(Pictured above) - UCDSB Director David Thomas talks about possible changes

to school libraries during the Books, Blogs and Tweets Forum.

(Brockville) – The Upper Canada District School Board held a forum Wednesday to learn how to make school libraries relevant in an era when books are being supplanted by Kindles and thumbing through textbooks has been replaced by surfing the Net.

The Books, Blogs and Tweets Forum brought together more than 50 community representatives, including teachers, mayors, counselors, librarians and students, to make recommendations on what the school library of the future should look like. The forum, held at the North Grenville Municipal Complex, was convened to allow the Board to learn ways to provide modern resources that students can use and to improve access for them to do so.

“We’re trying to come up with different ways of doing things,” said UCDSB Director David Thomas, who led the forum. “How many students go into our libraries anymore and pick up a National Geographic? Not too many.  Right now there are 500 ways to get information and books are just one way. We’ve got to re-imagine the way our libraries should work.”

The forum asked delegates how the Board can make its libraries more relevant to staff, students and its communities and sought advice on what should be going on at school libraries.

Delegates to the forum said they wanted school libraries that provide greater access to on-line resources and new technology.  Parents also wished to see an improved supervision system so students have freer access to their school libraries.

They called for increased access to on-line databases and training for students to teach them how to use those systems effectively to conduct research.  Students such as Chad Harvey, a grade 12 student at Brockville Collegiate Institute noted that his school is now teaching students how to use a computer database called Questia that provides easy access to 72,000 digital textbooks, 2 million articles, and an entire reference set including a dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus.

Delegates also called for remote on-line access to libraries and the research skills of librarians. They wanted more schools to make use of Net resources such as Knowledge Ontario, an on-line service available to all Ontario students that can help them improve their research. It even allows them to obtain answers to their research questions from a real librarian through a secure chat room.

“We have to be made aware of and have access to more on-line services” stressed Harvey.

Genna  Hill, a student at Tagwi Secondary School, said she wanted to see access to specialized sites that can help with specific subjects such as math.

Others said that they wished to see new technology such as e-books and Kindles available in the school, and more access to Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, Web sites and on-line videos.

Delegates also had specific suggestions about what should be going on at the libraries.

Teacher Craig Beckett wanted to see libraries become “places to play” which provide the kinds of resources kids enjoy to draw them in.  A founder of a gaming club at North Grenville District High School called Nerd Club, he noted that other libraries allow the sign-out of video games and movies and suggested this be considered.  He wants to see games, social networking sites, Web 2.0 applications, such as Twitter and Facebook, embraced in our school libraries, but at non-instructional times such as lunch or after school. .

Others at the meeting such as North Grenville Mayor Bill Gooch spoke against libraries providing video games and movies because it competes with private sector rental businesses.

Beckett added that the atmosphere of libraries should be improved. He wanted to see a more comfortable environment to make school libraries more user-friendly for reading. He noted that bookstores such as Chapters provide comfortable furniture and even access to coffee which draws people in and encourages reading.

He hopes the Board will follow suit by providing more comfortable seats and couches in libraries and possibly access to food in a markedly different setting similar to the “learning commons” found at universities where conversation is a welcome thing.

Others called for UCDSB libraries to be open after hours to the public so that they have better connections to the community. The Upper Canada District School Board already has community use agreements at some of its school libraries, but Thomas said it might be possible to expand the program to more of the Board’s facilities.

The Board will now analyze input from the forum and use it to make decisions to help improve the way the libraries work in the Board.

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For more information, please call:

David Thomas

Director

Upper Canada District School Board

613-342-0371 ext. 1234

Mark Calder

Communications Officer

Upper Canada District School Board

613-342-0371 ext. 1149

Posted December 7, 2009