By Caroline Freibauer
After four years of working with a government relations firm to guide school library advocacy, the Ontario Library Association has learned that building a relationship with the Ministry of Education is a marathon and not a sprint, said the OLA’s advocacy and research officer.
“At the end of the day, we need decision makers to work with us and not against us,” said Sarah Roberts during a “Voices for School Libraries” panel at the 2022 OLA Super Conference moderated by Anita Brooks Kirkland, chair of the Canadian School Libraries, and featuring members of the Save School Libraries coalition.
OLA has been steadily building that relationship with Ontario government staff, especially during pre-budget consultations, to ensure the province continues funding school libraries and with the hope that more of that funding will be “enveloped,” meaning it cannot be spent on anything else. Meanwhile, they meet regularly with ministry staff to highlight how school libraries can support education initiatives.
“This can be challenging,” said Roberts. “One of the things we’ve found is that the Ministry of Education portfolio is very large and there are always going to be bigger priorities for the staff there. We really have to be persistent to make those links.”
Roberts and Brooks Kirkland are among a long list of individuals and organizations, including booksellers, publishers, authors, librarians, and educators, who have banded together to form Voices for School Libraries to present a united front when advocating for the school library learning commons.
Brooks Kirkland said that, over the years, she has come to understand the importance of that broader community support. “Imagine my delight when, in the dark days of 2020, with libraries closing and staff reassigned, I was invited to join a new coalition of organizations – new voices for school libraries.”
Maria Martella, owner of Tinlids, a wholesaler of children and teen books for schools and libraries across Canada, initiated the coalition when she saw the changes in school libraries. She began reaching out to publishers to see what they could do as a group. “We needed to let decision makers know that this is not okay,” she said during the panel discussion. “We were worried about the cuts becoming permanent and causing further erosion to an already serious situation for school libraries.” The goal is to have representation across the country but the coalition, which includes the Ontario Library Association, Ontario Book Publishers and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, is focusing initially on Ontario.
Rick Wilks, co-founder and co-publisher at Annick Press Ltd., has a passionate belief in the power of reading, both to change lives on a community level and on a personal level. He also co-founded the National Reading Campaign, which aims to make Canada a nation of readers.
“I would say that I am about promoting reading, which is critical thinking, breaking through the isolation, providing joy,” said Wilks. “And what I want to do is link all of that to the importance of the school library system.”
School libraries are part of the publishing eco-system, said Wilks. “When they are in trouble, we’re all in trouble. This is a major piece of the ecosystem, which is really, really important. The issues of access and equity are important.”
Wilks explained that research has indicated a direct link between reading for pleasure and academic success. These students also exhibit higher levels of empathy and enhanced critical thinking. So it becomes even more important that they have access to books and professionals who can guide their reading.
“Without books and without access to libraries, there’s a direct interference with personal growth and the development of agency—the ability to make meaning out of one’s world, which lays the foundation for the future and feelings of self-worth,” he said.
Wilks cited the research of Dr. Stephen Krashen, an emeritus professor of education at the University of Southern California. Krashen’s work shows that the availability of books and the promotion of reading can mitigate the negative impacts of poverty. “The positive impact of access to books on reading achievement is about as large as the negative impact of poverty,” said Wilkes.
Brooks Kirkland
Martella said it is more than the just the access to books that is important. It’s the professional in the library who can curate a collection for that particular school community and who promotes reading through clubs and activities that makes a difference, she said. But increasingly Martella is dealing with educators who are tasked with quickly spending a budget, who don’t have any idea what is in the collection or who the readers are.
“I really feel that collection development has to be a thoughtful and slower process,” she said. “And we just shove it on someone and say, ‘Here, go and buy books in an hour.’
“I find it very unsettling when schools are spending money on these choices for libraries when the funding has been decreased and cut so many times.”
Brooks Kirkland finished the panel discussion by highlighting some of the Save School Libraries advocacy work, which includes a social media kit from Kate Edwards of the Association of Canadian Publishers and letters to Education Minister Stephen Lecce, the Council of Ontario Directors of Education and the Ontario Principals Council.
“In times like these, it is easy to be discouraged, but there have been some significant advocacy successes of the past two years,” said Brooks Kirkland.
Advocacy Resources, selected by the Save School Libraries Super Conference panel.
Caroline Freibauer is on leave from her position as Head Librarian at St Michael’s College School in Toronto. She is the editor of The Teaching Librarian Magazine (Ontario School Library Association). Caroline is a member of the Canadian School Libraries board of directors.