School libraries were once known as “the place to be silent”. The librarians spent their time saying “hush! by arranging the books on the shelves.
That era is over. Libraries are becoming places of training that no longer have anything to do with the austere place of yesteryear. And librarians play a growing role, among other things by participating in the digital education of students.
The duty spent an afternoon with a group from Rose-des-Vents Elementary School in Montreal’s Rosemont neighborhood last December. That morning, the students had an appointment at the library to finish editing the films that they entirely designed, scripted and shot during the fall.
The three shelves of books, fitted with wheels, had been moved to a corner of the room. The students sat at the low tables which filled the space. They put the finishing touches to the editing of their films while “pawing” on their laptops. In one corner, a crew was filming a scene with a video camera and a boom to pick up the sound. In the other corner, a cupboard filled with programmable robots awaited the next group.
A large interactive digital screen (ENI for short), a worthy successor to the famous interactive whiteboards (IWB) introduced by the Charest government, was also used for the day’s activity.
“The profession of librarian is changing. We have no choice but to train in digital to stay relevant. We tell the teachers: “Let’s go, go ! We’re stepping out of our comfort zone, we’re going to learn it together,” says Viviane Morin, one of ten librarians at the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM).
Under the impetus of Viviane Morin and her colleagues, the Rose-des-Vents school library has become a “learning crossroads”, a concept taken from the digital plan of the Ministry of Education. Quebec distributes millions of dollars for the purchase of equipment. It is at the library that teachers, students and… librarians learn to handle robots, editing software and other digital machines. Other “learning commons” also have 3D printers.
The “library of tomorrow” is taking shape: 29 of these learning hubs have already been set up in the 200 CSSDM schools. And it is much more than a slogan. Viviane Morin accompanies the architects of all school construction or renovation projects to ensure that a library worthy of the name is part of the plans.
“The architects have embarked. Everyone is excited about the Learning Commons concept,” says Viviane Morin.
Cultural meetings
Companies also provide funds to schools on a self-interested basis. Scale AI, which represents the artificial intelligence industry, invested $50,000 to promote digital at CSSDM. This sum made it possible to recruit a video game designer from the organization Grandir sans frontières, who trained five students in the class met at Rose-des-Vents school.
These young “mini-techs”, as they are called, learn programming and other digital basics so quickly that they in turn train their classmates and even their teachers, explains trainer Maxime DeBleu, from Grandir sans frontières.
“Often, the children surpass us and can train us,” confirms Sabrina Taillon, the owner of the group who came to edit the films.
Thanks in particular to this digital shift, the teacher and her students (from 4and, 5and and 6and year) were ready to switch to distance learning when they returned to class after the holidays. But on this December 2021 morning, the Rose-des-Vents school library was teeming with life.
“We want to think of libraries differently to give them another meaning. My intention is for the Learning Commons to become a meeting place for culture in the school,” explains librarian Dominic St-Louis.
It has organized partnerships with a series of cultural institutions (Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, BAnQ, Tohu, Opéra de Montréal, Danse Danse, etc.) to give students access to culture: meetings with actors, classes master, and so on.
Also reading
Believe it or not, these digital libraries are still on a mission to… get kids reading. Yes, teachers still take their students to the library to immerse them in literature. Paper books still exist. A bank of 400 digital works, accessible to all schools in Quebec, is also taking shape on the Biblius platform.
Librarian Viviane Morin has even created a “book truck”, which will travel to bring reading material to schools that no longer have a library. Due to the explosion in the number of students, twenty overcrowded schools in the CSSDM had to sacrifice their library to make a classroom. The Livroooum truck will set up in the schoolyard and welcome students for outdoor reading sessions.
More than 4,000 books line the shelves of this mobile library. Viviane Morin and her team are looking for funds to acquire 10,000 more. We bet she and her colleagues aren’t quite done shouting “shh! by classifying books. This is also part of the joys of the profession.