By Charlene Peterson
On February 29, San Jose State University’s School of Information hosted the virtual Leap into the Future of School Libraries International Conference. With the extra time Leap Day affords, there was no better way to spend a few hours than learning about school library professionals and their programming from around the world. The event delivered an engaging and insightful exploration of the evolving role of school libraries in shaping the educational landscape.
Professor David Loertscher’s vision for the conference was to provide a platform where attendees could participate in a collective dialogue and sample a variety of sessions that centered on five categories: instructional design, international, community, technology, and management. He also wanted to provide people with free, 24/7 accessibility to the conference via an e-book, so all could enjoy the conference at their own pace. During the virtual conference, guests were able to move freely from one Zoom breakout room to another to attend their preferred sessions. In total there were 24 concurrent sessions with presenters from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, and the United States.
Mathew Nosanchuk
Dr. Anthony Chow, SJSU iSchool director, opened the conference with a warm welcome, and Professor Loertscher provided a brief conference overview with keynote introductions. The first keynote speaker was Deputy Assistant Secretary Mathew Nosanchuk for the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. Matt addressed the book banning movement that’s been plaguing the U.S. for the past couple of years and provided information on advocacy, training, and civil rights laws. People can also visit the Unite Against Book Bans website or access the Action Toolkit to advocate for school and public libraries.
RSL Research Group
No school library conference would be complete without an update from Keith Curry Lance regarding his ongoing SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation – Decline or Evolution research, and Professor Loertscher joined him in conversation to examine the macro and micro measures of the school library profession’s health. Their session sparked much conversation in the Zoom Chat with attendees providing input about the fragile state of school libraries and a need for unity to promote the profession and remind principals, school boards, and voters how valuable school librarians are to students’ academic success and the community as a whole.
of Eminence Public School
District in Kentucky
After the sobering news from Keith Lance and Dave Loertscher, Superintendent Buddy Berry from Eminence School District in Kentucky rallied the conference guests with a lighthearted and side-splitting presentation, reminding librarian professionals that they have a responsibility to ensure students are always “surprised and delighted” during the school day. Dr. Berry shared information about the library’s micro credentialing program that includes over 100 credentials like coding, robotics, and 3D printing that are embedded in the district’s curriculum to surprise and delight students and get them excited about learning while preparing them to be successful 21st century citizens. Buddy Berry is known for his innovation and is the creator of his district’s learning commons, the EDHub. The EDHub is the heart of the school and central to learning. It is also an inspiration to all in the profession.
The concurrent sessions were made up of a wide variety of exceptional presentations. Some of the conference feedback mentioned how wonderful and informative the Instructional Design sessions were and much of what was gleaned from the sessions would be put to practical use. The presenters are leaders and pioneers in the field like Barbara Stripling, known best for the Stripling Model of Inquiry. She presented alongside Jenny and Darryl Toerien, creators of FOSIL, an inquiry model adapted from the Stripling Model. Others included Leslie Maniotes with her Guided Inquiry Design; Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry co-founders of Project Look Sharp focused on media literacy; American Association of School Libraries President Courtney Pentland’s life skills reading program; and Meggan Ford’s creation literacy session providing 500 definitions of creativity.
Leap into the Future of School Libraries International Conference
Leap into the Future of School Libraries International Conference
The Technology sessions were popular among attendees and featured Elizabeth Hutchinson’s interesting presentation on Artificial Intelligence, Brian Johnson’s session on science and mathematical inquiry that leads to experiential learning opportunities, and Sarah Pavey’s virtual storytelling talk where she shared many cutting-edge digital tools.
Partnerships and collaboration were the overarching focus of the Community sessions. Each illustrated the importance of developing strong community partnerships which in turn, create unity and innovative learning opportunities for students. Superintendent Joseph Meloche’s session provided a compelling perspective on the value of school libraries and teacher-librarians. Janet Wile, district library lead from Central Unified School District in Fresno, California along with two of her middle school teacher-librarians, Tommy Martinez and Megan Turner participated in an interview with Professor Loertscher for the ALiVE! Library Initiative to demonstrate just how valuable teacher-librarians are to their students, schools, and communities.
ALiVE! Library Initiative Interview
Some of the highlights of the Management sessions involved presentations by Janet Jefferson from Fielding International regarding design concepts of global learning commons. Professor Loertscher discussed “MyTime” and presented a solution to the Fixed/Flex scheduling dilemma in elementary schools. Sue Kowalski demonstrated how she creates student leaders through her iStaff Library Program, and Melissa Jacobs shared information about her VITAL Grant Program centered on school library sustainability.
From the vantage point of Canadian school libraries, Anita Brooks Kirkland and Joseph Jeffery’s session showcased the importance of national standards for school libraries and illustrated what the standards should encompass by presenting the Foundations and Frameworks approach. In another International session, Sarah Pavey shared her BRIDGE for Information and Digital Literacy, a European Erasmus Project that involves the collaborative efforts of England, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Finland to produce an open source database of transmedia products to support critical thinking and information and digital literacy. From Down Under in Australia, Madison Dearnaley and Colin Bell discussed how digital curation is necessary to move the school library forward into the online world.
People from around the world attended the conference and provided feedback. There were school librarians in attendance from Ukraine who enjoyed the conference and shared information about the School Librarians of Ukraine Association that serves over 13,000 school libraries in a country currently fighting for its freedom. Attendees from European and African countries spent their evening at the conference while those in Australia woke up early to participate.
The Leap into the Future of School Libraries International Conference e-book allows free access to the entire conference video collection as well as session descriptions and speaker biographies. The e-book has already been viewed in the following countries:
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Macedonia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States.
There are four convenient ways to access the conference e-book:
- Click on the book image to open it.
- Visit the Leap into the Future of School Libraries International Conference website.
- Copy and paste the URL code into your browser:
https://read.bookcreator.com/ynKAZqWPLuUm0EUFY8ZOqJckt7o2/st5_cyX9Q4iVP0R0nTNB8w - Use the QR Code
There were many thank you emails praising the e-book because as one of the attendees, Jennifer Sullivan stated, “This e-book is such a great way to collect all of the resources and presenter info in one place.” Another said, “It’s a creative way to share the conference and make it available globally.”
As we look to the future of school libraries, it’s clear the profession’s evolution will continue to align with the information and academic needs of students. School library professionals have more than many accomplishments to celebrate and best practices to share and promote which will ensure greater educational opportunities for students and the profession’s sustainability and success. As Professor Loertscher always says, “Onward…”
Charlene Peterson is a former high school language arts teacher and has taught in New Mexico, Virginia, and Colorado from 1993 to 2023. While working her way through a Master of Education and Principal Licensure program at Colorado State University, she fell in love with school library education and had the good fortune to serve as a school librarian for the past seven years. Serving as a school librarian prompted her to enroll in the Master of Library and Information Science Program at San Jose State University where she serves in the roles of the ALiVE! Library Initiative coordinator, graduate assistant to Dr. David Loertscher, president of the iSchool’s Library Advocacy Group, and co-project manager of the Reading Nation Waterfall Sunrise Project. She will graduate from San Jose State University’s Master of Library and Information Science program in the spring of 2024.