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TL 15.2.indd 6 Ontario School Library Association T L T h e E d it o r 's N o te b o o k Diana Maliszewski Inclusion @ your library® "Mrs. Maliszewski, can I speak to you privately?" The young lady who approached me was an articulate intermediate student and new to the school. She had a request: she wanted to help me out in the library. Specifically, she wanted to help out at every recess and after school. She revealed that many of the other students were ostracizing her, whispering audibly about her and labeling her as "odd." Her own creative solution to this problem was to come to the library. I was saddened, but also touched. We dealt with the bullying issue that lay behind this request, but while handling this, it struck me that many students seek out the library as a safe haven. The school library is like a mini Ellis Island: our motto is not "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…" but rather we encourage all kinds of students to enter: the misfits, the marginalized, the "most (and least) likely to succeed." The school library is and should be a place where everyone is welcome. School libraries must have a variety of resources for all students to see themselves and others in the materials they read, hear and view. Our attitudes and conduct must also support an inclusive environment. This task can be rather daunting with limited library administration time, lack of money to purchase resources and a "to-do" list, which seems to be longer than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Still, we school library professionals persevere. By doing so, we offer our students a safe place in which they can both spread their wings and call home. This issue of The Teaching Librarian deals with the inclusion of many different groups. For the first time ever, in lieu of "Idea File," we have "Open Forum." We received a lot of reactions to some articles from Volume 15 Issue 1 and, to stay true to the spirit of the theme of this issue, we have included some of the conversations here. Here's to continued conversations in climates of mutual respect. ❚ "Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted."--Garrison Keillor