In April 2017, we visited Beechwood Elementary (Lester B. Pearson School Board) and met with Principal Nicholas Hayter and Library Technician Deborah Harrington. In this second video, Deborah shares with us what has happened so far in the school’s library transformation from a traditional school library into a Learning Commons. Visiting the school part way through the
In April 2017, we visited Beechwood Elementary (Lester B. Pearson School Board) and met with Principal Nicholas Hayter and Library Technician Deborah Harrington. In this first video, Principal Hayter describes how he saw opportunities to reshape the school's library from a traditional school library into a Learning Commons. Visiting the school part way through the
Battle of the Books is an exciting event wherein teams of high school students from Anglophone schools in Quebec test their detailed knowledge of 10 young adult books. Students face-off at the school, Board or Association, and island-wide levels as they compete to be the winner of the Ultimate Battle title. Organized by school librarians
In February 2016, we visited with Vice-Principal Lucia Coretti and Library Technician Caroll-Ann Stelle of Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School (Lester B. Pearson School Board) to learn about the changes the school had done to shift their traditional school library to a modern library learning commons. There was so much to learn from their experiences that we
In 2015, JPPS Elementary School in Montreal sold its building and began the planning process of moving into Bialik High School. It was decided that the Bialik High School library would merge with the JPPS Elementary School’s collection so that there would be resources and services available for all grade levels. In the two videos
In this video, Caroll-Ann Steele, Documentation Technician, Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School, Lester B. Pearson School Board, describes how she approached students at every grade level to find out what services they hoped for in the school’s refurbished library learning commons. As a result of her informal surveys, laptops, desktop computers and filming equipment were purchased
In this new QSLiN hangout video, we encounter a new problem: lots of space! You may not think that this is much of a challenge, but as Caroll-Ann Steele, Documentation Technician, Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School, Lester B. Pearson School Board explains, students can have difficulty navigating around a large area. This school library is part
This short video is long on ideas for making a library, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century, a digitally friendly centre. Maria Cavaiuolo, Documentation Technician, at Macdonald High School in Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec (Lester B. Pearson School Board) shows how this bring-your-own-device school makes it easy for students to log on with
In this film, Maria Cavaiuolo, Documentation Technician, Macdonald High School in Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec (Lester B. Pearson School Board) talks about using student and teacher input in transforming the school library to a library learning commons. Students particularly wanted more comfortable places to sit and more technology available to them. Teachers also echoed the need for
Converting a space to a library learning commons presents many challenges. Most schools were built at a time when the card catalogue and the encyclopedia were the primary means by which students tracked down the information that they needed or found the books that they wanted to read. Many school libraries may still be arranged
