Voices for School Libraries Network

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) is pleased to announce the approval, by its Executive Committee, of a project generated from Voices for School Libraries Network through the CLA School Library Advisory Committee, to develop a new standards document for school libraries in Canada. This endeavour was a focal point of discussions by school library leaders and practitioners across Canada, at “Treasure Mountain II”, a research retreat aligned with the CLA 2012 Conference in Ottawa.

The approved project proposal is not a re-write of Achieving Information Literacy, 2003, reprinted 2006, but a new document reflecting the present school library landscape and reaching into the next decade. CLA will publish the new document as an e-book, in English and French.

The project emphasizes nationwide participation, achieved primarily through provincial/territorial school library associations, in the formation of small volunteer writing committees that will contribute content based on a template to be shared in early 2013. The number of volunteer writers in the regions can differ, however the committee should as much as possible strive to represent an ideal school library "learning commons" team e.g. teacher-librarians, principals, library technicians, classroom teachers, parents, possibly students, and community librarians or other community representatives.

Provincial/territorial committees will review the content, along with the CLA School Library Advisory Committee and the CLA National School Library Standards Steering Committee (which include leadership from Voices for School Libraries Network) based on the following timeline:

• CLA Executive Council approves proposal – October 2012
• Invitations to participate sent to Provinces/Territories – December 2012
• Provincial groups formed – January 2013
• Writing Phase I – January-May 2013
• Editing Phase I – June-August 2013
• Writing Phase II – September-November 2013
• Edit II – Editors => SLN => CLA School Library Advisory – January 2014
• Launch e-book at CLA – May 2014

You may contact me for further information.

Judith Sykes
CLA National School Library Standards Contact/Project Co-ordinator
judith.sykes@shaw.ca

January 23, 2013