The Canadian Library Associationn (CLA) is pleased to announce the launch of its latest publication Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. This publication presents a model for the development and implementation of the school libraryas a library learning commons. It provides educators with a common set of standards of practice for moving forward. CLA President Marie DeYoung stated that the organization considers this publication asa “definitive learning support that is critical for all Canadian schools.” Leading Learning addresses the impact on education of new technologies. The explosion of digital information calls for new working spaces, new networks, and new approaches to supporting learning. Leading Learning is focused on the concept of the new school library learning commons which responds to the needs of 21st century learners. School libraries are measured by the transformative changes in knowledge and learning they encourage and support. In the document, learning commons are positioned as centres of teaching expertise which is achieved through a combination of resources, technologies, collaborative strategies, and physical and virtual learning spaces that support all learners as they evolve. Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada offers a vision and provides practical approaches for a ll those engaged in creating successful 21stcentury school libraries in Canada. Its framework presents five standards supported by a set of themes and growth stages that lead to the transformation from traditional library facility to vibrant library learning commons. The standards represent guideposts along a journey of continuous growth. Because Canadian schools are at  different points on this journey, this publication includes a range of markers of progress, sets of implementation strategies, and rich examples of innovation and success. Leading Learning also contains key resources to provide educators, individual schools, and school districts with helpful direction and support. CLA focuses on partnerships and liaisons within and beyond the school ‒with other libraries, such as public and academic libraries, and organizations such as school board trustees, and the Council of Ministers of Education in Canada. The complete Leading Learning document is available free of charge at: http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/llsop.html with a ccompanying bibliography: http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/llbibliography.pdf

The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action, is the result of a yearlong national forum conducted by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) in 2013, with funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library
services. The Call to Action lays out a new path for serving 21st century teens through libraries. This 2014 report shows that many libraries are continuing to grapple with diminishing resources while at the same time struggling to meet the needs of a changing teen population. Additionally, significant developments in technology have led to the need to rethink how services for and with teens are best created and delivered. The Call to Action provides recommendations on how libraries must address challenges and re-envision their teen services in order to meet the needs of their individual communities and to collectively ensure that the nation’s 40+ million teens develop the skills they need to be productive citizens.

Guided Inquiry is an instructional framework designed to support students while engaging in inquiry learning tasks. The new Australian Curriculum requires students to develop skills and understandings as critical inquirers of their world across a number of learning areas. In other words, inquiry underpins disciplinary thinking.

One of the key elements of inquiry is partnerships. Studies examining the impact of school libraries on student achievement have shown when teacher librarians collaboratively plan, teach and evaluate with classroom teachers, students learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardised test scores than those students without access to the resourcing and instructional expertise of a teacher librarian (Kahn & Valence, 2012; Montiel-Overall, 2008; School Libraries Worldwide, 2008; Todd, 2008a, 2008b; Lance, Rodney & Russell, 2007; Haycock, 2007; Lance, Rodney & Hamilton-Pennell, 2005; Lindsay, 2005). Classroom teachers benefit from this collaboration because team teaching reduces the teacher/student ratio in a class, and allows greater opportunity to provide individualised instruction for each student each lesson. This instructional partnership also provides greater support for at-risk students (Gavigan & Kurtts, 2010). Furthermore, recent studies have identified the important role the teacher librarian can plays in supporting the development of teachers’ and students’ digital literacy skills (Lance & Schwarz, 2012; Todd, Gordon & Lu, 2011; Duke & Ward, 2009; Asselin, & Dorion, 2008). With ICT as one of the Australian Curriculum’s seven general capabilities, we are seeing the design of inquiry units that involve the integration of digital technologies within different phases of the Guided Inquiry process. Teachers and students need support in testing and trialing new digital tools and apps. Often it is the school’s TL who provides this support.

Lyn Hay contributed to the book Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School. By Carol C. Kuhlthau, Leslie K. Maniotes and Ann K. Caspari, 2012.

For details, go to http://www.sybaacademy.com.au/books/guided-inquiry/guided-inquiry-design-a-framework-for-inquiry-in-your-school

Mary Snyder Broussard, Rachel Hickoff-Cresko, and Jessica Urick Oberlin.  (2014). Snapshots of Reality: A Practical Guide to Formative Assessment in Library Instruction. Chicago: American Library Association.

Through ten practical chapters, Snapshots of Reality works from the assumption that classroom-based assessment does not have to take away from invaluable instruction time, nor does it have to be an overwhelmingly complicated task. The book outlines the concept of formative assessment, “bite-sized” assessments that help the librarian get a snapshot of the students’ level of understanding in relation to the learning target(s). These mini-assessments are usually learning tools themselves and can be assessed quickly enough that can be adjusted on the spot to meet the immediate needs of learners. Snapshots of Reality explores the adaptation of formative assessment theory into something that works for the library one-shot and more advanced instructor-librarian collaborations. It also includes three sections detailing 48 FAST (Formative Assessment Snapshot Technique) ideas for use before, during and after instruction sessions as well as a guided planning template to help librarians seamlessly bring formative assessment into the library classroom. This book is appropriate for all types of academic libraries, school libraries with strong information literacy programs, and library and information school collections.

A new book on library spaces and equipment has been recently published (end of 2013) in Italy:
Vivarelli, Maurizio, ed., Lo spazio della biblioteca : Culture e pratiche del progetto tra architettura e biblioteconomia
[i.e., The library space : project cultures and practices between architecture and library science]
Milano : Editrice Bibliografica, 2013.
536 p. ISBN/EAN9788870757484
http://www.editricebibliografica.it/scheda-libro//lo-spazio-della-biblioteca-9788870757484-148188.html

I contributed to this work with an extended chapter (with colour pictures and references, too) on the school library as a space and place, a vital learning commons etc. (p. 299-334), plus a case study (p. 400-403), that are included for the first time ever in this kind of book (school library spaces have been only mentioned in the past). I’m grateful to the editor, Prof. Maurizio Vivarelli, University of Turin, for giving me the opportunity of “speaking aloud” of school libraries in a broader context. I’m also grateful to many colleagues of the IASL list-serv whose books or docs have inspired me (e.g., just to mention a few of them, Susan LaMarca, Rethinking School Libraries; David V. Loertscher and his works on the school library as a learning commons – “a revolution, not an evolution” -, Ontario School Library Association, Together  for  Learning: school libraries and the emergence of the learning commons, etc., plus the school library visits held within conferences and meetings).

Luisa Marquardt
Director Europe for IASL
IFLA SL member
AIB SL Chair

During the first quarter of 2014 Susan Stephenson from The Book Chook
www.thebookchook.com
has reviewed a number of iPad apps which have to do with literacy and
reading.  Here are the reviews:

http://www.thebookchook.com/2014/04/january-march-2014-childrens-ipad-app.html