By Joanne Plante
Welcome to the International Corner, a section that will help you to learn more about school libraries and school librarians from around the world.
Let me introduce myself. I am Joanne Plante, Chair of the School Libraries Standing Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
As for my own story, I have always dreamed of becoming a librarian and this is what I have done. As far back as I remember, I was telling my parents I wanted to become a librarian. I even got a date marker to stamp the books at home.
A few years ago, I had the chance to work at the Conseil des écoles catholiques dentre-est (CECCE). I was Chief Librarian for this French school district and as I wanted to get involved, I took out a membership in the Ontario Library Association. After one or two years of participation in ABO-FRANCO, the French Section of OLA and the school library division (OSLA), I decided to take the lead as Chair of the ABO-FRANCO.
Then, by an unexpected coincidence, I got an email from the Canadian Library Association (which dissolved in 2016) saying they were looking for librarians to get involved in the IFLA School Libraries Standing Committee. I had been dreaming about getting involved in IFLA for a while, so with some humility, I expressed my interest in the position.
A few weeks later I was told that I had been nominated for the School Libraries Standing Committee of IFLA. That meant I had to pack my bags to get to my first meeting of IFLA in Cape Town, South Africa the next August.
Today, I am chairing this Committee for a second term, and I have to admit, I love it. With the help of my team and as a leader, we are enabled to work on different important projects for libraries and school librarians. Within the projects, we are promoting the School Libraries Guidelines edited by Dr. Dianne Oberg and Dr. Barbara Schultz-Jones. As a committee we had the chance to promote these guidelines in several countries around the world. The aim of this is to get librarians to take ownership of the document and for stakeholders to get to know a little more about our work. This is such an important document for our work. Thanks to the help of volunteer translators, the guidelines have been translated in more than 20 languages.
Most importantly, we are actually working on revising the UNESCO/IFLA School Library Manifesto. It is really important to build this basis for our daily work. We have to make it accessible for our stakeholders so they can help us getting more qualified staff and decent budgets to help children to become better citizens.
We launched a call for comments so every school librarian can have a word to say in the coming document. We were supposed to present a draft at the last IFLA Conference but we understand people needed to comment so we have postponed the due date to the end of October, in order to present our first draft at our mid-year meeting in Rome.
We will then present the final document at the IFLA conference in Dublin in August 2020. We would very much appreciate getting this important document endorsed by UNESCO and the OECD.
Other projects will also be put in place over the year. To know more, stay tuned to the International Corner and to the IFLA School Libraries social media.
If you have questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact me: joanneplante[at]gmail.com
This issue of CSL Journal includes several international features, providing insight into school library initiatives from around the world.
International Stories
Building a Community of School Library Leaders, by Dr. Susan La Marca
Creating Knowledge Building Skills: Designing and Implementing a Knowledge Week, by Jennifer Cain
La Jornada de Bibliotecas Escolares – The Day of School Libraries, by Alanna King
REVIEW: Synergy Highlights: The First Fifteen Years, by Dianne Oberg
Joanne Plante has been a librarian since 2001. She has worked extensively in public libraries but hasalways been interested in school libraries. She is pursuing a PhD in Information Literacy. Joanne has been chair of ABO-FRANCO and she is currently chair of the IFLA School Libraries Standing Committee. Joanne received the Micheline-Persaud Award and the Personality of the Week, le Droit-Radio-Canada Award for developing French library services in Ontario.