today.  Students must be prepared to live and work in our ever changing, increasingly global and technological world.  They must be able to think critically and creatively, solve problems, retrieve and manage information, and communicate effectively.  In a context of rapid and constant social, cultural, economic, geographical and technological changes, the library media program provides physical and intellectual access to the vast amount of information and ideas needed for teaching and learning.

"For all student, [this] will include learning environments that are fundamentally different from any that we have known.  Central to this new context is the idea of the "learning community."  This phrase suggests that all of us - students, teachers, administrators, and parents, as well as local, regional, state, national, and international communities - are interconnected in a lifelong quest to understand and meet our constantly changing information needs.  This new learning community is not limited by time, place, age, occupation or disciplinary borders but instead is linked by interest, need, and a growing array of telecommunications technology."

(Information Power, Building Partnerships for Learning, AASL/AECT 1998)