Dr. David Loertscher has a very special relationship with the school library community in Canada. He has inspired us and supported us in so many ways. He has taken a special interest in our development, and has influenced the direction of school library programs across the country in positive and powerful ways.
Our colleagues in the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) gathered together at their conference in Salt Lake City in October 2021 to pay tribute to Dr. Loertscher in anticipation of his retirement from San José State University’s School of Information, and asked us to participate.
We could not think of a better way to express our gratitude for Dr. Loertscher than by gathering reminiscences and best wishes from Canadians who have worked directly with David, and become his friends. We are very pleased to share this collection of memories to share with you, our readers.
The Canadian School Libraries Board of Directors
| Anita Brooks Kirkland Chair & Treasurer | Carol Koechlin Vice-Chair | Judith Sykes Secretary | Richard Beaudry Director | Caroline Freibauer Director |
Greetings from Sandi Zwaan and Carol Koechlin
David V Loertscher: A man with a mission
To inspire and empower educators and learners to be the best they can be.
To deepen and enrich learning experiences.
To build enthusiastic readers, makers and researchers.
To utilize the best technologies to enhance collaborations and knowledge building.
To teach us how to grow as learners.
David, you have achieved all this and so much more. We are so very honoured to have played a small role in your legacy of work to champion school libraries in United States, here in Canada and around the world. We cherish our many hours collaborating on professional writing and preparing and presenting workshops with you. From Carol’s kitchen table to Sandi’s cottage to airports and AASL conference rooms we hatched up some revolutionary work and we thank you for all the many opportunities you gave us.
Thank you for inviting us to your Treasure Mountain retreats where we learned firsthand about the synergy you could create in a room. Thank you for helping us replicate this powerful experience in Treasure Mountain Canada (TMC) symposiums here in Canada where we now have documented over ten years’ worth of Canadian research on school library practices that is home grown. Thank you for encouraging the building of our Canadian School Libraries organization. We are so grateful for your early advice and continued support.
Carol Koechlin
You have been so generous with your time and energies investing in the advancement of the Library Learning Commons vision and implementation here in Canada. We want you to know the seeds you planted here are flourishing in awesome school library learning commons from coast to coast to coast. Thank you!
We wish you good health and joy in the next chapters of life’s journey.
Fondly, Carol and Sandi
Greetings from Liz Kerr
Hello David!
I hear you are retiring! It seems to me I’ve heard that before, but maybe this is the final time?
CLA Conference / TMC, 2014
From the moment I became acquainted with you and your work through Carol and Sandi, I have admired you: as a person, as a leader, and as a genuine and caring pedagogue. The workshops you did here in Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB focusing on “banning the bird units” had a huge impact on my own thinking, and many of the teacher-librarians and principals in the school board. Your passion was such an inspiration to us. I recall one of the teacher-librarians asking you how many books you thought students should be able to borrow at one time from the school library – your quick and passionate response was “As many as they can carry!” Our teacher-librarians quoted that for many years!
And once Carol, Sandi, Esther and I began Treasure Mountain Canada in Calgary in 2010, our paths crossed often as you provided selfless leadership. I will always “treasure” our collaboration.
On a personal note, I recall you telling me at some point that you are an avid genealogist, and that you had traced your family back to Switzerland in the 1200’s. That little fact really resonated with me, and I began to take more interest in my own family roots. Since retirement, I have been building my own family tree, and collecting all the interesting ancestral stories for my family to enjoy!
I wish you happiness and health in your retirement.
Your friend and colleague in Ontario, Liz Kerr
Greetings from Esther Rosenfeld
David Loertscher, the Visionary
In 2007, the Ontario Library Association assembled a working group to create a 21st century vision document for school libraries. In order to have a wide-ranging expert discussion of the role of school libraries in 21st century learning, the committee convened a think tank and invited a select group of school library “luminaries” to attend. David Loertscher was, of course, one of these luminaries. During the meeting, I introduced an article I had recently read about how a few university libraries were rebranding themselves as “Learning Commons” and what this entailed. David took this nascent concept, envisioned a School Library Learning Commons, and brilliantly applied it in our discussion. He inspired our working group into using those ideas in the creation of our document, Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons and since then has championed and expanded the vision of the School Library Learning Commons and its role in 21st century learning in his writings and teachings.
Esther Rosenfeld President, 2007, Ontario Library Association
David Loertscher as Editor of Teacher Librarian
In 2005, Ed Kurdyla (taking over from its founder, Ken Haycock) became the publisher of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals. He brought on David Loertscher as the editor and, in order to maintain a strong Canadian presence, Ed invited me to work with David as co-editor. That was the beginning of a wonderful collaboration as David and I strove to maintain the excellence of the publication while introducing new features and ideas about school libraries in the 21st century. Our weekly telephone meetings in the “pre-video call” era were wide-ranging brainstorming sessions full of ideas and good humour. David provided the vision and the charisma and I provided the editing and management skills. David was generous with his expertise and his praise, and we proved to be a congenial and effective team.
Esther Rosenfeld, Co-Editor, Teacher Librarian, 2005-2008
Greetings from Dr. Dianne Oberg
Warm regards, David, from your IASL and Canadian school libraries colleagues in Canada. I still remember with fondness my first Treasure Mountain in Portland, Oregon and also the first Treasure Mountain Canada which was held at the University of Alberta. Thank you for all the support and mentorship you have so generously given over the years!
Dianne Oberg, Professor Emerita, University of Alberta, Canada.
Greetings from Judith Sykes
Celebrating the official release
of Leading Learning
Congratulations on your retirement David! I hope you will enjoy extra time with family, friends, travels and your multitude of interests. Maybe you will continue to write and research as I can’t imagine you giving that up completely! You have inspired so many practitioners and students in the school library community all over the world, and your work has transformed school libraries into vibrant and dynamic learning commons in very many places. You developed the outstanding “Treasure Mountain” research symposia and led us in action developing TM Canada.
I feel honoured to have met you, discussed learning commons transformation and research with you, had you visit my province on a number of occasions to ignite the learning commons revolution here, give advice to me in school library leadership work, and take the time to write a treasured forward for my book.
In Canada and all over the world your name and legacy are and always will be recognized as the person whose efforts and research generated phenomenal change in school libraries through the learning commons approach that we strive to grow and support today. Thank you, David! Wish you many “happy trails”.
Judith Sykes
Greetings from Marc Crompton
TMC3, 2014 in Victoria, BC
David, you are an inspiration to many, myself included. I have truly valued our time together and every visit with you, whether it be at Treasure Mountain, a trip to San Francisco, a visit to Vancouver, in class at SJSU, or on one of our many phone calls, has left me more inspired and energized. You are a true child at heart, filled with wonder, curiosity, and unbridled enthusiasm and you share those qualities with everyone that you are around. I think that my favourite moments with you have been those where I get to watch you interact with students as they share their growing knowledge and enthusiasm. I wish you all the best in your official retirement. I expect that this transition simply means that you get to do even more of what you love to do, and less of what you “have to do!”
Until our next meeting, my friend.
Melanie Mulcaster, TMC5, 2017, Winnipeg, MN
Greetings from Diana Maliszewski
David Loertscher has always loomed large in my mind. Back in 2005, I did a workshop at OLA Super Conference with my friend Deborah Braithwaite on Evidence-Based Practice. I was really nervous because my mentor, Carol Koechlin, had prompted the two of us to present on this concept that was pretty new to Deb and me, but the jitters were also because there was this library luminary in the audience – Dr. David Loertscher.
TMC4, 2016, Toronto
This legendary figure chatted with us after our session and invited us to a think tank in Pittsburg. Deb and I never made it to that think tank – which I think was one of the American Treasure Mountain Research Retreats that David organized since 1989 – but my paths have crossed with David frequently since then. He even invited my 17-year-old daughter to be on a panel with him while we were in Phoenix for TM and AASL in 2017; she was probably even more nervous than I was in 2005!
David was famous in school library circles, but he never acted as if he was better than anyone else. He was friendly, passionate about school libraries, and enthusiastic. He was a founding father of Treasure Mountain Canada, even to the point of Canadian School Libraries adopting the name (which makes it hard to describe to outsiders!!). It’s less of a ” treasure mountain” and more of a “treasure trove” – an opportunity for actual Canadian research and inquiry by practicing teacher-librarians, coupled with deep conversations and inspiration.
I attended TMC1, TMC4, TMC5, and TMC6 – and David was there for each one of those. He seemed to possess the energy of a much younger man. Who else would have the stamina to attend these intense symposiums, continue to teach at a university, and run his own publishing company to produce his own books? Thank you, David, for all that you’ve done to support school library action research in Canada.
Diana Maliszewski
Greetings from Caroline Freibauer
It’s been nearly a decade since David Loertscher visited Assumption College School in Brantford where I was a relatively novice teacher librarian. I had successfully acquired a provincial grant and wanted to bring in school library leaders with an expertise in inquiry-based learning. Loertscher, a much revered and respected author and presenter in the United States, and his Canadian collaborator, Carol Koechlin, agreed to facilitate a two-day workshop for interested teachers from the three high schools in my board.
These powerhouse leaders came prepared. They had created a learning environment designed to inform, to challenge, to teach by example. They had built “virtual” sandboxes where participants could experiment and collaborate online. Between them, Loertscher and Koechlin had years of experience to share but they also had an enthusiasm for new learning that energized the group.
Everything was loaded on a Google site to be accessed on the many computers in the ACS school library. Unfortunately, my school board blocked Google. I hadn’t thought to check this out ahead of time because it seemed inconceivable that something as useful and ubiquitous as Google would be shut down. But that’s what happened. To maintain a strange control over the board’s virtual presence, everything Google – except the search engine – was blocked. I was mortified.
Loertscher was outraged. “This is a crime against education,” he railed. “Who is the highest person at your board I can talk to about this?”
I did pass on a few names but knew it was futile based on my attempts to solve the problem with the board’s information technology staff. In fact, it would be seven more years before my board considered loosening restrictions over Google. But, like all good educators, we improvised and muddled through. There was still lots to learn from these experts.
I will never forget the sight of Goliath-sized Loertscher in my school library learning commons, magnifying goggles perched on his head to help with failing eyesight, ready to promote and defend the power of inquiry in the school library learning commons – virtual or physical. Like a true David, he has not given up the fight and remains an inspiration for all of us.
Caroline Freibauer
Greetings from Richard Beaudry
I met David at the AASL 2019 Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. As the representative of CSL, I had received an invitation to attend a once in a lifetime meeting with many of the experts and mentors in school librarianship that I had studied and followed over the many years I have been a teacher-librarian. It was called the “Symposium of the Greats: Wisdom from the Past and a Glimpse into the Future of School Libraries.”
Hosted by Dr. David Loertscher, the room had 100 people, split between many of the best researchers and advocates for school libraries since the 1960s. Each attendee who came to the meeting received a copy of the book with the same title as the Symposium.
David Loertscher reminded us of the continuing role we have to play as mentors ourselves, even as some of us approach retirement. As we departed, each of the attendees was given a small wooden chip with the words ‘I Can’ written on it by the mentors. This was a memento to remember that being a teacher-librarian mentor is a lifelong endeavour. I thank him for his advocacy and research in the field of librarianship.
Richard Beaudry
Greetings from Shelagh Paterson
Dr. Loertscher’s leadership of Treasure Mountain Canada proves that good ideas have no borders. I first met David in 2010 when his work inspired the Ontario Library Association to participate in the creation Canada’s first ever Treasurer Mountain Canada. I was struck by his co-teaching approach to facilitating the symposiums – truly great teacher-practice in action! Since the inaugural TMC, and thanks to founding champions including Carol Koechlin, Anita Brooks Kirkland and Liz Kerr there have been a total of six Treasure Mountain Symposiums in Canada.
As the library learning commons is the hub of the school, David has been in the hub of important school library research here in Canada. Through these wonderful symposiums, hundreds of library practitioners from across Canada have been inspired to contribute research, to present their ideas and to develop a framework for standards for the learning commons. The Ontario Library Association is so appreciative of David’s leadership towards student achievement.
Shelagh Paterson, Executive Director, Ontario Library Association
TMC4, 2016, Toronto, at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference
Greetings from Anita Brooks Kirkland
David, you are larger than life, and have been a larger than life influence on my career. Many years before I met you I was a big fan, having read many of your articles and research reports. I felt quite star-struck when I finally met you. I think that must have been in the board room at the Ontario Library Association office in 2008 as we started to envision Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons. I so remember you and David Warlick feeding off of each others’ ideas as the rest of us sat with jaws dropped and minds spinning. That was truly the most stimulating day of my professional career to that point, and if it’s been topped since then I’m quite sure you were involved.
You’ve been everywhere since then, from workshops for teachers and teacher-librarians in the Waterloo Region District School Board, where I was the library instructional leader, to conferences, writing projects, and most particularly all of the Treasure Mountain Canada symposia.
Whenever you are involved, David, the experience is the ultimate “big think”. There is a photo of you at TMC4 in Toronto with your arms spread wide, inviting participants to stretch beyond what we imagined was possible. The photo is iconic. This is David Loertscher, and we are so very grateful for your leadership, influence, and inspiration, but mostly for making us believe that the big think was possible.
Your friend, Anita Brooks Kirkland
