By Caroline Freibauer
Will the COVID-19 pandemic forever change school libraries?
As I grapple with this question, Ontario is reporting another day with more than 1,000 new cases of the COVID-19 virus. Several provinces, including Manitoba and Alberta, are imposing additional restrictions after unprecedentedly high infection numbers. The Yukon had its first COVID-19 related death. We are well into the second wave of the virus.
In schools across the country, library learning commons staff are still dealing with the after-effects of the first wave. Repeated barrages of bad decision-making have transformed the library learning commons from a dynamic space for acquiring and creating knowledge to a holding cell for books in many school jurisdictions. Decisions to close spaces and cut services come after school library staff heroically stepped up during the March school closings to help teachers and administrators make the best of emergency online learning. They provided online programming, supported teachers with research and helped administrators train staff not comfortable with technology.
OLA Past President and TL Richard Reid.
Yet, when schools re-opened in September, many of these same boards chose to close school libraries, re-deploy teacher-librarians to classrooms and layoff library technicians. Toronto District School Board – the largest board in the country — led the way by eliminating the teacher-librarian role in its more than 450 elementary schools. York Region Catholic District School Board, north of Toronto, followed by laying off all library technicians and closing school libraries. I felt these actions physically, like two punches to the gut. But the nausea didn’t set in until after I learned that a friend with the Grand Erie District School Board, Kate Johnson-MacGregor, a person who has held every leadership position in the Ontario school library world and a library learning commons champion who has been recognized with one of the board’s top awards, was redeployed to the classroom.
And the bad news doesn’t seem to stop. As the virus progresses, so does the fear-induced decision-making by school board administrators. In Ontario, school boards are deciding to cancel subscriptions to paid electronic resources leaving learning commons library staff scrambling to fill the void. The possibility of another pandemic-induced school closing looms — Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic School Board in Ontario has sent a memo to all employees with protocols for online learning, just in case – yet senior administrators continue to hack at what has proven time and again to be a valuable resource for student success.
Énoncé sur le rôle des bibliothèques scolaires en temps de pandémie
Issued by the CSL Board of Directors on September 23, 2020
How will the school library learning commons emerge after the virus has been dealt with? There is the real possibility that we may permanently lose a resource that has been the hub of many schools and the proven backbone for 21st century learning.
Shelagh Paterson, Ontario Library Association executive director, highlighted the alarming consequences of undermining school libraries in a submission to the province ahead of the fall 2020 budget.
“Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of students across Ontario have lost access to school libraries along with the critical resources they provide. Now, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this frightening trend and has put this critical resource at immediate risk for nearly every student in Ontario,” the OLA report warns.
“While we understand these are unprecedented times for school boards, these decisions present an unacceptable risk that will have dramatic impacts on student learning and success today and in the future. Experience over the past two decades in Ontario has consistently demonstrated that when school libraries are closed and teacher-librarians eliminated, libraries do not come back, and students pay the price.”
OLA calls for the Ontario Ministry of Education to support long-term student success by mandating that the funding provided to school boards for school libraries and library staff be spent on those initiatives. Currently, Ontario school boards can divert those funds to other programs. The association further calls for the creation of an Ontario Digital Public Library to provide electronic resources to all parts of the province. This would benefit public libraries in rural and remote locations, as well as school boards that cannot afford to purchase expensive databases to support online learning.
Recognizing the urgent need for action, other groups have joined OLA’s call to support school libraries. A coalition of publishers, booksellers, writers, and educators, calling itself the Save School Libraries Coalition, is on a mission to “keep students reading.”
Maria Martella, owner of Tinlids Inc., a Canadian wholesaler of children and teen books for schools and libraries, said there are more than a dozen associations and groups represented in the coalition, which has been meeting weekly to launch a public awareness campaign.
“We know this as an education problem, with some serious issues of inequities for racialized and impoverished students,” Martella said. “We knew that publishers, OLA and other concerned groups already were discussing the ripple effect of these decisions but thought we would have a stronger voice with representation from more people in the book industry.”
One coalition member, the Association of Canadian Publishers, which represents 115 book publishers, called on the province to help stabilize an industry, which has seen a 50 per cent decline in revenue as a result of the pandemic. In a letter to the Lisa MacLeod, minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, the association argued that institutional purchasers of children’s and educational books could help stabilize the industry.
“Teacher-librarians play a critical role in co-ordinating this purchasing,” Kate Edwards, the association’s executive director, wrote in her letter to the ministry. “Where budget remains available for print and digital books, their professional expertise and judgement will help ensure that Canadian-authored books are purchased and that Ontario companies benefit from the province’s investment in school resources.”
Another coalition member, the Writers’ Union of Canada, wrote to Education Minister Stephen Lecce to remind him of the importance of a teacher librarian.
“We urge you to reinvest in school library infrastructure and staffing, to make sure our education system can handle the ongoing uncertainty of our times,” wrote John Degen, WUC executive director. “A province-wide mandate to keep our school libraries staffed and functioning will encourage and help the necessary innovation required to guarantee quality education.”
The Save School Libraries Coalition, which counts Canadian School Libraries as a member, has set the Ontario situation as a priority, and sent a collective letter to Minister Lecce at the end of October.
Across the country, work in school libraries offers a glimmer of hope for the future. In British Columbia, teacher-librarians adjusted their role to accommodate for COVID-19 restrictions in September but, for the most part, library learning commons were up and running in some fashion.
“There was a spike last year in requests for access to online resources and I believe providing login information and support in using these materials will be a large part of teacher-librarians’ roles this year,” said Kristie Oxley, president of the British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association, in response to a request for information from Canadian School Libraries.
“I also think that online catalogue browsing and requests may become more commonplace for those school library learning commons that provided remote book exchange opportunities last year. Some TLs have started to become comfortable with providing collaboration support to classes through programs, such as MS Teams or Google Meet.”
Richard Beaudry, a teacher-librarian at R.E. Mountain Secondary School in Langley, B.C., said high school and middle school libraries in his district are open. Teachers and students can come as a class to retrieve books.
“The biggest difference is that students can no longer come to the library for leisure and study on their own time,” said Beaudry, who was just awarded the BCTL President’s Award in recognition of commitment and achievement for a teacher-librarian who makes a difference. “I teach a series of literacies to students throughout the year but instead of the students coming to the library learning commons, I go out to the classes to teach.”
He said that is pretty much the pattern across B.C., with only specific groups using the learning commons space.
Beaudry, who also is co-ordinator of Teacher Librarian Diploma and Certificate Programs and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, said he remains optimistic about the future of school libraries.
about the future of school libraries.
“I believe that the pandemic has demonstrated our essential role in assisting with the literacy and research goals of students,” said Beaudry, who chairs the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Intellectual Freedom Committee, representing school libraries. “That is why it is regrettable that districts in Manitoba and Ontario closed their elementary school library learning commons’ and redistributed their teacher librarians to the classroom.
Beaudry is convinced the school library learning commons will continue to adapt and change along with the new hybrid model emerging in the classroom.
“We will have to wait and see how districts manage a return to normal after the pandemic,” he said. “Either way, our role as teacher librarians will not be diminished as we will continue to collaborate on inquiry research with classroom teachers, teach literacies, be a reference for staff and students and encourage reading programs in our schools.”
Marc Crompton is a teacher-librarian at St. George’s, an independent school in Vancouver, where students have had restrained access to the library learning commons. He said he worries more about the future of schools than just the libraries.
“I fear that we have had to build new efficiencies to deal with health and safety concerns that administrations may find enticing over the long term,” he said.
“As someone who likes messy, independent and organic learning, I feel there is a chance that we will permanently lose those opportunities for students to find themselves and be individuals.”
Elizabeth Lyons, vice-president of the Ontario School Library Association, said she strongly believes that school libraries will be changed forever by COVID-19. “Our society can no longer hide behind their ignorance in regard to the gaps in equity that were made glaringly obvious due to the pandemic.”
Lyons is a teacher-librarian in a large elementary school in Peel Region, west of Toronto, where she is providing online programming and curbside pickup. She maintained that school library collections in future will include more digital resources and e-books for students. “School library professionals are taking a hard look at their collections for gaps – does the collection represent the student population? Can my students find a book by an author that looks like them? By a Canadian author that looks like them?”
However schools change after the pandemic, Martella said school libraries must remain a priority and the Save School Libraries Coalition will continue to fight for professional staff – teacher-librarians and library technicians – and access to rich resources that promote student success.
“The school library is an integral part of our society and offers so much more now than it used to. It breaks down barriers,” she said.
“It becomes an issue of access, and once again, the impoverished and racialized students will fall behind and the resources will only be available to an elite group. COVID-19 has highlighted the inequities in our society, and this is yet another example of decision-makers not understanding the true cost of shutting down libraries.
“We need to continue making noise about this.”
Caroline Freibauer is Head Librarian at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto. She is the editor of The Teaching Librarian, the Ontario School Library Association magazine, and a member of the Brantford Public Library Board. Caroline is also a member of the Canadian School Libraries Board of Directors and the CSL Journal Editorial Board.