Kickoff Challenge from Carol Koechlin

Our kickoff challenge from Carol Koechlin is to consider answers to the following questions and share in-person tomorrow or on Twitter using #TMCanada2020

What is your 2020 vision for your national school library group?  

What would you like to see happen further with Leading Learning, now five years old?  

What would really help you, your schools, and your districts?

What would you like to see from the Canadian School Libraries Journal?

Congratulations to CSL 2020 Awards Recipients

Canadian School Libraries honours Alison Bodner, Alanna King, and Sarah Wethered as recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award 2020.

"I encourage everyone to take the initiative to get involved in school and library organizations and not shy away from offering others mentorship and professional development" - Alison Bodner

"It's not in my nature to be still...I will continue to pursue advocacy for school libraries. Each day, I believe that the world can be a better place and that we need to start that process by making sure that each person has a shot at making a difference for themselves" - Alanna King

"I'm honoured to work with such an amazing group of dedicated educators...I am deeply honoured to have received this award and am truly humbled by it" - Sarah Wethered


Read more about the recipients in CSL's Angela Thacker Memorial Award 2020 Announcement 


Canadian School Libraries honours Pembina Trails School Division as the first recipient of the first Leading Learning Implementation Award. 

"The transformation to Library Learning Commons would not have been possible without the guidance provided by Leading Learning...well-supported school libraries have a tremendous impact on student learning and well-being"  - Jo-Anne Gibson, on behalf of Pembina Trails School Division

Read more in CSL's Leading Learning Implementation Award 2020 Announcement 

TMC6 Keynote Speaker: Eric Walters

TMC6 has officially kicked off with keynote speaker, Eric Walters!  

During his time on the road between events, Eric made use of time in his car by calling the many smart people he knows who are passionate about writing, education, and literacy and brought them together at the Canadian Reading Summit.

Bringing together people from different areas relevant to reading Canadian completed the picture and resulted in I Read Canadian Day.

This day recognizes that Canada "is a powerfully diverse country" and asks people to read a book of their choice on February 19th 2020 at schools, libraries, and daycares across Canada.  Find out more at I Read Canadian Day.

The Eric Walters Summer Lending Program started with a Tweet, followed by an article.  Schools quickly got on board while Eric signed posters and bookmarks and sent them to participants.  Over 165 schools were involved.  The results of this program are examined in the research paper, The Eric Walters School Library Summer Reading Challenge: Findings from the Research by Anita Brooks Kirkland and Carol Koechlin. 

Eric spoke about his beginnings writing as a teacher for his class, approximately 114 books ago, as well as his newest book, Fourth Dimension.  The book features his grade 5 teacher, Christena Gay, who told him he could be a writer when he grew up and demonstrates the profound impact teachers have on their students.

Learn more at Eric's website

Building a Nation of Readers

Canadian School Libraries is participating in two important projects to promote Canadian books and build a nation of readers.  

Our TMC6 keynote speaker Eric Walters has been a driving force behind this very first I Read Canadian Day. CSL would like every school in Canada to participate, and encourage you to promote this event in your school districts and libraries. Visit the I Read Canadian Day website to sign up. It’s free! The website has all sorts of resources for you, including a toolkit created by a CSL committee.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) is taking Canadian children’s books to where youth already are: YouTube.

Plans are underway for a YouTube channel to showcase videos and links to resources about Canadian books for children and youth. The channel, called Bibliovideo, will be promoted as a destination for young readers, librarians, teachers, parents, authors, illustrators, researchers and others who want to locate and learn more about great Canadian books for young people.

The CCBC is committed to ensuring that there is better digital access and promotion of these exceptional Canadian books to raise awareness and promote literacy.

With funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Bibliovideo is the first step in a long-range digital strategy being developed by a consortium of organizations led by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre that includes the Association of Canadian Publishers/49thKids, Canadian School Libraries, CANSCAIP, Communication-Jeunesse and IBBY Canada.

Read more about Bibliovideo and view the promotional video on the CCBC website.

View the Bibliovideo promotion on Vimeo. 

The CCBC would like your perspective as educators and librarians about what you would like to see on Bibliovideo.

Please take a few minutes to respond to this short survey from the CCBC.