This column is the first in a series exploring "new" expanded conceptions of literacy education. Examples of these new expanded conceptions include visual literacy, critical literacy, hypertext, media literacy, multimedia, drama, music and other less "traditional" forms of print and nonprint text. It is through discussions of these multiple literacies that the evolving role of teacher-librarians and school libraries will be explored. The last 20 years have been characterized by enormous changes in the social, cultural and economic fabric of most developed countries. The New London Group (1996) attributes these changes to two factors: globalization and the burgeoning number of information technologies. Together, these two factors are largely responsible for the exponential growth of cultural and linguistic diversity in many developed countries; so much so that literacy specialists like Alverman and Hagood have described this era of change as "... a time when literacy educators from around the world are speculating about the ways in which new technologies will alter conceptions of reading and writing" (2000, p. 193). The author explores what is meant by multiple literacies and the implications multiple literacies may have on school libraries and teacher-librarians.