By Judy Chyung and Susan Ewing
We hope you enjoy and are stimulated by these selected annotated resources on school libraries as learning commons, their role in academic achievement, and learning commons standards and guidelines curated by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Professional Library. Please note that for some resources links have been provided to the TDSB Professional Library catalogue records for information purposes (summaries, MARC Records, etc.), items are accessible only to TDSB staff.
Learning Commons
Canadian School Libraries. (2018). Culturally relevant and responsive school library learning commons.
A guide to support schools to build culturally relevant and responsive school library learning commons.
Ekdahl, M. & Zubke, S., (Eds). (2017). From school library to library learning commons: A pro-active model for educational change. Vancouver: British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association.
When and how does a school library become a library learning commons? This is the question that launched a teacher inquiry, over 3 years, for groups of Vancouver teacher librarians from elementary and secondary schools. This document captures the transformation of their school library into a Library Learning Commons.
Harland, P. C. (2011). The learning commons: Seven simple steps to transform your library. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.
This book discusses seven steps for implementing a learning commons model for school libraries: making the library user-centered and flexible, streamlining services, centralizing resources, removing barriers, trusting users, and publicizing the library. Each chapter provides practical, simple, and inexpensive ideas for transforming a school library into a learning commons.
Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2015). The elementary school learning commons: A manual. Salt Lake City: Learning Commons Press.
This manual, a companion to The Secondary School Learning Commons, is written for teacher librarians and the leadership teams to create and implement a learning commons in their K-8 schools. The authors have identified 12 important characteristics of the learning commons and then under each of those characteristics, they provide a number of activities designed to be used by the stakeholders as the learning commons concept is planned and implemented.
Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2015). The secondary school learning commons. Salt Lake City: Learning Commons Press.
This manual, a companion to The Elementary School Learning Commons: A Manual, is written to assist teacher librarians and leadership to create and implement a learning commons in their 7-12 schools. Like the elementary manual, a number of activities are provided under each of the 12 important characteristics of the learning commons identified by the authors to be used by the stakeholders as the learning commons concept is planned and implemented.
Rendina, D. L. (2017). Reimagining library spaces: transform your space on any budget. Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education.
Written in an easy narrative, this book describes how to transform a traditional library space on a small budget into a space that better meet the needs of today’s learners. The author offers clear, specific, and practical ways to open up a library space into different functioning spaces, including a makerspace, that support student learning and engagement.
Sullivan, M. L. (2015). High impact school library spaces: Envisioning new school library concepts. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited. (Proquest ebook; account required for online access).
To stay relevant to the 21-century learners, this book offers bold new ways to think about library spaces and suggests how libraries can provide the spaces needed to support personalized learning, guided inquiry, technology, virtual learners, and smart devices. Also the book discusses how to market a new library brand and teacher librarian roles to reverse the trend of marginalization of school libraries.
Sykes, J. A. (2016). The whole school library learning commons: An educator’s guide. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.
This is a planning guide for creating a whole school library learning commons that outlines the role of all stakeholders, from teachers to administrators, with a critical emphasis on the role of teacher librarian. The author suggests that implementing a learning commons involves all members of the school community to build a collaborative, participatory culture of learning.
Academic Achievement
Canadian School Libraries. CSL Research Archive
The Canadian School Libraries Research Archive makes scholarly and practitioner research from all Treasure Mountain Canada research symposiums accessible and searchable. These symposiums have contributed over one hundred papers to the literature, and with this archive site, those contributions become widely available.
Dow, M. J. (Ed.). (2013). School libraries matter: Views from the research. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.
This is a compilation of research studies and findings from the past 10 years on the value of school librarians focusing on such topics as the impact of school libraries on academic achievement, role of school library, building collaborations, technology, and school librarian leadership. The research can be used for library advocacy and to help stakeholders understand the vital role the teacher librarians play in the schools.
LRS Library Research Services (2018). School libraries impact studies. (Publication dates 1999-2015)
A compilation of research reports and studies, from different US states and some from Canada, on the positive impact of libraries and teacher librarians on the student academic achievement.
Russo, C. (2015). Your library is the answer: Demonstrating relevance to tech-savvy learners. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.
This book shows how teacher librarians can use new technology such as social networks, collaborative technologies, and cloud computing to attract and engage today’s tech-savvy and digitally connected students to teach them about the information and media literacy skills.
Standards and Guidelines
Canadian School Libraries. (2018). Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Available in French as L’apprentissage en tête: Principes relatifs à la transition de la bibliothèque scolaire vers le carrefour d’apprentissage au Canada.
Originally published by the Canadian Library Association (2014), the standards present a model for the development and implementation of the school library as a library learning commons in Canada. It provides teacher-librarians with a common set of standards of practice to follow. The standards are supported by a set of themes and growth stages that lead to the transformation from traditional library facility to vibrant library learning commons.
Ontario School Library Association. (2010). Together for learning: School libraries and the emergence of the learning commons. Available in French as Ensemble pour apprendre: Les bibliothèques scolaires et l’émergence d’un carrefour d’apprentissage.
This key OSLA document outlines the vision of a library learning commons and proceeds to lay out how to implement that vision to facilitate the 21 century learning framework with the learning commons as the core.
Newfoundland and Labrador: Education and Early Childhood Development. (2018). Extending the classroom: The library learning commons: A curriculum support document. Available in French as Enrichir la salle de classe: Les carrefours d’apprentissage.
This document offers guidance and invitation for schools to learn about a library learning commons by showing what it looks like in schools and the teaching practice and pedagogy involved in developing and maintaining a library learning commons.
Toronto District School Board. (2014). Library & learning commons: A resource for principals, teachers and teacher-librarians. K-12 Teaching and Learning Expected Practice Series.
This issue in the TDSB series focuses on the roles of teacher librarians in guiding students to develop research and inquiry skills following the four phases of inquiry (A Model of Inquiry) and the use of success criteria of inquiry skills within each phase for criterion referenced assessment. In addition, the professional roles of teacher librarians are described along with the actions they need to take to accomplish each area of responsibility.
Judy Chyung has extensive experience providing Education Reference and Online Services to the educators and leaders of Toronto District School Board at the TDSB Professional Library. She enjoys reading and learning about the trends in education literature, and assisting TDSB educators with their information needs whether for their classroom support or for their professional learning. One of the current initiatives that she leads is the curated Resource Guides for Heritage Months celebrated by TDSB. You can check out the Guides at http://bit.ly/DirectoryHeritageMonthListsPL. Her daughter, who is currently in a middle school in TDSB, keeps her in touch with the pulse of a school life and daily issues our kids face in a school.
Susan Ewing was delighted to return to education librarianship to coordinate TDSB’s Professional Library in 2017, having started out post-MLS at Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), Canadian Education Association and the Ontario Ministry of Education (1987-1996). Her learnings on her long detour through accessibility and social justice librarianship, including leadership roles at CNIB, AlphaPlus, York University Library Accessibility Services and 211, are more relevant than ever in supporting today’s teachers. Follow Susan’s tweets @Owlfindit and follow her library @ProfLibraryTDSB.