We have something special for you this Canadian School Library Day. It’s been cooking for a while and it’s ready for the table.

Introducing 91精选’s .

Led by the work of Tracy Krys (Director of Instruction, Abbotsford School District, BC) and Jennifer Casa-Todd (Author, 91精选 Board Member, Social Media Maven), the DML toolbox brings forward our vision for positive focused digital and media literacy. The core idea behind this is to help educators locate resources and understand how to approach digital and media literacy through a positive focused lens, focused on what students Think, Feel and Do with respect to the digital world around them.

This has been a labour of love that has taken over a year to complete. A big thank you to everyone who came to the feedback panel at OLA’s Super Conference in January. That gave us a lot of directions for improvement that has resulted in the toolbox as it stands today.

We have chosen to present it as a live Canva link so that the toolbox can be changed and refined over time as a living document.

On behalf of Tracy, Jennifer, Diana, Cathy, Neil and Lisa we hope you enjoy and find this useful.

91精选 is deeply troubled by the minister on May 26, 2025. The statements that they were not consulted or made aware of any concerns prior to this announcement is cause for additional concern. The timing and nature of this announcement leads us to believe that no effort was made by the Alberta Education Minister to involve educators in this matter or to work with school boards around their concerns. By not specifying which books were in K-9 and which were in high schools, there is an attempt to make it seem like all four texts were in K-9. None of the books appear in either the Calgary or Edmonton public schools’ online catalogs.聽

Cutbacks to school library professionals in Alberta, particularly teacher-librarians, have been ongoing for some time. Late last year, the Alberta School Library Association dissolved, due to ongoing cuts to the role. There are few schools with trained teacher-librarians making book selections, except in a handful of cases. 

Not every book in a school library is meant for every student. Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population. 

School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children.There is no one size fits all model that can easily be applied to every school. Without trained specialists to make these decisions, it is not surprising that issues would arise. 

There is also an enormous difference between content that is being actively taught in a school through use of a resource, and content that can be self-selected in a school library learning commons. Students do need some level of access to works that challenge them. For example, in Blankets, one of the novels deemed inappropriate, the sexual abuse that is detailed is something, unfortunately, some students will have had to deal with. Many won’t have been able to talk to anyone about such an event, but through connecting with works like this can find catharsis in reading and understanding someone else’s experience. When a school library is properly staffed by trained professionals, there are opportunities to engage students in conversations about the books they are choosing and help them make selections that fit their developmental maturity.

While public input can be valuable, it is quite concerning that there appears to have been no attempt to get trained professional input, or any attempt to understand under what criteria the books were selected.

Additional reading:

The Spring 2025 edition of 91精选 Journal has been released.聽The focus of this issue is on looking forward. To that end we have articles on summer reading, AI, the plan for 91精选 day this year and more.

Our editorial is a special one, the as they step away and Diana Maliszewski, Melanie Mulcaster and Joseph Jeffery take over as co-editors.

Student Engagement in the SLLC:

by Jenna McManus, Megan Price and Rebekah Rustad

by Lisa Seddon

by Chelsea Baker

Summer Reading:

by Kelly Johnson

by Carol Koechlin

AI:

by Chris Kennedy

by Melissa Poremba

Books to Checkout:

by Spencer Miller

by TDSB Professional Library

Also in this edition:

聽by Anita Brooks Kirkland, Carol Koechlin and Judith Sykes

by Joseph Jeffery and Wendy Burch Jones

by Jennifer Casa-Todd

by Diana Maliszewski

by Anita Brooks Kirkland and Carol Koechlin

The essence of Leading Learning is a participatory space where the school library professional helps guide student learning. Without staffing there’s no one to guide or set up participatory learning, and the collection cannot be a reflection of the school population.

We urge all provinces to read CFLA-FCAB鈥檚 and we renew our call for a nationwide base line of funding for school libraries, staffed by school library professionals.

On Wednesday, May 7, 91精选 sent an open letter to the BC Minister of Education, the Honorable Lisa Beare, regarding the state of education funding in the province and the impact it is having on library learning commons across the province. Since this letter was sent Kamloops-Thompson (School District 73) has also cut back library assistant jobs. As stated in the letter, while there is record funding in BC for education, there is also record costs and these two numbers are not keeping up with each other. So while the BC Government has put more into education that has historically been the case, the costs have risen much higher than that allocation. This is causing districts to cut back wherever they can. Full text of the letter is below.

LIVE on the blog-so many thought provoking papers as we prepare for Treasure Mountain Canada 8!

• Read the papers

• Share your thoughts in the comments

• Use the hashtag to interact online on Facebook, Instagram or Bluesky

• Attend TMC8 as part of the

You actually don’t have to attend to be a part of the conversation, but we would love to see you there!

The BCTLA Executive undertook a comprehensive study of working and learning conditions for teacher-librarians in BC, which uncovered significant challenges including increasing workloads, erosion of the teacher-librarian specialist role and inadequate funding. In order to raise awareness, the BCTLA created advocacy materials to raise awareness among fellow educators, parents and community stakeholders. The 鈥淟ove Your Teacher-Librarian鈥� colouring sheets and bookmarks distributed at the BCTF Annual General Meeting, provincial Parent Advisory Council conference and BC Federation of Labour events, helped people engage in a creative and informative way around the contributions and value of teacher-librarians.

BCTLA Executive: Tammy Le, Lisa Seddon, Sarah Wethered, Nicole Hurtubise, April Hilland, Doni Gratton, Holly Broadland, Kristie Oxley, Joseph Jeffery, Serena Mohammed, Devika Chudy, Keely Thornton, Marilyn Carr

Through a collaborative and impactful inquiry supported by the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) Teacher Inquiry Program (TIP), the BCTLA Executive has demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation in addressing critical issues facing TLs, Library Learning Commons, and the broadereducational community in British Columbia鈥�. The BCTLA executive鈥檚 work embodies the values of leadership, innovation, and dedication that the Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Award seeks to recognize.- Shaunna MacDonald, Surrey School District Teacher-Librarian Helping Teacher

91精选 is delighted to honour the BCTLA as a 2025 recipient of the Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Award.   

What is the Donald Hamilton Advocacy Award?

The Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Awardwas established in memory of Donald Hamilton, (1938 鈥� 2023), a leader in the field of school libraries and teacher-librarianship throughout his long career, and a strong advocate for the crucial role of school libraries in student learning. The Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Award was established in 2023 in honour of Donald鈥檚 outstanding legacy.  This award will be presented bi-annually to an individual, group or organization who have publicly and successfully promoted school libraries and/or teacher-librarians, in a significant way, through the media, organized events, presentations, or other forms of public advocacy. This advocacy may have involved a single major accomplishment or a long-term contribution to supporting school libraries and/or teacher-librarians.

For more information go to Donald Hamilton Advocacy Award