By Carol Koechlin & Anita Brooks Kirkland
Like so many individuals, families, communities and organizations we have struggled through this most difficult time together and apart. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered everything in our lives and our approaches to the future. The time between our last publication in early March and now seems like years ago and yet it’s been only three months.
From Celebration to Contemplation
Preparing the winter issue of CSL Journal was a celebratory experience for us. We were all on a high from the Treasure Mountain Canada 2020 symposium. The TMC6 experience exceeded expectations, creating a rare learning dynamic that seemed to empower everyone. Presenters, paper writers, organizers, volunteers and every participant felt the synergy build from Friday’s workshops and evening dinner festivities right through Saturday activities to the Loertscher Big Think.
We honoured the Pembina Trails School Division from Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the very first recipient of the Leading Learning Implementation Award. We were thrilled to also award three outstanding teacher-librarians with the Angela Thacker Memorial Award – Alison Bodner of Manitoba, Alanna King of Ontario, and Sarah Wethered of British Columbia. All recipients were in attendance which added to the celebratory atmosphere of the evening. We parted with heads and hearts filled with great expectations for the future.
Just a few days after publication of the winter edition, the COVID-19 pandemic became a stark reality for all of us. School closures tumbled one after the other across Canada and physical school libraries were shuttered from our learning communities.Those first few weeks we felt as if we were in the centre of a devastating science fiction movie; isolated, worried and just plain scared. However it didn’t take long for the resiliency and creativity of educators and particularly school library professionals across the country to emerge, inventing new ways of reaching out to their school learning communities.
Evolution of the SLLC, at a Revolutionary Pace
It has been very interesting to watch the process of evolving from physical learning environments to virtual ones. At first the concern was reading: kids need books, lots and lots of books, so how do school libraries continue to feed their reading appetites? Those schools and districts with online ebook collections had a head start but soon social media was filled with suggestions of free ebook portals, and then publishers and authors stepped up to provide copyright permission to access books and virtual readings. A lot of anxieties were clarified by Access Copyright for Educators and virtual literacy exploded.
Many turned back to traditional comforts like baking, needlework, crafts and music to provide solace during this difficult time. It didn’t take long for folks to grasp on to these creative endeavors and transfer them into engaging virtual makerspace activities, and virtual websites started to evolve to much more than resource collections, including spaces for fun and learning.
As winter started to release its grasp we began to yearn for nature, art and music. Social media networks were alive with suggestions for virtual field trips, live web cams of animal habits, virtual museum exhibitions and vocal and instrumental music artists. School library websites were transitioning to learning commons spaces taking learners into new worlds to explore and enjoy.
The next big wave hit with the application of creative technologies to create engaging “choice grids” and “Bitmoji classrooms”. Collaborations with classroom teachers are blossoming now as school library professionals take the lead on the potential of teaching and learning in online environments.
Inspiration for the Future of the School Library Learning Commons
With the onset of the pandemic lockdown, planning for this spring edition collapsed. Just as everyone was mourning the situation and dealing with such mixed emotions, we were unsure of how to proceed. What stories could we tell that could retain any sense of authenticity when everything had flipped upside-down? How could we ask stressed out practitioners to contribute articles when they were busy re-inventing their own practice at crisis pace, all while dealing with the considerable practical realities of working from home and caring for young children?
But things quickly changed. Crisis was inspiring amazing creativity. Teacher-librarians were flipping their practice online. Social networks were abuzz with excitement as school librarians shared ideas. School libraries were making a BIG difference for schools, teachers and students. It was clear that we needed to help tell this story.
And so as this issue focuses on the implications of the pandemic and innovations in practice, particularly in the quick evolution of the notion of the virtual library learning commons, we find that intense worry has been replaced by great hope for the future, as once again we see that no matter how the world changes, the library survives and thrives.
Summer Lending Project Postponed: You have likely read of the great successes achieved with the Eric Walters School Library Summer Reading Challenge 2019 and the associated research conducted by CSL. Our intention was to make this program even bigger for this summer and to conduct further research, and indeed plans were well underway until the pandemic hit. With uncertainty about the remainder of the school year, we decided to postpone the program until next year. However, we encourage all school library staff to consider ways that they can continue to support readers to the end of the school year AND over the summer. Our students have been without their library books for a very long time!