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Teaching, Vol 8, No. 2 x 10 Ontario School Library Association early on that to be effective in meeting the needs of our students, the school library must respond to a constantly-changing educational system. They focused on creating a child-centred, active learning environment and on adopting new strategies based in an understanding of how learning takes place. This school library develop- ment included a more integrated approach to teaching skills necessary for finding, accessing, evaluating, using and sharing information. A Plan of Action Becomes Possible In order to renew the role of the teacher-librarian and the goals of the school library information centre program within the framework of the new Board, the Thames Valley teacher-librarians brought their collective expertise to bear on a number of new and exciting initiatives. Some of these initiatives include: n Developing the Thames Valley Teacher- Librarians' Association constitution to include its philosophy, governing rules, best practices and ensuring representation by region and panel; n Partnering with local libraries to provide The 1998 amalgamation of the Elgin,Middlesex, Oxford and London Boards ofEducation brought many benefits to the newly-formed Thames Valley District School Board. A significant benefit was the collective expertise of the teacher-librarians who joined together to form the Thames Valley Teacher Librarians' Association (TVTLA). This dedicated group of educators has embraced our system's vision of being a caring learning com- munity through its commitment to improve student learning and extend student understanding. Over the past three years, our teacher-librarians have embraced the philosophy that learning how to learn, and the ability to reflect upon one's own learning, are critical for our students to know. Common Vision, Common Strategy To this end, our teacher-librarians have devel- oped strategies to help students master retriev- ing, evaluating, organizing, sharing and applying information objectively, critically and indepen- dently. Since Thames Valley District School Board is the third largest board in the province with a student enrolment of over 88,000, this was a challenging goal for our teacher-librarians. They recognized CollectivCollective Expere Expertise tise Can Make Can Make EvEven More en More DifDiffferenceerence MAKING A DIFFERENCE by W. John Laughlin Director of Education Thames Valley District School Board