Innovative Librarians Create Exemplary BookCart Collection

In the province of Ontario, Canada, Teacher-Librarians with the Greater Essex County District School Board are determined make a difference.

Following an eLibrary Canada demonstration by ProQuest's Tasha Maddison, Sherry Barry, Liz Golden and Johanna Lawler began to rethink how they were teaching research skills to their students.

Of course, our popular eLibrary and eLibrary Curriculum Edition offerings contain similar tools and content as our Canada-centric offerings.

With the ever-increasing demand on accountability in Ontario's educational system, they realized that ProQuest's eLibrary BookCart tool would enable GECDSB Teacher-Librarians to become partners in education with homeroom teachers.

A proposal to their School Board Administrators to create 50 model BookCarts that would meet Ontario's curriculum expectations for students in Grades 3 to 8 in the subject areas of Social
Studies, Geography, History
and Science was accepted.

The team decided to meet for a full day at least twice a month to create these customized teaching and learning resources. You can view a list of their BookCarts here.

The enthusiasm generated by the presentation of these BookCarts to their school board's Teacher-Librarians and Computer Contact teachers led Liz and Johanna to continue to instruct and enlighten Teacher-Librarians across Ontario.

Presentations at other school board's Professional Development Days, at the Ontario Library Association's annual Super-conference and at the Canadian Library Association's annual conference have been well received.

To access their efforts, access your eLibrary Teacher Edition (links here), then select the Advanced Search button in the BookCart Editor.

Type GECDSB BookCarts in the Author box, then click Search. You may browse, copy, and repurpose each BookCart for your local use.

Photo: Johanna Lawler (left) is the Teacher-Librarian at Talbot Trail Public School.
Elizabeth Golden (right) is the Teacher-Librarian at Kingsville Public School.