By Harold Semenuk
application, using the language prompt: “library with trees inside it,
burning in the style of Dali”.
In the lead up to the date that this article was published, Alberta was overwhelmingly immersed in spring 2023 wildfires and the resultant smoke, the worst spring forest fires on record in the province (Fortner). Most of these fires were caused in part by very dry conditions and a lack of soothing and life providing rain. Wild conspiracy theories percolated that these fires were intentionally set (Fawcett-Atkinson). Pierre Poilievre heckled (as a response to a Liberal Member of Parliament in the House of Commons), “Started by your government!”, insinuating that the Federal Liberals were responsible for the fires (van Koeverden). Experts and measured observers know that the ignition points are a combination of lightning strikes and typical human causes (e.g. hot components of all-terrain vehicles, campfires, or unwisely disposed-of cigarette butts), with less than 5% of fires associated with any suspected or confirmed arson-motivated cause (Alberta, 2022). Yet still, there is a mixture of irrational blame, all-around unease and fear, and uncertainty about what this means for year-to-year existence in Alberta. Like central, foundational causes (climate change and the burning of hydrocarbons) there is a denial of their impact. Like school libraries in Alberta, there is a widespread indifference, ignorance, denial that they should exist, and even – as we are seeing in jurisdictions such as Florida – the beginnings of targeted attacks that seek to not only undermine, but destroy any positive association of school libraries as cherished places that can provide so much value to education. In states such as Florida, certain entities seek to not even frame school libraries as ineffective or irrelevant, but a threat… This ‘threat’, in its most gentle treatment, is framed as an unnecessary service in an environment of unending demands and shrinking resources. In the most base and brutish form, school libraries are admonished as forces intent on corrupting the youth. This is a smoldering mess that could whip into a frenzied fury with a further accumulation of “hot air”. And the smoke does not recognize borders. Whatever the pollutant, and whatever, the source, it spreads, lingers, and settles.
As imperfect as these analogies are, this seems to illustrate the state of affairs – the suffocating and immersive challenges, as well as the saplings and seeds of promise, regrowth and reclamation – for school library learning commons and teacher-librarianship in Alberta. The Alberta School Learning Commons Council (ASLC) recently began what will surely be a multi-year journey of clearing-the-air, through reclamation and advocacy. Our currently small but mighty council spent as much time as we could manage this past school year presenting at conferences, and telling the story of urgency to anyone, anywhere, within earshot. Our capacity was stretched with everything school-based and life resource consuming beyond our “too much work” / “not enough people” work with ASLC. Despite a strong, smoky headwind, many encouraging and alarming realizations emerged that are shaping our work moving forward with a mix of caution and courage. If you are smelling an odd and burning smoke in your home jurisdiction, and it smells like the remnants of school libraries and teacher-librarianship, we hope this article and outreached hand, seeking to receive and provide help and camaraderie, finds you well. But if you do not read any further, please let this sink in: Fight now. Fight with all your might and capacity. Regrowth is not guaranteed whatsoever once school libraries and teacher librarianship become a scorched after-thought, and the extraordinarily arduous work of foundational regeneration and cultivation is preventable. We can remain resilient and visibly relevant through connection and co-support.
The Smoky Haze and Air Quality Index
Alberta is largely living in a harmful smoke-haze that few realize we are inhaling on a daily basis. Working conditions don’t feel right. The profession doesn’t feel right. School systems don’t feel right. There is a suspended progress, something lingering in the air. Portions of this particulate include what is happening in many places around the world: affirmed concerns about student and staff wellness; a lack of access to the right wrap-around supports; class sizes; inclusivity, equity, diversity and students seeing themselves in resources and staff members; digital literacy and the acceleration of artificial intelligence. These concerns amongst many others are the “can’t wash away” residue consistent in public forums, news media, reports on education, and social media. Another part of the air mixture in Alberta remains evasive… and hard to put a finger-on or even notice because it’s outside of nearly everyone’s perception or focal point… a fine particulate that is rarely caught in the filters of Alberta discourse on schooling and education, is the overwhelmingly charred remnants of school libraries and teacher-librarianship. A sniff of these issues are rarely detected and largely not an official priority; the solution space and aspirational vitality of school libraries is not considered or realized on the whole. It’s become what most are used to; most do not know or do not remember of a school ecosystem lacking in common and robust library learning commons with teacher librarians, to be any different.
At present, ASLC is considered a small specialist council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association in terms of overall membership and those holding executive positions. There are very few Alberta teacher-librarians (or teachers in the library) – or even teachers not necessarily based in a library learning commons (LLCs) but with the LLCs under their direct responsibility and/or job-scope involvement. Right now we are recruiting teachers to help do some heavy lifting and culture building, who are already doing LLC development and/or preservation work off the side of their desk or outside of assigned classroom hours, because they know the importance of championing, rejuvenating, reclaiming and demonstrating the worth of LLCs and the indispensable value of teacher professional oversight and guidance. ASLC’s best estimates are that there are less than 30 FTE teachers in library associated positions in Alberta, based on previous reports (Sykes, 7) and knowing first-hand of cuts to library dedicated staffing in large urban, Alberta Divisions such as Edmonton Public Schools. Compare this FTE with just the Surrey, BC School Division alone, which has 125 teacher librarians in their schools (Canadian School Libraries, 2022). Although school divisions across Canada and the United States – including the Surrey School Division (Bowman) – are cutting the amount of time teacher librarians spend on certain tasks in the name of cost savings and program prioritization, the Surrey School Division’s decades-spanning commitment to having a teacher librarian in every school is a value decision. Having a school library in every school is a value decision. What values have overtaken a place to collaborate, explore, and empower students with agency, while housing the resources and potential to harness and amplify all other esteemed values? As author Neil Gaiman implores:
We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future.
Neil Gaiman (2013)
Even in the harshest conditions of government imposed austerity, schools and school divisions have chosen to prioritize and keep teacher-librarians. Richard Beaudry – a stalwart champion of everything school library and teacher librarianship in Canada noted in a 2017 article, that the Surrey School Division and various Vancouver school divisions maintained their teacher librarian staffing, even during the provincial budget cuts for nearly the first 20 years of the 2000s (Beaudry). There have been historically heroic efforts in school divisions such as in the Brookdale Union High School District in Arizona. Faced with drastic cuts, agents of preservation in the district came together, and with cohesive intention and follow through, saved so much power by cutting small appliance use in schools that they were able to save their teacher-librarians positions, and chose to keep these positions despite them being more expensive to staff with library techs or paralibrarians (Ewbank, 3). These are not efforts made for the sake of vanity; these are the tough but noble decisions made by school divisions who have historically invested in LLCs and TLs, provided nourishment for a networked, professional culture to emerge, and committed an unwavering trust to solidify, as evident in the layered rings of progress and the robust bark of resilience.
A Fresh Sea-Breeze of Inspiration
In October 2022, as President of the Alberta School Learning Commons Council, I attended the British Columbia Teacher Library Association’s annual conference, and the conjoined Treasure Mountain Canada 7 symposium hosted by Canadian School Libraries. As a relatively new teacher in the library, knowing only a handful of teachers-librarians of past and present in Alberta, this was a shocking yet invigorating, and life-changing event. With Covid still very much a “real thing” and all-around weariness with the challenges facing schools and the uncertain prospect of fully reopening school libraries, I wasn’t sure what I would learn or if I’d have anything revelatory to bring back to Alberta. In short, the extensive expertise, care, camaraderie, and deeply rooted and well founded conviction that school libraries and teacher librarians were of vital importance, blasted me with well traveled currents and lifted my spirit with passionate resolve. I could not believe that in all of my nearly 20 years as a teacher in Alberta, I had rarely experienced clarity and well founded, living, breathing examples of teachers who not only overwhelmingly value LLCs, but are making amazing things happen daily, in collaboration with supportive teachers, administrators, and central leaders. I made connections and networks (and new friends). Inspiring teachers and TLs from around the country offered their support and assistance. TLs from British Columbia ensured I understood that despite the progress, significant present-day challenges remained; having said that, this was a library learning commons ecosystem with integrated teacher-librarians, not a clear-cut or burnt patch with the odd, isolated poke of self-starting growth, or a mechanically planted, monoculture tree. This networking immediately signalled that there was an established root system of connection, support, and decade-spanning expertise. To keep our reclamation work going, we’ve been able to leverage these connections.
- Collaborating with Andrea LaPointe, “Teacher-Librarian Teacher Helper” with the Surrey School Division: LaPointe was part of the Surrey division-spanning team that won the Canadian School Libraries, Leading Learning Implementation Award. LaPointe has been able to point ASLC to resources and examples of the work she has helped facilitate, from transliteracy and TL and teacher collaboration, to developing a locally focused Indigenous People’s collection (an actual initiative and the title of a paper that she presented at CSL’s Treasure Mountain 7 Conference (LaPointe)).
- The title of our group co-presentation was “School Libraries, Learning Commons and Teacher Librarians: The Vital Spine Network of a School Body.” We spent a great deal of our time and presentation, demonstrating do-ability and value, already happening in Alberta, while showcasing the professional breadth and depth, as well as continuity and division-wide reverence in the Surrey School Division. The “spine network” analogy served to demonstrate the connectivity and signaling of learning, interaction, and meaning making with all that extends beyond the school community. A well designed and integrative LLC with the guidance of a TL, can drastically empower what a school community can do. A school community is also a backbone of values and rights such as freedom to read and the actualization of aspirations that can be limited by the siloization that comes with e.g. scheduling and infrastructure. We look forward to continued collaborations with LaPointe, including her joining our panel discussion for the second half of ASLCs Annual General Meeting on June 13.
- Connecting with and learning from Jonelle St. Aubyn: We have been able to point to St. Aubyn’s example as someone who not only is a full-time teacher librarian with the Peel District School Board, but, as Sharn Kuhl, Principal of David Suzuki Secondary School was quoted in the CSL write-up honouring St. Aubyn as an Angela Thacker Memorial Award Winner: “Jonelle’s innovative experimentation and research have provided her with insights that she has been able to share with other teacher librarians through articles or papers that she authored for publication, as well as through presentations at professional conferences […]” (Canadian School Libraries, Angela Thacker Memorial Award). By demonstrating the foundational philosophy of equity in action through her own practice, as well as connections to leading-edge projects that collaborate and deeply involve students, we can continue to hold dynamic teaching approaches and representation as leading-edge high standards. Her example also is proof to Alberta teachers and administrators that, as St. Aubyn has stated in numerous forums and phrasing, just because she previously was a physical education teacher, doesn’t mean that she didn’t love books or wasn’t passionate about literacy, and moved into teacher librarianship, and central to who she is today (HotDocs). She is also one of endless teachers who have been part of the ongoing transition of a space from the proverbial “storage room” to a vivacious hub of a school community. Furthermore, we’ve found in Alberta that there isn’t enough awareness or consideration to the amplifying function that school libraries serve in terms of offering opportunities to demonstrate care and action in terms of equity, diversity, and inclusion. As one of many affirming reflections on practice from St. Aubyn:
“[Teacher Librarians] are leaders in equity and inclusion and provide collections for students that, as Rudine Sims Bishop said, are windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors for students to learn about others and see themselves reflected in our collections. We are a space that helps to remove barriers to student success by providing equitable access to technology and other items that students need to learn at the highest levels. We are a resource for professional development for staff and well as someone to assist with co-teaching and planning.”
(Alberta School Learning Commons Council, 2023)
We look forward to having St. Aubyn as a guest panelist for the second half of ASLCs Annual General Meeting in June, and as part of professional development opportunities for our membership and teachers in Alberta in the coming year (hopefully as an in-person guest as well!).
- Connecting with and learning from Rabia Khokhar: Providing another example of an Angela Thacker Memorial award-winning teacher librarian that we can point to as someone who has been part of the proverbial conversion of workroom to a LLC has been valuable, but this is happening in pockets throughout Alberta. Khokar’s willingness to connect and share wisdom has been most valuable, particularly in her societal leadership in, for example, creating summer reading lists that help to educate and counter Islamphobia (Darting). Her work and paper presented at CSLs Treasure Mountain 7 is something I’ve shared with administrators in Alberta regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion, and the role of picture books in supporting students in ESL programs. We also look forward to having Khokar as a guest presenter in the future at an ASLC professional development opportunity.
- Standing on the shoulders and springboarding off the work of CSL: Anita Brooks Kirkland, Judith Sykes and Carol Koechlin, have been instrumental in keeping the founding work going with CSL, through all the publications and ongoing work with the Treasure Mountain symposium, and publication of the tri-annual CSL Journal. I’ve seen the impressive astonishment of teachers and administrators when showing them the CSL website, depth of Canadian-based research and journals, and historical lifting and progressions of school libraries and teacher-librarianship in Canada. We would be sorely lacking in guidance and guardrails regarding our climb in Alberta, without CSLs responsiveness. Brooks Kirkland has been amazing in caringly prodding ASLC to keep going and stay connected to CSL. There are so many amazing teacher-librarians in Canada that we are now only aware of, that we can connect and work with, which also helps with credibility and relevance given the “Canadian school context” as we continue advocacy and educative reclamation work in Alberta. ASLC has also reengaged and become more readily connected with other teacher-librarian associations across Canada.
- Hitching a ride on the brainwaves of Alanna King and Timothy King: Staying in the same hotel as Alanna and Timothy at the BCTLA and Treasure Mountain 7 conferences, Alanna offered me a ride up a significant hill to the high school venue. She noted that she and Timothy, upon observation, “had a hunch” that I was a teacher-librarian, and graciously offered their services. The 5 minute car ride felt like 2 hours of conversation and as if I had known the both of them all my life. Seeing both of them speak at Treasure Mountain 7, I recently took them up on their offer to reach out for support. Timothy is doing a virtual workshop for ASLC members on May 31st on active student learning focusing on cybersecurity. We are already looking at possibilities for 2020 Angela Thacker Memorial Award winner Alanna King, to illuminate the meaning found in her 2020 Treasure Mountain 6 paper submission, “Getting on the Train: A Decade of Shifting Culture in the School Library.” We are pleased that both Alanna and Timothy will be joining ASLC for the second half of our AGM on June 13.
- Meeting Dr. Dianne Oberg: It is a shock when we tell administrators and teachers in Alberta that the University of Alberta (UofA) has one of, if not the most attended teacher-librarian, Masters of Education programs in Canada. As a founder of this program, and endless contributor to the research, academia and advocacy with regards to school libraries and teacher librarianship, meeting Dr. Oberg at Treasure Mountain 7 was a wake-up call to connect with the UofA and program. We will be accelerating conversations with Dr. Dianne Oberg, Dr. J.L. Branch-Muller, about potential plans for teacher-librarian certification in Alberta in the coming years.
- Meeting Dr. David Loertscher: As a founder of the Treasure Mountain symposium, his life’s work is a reminder of the necessity of the research, application for the good of students and a school community, and that there will be progress and setbacks, but as a specialized subset of the profession, we need to keep going despite the challenges. In an article he co-authored with Ontario School Libraries Association past president Esther Rosenfeld, and Canadian School Libraries’ very own Carol Koechlin, there is a quote we’ve sampled and shared, to demonstrate with some authority and credibility, the notion that a library learning commons is much more than a space, but a concept and conviction:
A Learning Commons is a common or shared space that is both physical and virtual. It is designed to move students beyond mere research, practice and group work to a greater level of engagement through exploration, experimentation, and collaboration. A Learning Commons is more than a room or a website. A Learning Commons allows users to create their own environments to improve learning. A Learning Commons is about changing school culture, and transforming the way teaching and learning occur.
(Loertscher, Koechlin, Rosenfeld, 1)
This definition seems so self-evident when you’re immersed in the work, but for a teacher or administrator where LLCs let alone TLs have largely been absent in sight or mind, these can be great catalysts for “a ha” revelations.
In returning to Alberta, I realized that a great deal of effort and time would be needed to “clear the air” and convince others that what they did not readily see (well functioning school libraries staffed and/or directly guided by certified teacher), was not a mirage or pie-in-the-sky idealism, but actually attainable and actually soaring in other parts of Canada and most definitely right next door in BC.
Over the next few months at Alberta Teaches’ Associations events, teachers’ conventions, and chance discussions with colleagues, currents of change emerged.
Suspended Ideas Still Lingering
Not surprisingly to any teacher involved with or advocating for LLCs and TLs, back in Alberta, we heard common questions, objections and contentions. Teachers and administrators wondered how they could make a TL fit in their budgets or where the space, or money, or expertise, or, or, or… These were all valid concerns with most not having given much thought to reimagining the benefits or reconfigurations of approaches to schooling. In most cases, well-functioning LLCs were an afterthought, and even modest improvements to spaces, staffing, or programming were seen as requiring significant injections of money that administrators simply didn’t have, or didn’t see how they could move money from other areas of their budgets. Time needed for greater education and demonstration of doability met the limits of convention session, in-person time parameters; moreover, the limits of our council to respond and share information in a coherent and convincing format. For school based decision-makers that seemed to be further along in potentially providing a teacher with LLC dedicated attention and job-scope time, it seemed like we were almost negotiating on behalf of a yet-to-be position, compromising the integrity and capacity of the role with added-on responsibilities (perhaps to at least move towards what looked like a more tangible and capitalist familiar language of “guaranteed returns on investment”).
At pre-service teachers and beginning teachers conferences, many of these university students had attended high school as students themselves, within the past handful of years. Many wondered if school libraries were “still a thing” and why they hadn’t heard more about them in their university classes. Nearly everyone was intrigued that there was a teacher before them, actually working in a school library. They simply did not realize this was even an option or essentially a role in the purview of a teacher. A concerning number of pre-service teachers conveyed having negative experiences in their K-12 school libraries, with rules abound and very traditional approaches still in place. These spaces were reportedly underused and generally not a place where students wanted to frequent, or, if brought there by a teacher, the mission was to get a book, and then “get out of there”. Nearly all of these preservice teachers shared that the disposition of library staff was unwelcoming and a problem. As noted through teacher-librarian responses regarding a study on the dispositions of school librarians:
The no-nonsense librarian with a cardigan and reading glasses, stamping dusty stacks of books and ssshhhing giggling teen is a relic of the past” (p. 17). Repeatedly, the exemplary librarians noted a theme of the underperforming school librarian. Terms such as “ho-hum” and “old-fashioned” were used to describe librarians who were not doing what was needed to further the school library program, such as collaborating with teachers, communicating with the principal, and establishing a warm and caring space for students. Reviewing the responses of our exemplary librarians revealed their frustration with librarians in the profession who are “just behind the desk . . . just checking in and checking out books.” One lamented, “Ho-hum librarians are ruining the profession” and worried “about the quality of school librarians coming into the profession.” Our interviewees overwhelmingly noted that they “want to make a difference” by stepping into a leadership role to turn the tide in school librarianship.
(Jones and Long)
Many of these pre-service teachers that I conversed with were excited about the potential of teacher-librarianship as a potential career path, but mostly encouraged that school libraries could be so much more to support their practice in whatever career role that they find themselves in. Other colleagues expressed encouragement, intrigue, and sympathies, but it became clear that we would have to continue to think strategically with limited resources moving forward in future years to expedite an inversion to the current climate in Alberta.
Hope Rooted in Reality: The Beginnings of Reclamation, Regrowth, and Interconnectedness for Library-Learning Commons and Teacher-Librarians in Alberta
All of the above “smoke” was representative of eight months that have had more than a few breaths of fresh air and buoyant currents to lift our spirits and resolve. We saw the intrigue when we provided starkly contrasting to Alberta statistics regarding the number of teacher-librarians in BC (and that schools were not imploding as a result, but conversely utilizing, collaborating with, and overall valuing teacher-librarians). We witnessed the light bulbs click-on above heads as the demonstrated value and dynamic utility of teacher-librarians. We experienced laser-like fixation when we described the benefits of professionally staffed LLCs for improving preparation and response to paramount matters such as mental health, digital literacy, and resources with representation for all students. There were allies in the making that realized that this was not just “smoke and mirrors”, “edubabble” or another trend, but that LLCs and TLs were vital integrators and connectors to meaning making, literacy, representation, exploration, creation, and community engagement.
At one teachers’ convention presentation, the principal of a school from a medium-sized yet rapidly growing town in southern Alberta, conveyed at the outset of the presentation, that he and his vice-principal were in attendance because they had made a mistake… Population pressures and delays in funding for expansion or additional schools, meant more classrooms were needed. He had made the decision to shut-down and divide up the learning commons and make them classrooms. The setbacks and loss to the school community was almost immediate. He realized he had made a big mistake and two years later, was reversing course, reopening the library learning commons, and closing down the weight-room because of its limited use by a small segment of the school population. He acknowledged this came at the cost of dismay from certain staff members, and even the degradation of professional and long-time personal relationships, while clearly affirming that it was the right thing to do for the school community. He also recognized how much the community and “commons” aspect of the space, including multi-class collaboration had been lost, but that many parents in the community had no idea how different their learning commons was, from the archetype of a library that they had in mind. Leaving the session he reflected that consistently sharing all the “good stuff” happening in the learning commons was essential work in this reclamation; furthermore, the need to invite the greater community into the space and make it a centre for after-class events and meetings as well.
In Hanna, Alberta, I visited a school who was converting a theatre space used only 4 times a year, into a K-12 library (but also could still be used as a theatre as needed). Our conversations and my visit provided encouraging options and experienced considerations. The staff working on this project were clearly excited about the prospects, but overwhelmed with where to start, the sequence, and how to make it all happen. They faced some resistance and scrutiny; moreover, a teacher in the library as a mainstay wasn’t a top priority. Still, this was an exciting transformation with provisional, division support and a committee that involved teachers and administrators. What was also clear, and a common theme, was a lack of connection and support, something that the Alberta School Learning Commons could largely bring some cohesion to, but not with the lack of a broader regard and institutionally backed support from school divisions and even our own Alberta Teachers’ Association.
In the Buffalo Trail School Division (central-east Alberta), by chance through our ASLC work, we came across their Virtual Learning Commons site, showcasing and celebrating great things happening. We need to connect and support them in maintaining and boosting teacher-involvement, but this is incremental and slow, given decimated capacity that we are working to rebuild.
In Lethbridge, Alberta, where the regional teachers’ convention was hosted, there was an enthusiastic turn-out of teachers and administrators, most of whom recognized the need for school libraries, and were on their way to moving towards more teacher control and staffing of LLCs. They faced the typical (or typical to Alberta?) barriers around funding, staff buy-in, who should / what should be the criteria in choosing a best fit for choosing a teacher to be the person associated with or working out of the LLC.
In Red Deer, Alberta, a principal shared at a session how she had received grants, and already had a space that they were working on transforming, as well as extending into a more fluid space that connected in a much more evident way with the rest of the school.
At the Greater Edmonton Teachers’ Convention (GETCA) teachers and administrators in attendance at our session were much like those at the Lethbridge convention… intrigued, but needing more information, needing more support. This session – like all sessions – meandered in and out of the set slide deck; the value beamed from our confident expertise, experience, deeper philosophical and research-based rationales, and energizing examples of teacher-librarians and thriving LLC spaces across North America. A second session exposed how hidden our allies and potential network nodes are, while in the smoke of the everyday rigamarole and sorely lacking institutional connectivity. A teacher at the junior high across the field, 500 meters from the large school library in which I work, was single-handedly and rapidly transforming, almost entirely on her own time, a shuttered school library that was relegated as a storage room and chromebook cart charging hub. I knew nothing of this reclamation. She’s begun to win-over staff, but has been operating in isolation and without more formal support and community. We haven’t made the time to connect significantly and collaborate, but she’ll likely be joining our ASLC council and we are committing to setting collaboration and connection workshops heading into the summer.
Division at the ULEAD conference 2023.
At the ULEAD Conference (a conference primarily directed at school and school division leaders) organized by the Council for School Leadership (a specialist council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association) ASLC was fortunate to secure a presentation session, albeit at a less preferred time, as the last session on the last day of the conference. We used the ample non-presenting time with Andrea LaPointe as a guest presenter, to make the case for school libraries and teacher-librarians at every session and in every conversation we had. Andrea was able to relay the success of the Surrey School Division and the sustained culture and value of teacher-librarians. It was a shock to many when she shared that she rarely – if ever – heard of anyone questioning the need for teacher-librarians in Surrey schools. Breaking bread with various conference attendees, (school division superintendents, school administrators, consultants, independent contractors / vendors) has them thinking about the benefit and value of LLCs and TLs. ASLC has established open-door connections to circle-back with, as we increase capacity and initiate a next stage of our LLC / TL reclamation strategy. We also met various individuals in pockets of the province, such as a principal from Wabasca, Alberta, who like others, was transforming a neglected and underutilized space into a thriving learning commons, while learning on the fly. Having said that, there is so much to share including important steps to take and moves to avoid. In Alberta, we need a way to maintain connection and growth more permanently.
With encouraging signs of emerging LLC saplings and conditions for the spread of the seeds of TL possibilities, it became clear that we were going to come-up short on follow through, follow-up, and ongoing support. There was so much to do, and so few of us involved with ASLC. But we weren’t going to sit idly by, so what to do…?
Reclamation the Right Way
A primary focus for ASLC in the coming years will be on advocacy and awareness, especially with the largest power brokers such as key individuals with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, School Board Trustees and other division-level decision makers. Without their institutional support, regeneration of LLCs and TLs is much more unlikely to grow from a scattering of solitary grassroots initiatives into a network of firmly rooted trees and symbiotic ecosystem. All the work and research of those willing to support Alberta teachers across the country and world, need – at the very least – suitable conditions to grow.
We also need to ensure we can tell the story of school library and teacher librarian success. This will include a dedicated overhaul of our social media strategy, operations, and other community channels, linking-in examples and comprehensive thinking, first and foremost through our Canadian School Libraries network. Teachers and administrators in Alberta want to see the proof, and hear the stories of how LLCs with teachers as central agents, can grow and thrive, and that teachers cannot be supplanted by other job groupings and classifications.
Fighting Fires and Networking Roots for Common Protection
We cannot ignore the possibility of new or recurring devastation and destruction that can occur and set-back decades of work, and cause harm to students and staff, through austerity measures and organized, orchestrated, and well funded book challenges. If ASLC is not active in taking preventative measures to connect individuals and institutions for resistance and public support, all other initiatives will be severely hindered or next to impossible.
All of the above is not to negate the efforts of those in Alberta who have previously or continue attempts to maintain surviving or thriving school libraries and the certified teacher as a key steward. Too often, unfortunately, these are “mushroom clusters” of growth or innovation. We need forested ecosystems, but perhaps we can start acting more like fungi. Consider the parallel learning from this excerpt in Peter Wohlleben’s book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World:
Dr. Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has discovered that [trees] also warn each other using chemical signals sent through fungal networks around their root tips, which operate no matter what the weather. Surprisingly, news bulletins are sent not only via the roots not only by means of chemical compounds, but also by means of electrical impulses […]. Tree roots extend a long way, more than twice the spread of the crown. So root systems of neighboring trees inevitably intersect and grow into one another ….
(Wohlleben)
Together, they can’t snuff out the embers of all those who have lit and maintained this good fire in our hearts.
Works Cited
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. (Updated 2020, January 9). Historical Wildfire Data: 2006-2018. 2020. Alberta: Author. Retrieved from the Alberta Government Open Data website: https://open.alberta.ca/opendata/wildfire-data-2006-2018#summary
Alphonso, Carol. “Docs for Schools: Panel Discussion Panel Discussion: It’s Possible, and It’s Worth It: How to Bring Sensitive Topics into the Classroom with Care and Confidence.” HotDocs, HotDocs, 24 Feb. 2023.
A.S.L.C.(2023, April 17). School Libraries, Learning Commons and Teacher Librarians: The Vital Spine Network of a School Body [ULEAD Conference Presentation]. Alberta School Learning Commons Council.
A.S.L.C. (2023, Feb. 23). Alberta School Learning Commons Council – Survey for Presentation Use – Canadian Teacher Librarian Reflections (Jonelle St. Aubyn). Alberta School Learning Commons Council.
Beaudry, R. (2017, May 10). BC Teacher-Librarians: Looking Back and Moving Forward. Canadian School Libraries Journal, 1(1). https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/bc-teacher-librarians/
Bowman, G. (2023, Mar. 30). Surrey Teachers Raise Concern Over Library Service Cuts. CityNews. https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/03/30/surrey-teachers-library-cuts/
Buffalo Trails School Division. (n.d.). BTPS VLC. https://sites.google.com/btps.ca/btpsvlc/home
Canadian School Libraries. (2022, Sept. 12). Angela Thacker Memorial Award: 2022 Recipients. Canadian School Libraries. https://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/angela-thacker-memorial-award-2022-recipients/
Canadian School Libraries. (2022, Nov. 20). The Leading Learning Implementation Award 2022. Canadian School Libraries. https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/the-leading-learning-implementation-award-2022/
Darting, T. (2021, June 23). Award-Winning Canadian Muslim Educator Creates Go-To Summer Reading List With Muslim-Centered Children’s Books. American Muslim Today. https://www.americanmuslimtoday.net/details/c34af9a2-9707-47e8-873f-45e727fcc5a6
Ewbank, A. D. (2010, October 27). Why did a U.S. secondary school district retain teacher-librarians in a time of economic crisis? : A case study. IASL Annual Conference Proceedings. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/slw/index.php/iasl/article/view/7719
Fawcett-Atkinson, M. (2023, May 23). Wildfire conspiracy theories spread faster than flames. Canada’s National Observer. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/05/23/news/wildfire-conspiracy-theories-spread-faster-flames
Fortner , C. (2023, May 23). 2023 Wildfires in Alberta Worst on Record for Spring. CityNews. https://calgary.citynews.ca/2023/05/23/worst-spring-wildfire-season/
Gaiman, N. (2013, Oct. 15). Neil Gaiman: Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
Jones, J. L., & Long, L. B. (2019). The Continuing Journey to Understand Dispositions and the Concept of the Ho-Hum Librarian. Teacher Librarian, 46(4), 17+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A592664353/AONEu=anon~a663db70&sid=googleScholar&xid=3f5978a3
King, A. (2020). Getting on the Train: A Decade of Shifting Culture in the School Library. Canadian School Libraries Research Archive: https://researcharchive.canadianschoollibraries.ca/2020/08/10/getting-on-the-train/
LaPointe, A. (2022). Developing a Locally Focused Indigenous Peoples Collection: An Act of Reconciliation. Canadian School Libraries. https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc7-lapointe.html
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Van Koeverden, Adam [@vankayak]. 2023/05/15. Pierre Poilievre’s heckling in the House of Commons isn’t just unparliamentary and unbecoming of his role, it’s totally irresponsible. He recently yelled that the wildfires in Alberta were “started by your government”. His far-right, fact-free conspiracy peddling is absurd. [Tweet]. Twitter.
Wohlleben, P. (2016). The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate : Discoveries From a Secret World. [United States], Greystone Books.
Harold Semenuk is the teacher-librarian for M.E. LaZerte High School in Edmonton, Alberta. Harold is the President for the Alberta School Learning Commons Council. Previously, Harold led a centrally developed project, “Anytime Help Anywhere” with Edmonton Public Schools. He has held a variety of instructional and administrative leadership roles and taught a variety of courses from grades 7-12. He proudly represented Edmonton Public Schools as a social studies curriculum writer and collaborator, participating in Government of Alberta working groups between 2016-18, prior to the discontinuation of that process and draft products by the current Government of Alberta. Harold draws on learning foundations and principles through his work as an Associate with the Human Venture Leadership organization and community.