The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Unknown 8 Ontario School Library Association both undoubtedly contributed to this heightened media awareness. The provincial government seems more receptive than ever before to consideration of the added value school libraries and trained library staff offer learning communities. To maximize the potential for positive change, teacher-librarians now need to utilize additional strategies and renew their personal advocacy efforts. At the present time, to parallel the ongoing efforts being made at the provincial level, personal advocacy and communication at both the local school and board levels will help to move the issues forward. Now is the time for concentrated lobbying. Teacher- librarians and their local library associations need to stimulate dialogue with colleagues, principals, parents, trustees, union representatives and other relevant stakeholders so that attention on school library issues can be sustained. Every individual effort will help raise the collective consciousness of the vital role that school libraries play in enhancing literacy and contributing to student success. In the meantime, your OSLA executive is corresponding with the Ministry of Education, Directors of Education, Principal Associations and Trustee library staffing. It also identifies the fact that the presence of a teacher-librarian results in a notable difference in student- reported enjoyment of reading. Complementing this finding, other studies have strongly linked reading enjoyment and academic success. This intrinsically makes sense: the more students read, the more literate they become, developing higher-level literacy skills that result in improved student achievement. The full report and my comments from the press conference are available on-line at the OSLA Web site: <www.accessola.com/osla/>. The Importance of Local Advocacy School libraries and teacher- librarians remain focused on the task of supporting student success. Teacher-librarians have intuitively known the positive connection between student achievement and a well-staffed, well-stocked, and well-funded school library. Recently, these issues have received significant media attention. The release of the Ontario research study, and the announcement of this year's second Ministry grant to enhance school library collections, have OSLA President Michael Rosettis discusses school libra at the International Reading Association conference the Associations in Ontario in an effort to relay the message of our vital role in improving student achievement and promoting life-long literacy. Ongoing Professional Learning Professional development oppor- tunities for teacher-librarians continue to infuse innovation into our role. These are available in many formats, and Super Conference and Education Insti- tutes are two excellent examples of options for professional growth. This year, Super Conference provided a wealth of content for participants, and once again experienced record-breaking attend- ance figures. The OSLA session Super Conference planners facilitated four Pre-Conference sessions that emphasized the role of technology integration in school library programs. Additionally, almost fifty sessions in the regular conference program were dedicated to addressing topics related to school libraries and teacher- librarianship. Our members con- tinue to seek opportunities for professional development, a factor that is vital to remaining current in this dynamic teaching role. A major source of professional development is possible through the sharing our strengths and positive teaching