Rozeena Dossa

20316638
November 13, 2021
Teacher Librarian Part 1 
(Cont-997)

It is a very interesting time in life right now and for the purpose of this assignment I am going to do my
very best to get knowledge and information about a public library.
The North Vancouver Public library is going to be where I get my information https://www.nvcl.ca since
I am not currently in a school setting and my contacts are experiencing a lot of covid like symptoms at
their schools and cannot organize a visit for me at the time.
North Vancouver City Library is a landmark building located in the heart of the City of North Vancouver.
The library serves a population of over 52,000 residents, as well as customers from neighbouring cities
and districts. The website insists that the library is a place where they foster the love of learning in all its
forms, connecting people to experiences, ideas, and one another. The site has a few programs that they
mention like book clubs for adults and teens. Resources for learning at home, indigenous resources, e-
books. I am hoping that I get to see and maybe hear a bit more about the library when I go in for my visit.

During visit: A wonderful unique library with lots of seating and areas of book collection. Here are a few
images
 I also really enjoyed seeing books with easy
access in bins with Authors and some of their
books on the tittle paper – Making it very user
friendly for students (inclusive for students/in
this case people who visit library). I’ve seen
this type of book collection at many libraries in
the elementary schools I worked with, and I
found it was perfect for little ones who were learning to read and those that struggled with reading.
Parent volunteers also appreciated the bins because it made putting books away fun.
Now the tricky part was getting a chance speak with the librarian. Every time I
turned around; she was with a new family. I began to look around and noticed
that there was a lot of information in different places in the library where
parents/caregivers could look for resources. There was a Parent teacher section
for resources, boards with story time when families could come in and attend a
librarian reading for kids and finally what I really liked was book brochures. I got a
few hard copies but no images of them right now, what was awesome about these
were that if the librarian was busy there is hardcopy information about books. Books
for kids going back to school, covid, new sibling joining the family, popular fiction,
and non-fiction. These brochures had a lot of information about the book and where
you could find it in the library. Making it so much better for families who need
support looking for books and not being able to connect with librarian right away. I
think these brochures could be so cool for school libraries too. Making our learners
independent while they wait for support is such an amazing tool.
My past experiences of a library are ever evolving. I began my teaching career in Richmond and for 4
years I TTOC’d across the district. Many short term/long term positions were in the library, and I was
hoping I would be able to go back to Richmond and visit one of the libraries that inspired me to begin my
own journey in becoming a librarian today. Again, due to covid I was not able to go in and therefore
decided I needed to find some images or videos that already exist of the libraries in SD 38.

This video found on https://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/learning-commons-in-action/ Show cases a

The Coordinator for Libraries and Information Services in Richmond shares many exciting examples of
student-centered learning commons development and success in a variety of elementary and secondary
schools.

The video includes interviews with the showcased school’s teacher-librarians, who can be undervalued as
educational leaders with “the potential to be great, innovative change agents in the entire learning
community”. https://youtu.be/5sadWGKFs4k

Find out more on the District 38 webpage, Big Ideas & Inquiry: Libraries are Changing.

I hope you guys can see from my thoughts that I was truly inspired by the library visit and had an
opportunity to reflect on the previous libraries I’ve visited. Yet I will acknowledge that I was unable to
clarify my ideas of the school librarian program (getting to see one or express the ones I hope to use one
day). Not being able to visit a school library and having no real opportunity to connect with the librarian
in the public setting, made this part of the assignment very challenging. I am hoping to gain a lot of
insight through reading and learning from all of you.

Thanks guys!