Tagzedo Snapshots of School Libraries: A Valentine for OLA

SUMMARY
The Ontario Library Association (OLA) Super Conference 2012 inspires the author with its promise for school libraries and the learning commons. The conference was a love-fest for thousands in Toronto. He uses Tagzedo to share the romance by mapping two K-12 conference themes as graphics for Valentine's Day .

The School Library 2012: Key Themes from the
Ontario Library Association Super Conference 2012
compiled by timgauntley.blogspot.com

The OLA Super Conference 2012

Forgive me. I am about to use the "awesome" word.

For thousands at Toronto's Metro Convention Centre, the OLA provided many awesome speakers and workshops at this year's Super Conference. Hundred's of sessions were on offer but none moved me as much as Neil Pasricha's plenary. As author of the Emmy-winning blog 1000 Awesome Things, Neil reminded us all to love the simple things in life and find joy in what we do.

Apart from the personal challenge of presenting to my peers, I also enjoyed Alec Couros on "Why Social Networks Matter" and Jonah Lehrer on creativity, grit, and the library as a "civic third space. Simply amazing. It was a special joy to see colleagues David Loertscher and Carol Koechlin again, who are doing amazing work with the Virtual Learning Commons.

However, post-conference, I always find that its riches are difficult to share.

Two Valentine's Day Love Tokens

The Information Commons 2012: Key Themes from the
Ontario Library Association Super Conference 2012
compiled by timgauntley.blogspot.com

So as Valentine's Day approaches, I wanted to at least express my thanks to and affection for the OLA and spread the love around to teacher-librarians in the trenches.

I have gathered workshop summaries from the Super Conference program that discussed two themes which we have been exploring on this blog: the school library and K-12 education in general and the burgeoning concept of the learning commons in particular.

I have used the word cloud app Tagzedo to create two tokens of my affection. These neatly capture some of major ideas that drive the conversation about school libraries around the world. You can bump them up into posters or use them as workshop or even classroom resources.

Just don't keep them to yourself!

Share the love. Resend them (via Twitter, email etc.) to your favourite librarian, friend of the library, or even enemy of the library (i.e. civilization).

Let our love for school libraries and the information commons go viral.