We are happy to announce that the Canadian Library Association (CLA) has agreed to transfer responsibility for its online journal School Libraries in Canada and national standards document, Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada to our new organization, Canadian Voices for School Libraries.
Canadian Voices for School Libraries (CVSL) was born in part out of the impending dissolution of the CLA. Results from our national survey demonstrate overwhelming support for establishing a national school library organization, so that projects of national importance could be sustained, and indeed grow under new stewardship. The impending dissolution of CLA meant that the working group had to move very quickly in setting up a new organization, so that these CLA projects would not be lost.
The CVSL Working Group has held discussions with the CLA Executive Director, acting on behalf of its Executive Council. CLA is very supportive of our initiative, and is working to resolve some issues to make an agreement possible. Currently SLiC is hosted on a server which will be shut down as part of the CLA dissolution process. The Leading Learning PDF document and all of its “See It In Action” annotated link pages are also on the SLiC website. CLA had already made arrangements with another organization to at least archive SLiC and sustain its availability, but this agreement, while generous, could not support ongoing publication of SLiC or further development of the Leading Learning project. Any transfer cannot, however, avoid the very significant issue of Leading Learning’s “See It In Action” links in the PDF ceasing to function with the shutdown of CLA’s server.
Current Status of the Transfer of Responsibility
- CLA has agreed to transfer all files related to Leading Learning to CVSL, including the editable document, all graphic elements, and the French text (as yet not published). Details of the transfer are being worked out, but we anticipate taking ownership in the near future. We in turn anticipate taking action to create web interfaces for both the English and French versions of Leading Learning in the near future. Publication of a print/PDF version of the standards in French is also a priority for CVSL, once we are more firmly established as an organization.
- CLA has agreed to transfer responsibility for School Libraries in Canada to CVSL. An interim arrangement with another supportive library association may give us some breathing room for keeping current and back issues of SLiC available until CVSL is able to develop a new web interface for the journal and establish a renewed editorial structure.
- CLA is investigating the technical potential for creating a re-direct URL from the current web address for SLiC to its new location. A re-direct URL would help minimize disruption as people try to link to SLiC in the shorter and longer term. This issue has yet to be resolved.
While there is no avoiding some potential disruption to access with the transfer of responsibility for these projects, we are very encouraged by this agreement, and look forward to sustaining and growing these important national projects.