By Jennifer Brown
When new resources, guidelines and frameworks become available to support the work of K-12 school library professionals the initial interest and excitement may be followed by a sense of hesitancy. As a teacher-librarian myself, having these tools to support advocacy initiatives and assist others in understanding the importance of the school library learning commons (SLLC) is incredibly helpful. The challenge can be to find ways for these guidelines and frameworks to become “living and breathing” tools that we can utilize in our own ongoing reflective practice.
One recent offering from Canadian School Libraries, Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success, published in 2023, offers a clarity and simplicity that captures the complexities of establishing and maintaining a thriving SLLC. Connected to the Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, the 2023 framework offers a 20 page summary of the ideals of school librarianship followed by 5 appendices rich with success indicators and considerations. These appendices seem to offer a significant opportunity for reflective practice.
How might we use the foundations framework, specifically the appendices, to support our practice and have a direct impact on our school library learning commons?
Initially, printing out the framework and simply highlighting or checking off the various indicators in the document seemed like a reasonable idea. This may be an effective one time exercise and certainly paper documentation of practice is important. However, when we consider the accountability framework section which begins on page 18 of the foundations document, it becomes evident that an interactive digital tool might prove more effective and sustainable. The accountability cycle and the importance of evidence-based practice is featured on page 19 and includes the following:
“Measuring and communicating outcomes and impacts provide insight into the success of programs and initiatives. Understanding outcomes and impacts inform practice and deepen professional knowledge. Communicating outcomes and impacts strengthens understanding and support from decision-makers and stakeholders, and demonstrates the value of the school library learning commons program.” (Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success, page 19)
With this in mind, I began creating a simple digital tracking tool based on the foundations framework. Initially this was a Google Doc in a chart form but, it did not feel like it met the goal of supporting ongoing and interactive reflection. I switched to a spreadsheet, an open source version that can be copied for individual use can be found here.
To monitor the status of each indicator I used the Growth Stages from Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada which are also found on page 17 of Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success. Taking into consideration how this document might be shared with others or used to inform future annual planning, budget advocacy and annual reports, it was also important to provide space for evidence and next steps.
How might this foundations framework tool support and inform my current practice?
As I described in my Treasure Mountain Canada 8 (TMC8) paper, Embracing Participatory Learning Through LLC Extracurricular Programming, my current school offered an exciting opportunity to shift my practice to a well-established school with an existing legacy of community connections:
In the fall of 2022, I moved to a small K to 8 rural school in Caledon Village, Ontario called Caledon Central Public School. The school was built in the mid-1960s and has seen many changes over the years. With a population of just under 350 students, the role of teacher librarian is staffed at only a .5 allotment. As a result, my job is .5 teacher librarian and .5 guidance educator. The guidance role was new to me at the time of my arrival which I knew would present a significant, albeit exciting, learning curve. The majority of the school population are bussed to and from school each day. In addition to our students who are with us from Kindergarten through grade 8, we are the middle school for 2 smaller schools which means that each year we welcome a small handful of students who are with us for only grades 7 and 8. Having come from much larger schools, it was also the first time in many years that I was faced with the challenges of part-time teacher librarianship. This represented my 24th year in the teaching profession and my 10th year as a teacher librarian.
What excited me most about experimenting with this tool was that it came along at a time when I was grappling with the best ways to both document the changes we had made in the SLLC while also considering which areas had not yet progressed to their full potential. What I found is that working through the indicators using the aforementioned growth stages was highly effective and reasonably easy to do. This offered a quick visual way to look for patterns that could help inform advocacy, programming and annual reporting. While much of the physical space design and instructional indicators ranged from Emerging to Established, with a few even at Leading into the Future, our digital and technological indicators ranged more heavily towards Exploring and Emerging with a small portion at Evolving and Established. This area of growth was not a surprise to me but seeing the overall discrepancy in this manner was certainly helpful.
A more challenging aspect of using the tool was documenting the evidence of each indicator and considering what next steps might be needed where appropriate. I slowed my initial process to consider why it might be important to update this portion of the spreadsheet in an ongoing manner throughout the entire 2024 – 2025 school year. While I found it easy to assess our progress, making sure that I could synthesize the evidence for myself and others took more intentional decision-making. This proved important to my initial goal of making the Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success a “living and breathing” tool for professional reflection. The screenshot below shows a small example of this documentation. Many of the other areas of my reflection on my current SLLC include links to evidence that is school specific and includes student work, images and feedback, therefore I am not sharing the entire document.
What are the biggest takeaways from engaging with this process so far?
Overall, this process provided an opportunity to take stock of the changes we have made thus far and consider the areas that require further action and reflection. What I love about this type of professional reflection is that it celebrates the successes, small and large, that can be easy to forget in the day to day operations of a SLLC. It’s easy to fixate in the never ending “to do” list that haunts even the most experienced school library professional.
In terms of my current SLLC, I was not surprised to see that our digital literacy programming and SLLC online presence (website etc) were the greatest areas of need. Finding an ideal public facing platform that aligns with our board policies and serves the interests and needs of students, staff and families can be difficult. To offset some of these barriers, we plan to focus on promoting and highlighting the centrally provided digital libraries, databases and research tools available to all students and staff.
Ultimately, with any reflective tool, sustainability is often a significant challenge. Since this is the beginning of my second year fully applying this approach to my practice, new questions arise.
- How often should I return to this tool to update the status of each indicator?
- How much evidence do I need to provide?
- Which school community members might benefit from the sharing of this information?
- How much capacity do I have to maintain this long term?
I am left to grapple with these questions and more. However, I continue to be impressed with the framework and its indicators as a valuable resource to inform my practice and push my thinking.
Note from the Chair: While this was undertaken as a personal project as outlined in the article, the power of this approach means we are adding it as an ‘official’ tool to the Foundations and Frameworks page, along with a link to this article.
References
Brown, J. (2025). Embracing participatory learning through LLC extracurricular programming. Available: https://researcharchive.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TMC8_2025_Brown.pdf.
Canadian School Libraries. (2020). Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Available: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca
Canadian School Libraries. (2023). Foundations for school library learning commons in Canada: A framework for success. Available: https://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/foundations-frameworks/
Canadian School Libraries. (2025). TMC8 2025 – Treasure Mountain Canada. Available: https://tmc.canadianschoollibraries.ca/tmc8-2025/