by Wendy Burch Jones
Dear School Library: Advocacy from the Heart
Abstract
This paper is an account of a province wide advocacy initiative spearheaded by Wendy Burch Jones, OSLA President. In Wendy’s words, “The “Dear School Library” project was born out of a deep need to create a stronger sense of community within our school libraries and school library professionals in Ontario. The OSLA wanted schools across the province to consider the reasons why their school libraries are important – highlighting all the incredible collaborative programming, events, resources, technologies, and community that our LLCs bring to school communities. We wanted to celebrate our school libraries – loudly and unabashedly.”
Wendy Burch Jones, BA, BEd, OCT is an elementary teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board who is passionate about literacy, librarianship, and the importance of agency for students and student voice in school libraries. She works to create colourful, welcoming, safe, and student-centred spaces while ardently believing that every child has the right to see themselves reflected in story in every aspect of their intersectional identities. (Please don’t get her started on censorship and the freedom to read – it’s a hill she will die on!) She wears many hats: TDSB TL Mentor Leader & Digital Lead Learner, Forest of Reading Steering & Selection Committee member, President of the Ontario School Library Association, Canadian Children’s Book Centre Review Committee member, foster kitten rescuer, and sometimes she ekes out time to be a partner from whom she steals the covers, and mom to two teenagers that grunt at her in mono-syllabic noises she thinks might be gnomish. Above all else, you will hear Wendy loudly advocating for the key role that libraries and librarianship play in student and school community success.