1. A Power Point for School Planning

2. Students in Alberta schools should have access to an effective school library program that is integrated with instructional programs. Such library programs improve student opportunities for achieving a basic education.

3. The integrated library program broadens, deepens and personalizes learning by involving students in the planned and purposeful use of resources. Library resources are designed to help students expand their abilities to find, generate, evaluate and apply information. Developing these information skills will, in turn, prepare students to function effectively as individuals and as full participants in society.

4. Alberta Education established a School Library Services Initiative (SLSI) focused on reviewing K– 12 school library services and support resources across the province.

5. Each student will have user-friendly, timely access to accurate, reliable, appropriate, current and scholarly information available both in person and/or online, with support and education from library professionals.

6. School Library Learning Commons Globally progressive libraries are moving toward the learning commons concept of flexibility, so activities and spaces in the library and on the library’s web site are flexible in design to accommodate a variety of learning activities; e.g., collaborative community space, a coffee house concept.

7. A school library learning commons supports ongoing critical thinking, inquiry, action research, interdisciplinary learning and brain-based learning. A learning commons becomes a place of active learning in real-time or online with project, problem-based, experiential, and cooperative learning that is ideally coordinated by a teacher- librarian.

8. The school library is a gateway to the virtual landscape; e.g., Web 2.0, social networking, podcasts, animation, film, gaming, re-mix, online databases and virtual libraries. Reading fiction and non-fiction in a multitude of formats is cornerstone to a student’s ability to access, examine, evaluate, restructure, create, communicate and reflect upon learning and knowledge.

9. School library transformation to a learning commons perspective emerges as pivotal in the role school libraries can fulfill in 21 st century educational reform.

10. Extensive research supports the correlation of advanced student achievement and literacy development with quality school library services (Krashen 2004, Lance and Loertscher 2005).

11. Visit the Alberta Education website at: http://education.alberta.ca/ Check under Current Initiatives or enter the word “library” in the search bar.

12. School Library Services Initiative Frequently Asked Questions Transforming Canadian School Libraries to Meet the Needs of 21 st Century Learners: Alberta Education School Library Services Initiative - Research Review and Principal Survey Themes