OSLA/OLA Superconference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

[Richard Beaudry]

Hello everyone, I had the opportunity to attend the OSLA/OLA Superconference in Toronto, Ontario last week. It is considered to be one of the best librarian and teacher librarian conference in Canada. Mother nature threw us a major snowstorm of 20+ cm on Thursday but we managed well in the conference centre. I was present at two important launches while I was there. A group from the Ministry of Education in Ontario and the Ontario School Librarian Association have just tabled a draft document for study: "Together for Learning: Transforming School Libraries in Ontario". The province of Saskatchewan and now Ontario have now drafted new language for teacher librarians in their provinces. In Ontario, this is the first significant school library document drafted since the early 1990's and it recognizes the importance of school libraries and school librarians in Ontario schools. TALCO, (The Association of Library Consultants and Coordinators of Ontario) will reviewing the draft. I have been offered the opportunity to offer feedback on behalf of CASL. OSLA is hoping that the draft will be the official document for teacher librarians in Ontario by this fall. The other launch was Ask Ontario. From the website: Ask Ontario is the Knowledge Ontario project focused on delivering and implementing real time, collaborative virtual reference services for the province. AskON is the name of the online research help service being launched by libraries, in collaboration with Ask Ontario, in January 2008. This is there website: http://knowledgeontario.ca/AskOntario/index.html Other than that I picked up some newly printed books for teacher librarians that I have brought back to share with the teacher librarians in my school district: Rosenfeld, Esther. Loertscher, David V. (2007) Toward a 21st Century School Library Media Program. Scarecrow Press Inc. Stephens, Claire Gatrell. Fraklin, Patricia (2007) Library 101: A handbook for the School Library Media Specialist. Libraries Unlimited. Kuhlthau, Carol C. Maniotes, Leslie K. Caspari, Ann K. (2007) Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. Libraries Unlimited Loertscher, David V. Koechlin, Carol. Zwaan, Sandi. (2007) Beyond Bird Units: 18 Think Models – Unit Planning guides – Fresh Unit Ideas. Thinking and Understanding in Information Rich and Technology-Rich Environments. Hi Willow Research and Publishing. The next major librarian conference in Canada will be the Canadian Library Association Conference in May in Vancouver British Columbia. Hope to see some of you there. http://www.cla.ca/conference/2008/index.htm