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Teaching Librarian 15.indd The Teaching Librarian volume 15, no. 1 13 Fairy Tales Do Come True Peggy Thomas State University, author of several seminal works in school library practice; David Warlick, whose reputation rests on ground-breaking technological applications in teaching and learning; and Ray Doiron from the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island, now a national and international influence in school libraries looked at what the team had produced and through discussion and brainstorming, turned many of the premises upside down. It is important to note that it was never the intention to re-write Partners in Action. The mandate given to OSLA, and explained to the think tank, was to provide a new vision of teaching for the 21st century that includes the reality of the changing nature of information and the shifting landscape of how learners learn. It is one in which all participants are both teachers and learners, and requires redefining collaboration to include everyone: students, teachers, teacher-librarians, administrators, parents, and community members. The strongest impact on the thinking of the writing team during the think tank came with the concept that the emphasis is on the learner, whose methods of learning are often radically different from those taught in schools. No longer are we preparing students for learning; they are already learning. The library of the future will be an environment that recognizes the tension between how learning takes place inside and outside the school and that provides multiple learning spaces, encourages multiple learning modes, and addresses multiple learning styles. It is a place where the convergence of real and virtual learning will create a true intellectual space. In this context, technologies will be raw materials for creation, not isolated objects for single use and one point of view. These libraries and schools will open windows on the real world, on the virtual world, and, most of all, on the student's world. In this scenario, the student builds his or her own library where the environment is participatory and user-controlled, where learning is self- directed--guided and orchestrated by the teachers and teacher-librarians. The writing team has been working all summer to develop the first draft, which should be finished by late fall. Once that is accomplished, the draft will be made available on-line for comment by all interested parties. Once the final edit of the document is made, it will be printed in both English and French. To support the document, it is intended that an on-line resource will also be developed with templates, examples and ideas for implementation. The on-line presence will ensure that the use of technology is buoyant and current, able to adjust in response to the rapid changes in technology applications in today's world. In a sense, able to keep up with what the students will already be doing. The document, when it does come out, will not be policy. It will not affect funding, nor will it delineate staffing. It, like it's predecessor Partners in Action, will be about vision, the future of school libraries in education. So it is critical to continue your work as advocates for school libraries to build the evidence of the impact of school libraries on student learning (see The Teacher-Librarian's Toolkit for Evidence-Based Practice, www.accessola. com/osla/toolkit, for some ideas on how to gather that evidence). That, together with the work being done by the writing team will be the foundation for changes necessary in our school libraries, and the education system, to be strong and relevant to our learners in the 21st century. ❚