On 21-22 April, Blanchelande College in Guernsey will be hosting the midyear meeting of the School Libraries Section of IFLA ahead of the 2022 World Library and Information Congress in Dublin, Ireland, from 26-29 July, hosted by Darryl Toerien.

We are delighted that the School Library Association (SLA) will be sponsoring the reception for this historic mid-year meeting at Moores Hotel in St Peter Port.

Alison Kennedy, Vice Chair of the SLA and Upper School Librarian at The American School in England will be representing the SLA at this event. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) was founded in 1927 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has since grown from 15 members representing 15 countries to over 1,500 members and affiliates from more than 150 countries. The Section’s Standing Committee consists of 20 members from 16 countries, including Guernsey, since Blanchelande College’s recently appointed Head of Inquiry-Based Learning and Libraries, Darryl Toerien, is an elected member.

The Section’s midyear meeting focusses on two strategically important publications.

The first is the revised IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto (2022), which revitalises the principles upholding the IFLA School Library Guidelines (2015). The existing Manifesto is one of only three IFLA manifestos to be ratified by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and has been translated into more than 37 languages.

The publication of the revised Manifesto coincides with the imminent publication by the UK School Library Association of Making School Libraries Integral to the Educational Process: An Introduction to the IFLA School Library Guidelines (2022), which Darryl co-authored with Elizabeth Hutchinson, who was previously Head of the Schools Library Service at the Guille-Allès Library in St Peter Port and was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2020 for services to school libraries.

The second is the latest book in the Global Action for School Libraries series, Models of Inquiry (2022), which reaffirms the centrality of inquiry to achieving the school library’s educational and moral purpose, and, more broadly, the aim of a liberal education, which is students who are willing and able to think and learn for themselves. Models of Inquiry reflects on pioneering developments from 8 countries around the world, and includes a chapter by Darryl on Framework of Skills for Inquiry Learning (FOSIL) – an instructional model of the inquiry process based on the world-renowned work of Dr Barbara Stripling, Professor Emerita at Syracuse University, who has also contributed a chapter on her instructional model and is presenting the keynote talk at the midyear meeting – and a chapter on the implementation of FOSIL in the classroom co-authored by Jenny Toerien, Curriculum Librarian and EPQ Coordinator at Blanchelande College.

The Manifesto‘s declaration is that the school library is “essential to every long-term strategy for literacy, education, information provision and economic, social and cultural development,” and to reflect on the quality of our investment in school libraries towards doing so.

Find out more about the event here.