By Anita Brooks Kirkland & Carol Koechlin
Sadly but proudly we dedicate this issue of CSL Journal to the late Ross Todd, a friend, renowned academic and international champion of school libraries. Dr. Ross Todd played a significant role in the professional growth of school library professionals in Canada as well as around the world. His provocative articles were favourites of those leading librarianship courses and other professional training. Ross shared his expertise at many conferences here and left participants energized with his passionate words of wisdom. His plea for evidence-based practice and his call for designing learning to reflect an “information to knowledge journey” were instrumental in the work to develop the groundbreaking Ontario document Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons (OSLA, 2010). Ross was a key contributor to the dozens of Treasure Mountain retreats led by David Loertscher in the United States and was genuinely thrilled to come to Edmonton in 2010 to help us engage in the very first TMC symposium here in Canada.
For the editors, Ross’s influence is profound. He was the pioneer of evidence-based practice in school librarianship, and his call for us to get down off our soapboxes and advocate with the evidence at a professional learning event for school library leaders in Ontario in the mid-2000s was both shocking and profoundly inspiring, and has profoundly influenced our approach since.
“If school librarians can’t prove they make a difference, they may cease to exist.”
Dr. Ross Todd, The Evidence-Based Manifesto for School Librarians. (School Library Journal, 2008)
We asked three Canadian school library leaders who knew Ross and his work well to reflect on his life, his career, and his influence.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone working in the school library field in the last 30 years would not know of Dr Ross Todd’s incredible contributions to the profession. Personally I had the honour of working with him only a couple of times, but I certainly soaked up anything and everything he wrote and published. I recall vividly his energy and passion when speaking about school libraries. With that wonderful Australian accent, I can still hear him say “Where’s the Evidence”!! And, “It’s not enough to know what to do, but does it work?’ And, “how do you KNOW it works?” With words like those, he guided us all down the road of evidence-based practice – a much-needed direction for school library practitioners. He was an inspiration to so many.
Liz Kerr, Past President, Ontario Library Association, Library Coordinator, Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB (Retired)
I first met Ross Todd more than 20 years ago when he was a keynote speaker at a Super Conference in Toronto. In his speech, he introduced attendees to his research on evidence-based practice and inspired us to adopt this approach. In 2007, when I chaired the original writing team for Together for Learning, Ross was one of the school library gurus we invited to a preliminary visionary think tank. His wise and passionate contributions to setting the document’s vision proved to be invaluable.
On a personal level, I had the chance to socialize with Ross at various conferences and events in Canada and the United States. He was a warm and urbane person with many cultural interests and a passion for travel and the arts. He knew how to live well and it was always a delight to talk with him about his latest travel adventures and cultural pursuits. For me, he was both a professional and personal inspiration.
Esther Rosenfeld, Past President, Ontario Library Association, Library Coordinator, Toronto DSB (Retired)
Ross will be missed by so many friends and colleagues in the school library community. I first met Ross at the Joint Conference of the Australian School Library Association and the International School Library Association, held in Adelaide, South Australia in October 1992. He immediately struck me as a warm and enthusiastic person with a wonderful sense of humour, and that impression only deepened over the next thirty years. He was generous with his time and energy, especially in supporting graduate students and new faculty members. He shared his love of people and places through stories and photos. Ross was a world-renowned expert on adolescent information seeking and use, on inquiry learning in digital information environments, and on the transformative role of school libraries in the 21st century. He was always ready to share insights: the journal School Libraries Worldwide was launched in 1995 with a significant article by Ross on information literacy, and a chapter by him will appear in the forthcoming IFLA/IASL sponsored book, Global Action for School Libraries: Models of Inquiry. IASL conferences – where he often gave the closing keynote – will not be the same without him.
Dr. Dianne Oberg, Professor Emerita, University of Alberta
The contributors to this edition provide evidence of Ross Todd’s profound influence. No longer is it acceptable to rely on the “school libraries are good for you” approach to advocacy. Our contributors approach their practice as a professional learning journey, using the evidence to inform a continuous cycle of improvement. The soapbox approach to advocacy has disappeared, thanks to Dr. Ross Todd, and we can indeed provide the evidence of program success. Thank you, Ross.
In Memoriam: Ross J. Todd, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science: Beloved colleague and award-winning expert on the transformative role of school libraries died on March 30, 2022. Rutgers School of Communication and Information, April 1, 2022