PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Canadian School Libraries (CSL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to professional research and development in the field of the school library learning commons in Canada. CSL connects school library practitioners and educators across Canada in the collaborative pursuit of delivering exemplary practices reflective of current professional school library learning commons standards. Join the CSL Network here.
The CSL Journal is published by Canadian School Libraries. CSL is a non-profit organization dedicated to professional research and development in the field of the school library learning commons in Canada. CSL connects school library practitioners and educators across Canada in the collaborative pursuit of delivering exemplary practices reflective of current professional school library learning commons standards.
The publication of Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada 2014, also available in French, provides an excellent opportunity for school library staff to review their spaces, partners, and programs in relation to the new standards and to consider how their libraries’ communities can be supported now and into the future.
As Leading Learning (2014) states:
“Our increasingly networked world presents complexities for learning unknown just a few years ago, but at the same time offers fresh opportunities. Learning in ever-changing environments demands new ways to educating – a focus on inquiry, creative and critical thinking, multiple literacies, and working together to meet shared goals and knowledge building. Evolving learning approaches and definitions of learning success are the new realities, with the consequent need for creating innovative learning environments.
Within almost every school in Canada there is a library facility, poised on the cusp of reinventing itself to address these challenges. This document provides standards to guide the transformation of school libraries to create future-oriented hubs of learning, innovation, and knowledge creation” (p. 4).
Definition of a Learning Commons:
From Together for Learning Website
Together for Learning was developed by the Ontario School Library Association with funding from the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat of Ontario’s Ministry of Education. The document encourages schools to develop collaborative learning opportunities in physical and virtual spaces.
Together for Learning provides inspiration for schools to develop collaborative learning opportunities. “A Learning Commons is a vibrant, whole-school approach, presenting exciting opportunities for collaboration among teachers, teacher-librarians and students. Within a Learning Commons, new relationships are formed between learners, new technologies are realized and utilized, and both students and educators prepare for the future as they learn new ways to learn.” (Together for Learning, p. 3)
Nationally:
Visit the Treasure Mountain Canada Website.
Provincially:
Alberta
Alberta Education recently issued a Learning Commons Policy and Guidelines statement making Alberta the first province in Canada to put in place a policy recognizing the integral role of the learning commons in teaching and learning. View the website here.
British Columbia
Exploring the learning commons concept.
Saskatchewan
Transforming school libraries in Canada: Leading Learning from the Learning Commons by Judith Sykes and Carol Koechlin in The Medium, Winter 2014
Internationally:
International Association of School Librarianship





