By Kathleen Atkin, Krista Siemens and Joan Baker
Do centralized professional learning libraries have a shelf life in K-12 school districts? Are these library collections still relevant in 2025? This article offers strategies for reimagining professional resource libraries for educators as more inclusive learning centres that resonate with both teaching and non-teaching staff as patrons.
Professional Learning Libraries (PLLs) or Educational Resource Centres (ERCs) that serve and support educators, including superintendents, directors, school administrators, clinicians, consultants and teachers, often lead a fragile existence in our Ministries of Education, school districts, and schools. Today, when the needs in our schools are many and education funding falls short, decision-makers may question the relevance and investment of maintaining a professional learning library in their school district. A system for sharing educational and instructional resources organized as a professional learning library usually seems like a practical and economical answer, and yet, it is often one of the first library services to be understaffed, displaced or discontinued due to lack of funding and physical space.
Retrospective of Divisional Professional Learning Libraries in LRSD
Louis Riel School Division has always valued and promoted the importance of professional learning libraries but access to centralized district resources has not always been as inclusive as it is today. Over the past 20 years, the district professional libraries have been relocated numerous times. While a request to move a library collection may be unexpected and often received by library staff on short notice, it almost always creates new opportunities for reinvention. In our experience, every time a professional library has been relocated, patron access gets a boost and the circulation of resources increases:
| YEAR | LOCATION | PATRON ACCESS |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | LRSD Norberry Board Office | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees |
| 2009 | LRSD Norberry Board Office | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees Teachers |
| 2012 | René Deleurme Centre (RDC) | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees Teachers |
| 2019 | Darwin School (Professional Resources) Marion School (Indigenous Education) Monterey Office (Multilingual Learners) Monterey Office (Clinical Services) | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees Teachers Clinicians |
| 2022 | Monterey Office New Professional Resources Indigenous Education Multilingual Learners Clinical Services | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees Teachers Clinicians Educational Assistants Clerical Employees Board Office Employees Facilities Employees Teacher Candidates |
| 2025 | LRSD Norberry Board Office | Senior Leadership Team School Administration School Board Trustees Teachers Clinicians Educational Assistants Clerical Employees Board Office Employees Facilities Employees Teacher Candidates |
Why Professional Learning Libraries in K-12 School Districts Need to Expand their Patron Base and Become More Inclusive
Louis Riel School Division is one of the largest and most diverse school districts in the Province of Manitoba. Located in the south end of Winnipeg, the district provides work for 2,426 employees, of which 55% are teaching staff and 45% are non-teaching staff.
Post-Covid, all LRSD professional library collections amalgamated at one location. In the past, many of the professional resources had been housed in multiple locations and accessible only to those who actively searched them out. At this new location, many of the employees who had offices on site were not teachers but facilities supervisors and clinicians with no prior access to the full professional learning library collections. That changed when the collections were brought together in a high traffic office space where professional learning events and district meetings were held, including the school board’s bi-monthly meetings. The new library space invited employees to browse and explore the resources, including one school psychologist who read every graphic novel available in the Indigenous Education collection during his lunch hour during the first month.
Development of Inclusive Professional Learning Collections
As our patron population became more diversified, the library team began to elevate the curation of our monthly themes to appeal to a broader interest base such as district-wide priorities and topics that offered staff new perspectives and ideas that resonated in both their work and personal lives. We started to receive feedback from both teaching and non-teaching staff that the recommendation lists were helpful not only as personal professional learning, but as a matter of personal interest and curiosity. Patrons also voiced their appreciation for the option of ebook and audio book formats in addition to print.
In curating the collections, we referenced our district Policy IJ: Learning resources and materials to establish our criteria for the selection of the recommendations. In developing more inclusive professional collections, it was important that the monthly themes always included selections that shared Indigenous perspectives, amplified diverse voices, celebrated literacy and learning, encouraged critical thinking, and promoted Canadian-authored titles.
| DATE | THEMES |
|---|---|
| NOVEMBER 2025 | Transgender Awareness Month |
| OCTOBER 2025 | New Releases by Indigenous Voices Across Turtle Island |
| SEPTEMBER 2025 | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2025 |
| JUNE 2025 | Summer Reading Lists: Best 12 Themes of 2024-25 |
| MAY 2025 | Women’s Health and Wellness (Guest Curator, Divisional School & Classroom Support Teacher) |
| APRIL 2025 | Water |
| MARCH 2025 | Celebrating Neurodiversity (Guest Curator, Divisional School Psychologist) |
| FEBRUARY 2025 | Amplifying Black Voices |
| JANUARY 2025 | How Food Shapes Our Identity |
| DECEMBER 2024 | Winter Solstice: Celebrate the Light |
| NOVEMBER 2024 | Democracy |
| OCTOBER 2024 | Murray Sinclair and Who We Are |
| SEPTEMBER 2024 | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2024 |
| JUNE 2024 | Summer Reading Lists: Best 12 Themes of 2023-24 |
| MAY 2024 | Celebrate PRIDE Month |
| APRIL 2024 | ECO-Literacy |
| MARCH 2024 | International Women’s Day |
| FEBRUARY 2024 | Louis Riel and the Métis Nation |
| JANUARY 2024 | Self-Care, Well-Being & Workplace Wellness |
| DECEMBER 2023 | Celebrate Everything! |
| NOVEMBER 2023 | Newcomer Stories |
| OCTOBER 2023 | Antiracism and Allyship |
| SEPTEMBER 2023 | Indigenous Education |
| JUNE 2023 | Summer Reading Lists: Best 12 Themes of 2022-23 |
Exemplars of Thematic Collections That Promote Diversity and Inclusivity
In January 2025, we were inspired by the question “How does food promote diversity and inclusivity?” asked by Dr. Ara Norenzayan (University of British Columbia) in his online article entitled The intersection of culture and cuisine: How food shapes our identity. We purchased a collection of authentic and diverse cookbooks representing the cuisine and culture of many of the students who attend schools in our district. We promoted the cookbooks as professional learning resources to both teaching and non-teaching staff to increase our understanding of belonging and inclusivity through food. The collection was a huge success and has been in frequent circulation since its launch in January 2025. Human ecology teachers borrowed the collection to introduce an appreciation for diverse cuisine into their curriculum, staff reported making the recipes at home, and administrators used the collection for professional learning opportunities at staff meetings.
As an extension, library services also curated a collection of diverse picture book recommendations for both the professional collection and school libraries entitled “Read the Book, Make the Recipe.” The impact was immediate and the feedback heartfelt:
I must say I was quite thrilled to find Granny’s Kitchen: A Jamaican Story of Food and Family by Sadé Smith among the collection and requested it right away for my daughter. Frankly, I didn’t expect to find a book so close to home. The images and recipes in this short story are a true reflection of my culture and exactly how I want to share cherished traditional recipes with my daughter. I could see my daughter in the character as well as a younger version of myself. It felt like the weight of passing on my culture was not mine alone (LRSD Executive Assistant and LRSD Parent, June 2024).
In April 2025, we explored the theme of water as a versatile metaphor for life, instability, resilience, transformation, and renewal. Here is a sampling of the variety of titles we curated, inspired by the theme of water:
- The Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosaki Simpson;
- Water Confidential: Witnessing Justice Denied – The Fight for Safe Drinking Water in Indigenous and Rural Communities in Canada by Susan Blacklin;
- Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging by Tara Roberts;
- The Optician of Lampedusa by Emma Jane Kirby; and
- Empowering Students to Improve the World in Sixty Lessons by Fernando M. Reimers et al.
The variety of materials presented was intended to show that we had something for everyone. We focused on Canadian and Indigenous titles but we also included popular new fiction titles, memoirs, poetry and children’s picture books. When the new collections were on display, I noticed patrons stop, browse through the pages, and take pictures… and then come back again later to look some more, and borrow. (Reflection by Joan Baker, 2025).
From Curation to Connection
Networking
Once a month during the school year, ancillary departments such as library services have an opportunity to network with members of the Leadership Team for an hour at the Board Office. For library services, this is a valuable opportunity to connect with decision-makers such as school trustees, superintendents, directors, department supervisors, and school-based administrators.
I have been attending the monthly Leadership Team networking hour for about 3 years. In addition to district and school leaders in attendance, other departments such as staff services, information systems, accounting and purchasing, clerical and facilities colleagues are often present. The networking hour has a casual meet-and-greet vibe and it’s a great opportunity to advocate our library services and promote the professional library collections. We always set up a display of thematic resources and new releases each month. I am present to answer questions regarding access to professional collections and sign out resources to patrons on site. I also demonstrate how to access digital copies on Sora and promote our Indigenous kits containing artifacts (Reflection by Krista Siemens, 2025).
Readership to Leadership
Since library services has been curating the thematic reading lists and creating the networking displays, there has been a marked increase in viewing attendance at the display tables every month. Building relationships through the networking hour has been key to our success in promoting professional resources across the district. We frequently receive appreciative feedback about how diverse the selection of titles is each month, as well as increased requests for personalized readers’ advisory from school trustees.
Guest Curators
A popular new feature that we introduced earlier this year was to highlight a guest curator, usually someone who was a recognized expert in their field or who had a passion for sharing a topic that supported district priorities. For example, a school psychologist in the district was in high demand as a presenter on neurodiversity at both leadership and school-based professional learning events. Often in her presentations she would share her most recommended resources on neurodiversity for both adults and students, and in turn, Library Services would receive an influx of requests for those recommended titles. We reached out to the psychologist and proposed a collaboration? She said “yes” and became our first guest curator!
The psychologist selected the books for the “Celebrating Neurodiversity” collection and categorized the titles into 5 themes: (1) history of the neurodiversity movement; (2) unmasking autism; (3) compassion and ADHD; (4) autistic adults and parents; (5) neurodiversity kid lit; and (6) neurodiversity-affirming schools. Library services designed the layout for the recommendations list, adding a “Why I chose it?” horizontal sidebar where the guest curator provided personal context as to why the book was chosen and why it was recommended reading.
The networking event took place during Neurodiversity Celebration Week in March 2025. With the guest curator in attendance, the display traffic and interest in the resources was exceptional. The “Celebrating Neurodiversity” collection is an excellent example of a theme that resonated equally with both teaching and non-teaching colleagues as professional learning. For some, the collection supported their work with students in schools, and for others the interest was personal, perhaps as the parent of a neurodivergent child. In May, we partnered with a Divisional Support Teacher as a guest curator of a Women’s Health and Wellness collection, and the results were the same. The books are still in high circulation 6 months later.
Communications and Online Outreach
In addition to our attendance at in-person networking and professional learning events, our LRSD Communications Department publishes our monthly reading recommendations in two digital newsletters that circulate to LRSD staff every month. “The Leadership Lineup” publishes bi-monthly and is emailed out to all members of our district Leadership Team including trustees, superintendents, directors, department supervisors, and school-based administrators twice a month. “The Learning Circle” publishes once a month and is emailed out to all LRSD employees, both teaching and non-teaching personnel. The pdf version of the monthly reading recommendations is also posted on all staff “My Sites” for easy access with contact information for borrowing and delivery of resources across the district. To be included in these monthly publications provides library services with additional opportunities to promote and advocate resources available in a variety of formats including print, ebook and audio book editions. All titles on our recommended professional reading lists include format icons to indicate the availability of physical and digital options.
Summer Reading
Every June, our department publishes a Best of LRSD Professional Libraries list, featuring our most popular thematic book recommendations of the school year… plus a few new themes such as Discover Manitoba 2025, just to keep things fresh for our patrons. We begin promoting the summer reading recommendations at the May networking event and fill requests until the end of June. Extra copies of ebook and audio book editions are also uploaded to Sora for easy summer access.
Characteristics of a Thriving Professional Learning Library
In our experience over the past 3 years, the survival of professional libraries to support K-12 school districts in the future will depend on the following:
- Staffing
Professional libraries are most successful when there is a dedicated librarian responsible for the organization and management of the collection(s). In our model, there are 3 of us supporting our professional learning collections but none of us work full time in the professional library. We all have other assignments within the library services department, but the sum of our parts makes it possible to staff the professional library as we each take the lead based on our areas of expertise. - Funding
Professional libraries are most successful when there is a dedicated annual budget assigned to invest in hiring staff and purchase new resources. Funding for the professional library resources is often “crowd sourced” in collaboration with other departments including Indigenous Education, School & Classroom Support, Clinical Services and Professional Development budgets. We pool our resources and everyone benefits.
- Collaboration & Curation
Professional libraries are most successful when librarians and users collaborate on the curation of resources. Participatory collection development involves patrons in the decision-making process for purchasing resources. Stakeholders are more likely to borrow resources from professional libraries if they have a voice in the selection.
- Physical & Virtual Space
Professional libraries are most successful when there is a central physical space provided to store and display professional resources, as well as a well-curated virtual collection available 24/7.
- Patron Accessibility
Professional libraries are most successful when everyone in the school district can borrow resources. Professional resources in school district libraries are sometimes reserved only for specific groups of educators such as senior administrators, school principals, clinicians, and teachers. In many cases, access to professional resources may even be restricted from general use among divisional employees such as support and/or non-teaching staff. All employees benefit from an inclusive professional learning library system. Everyone’s invited.
- Advocacy
Professional libraries are most successful when members of the learning community advocate for access to services and resources provided by professional libraries that support their work with students and families, as well as their own personal growth and well-being.
What’s next…
This fall, the LRSD Professional Learning Library was relocated to the central Board Office, so we are looking forward to regrouping and hosting a grand re-opening in the new year. Our new location has us already thinking about new opportunities for 2025-26:
- move acquisitions beyond “teacher resources” and more toward a greater awareness of global education issues as professional learning for everyone
- explore new areas of interest that allow all staff to see themselves in the collections
- involve patrons from different departments or instructional teams to take the lead in the curation process
- extend monthly themes to include book recommendations for students on the same theme to support collection development in K-12 school and classroom libraries
- expand book displays of professional resources to district-wide professional development events
- engage in more readers’ advisory services with patrons
- increase circulation district-wide
Celebrations
“An amazing list of reading recommendations for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation… I need to celebrate the tremendous work of the [Library Services] team providing resources for staff and students. Just wanted to celebrate that… amazing to see. It really is” (LRSD Superintendent of Schools and Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees, LRSD School Board Public Meeting, October 2025).
“Having a professional learning library and dedicated librarians has been immensely helpful and positive to meet the needs of clinicians. Not only are they actively researching and promoting new materials, but they are also editing dated items that no longer reflect our evolving perspectives. I have enjoyed, valued, and grown from this collaboration” (School Psychologist, October 2025).
“You are doing amazing work here” (LRSD Superintendent of Schools, Networking Events, September & June 2025).
“Wow! So good. Thanks again” (High School Teacher, *Patron note found inside a returned book, May 2025).
“Just stopped by to say that you nailed the reading recommendations again …. cookbooks & neurodiversity” (Occupational Therapist, March 2025).
“I so appreciate the displays that you create. It’s been really helpful (and fun) for me exploring our resources! Thanks, Joan” (Occupational Therapist, May 2024).
“Teacher complimented the new library location and took pictures of the Indigenous Education Collection (IEC) titles that she will share with her own children” (Indigenous Language Teacher, April 2023).
“I love what you’re doing here with the collections. It looks so good. I like the non-fiction materials for my students who are multilingual learners. It’s so good to have a librarian here again” (Quest Teacher, January 2023).
“This is awesome. Everything looks so inviting. Just what we’re looking for. I’ll be back with my student services teacher” (Elementary School Principal, November 2022).
References
Louis Riel School Division. (2022, May 17). Policy IJ: Learning resources and materials. https://media.lrsd.net/media/Default/medialib/ij-learning-resources-and-materials.6492cd25773.pdf
Norenzayan, A. (2024, April 30). The intersection of culture and cuisine: How food shapes our identity. University of British Columbia. https://www.arts.ubc.ca/news/the-intersection-of-culture-and-cuisine-how-food-shapes-our-identity/
Kathleen Atkin (BA BEd PBCE MEdTL) is the Divisional Teacher-Librarian for Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) in Winnipeg, Manitoba and a member of the LRSD School and Classroom Support Team (Instructional & Library Services). With over 30 years experience as a teacher-librarian in both English and French Immersion programs, she has worked as a district coordinator/teacher-librarian for Louis Riel School Division to provide mentorship for new teacher-librarians and professional learning in information literacy.
Krista Siemens (BA, RRC LIT Diploma) is the Divisional Library Technician for Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the past 15 years, she has worked in K-12 school libraries, as well as public and academic library settings. She oversees Library Services for 41 K-12 schools in LRSD, including centralized cataloguing services and resource management training for all library assistants, support workers and substitute staff. She is the networking lead and liaison for all LRSD professional learning library collections.
Joan Baker (RRC Graphic Design Diploma, RRC LIT Diploma) is the recently retired Divisional Professional Library Technician for Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, formerly managing the LRSD Professional Learning Library (including Clinical Services, Indigenous Education, and Multilingual Learner collections). A master of Readers’ Advisory and the curation of professional learning resources, Joan has re-imagined professional library collections to engage the interests of a wide range of employees across the district.