Thank you!

Thanks, Meredyth, for comment posted to last blog entry and many others, especially TL colleagues, for notes of congratulation.  For those who haven't heard, I had the pleasure of opening my email this week to find that I have been awarded the Angela Thacker Award in which CASL (national body for TLs, a ) recognizes leadership in the field demonstrated in publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or information literacy.  What an honour.  From everything I have heard, Angela was remarkable.  Thank you to nominators Parungao and Zubke, and thank you to selection committee of CASL for this recognition.

My thanks, too, to VSB Board Chair Patti Bacchus whose tweet I just read and to Trustee Mike Lombardi, Gino Bondi, administrator extraordinaire @JO, and Aaron Mueller, ever encouraging, whose re-tweets I do so much appreciate.  Being a member of the VSB Tweeps Team @VSB39 is always educational but reading "RT @pattibacchus: Congrats to @VSB39's Moira Ekdahl @tlspecial the 2011 CASL Angela Thacker Mem.Award recipient! #bced Long time coming" is really special.  Your support for teachers' and teacher-librarians' work, Gino, Mike, and Patti, really makes a difference.  Right, Aaron?

I would like to congratulate Coquitlam TL Judith Comfort for her winning the CLA/CASL's Follett-International TL of the Year Award; Judith joins an amazing group of TLs from across Canada in receiving this recognition, including our own Michele Farquharson, Pat Parungao, Mary Locke, and Karen Cordiner.  And congratulations are due to Heather Daly, for leading BC's TLs into another year as President of the BCTLA.  We are all inspired by your commitment as well as your visionary and dedicated leadership.

I'm sure Judith will agree that such honours in April are a wonderful way to end a bleak winter and begin to anticipate Spring which can't be far behind! There are more good things coming for BC TLs, I just know it. Can't you feel it, an end to the "10-year winter"? The Supreme Court decision which finds for the BCTF in the Charter challenge around Bills 26 and 27 which stripped our hard-won ratios and numbers for class size and composition and thus, our rights to representation, bodes well for a return to a system where educators can set aside the fight to speak for what's best for our students and return to a focus on building the capacity of schools and school libraries to deliver quality education. 

The new Ning is gathering our rank and file; thanks, Arlene Anderson, for giving us a place to meet and share.  Need an invite?  Contact a member of the BCTLA Executive.  We rise again!

BCTLA Spring Conference

It's Saturday morning and we are a group of 30 teacher-librarians representing the whole province, assembled for professional purposes, joyful at the recent announcement of the results of the BCTF's Charter Challenge that affords prospects of improvements in working and learning conditions and, in particular, the return of the stripped language that will ensure restoration of teacher-librarians in BC public schools, 1 for every 702 students.  The key tenet of our plan for the next three years, announces President Heather Daly, was accomplished in just three days since the Plan was developed.  She is clearly moved by the hopefulness and by the prospect of an end to our fiercely fought battle to ensure children had access to quality literature and digital resources, as well as instruction from a qualified teacher-librarian.

Arlene Anderson, TL, West Vancouver, our Pro D chair, is leading our group forward with social media for teacher-librarians, her direction empowered now by the recent development (Arlene working with Jeff Yasinchuk from the Kootenays) of the BC Teacher-librarians' Ning.  We are discussing how schools and TLs are working with the rapidly changing nature of our resources, including anticipation of the place and impact of e-books, e-texts, and associated devices.   As "curators of information," TLs can explore replacing textbooks with multiple sources of information available in print and online, including subscription resources.

Discussion has ended.  Now we are frantically searching the ning -- gotta go -- I'm losing ground!  Working collaboratively with Suzanne (Maple Ridge district librarian) and Gwen (Vancouver), we raced through the ning-search and trounced first over the finish line, then went back to "sabotage" the others by creating groups and signing up new numbers.  It's not about correct answers but about getting to understand how the ning works.  Very very cool, and tons of potential for provincial TLs and professional growth.

Next is the envisioning process:  for those of us who will find ourselves still working in school libraries in 2016, what will TLs be doing? what will TLs still be doing, and what will be new in the role? how prepared are TLs for the "21C change" that is engulfing education?

Working/Learning Conditions

BCTLA's Bookmark - 29th Annual Working and Learning Conditions Report

BCTF Press Release, March 1, 2011:

Chronic underfunding is creating severe inequities in school libraries, report finds


A decade of underfunding has compelled teacher-librarians and parents across BC to become fundraisers for their children’s school libraries, together raising more than $1.2 million to purchase books and electronic learning resources in 2009–10.

That’s only one of the worrisome facts reported in the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association 29th annual survey of working and learning conditions in public school libraries.

While most schools raised up to $3,000 last year for library resources alone, 24 schools raised between $5,000 and $10,000, and one school was able to raise an astonishing $50,000. These figures point to the growing inequities between public schools in low-income neighbourhoods and those in affluent areas.

“Equity of opportunity to learn is fundamental to a democratic public education system, so this report serves to ring the alarm bells that one of our key principles is threatened by the chronic underfunding of schools and their library services,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert. “Here is concrete evidence of the importance of teachers being able to negotiate teaching and learning conditions with the employer. These issues will be of vital importance as we go to the bargaining table this spring.”

Heather Daly, president of the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association, noted that as a group, teacher-librarians have been the hardest hit since the cuts began in 2001. “We have lost 25% of all teacher-librarian positions across BC,” she said. “Despite tremendous challenges, our members are continuing to serve students well, running creative programs, hosting reading clubs, and providing crucial expertise for children growing up in an information society.”

Both Lambert and Daly called on premier-designate Christy Clark to read the report and listen to the voices of teacher-librarians, whose services are so important to students’ success at school and in their future careers. Here is a sampling of the comments contained in the report:

“We have no money for books. Zero. We have a [Parent Advisory Council] that is already stretched to its limits trying to replace our unsafe playground.” “I feel so lucky that this school has wealthy clientele, and parents who can and do assist with book fairs, as well as total teacher support.” “Libraries feed democracy and give students a safe place to figure out who they are and who they will be. Libraries have always been for me a place of solace and I fear that we are losing ourselves as we continue to cut funds and staffing to libraries in the province.”

Planning for October 2010? Check this out:

KelownaFresh

2010 BCTLA Conference
October 21-22, 2010

The Central Okanagan Teacher Librarians' Association (COTLA) is proud to be sponsoring the 2010 British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association (BCTLA) conference, October 21-22. The conference will be hosted at Kelowna Secondary School (1079 Raymer Avenue, Kelowna).

In addition to a comprehensive conference itinerary and social events, there will be three keynote addresses:

Dr. Jamie McKenzie will outline the exciting new roles of the 21st centure teacher-librarian and talk about the stance, attitude and strategies required to turn challenge into opportunity.

Well known television personality, Dr. Art Hister, will talk about taking care of your health so that you can live with more energy, more happiness, and less stress.

The "Disruptive Innovators" Donna DesRoches and Carlene Walter will discuss how social media has redefined the role or the teacher-librarian.

With 31 distinct sessions covering everything from 21st century libraries and technologies to the art of writing and the culture of reading, the conference promises to be of interest to a wide range of teaching professionals.

For more information on the conference, its sessions, and registration procedures, visit the KelownaFresh conference site .

There's Never Nothing to Do with School Libraries

This Weekend, It's Word on the Street

WOTS: Sunday at Library Square, 11 am to 5 pm. This is a wonderful annual Fall event where you can check out new titles, award-winning authors and spoken-word artists, book bargains, and more ... all for FREE. Who's there? Check here.

Fall Book Harvest, October 16

North Vancouver City Library's Annual Fall Book Harvest brings CWILLBC authors and illustrators, new titles, book prizes, displays, and the chance to meet children's favorites. 1:30 to 3:30 pm, 120 West 14th, North Vancouver.

Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Fall Breakfast

Saturday, October 17: University Golf Club, 8:30 Registration: This year, meet Gregory Maguire, author of more than a dozen novels for children -- and Wicked for adults.

BCTLA Conference: Champions of Literacy

October 22-23: Richmond Olympic Oval and Richmond Secondary School. Keynote speaker: none other than Roch Carrier; a national treasure and a champion of Canadian culture. As a Canadian writer, he touched our hearts with books like La Guerre, Yes Sir! He was a director of the Canadian Council for the Arts from 1994 to 1997 and served as National Librarian of Canada from 1997 to 2004. Carrier is an ardent supporter of libraries and children's literacy.

The Thursday night wine and cheese will be at the Legacy Suite of the spectacular Richmond Olympic Oval so you can catch the Olympic excitement! Take a tour of this inspiring and innovative building and meet the Olympic Mascots! This year's themes are Imagination, Inspiration, and Information! Click on Venues or Presenters to get more details.
The main conference is being hosted by Richmond Secondary School, located at 7171 Minoru Blvd., Richmond BC, V6Y1Z3. There'll be exciting workshops, inspiring speakers and great literacy displays from a variety of vendors.

Register now!

DEAR, October 26

On Monday evening this week, Vancouver school trustees supported by District Management, unanimously supported a motion to endorse the annual Drop Everything and Read campaign in which, on October 26 National School Library Day, whole school communities drop everything and read for 20 minutes.

Under the guidance of BCTLA VP (Advocacy) Karen Lindsay, the BCTLA Executive successfully promoted this initiative to celebrate National School Library Day and were honoured nationally with the CASL/Angela Thacker Memorial Award. You should have received your poster for this year's event; it features a photo by BCTLA Exec member Al Smith from Kelowna.

Ideas for the celebration are wonderfully diverse. Last year's event featured prominent Vancouverites, authors, and school board officials reading to children. Then-Education Minister Shirley Bond got into the act as well, dropping what she was doing to read.

The support of our Trustees and District Management Team ensures our district's participation in this high-profile literacy promotion event. Many of our schools already have a daily sustained silent reading component. An added "celebration" of reading for National School Library Day, along with a vision that one day, all British Columbians -- all Canadians -- will "drop everything and read" to honour the importance of both school libraries and the importance of free voluntary reading remains before us. Ideally, all would include this reading daily as the research is clear: reading improves with reading and makes a significant difference in student success. For more, read Stephen Krashen, guru of free voluntary reading, in School Library Journal, 2006.

This event coincides with the IASL proclamation in 2008 that October is International School Library Month. This year's theme mirrors the 2009 Conference in Padua: School Libraries - The Big Picture.

Thanks, Jane, Val, et al, for your on-going and ready support. Let's get planning for the celebrations at schools and other education centres ....

Multivendor Display, November 4-5

Start planning for a half-day to peruse books from our various vendors at the Firefighters' Hall at Metrotown in Burnaby. Mark this on your calendar. New TLs are encouraged not to book for the first morning and to plan as well to attend Maryann's Selection and Acquisition workshop scheduled for the venue.

November 14-21, Canadian Children's Book Week

The Grade 1 (along with the children in their classes) TD Book Giveaway takes place during the TD-sponsored week, so plan now for this event. The books should be arriving in your schools this week. You can order kits. Check your numbers.

QUICK READINGS of INTEREST

Pass this blog or readings along to your administrator and/or staff and/or parents.

South African Children Push for School Libraries

Read about The New York Times article about the march of school children to remedy a failing school system for the least priviliged young citizens. “We want more information and knowledge,” said one young marcher for Equal Education who learns in an environment where access to school libraries and the desperate need for building repairs constrains students' learning.

Place Priority on Teaching Internet Skills

Kids may be more Internet savvy than ever before, but their ability to perform online research and evaluate Web sites remains weak. How can parents and teachers help? Read this.

Literacy Accountability in a New-Media Age

Paul Barnwell, in Education Week (September 22, 2009), points to the limitations of assessments that are "stuck on a notion of literacy that does not reflect the reality of our time." Our focus on testing students' understanding of print materials ignores the reality that they learn from new media and need to be able to read and think critically about text in relation to multimodal formats, that skills they develop can be transferred to understanding text in traditional formats, and that this is about empowering students. Writes Barnwell, "Unleashing and teaching media skills results in student empowerment. This is scary to some, who are comfortable sorting students by their ability to perform traditional literacy tasks.These same students might be effective media consumers and producers, but not according to our current accountability system."

At The End of the Week

I believe I am about to return to a life of normalcy. I am on my first day off today since mid-August. This weekend was the BCTLA Executive where we welcomed new members Michele and Chris, both of whom are perfect "fits" for this wonderful group.

This week as well some of us gathered to say farewell to the retiring "super" Chris Kelly; he has always been a wonderful participant in and supporter of our programs. Who can forget his readings about love at last year's Winter Tonic. I thanked him for "the party," as his leadership has been uplifting, thoughtful, and thought-provoking.

Meeting Reminders: We hope to see lots of you at

• Kerrisdale on Wednesday this week for TL Studio 1 (the season opener)
• Hamber on Thursday at 4 pm for the AGM of the VTLA
• for secondary TLs, the first meeting is on Monday, October 5, 4 pm, Hamber.

See you there!

Award and Gala Season for School Libraries

Canadian Library Association/CASL Awards Announced

BCTLA Winners Score "Triple Crown for BC School Libraries"

Whoo-hoo! It's official! For a third time in recent years, a Vancouver TL has won the Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award. Joining this list of prestigious winners that includes General Gordon TL Mary Locke and now-retired Prince of Wales TL Karen Cordiner is our long-time accomplished TL colleague Michele Farquharson who, you may remember, last year, won BCTLA recognition for her work. She will receive this award at the Canadian Library Association Conference in Montreal next week. When asked to write a letter of reference, Ken Haycock said, "I have only one question: What has taken so long?" We are pretty proud of you, Michele.

Whoo-hoo! It's official! We have another provincial winner not unfamiliar to local TLs in Karen Lindsay of our BCTLA Executive and Victoria School District note. Read about this year's winner of the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. This award was established in recognition of CLA/ACB past president Dr. Ken Haycock, distinguished educator, administrator and advocate, not unknown to us here in the Vancouver school district!

Whoo-hoo! It's official! The BCTLA Executive has won The Angela Thacker Memorial Award that honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or information literacy. Well, this was a "win" for school districts and schools that undertook the DEAR initiative in the Fall. The Award also acknowledges the cross-sector collaborative work with public, academic, and special libraries and the Ministry of Education's Public Library Services Branch in a range of provincial initiatives, including digitization, literacy, and database licensing.

Your BCTLA Executive members who jointly received this award do include some local TLs (VP Sylvia Zubke, Liaison Chair Ekdahl -- that's ME -- and Web Steward Val Hamilton) all under the truly excellent direction of our amazing leader and Coquitlam's Chief TL, Heather Daly, with help from nationally recognized VP Karen Lindsay.

Note that, while we had awaited this announcement for some weeks, it was disappointing not to see the names of our winning BCTLA Executive members who have all worked as a team with such keen energies and passions, and most of them are returning! Next year we will welcome
Chris Evans as Treasurer and Michele Farquharson as co-chair for Continuing Education, with Lynn Turner. It has been a joy to work with such committed and visionary TLs.

Click here for a review of past BCTLA members who have won such significant awards.

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Chocolate Lily Book Awards 2009 Gala!

Kidsbooks 3083 West Broadway, Vancouver
Date: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Time: 6:45 pm doors open; 7:15-9 pm

Because of the popularity of this event, tickets are $5.00 per person but can be redeemed for full value toward any of the nominated Chocolate Lily books available, during the event.

Meet BC children's authors, have a book signed, and see which authors’ books were voted the best by BC elementary school readers.

For more information, call 604-738-5335 or email general@kidsbooks.ca

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From Patricia Carmichael, GiggleIT Team Coordinator, IASL:

GiggleIT with GiggleCritter!

Motivate, engage, encourage and support - but most of all have fun! Registration is FREE!

Cute, loveable Gigglepet prizes! Meet new friends from around the world! The GiggleIT Project is a global collaborative publishing project hosted by the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), working in partnership with the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL). Designed to help children around the world improve their English language literacy skills, the GiggleIT Project encourages students ages 10-14 to contribute their writings to an online book (eBook) celebrating stories and humour from their culture. Humour, just like tragedy, is a vehicle that can be used to promote cross-cultural understandings and collaboration for children and young adults around the world. Children’s work will be published internationally and will identify their culture through literature.

Written by children for children, the eBook will contain children’s stories, jokes and poetry. The project will inspire children to be creative and make cross-cultural connections with other children from around the world as they learn about humour from other countries, while improving their literacy skills.

A range of competitions, as well as teaching and learning packages, will motivate and stimulate reading and writing skills whilst supporting teaching and learning with examples and worksheets which can be downloaded into handouts for the class. Yes, all teaching resources can be downloaded!

Register now to be part of this incredible international project here at the IASL WEBSITE. Check out the global regions page for IASL as well.

__________________________________

As ever I have some out new and interesting school-library-related "stuff" of professional interest to 21st century TLs, from book news and launches to technology tools and insights; this week, have a look at:

• Twitter/Austen/bloggy mash-up? Yep! Check out the Mad-hatted mom-blogger friend of Maryann! Well, you had to guess that last part. Just consider the educational uses of Twitter.
  
• The new Related Blogger link, Free Technology for Teachers. What took me so long to find Richard Byrne and his blogful of reviews and suggested applications for technology integration! Winner, Edublogs Award, 2008. AMAZING AMAZING stuff here.
  
• Also the newly-added Related Blogger link, Dangerously Irrelevant. Amerian academic blogger Dr Scott McLeod reflects on insights of Canadian social historian and comementator Gwynne Dyer as he blogs to address some of the K-12 incongruities in technology, leadership, and the future of schools. Read Dyer quote: Why this title? This blog has archives worth checking and sharing with administrators.
  
• Gary Hartzell's guest posting to Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog, on being able to provide a ready defense when, "in today’s electronic environment and damaged economy, the value of libraries per se is ... questioned right along with questions about whether you can defend continuing to spend money on print as opposed to electronic resources."
  
• Film Showing: June 1, Rm 400, Ed Centre, 4 pm: FREE showing of Mr H and his Unruly Puppets, featuring Mr Heidbreder himself and film director/producer, as well as Vancouver educator, Annie O'D from Dickens.
  
• Book Launch: Some of you met Tiffany Friesen (Poirier) for the first time at Winter Tonic. This young Vancouver "gifted" educator (third in a line of well-known local educators) will have her first-ever book launch event for Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosophy on Wednesday, May 27, at 7:00 pm at Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. There will be prizes, snacks, special presentations, speeches, and fun mingling with local teachers, librarians, parents, children, and more. Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who may be interested. Tiffany is very excited.
  
• Reading Rules, a student reading blog which is an excellent model for consideration with classroom reviewing and reading activities.
  
• The original logos captured in this 2006 Flickr graphic of Web 2.0 companies compared with British social photographer Meg Pickard's 2009-adapted Flickr graphic of those Web 2.0 companies still around.
  
• The new-look sidebar of this blog that includes new links, like the new-look BCTLA webpage under Wikis and Links.
  
• The latest from the various Related Bloggers: Joyce Valenza (SLJ), Phil Bradley, and Kathy Schrock have all made recent blog-posts about WolframAlpha, interesting as extensions of the comments posted here just last week! Blogs like these are where you find out what the "big names" in TL'ship are talking about ... well, unless you take up Twitter-ing.
  
• Twitter: You can mass-monitor tweets with the help of a beta desktop downloadable feature like Tweetdeck set to capture particular twitterings! While I have actually downloaded this, I tend to belong to and attract a group that is following each other but going nowhere! I think we must all be waiting for someone else to tweet (or re-tweet)! Twittering immigrants? No, largely tentative and rendered tweetless.
  
• Learn more about Creative Commons licensing for copyright:
  
  
  

Have a great weekend.

A Month on the Pro D Circuit

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The End of a 9-Day Conference?

For some of us, it has just begun. It was hard to get into the Transforming School Libraries Online Conference, to find the time to stay current on the presentations, and to learn our ways around. We will be in much better shape for the next one, I can assure you. Occasionally as I popped in an out of places, I virtually ran into people I knew. Thankfully, the conference will remain "up" for us to poke around and consider the artifacts for a month or two longer, and I found some fascinating things.

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But first, you just have to listen to and watch this beautiful international/global video version of the song Stand By Me where, performing together but in vastly separate stages, are artists from around the world. There is a youtube version of this, but the original and other songs performed on the global stage and the articulation of a vision of peace through music are found on the Playing for Change website. I found this, as I wandered through information about various conference presenters, on Edmonton TL Arlene Lipkewich's short-lived blog. She challenged her students to consider the youtube version (both blog and youtube are Web 2.0 tools) and the way in which it was created.

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As I started to say, some of us were just a little overwhelmed by arriving just-in-time at the very complicated Sosius platform and the various places and formats in which information and conversations were happening. I really enjoyed Arlene's voicethread presentation on various Technologies for Learning, old and new. In this Web 2.0 presentation, we looked at how hardware, software, and 'webware' can be used for both teacher and student learning. Now there remains no evidence I attended the session as I didn't actually log in, just observed and kept an eye on the discussions ... but you will find others we know there, like Pat from Gladstone and Karen from Victoria too.

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Arriving at a presentation a few days late didn't matter as participation was asynchronous. Notice that some of the participants in this discussion presented themselves in text and others used audio features. This was my first ever voicethread discussion; I think it offered a great learning opportunity for many of the conference attendees and you will see and hear their learning as they go along. While this is ultimately a long presentation and discussion, it is really interesting: how might this format be useful for working with teachers as well as students?

I also participated in a regional meeting of the westcoast conference attendees using a webtool new to me called Mobee. Needless to say, it cannot be accessed through our district filters as it is a chat program, or so we discovered at the TL Studio this week ... but you can enter the chat rooms at home using any chat tool. That is, you don't have to be using the same tool. I don't chat much but my gmail has chat capacity, so in I went to the "tsl" (transforming school libraries) chat room for a fun two hours of library-chatting one evening. James Henri and Sandra Lee were there too. I will have to go back as there were some fantastic "library" videos added to the discussion wall.

Not all the sessions are accessible from the outside but I am happy to be able to show you some of the tools being used for TL discussions and professional growth. Another open-access site within the conference is Coquitlam TL Judith Comfort's online consideration of the seamless and blended nature of collaboration between Ts and TLs at bestlibrary for online learning support, both for Ts and for students.

I also went to Anne Robinson's Librain blog of the online conference. Anne is in the UK. I think you will find lots here to think about from Anne's report and I see no need to repeat, only to recommend you peruse her discussions of the event at this link. Thanks, Anne, for this.

Does social networking produce cognitive side effects?

Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind

Posted to IASL listserv by Gerald Brown, Winnipeg, from The Guardian (U.K.), Feb. 2

British physiologist Lady Susan Greenfield warns that social-network sites risk infantilizing the 21st-century mind, leaving it characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize, and a shaky sense of identity. Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, told the House of Lords that children's experiences on social-networking sites "are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance ...."

Here is the audio link to Lady Greenfield speaking on social networking and your health.

BCTF Conference for New/er Teachers

What? These don't look "new/er" to you?

I stopped by the Radisson Hotel to see how Janet, Katharine, and Michele were doing in their presentation at the BCTF New/er Teachers' Conference about the ways they could collaborate with TLs. Put on out in Richmond on Friday, Val H was on duty for the provincial association at the BCTLA table. I scored lunch which was fantastic. So was this presentation. Thanks to all for the work that went into the session, as well as the commitment, to promoting collaboration with our teacher-colleagues to create meaningful learning experiences and enjoyable learning communities.


Did you know?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 40 years old!

From Twitter / School Library Journal: "Librarians and other educators are encouraged to download an activity kit,which includes a free commemorative 40th anniversary poster featuring classroom activities on the back, and a booklet with cross-curricular lesson plans, booklists, and arts and crafts projects such as a make your own Very Hungry Caterpillar mobile."

Posted from IASL: Manitoba - Brown / Stinson

And that, dear collagues, was quite a month of professional development, wasn't it! Don't worry if you couldn't keep the pace. I never quite caught up to the pace. Needless to say, we all have lots to learn. We can perhaps claim ground as leaders in modelling teachers-as-lifelong-learners!

See you next week.

Digitally Ours ...

***

On December 1 and 2, a group representing "heritage professionals" and "users" of digitized resources convened at UBC at the West Beyond the West: BC Digitization Symposium . Heather Daly's In Circulation blog for December 3 provides a report on how teacher-librarians came to be involved and on the keynote address of Ian Wilson, Canada's Chief Archivist and Librarian.

Let's start with the question that Ian Wilson left us with: How will this affect education? What might we find if we were looking for made-in-Canada resources (that is, Canadian creators using Canadian primary source materials and reflecting current Canadian values and understandings about our history, culture, and education) to use in classrooms, and why is this an important consideration?

Your tour of online projects incorporating digitized artifacts includes:

The History of the Hudson's Bay Company: this site has timelines, people, and sites and draws on primary source documents

Manitobia: Life and Times is a really deep website, available in both French and English, provides free access to historic documents and publications. Manitobia.ca (Manitoba + Utopia) is perfect for finding information about the province and its people and includes a rich archive of newspapers, first-hand accounts from letters, memoirs and diaries, drawings, maps and photos - all of which record the early development of the province.

Exploration, the Fur Trade, & Hudson's Bay Company uses primary source documents, maps and images, and includes links to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Available in both French and English, this website provides insights into the history of the fur trade, Hudson's Bay Company and the exploration of Canada, so intertwined that they cannot be separated.

How about some Lesson Plans for Early Canadiana Online, including ideas for teaching information and historical literacy skills as well as content?

Have you been to the VMC (Virtual Museum Canada), which too is available in French, to see the exhibits, image gallery, teacher resources, and so much more? There are some amazing resources for use in classrooms here, including the amazing VAG Virtual Emily Carr Exhibition with ESL, elementary and secondary teacher resources.

LAC (Library and Archives Canada) has amazing activities to support student learning about Canada's history, culture, and geography, including the horrors of arrival in Grosse-Ile or the customs of love in Canada during the Victorian years, enslavement and the road to freedom, other immigrant experiences, and lessons in historical literacy, The Evidence Web.

More digitized Canadian primary sources have been fashioned into displays, exhibits, collections, and learning resources for teaching both content and the multiliteracies in places such as:

• The Royal Alberta Museum (check The Poster War Virtual Exhibit, for example, for 46 artistic posters in the Allied propaganda campaign of WWI)
• The Royal Tyrell Museum, specializing in paleontology, including a virtual tour of the Dinosaur Hall
• Multicultural Canada
• Digital Collections at UVic
• CKUA Sound Archives
• BC Digital Library Collections
• Canadian History on the Web
• Musée McCord Museum Eduweb, specializing in Canadian history themes, 1840 to 1945
• Museum of Anthropology at UBC Online Exhibits
• Glenbow Museum, an award-winning website (Flash option) that takes you into the northwestern plains, the home of the Blackfoot-speaking people, their relationships with the land, with their families, and with people from other cultures which are the foundation of their lives today
• The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture from the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research
• Our Roots / Nos Racines: Canadian Local Histories Online, with Educational Resources
• Historica, including Black History Canada, lots of resources, lesson ideas, and Peter Seixas's Benchmarks project for teaching for historical understanding
• Canadian Museum of Civilization / Muse Canadien des Civilisations - be sure to check out the Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage
• Canada War Museum
• LAC: Canada's Digital Collections, archived from Industry Canada Project includes many wonderful projects such as The Story of the Yip Sang Family and The Cariboo Gold Rush
• LAC: The Kids' Site of Canadian Settlement
• VMC: Beauty in the Beast: The Mill at Britannia Mine; this site uses Flash to explore one of the most important buildings in Canada’s industrial history. Recommend to SS 10 teachers.
• BC Archives Online Exhibitions, including The Amazing Time Machine

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History where students are invited to check their preconceptions about "History" at the door: I saved this to last as these are surely worth the secondary TL's time, and they are what won our dynamic Digi-Symposium speaker Dr John Lutz of UVic's History Department his recent Pierre Berton Award for Disseminating Canadian History information. Students are told as they set out to solve the history mysteries that "Doing History" is not memorizing dates, politicians and wars. That is all just context. "Doing History" is the work of the detective, the gumshoe, the private eye. Students are invited to take on this job. When all that is left are traces, artifacts, clues, hints and allegations, putting those together, weighing the evidence, assessing the credibility of witness accounts, sorting out contradictions, and finding the best solution to the mysteries -- that is "Doing History," and so begins the "gumshoe" work for our students.

Choose from 12 different history mystery quests about Vinland, the burning of Montreal, the Chilcotin War, a killing on Salt Spring Island and another in Montreal, the discover of gold in the Klondike, the death of Tom Thompson, and the mysterious deaths of a Doukhobor leader in the 1920s and a Canadian diplomat in The Cold War. Find also student-friendly lesson plans and discussions of methods of teaching for historical understanding. Read more about using web-based archives to teach Canadian history in this 2004 article by Ruth Sandwell.

All these sites build students' historical literacy; they select and build on digitized source material, construct an account or use displayed artifacts within a narrative. These sites build students' skills with additional multiliteracies as visual, critical, information, and technology literacies, as well as reading; they "integrate technology with teaching and learning" as well as with curriculum, creating engaged learning in a context that students like. Again, as per Henri, TLs can meet teachers in curriculum (and students, of course) in truly exciting and innovative ways.

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Last week's posting included an invitation to look at the Cedar Cottage Walking Tour. All grade 10 Social Studies classes at Gladstone "walk" the curriculum here with teachers and the teacher-librarian, studying the landscape and heading to the VPL special collections to dig for the history. Can this project provide a template and a challenge for other schools to turn their own communities into "neighbourhoods for learning"? How much more could be made digitally accessible to enable our students to learn about their communities, histories, and landscapes?

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Teacher-librarians invited some Social Studies and English teacher colleagues to the Digitization Symposium. We listened to digital experts from other provinces and our own. This event was, for educators, a unique opportunity to think “big picture” about a new topic with new and unfamiliar partners and to consider questions of knowledge creation in BC, authority for knowledge about BC, as well as issues of information management and resource promotion, for British Columbians, over time. From the BCTLA In Circulation blog:

For the youth of today, knowledge has become something that hangs around their necks on strings, Wilson suggested; they no longer memorize the facts but have a search strategy and expectations of access. While American content is readily available as authoritative source material, we need to expand this base in sustainable ways that are ours, that are reflective of Canadian goals and values, and that provide the tools and support to enable equitable access. How do we “converge", Wilson asked, to work with each other and to teach people what they need to know. The national myth that our history is boring is being re-shaped as history is personalized, made first-person, and singular. And what is this doing to education in the schools?

We the assembled invitees, the archivists, librarians, curators, teachers, technologists, writers, historians, academics, aboriginal community leaders, genealogists, and educators, including Ministry of Education representatives, are the “stewards” and have common interests in what constitutes enduring knowledge here in Canada and in BC.

There is lots to be done to "digitize" BC, but it would seem an important project for us to support.

Set an example: Read today

BY JANET STEFFENHAGEN VANCOUVER SUN
The Vancouver Sun
27 Oct 2008

Drop everything and read. That’s what librarians are asking British Columbians to do today at 11 a.m. to mark National School Library Day and deliver a strong signal to children about the importance of literacy. “The message it sends could be so...read more...

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The BCTLA Conference this weekend in Victoria was fantastic. Michele's thank-you speech was inspiring and would make each one of you proud that she is ONE OF OURS! I have to say, after many years of attending these, I heard not one single complaint about any aspect of this year's conference.

The three fantastic workshops I attended, after a session with the book and resource exhibitors, included Karen Lindsay on reading (the same Karen quoted in the newspaper this morning), Dr Barbara McNeil from U of Regina (on engagement and reading with some of our most reluctant), and Susan Juby of Alice, I Think fame (on being retrieved from the edges by a teacher-librarian who recognized in Susan a young woman with a spark of writing brilliance -- she is now Victoria Public Library's "pet writer"!).

The weather, food, accommodations, and company were also amazing. In other delightful aspects of my weekend, including getting caught in Victoria's annual Zombie March, I must thank Gwen and Sylvia for their help in promoting "promoting the new EBSCO-and-World Book multisector database bundle" -- on very short notice at the BCTLA Chapter Councillors' meeting on Saturday! It is very clear that Gwen loves eLibrary and the Culturegrams as well, and Sylvia uses World Book the most.

DEAR

Speaking of Gwen, our first DEAR report has just come in! Look who's reading today with Moberly students. Gwen emailed:

Wally Oppal just became a Friend of the School Library this morning. He also read a book on Divali to a Gr 5 class and talked about the importance of reading every ay. In fact hw suggested they read a novel every two weeks. He will observe DEAR.

Here's news from the mother-ship: Many of our colleagues arrived this morning to find a chocolate bar (thanks, Pat P, for this initiative) from Charlie's that has an attached reminder of National School Library Day and DEAR at 11 am; the chocolate bar reads: sChOOL Libraries -- The Heart (heart-shape) of Literacy. See the word COOL in "school"? I read A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, a book I have Sylvia to thank for ... I have tried several times to find it at Chapters.

Here's ESL Betty on the 4th floor preparing to read The Navigator of New York.

This afternoon, Deb Martel, VBE Aboriginal Administrator, and I headed off to the Coalition-sponsored afternoon celebration of Literacy and School Libraries at Carson Graham in North Vancouver. The Honourable Steven Point spoke to students about the importance of reading. Asked by one what reading had made a difference in his life, His Honour quipped, "Mad Magazine"! In a more serious tone, he talked about the gift of a book that influenced his decision to pursue a career in Law; he was given The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow. Thanks to CG TL Jennifer Teiche and FN Educator Brad Baker for their organizing of this event. The Catering Class had prepared a wonderful spread. Exhibits included carving in progress and displays of an upcoming play written in-house and aboriginal "reads" from picture books to novels and non-fiction. I also enjoyed the afternoon of chatting with CG administrators Steve Garland and Ray Bodnaruk, as well as North Van TLs Felicity Eadon, Shelagh Martin, and Marilyn Aldworth ... oh, and commenting on the really good food with His Honour. What a treat to be invited.

From the Carson Graham website:

“This is a wonderful opportunity for so many of our students to meet such an inspiring and accomplished person,” says Jennifer Tieche, learning resource/teacher-librarian at Carson Graham. “The Lieutenant Governor embodies the pursuit of learning and appreciation of literature we encourage with our students.”

“We are grateful for this opportunity to showcase the importance of high-quality school library programs,” says Kathryn Shoemaker, chair of the B.C. Coalition for School Libraries. “National School Library Day honours the connection between student success and the essential work of school libraries to promote the freedom to read, foster inquiry and further knowledge.”

DEAR Press Release Today:

PRINCE GEORGE - Education Minister Shirley Bond celebrated National School Library Day Oct. 27 by taking part in the Drop Everything and Read challenge, issued by the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association.

"Our family loves to read and has always made it a priority. I am happy to 'drop everything and read' to celebrate national school library day," said Bond. "I have also invited my colleagues around the province to do the same thing."

B.C.'s teacher-librarians challenged everyone in the province to Drop Everything and Read for 20 minutes at 11 a.m. today.... "It's about encouraging young people to read and value literacy," said Karen Lindsay, vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association. "Studies clearly show that daily silent reading improves vocabulary, spelling, comprehension and much more."

"It is also important to say thank you to teacher-librarians and other educators who work so hard to ensure our students develop a love of reading and excellent literacy skills," said Bond.

Hope you enjoyed today ... and, as DEAR unfolded at the VSB, there was great excitement all across the province as word spread about new ways this initiative was developed or promoted in BC. DEAR has really taken off this year, and we want to hear what your school has done to celebrate National School Library Day. You can report your school's activity using the comment function below (that would be the best use of this Web 2.0 tool) or email me!