My colleague Kendra and I attended the IMLS-sponsored WebWise 2011 Conference in Baltimore, which was focused on the topic of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in Education, Learning, and Research. The audience was an energizing blend of librarians (academic, school, state, public, museum, and special), scientists, artists, historians, ethicists, and government representatives. A few themes arose:

• Huge amounts of data is being produced now, but there is no infrastructure (people, processes, systems, funding) to adequately vet, use, and preserve the data. Human resources are a necessary part of this process: it cannot be fully automated.
• Really cool things are being done with data, though—involving laypeople contributing to data as well at its analysis, and artistic/compelling methods of presenting the data to the public. (see, e.g., http://fold.it or http://chriswildrick.com/). Much greater mix between scientists and non-scientists.
• Student learners reject “old school” style of learning: successful educators support self-directed learning, use online resources to increase their effectiveness, seek and give support to other educators online, and use technology to improve their professional and personal effectiveness.
• Librarians and other educators are deeply concerned about the current condition of and context surrounding the national education system.
• Libraries used to bring the world to their community; now they have the opportunity (or charge?) to bring their community to the world. This means gathering local content, presenting it online in a non-insular way for the rest of the world to find and use.