by Diana Maliszewski and Joanie Proske
What is the impact of Teacher-Librarian Additional Qualification programs and Teacher-Librarian Certificate courses on Canadian-based, university-level research on school librarianship? How might teacher-librarians ensure Canadian university scholarship on school librarianship grows and thrives?
Abstract
Course writers and instructors for the Queen’s University Continuing Teacher Education Department’s Teacher Librarian Certificate / Additional Qualification discuss the state of teacher-librarian education across Canada, focusing on examples from their home provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. They pose challenging questions about the future of TL education courses, although popular, with TL positions in decline.
TMC8_2025_Maliszewski_Proske.pdf
Diana Maliszewski (OCT BA BEd MEd) is the teacher-librarian at Agnes Macphail Public School in the Toronto District School Board and has worked as a school library professional for over twenty-five years. From 2006 – 2018, she was the editor-in-chief of The Teaching Librarian, the official publication of the Ontario School Library Association. Currently, she is the co-Vice President of the Association for Media Literacy and Canada’s representative with the North American and European chapter of UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy Alliance. Diana developed and still facilitates the Teacher Librarianship Additional Qualification courses for York University and Queen’s University. Diana has been honoured with several awards, such as the Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year in 2008, the OLA President’s Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2013, and the CSL Angela Thacker Memorial Award in 2025. Like her friend and co-writer of this TMC paper, Joanie Proske, Diana is a proud graduate of the University of Alberta Teacher-Librarianship via Distance Learning Masters of Education program. She blogs weekly as part of her reflective professional practice at mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com.
Joanie Proske is a retired elementary and secondary teacher librarian from Langley, BC, whose contributions to the profession were honored with the BCTLA Val Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She is a coursework writer and current instructor for Queens Teacher Librarian Certificate program.