By Carol Koechlin and Anita Brooks Kirkland
We are so proud as co-editors to publish our final edition of CSL Journal. We thank you, our readers, for your support and interest over the years and we hope we have fulfilled our mission to provide voice to school library professionals from coast to coast to coast. Joseph Jeffrey, Diana Maliszweski and Melanie Mulcaster will take over as co-editors of CSL Journal after this edition.This dynamic trio bring a wealth of experience and talents to the continued success of the journal.
We wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Joseph and Melanie on their recent appointment to IFLA representing school libraries internationally. Congratulations to the Canadians Elected to IFLA Boards and Committees!
We also want to draw your attention to a remarkable TMC8 paper prepared by Diana Maliszewski that documents data gathered from her extensive experience as a teacher-librarian in Toronto District School Board, Decades of Data: Accountability and Impact with Annual Reports. Diana’s paper serves as a model for the importance of documentation and gathering of evidence of success in the library learning commons.This longitudinal study examines the impact of school library learning commons data collection and reporting over two decades in the same school. Diana shares many examples of a variety of data gathering techniques that help paint a picture of the impact her work had on teaching and learning in her school.
Annual reports are one of the ways school library professionals can showcase accomplishments with administration and their school community. However these reports can also be applied to mapping out plans for improvement for next year. To use an old ‘back to the future’ adage, we need to look back and analyze where we have been in order for us to move forward. Consider the Accountability Cycle found in Foundations for School Library Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success.
This spring as you prepare your annual report consider taking the next step and apply this evidence to a plan for growth for next school year. Develop goals and start to map out actions to take and budget needs.
Now is also the time to commence plans for ensuring that students will have access to summer reading materials. In this issue we invite you to take a serious look at the many ways the school library learning commons can open up summer reading potential. We have shared with you an important paper by Kelly Johnson, Set The Books Free: Compelling reasons why your school library should embrace summer lending as a stand for equity. In her paper Kelly states, “I posit that this fundamental shift in borrowing practice addresses several inequities, while simultaneously championing literacy for all. Opening our collections to all students levels the playing field by putting books in the hands of all students, and is of particular value to those most vulnerable to summer learning loss.” And as for book losses Kelly dispels this fear with data gathered over several years.
CSL is celebrating six years of promoting summer reading programs in Canadian schools! Starting with the original summer reading challenge by Eric Walters in 2019 and followed by a push every year subsequently, CSL has put out the summer reading challenge. Discover many ways to support student reading this summer in the article, Reading Joy Should Not End in June! Set Your Books Free for the Summer.
Wishing our readers a happy and restful summer and the continued success of CSL Journal.
Carol and Anita