• Canadian School Libraries Working and Learning Conditions Survey 2025 - 2026

  • For the last 46 years BC has run a working and learning conditions survey to understand the state of teacher-librarianship in the province.

    Starting in 2024-2025, Canadian School Libraries undertook to bring this initiative Canada-wide. Thank you for taking part in the 2nd annual CSL working and learning conditions survey.

    This survey will take about five to ten minutes to fill in. Your answers are very important for providing current information about the experience of school library staff across Canada.

    If you work in more than one school, please submit a separate survey for each school. If you work in a school with more than one school library staff, please work together to answer this survey.

    The information you provide in the survey will be help us understand the landscape of school libraries and school libary learning commons across Canada. Data will be used for province wide comparisons and will be shared in aggregate with individual provincial school library associations. Aggregate data may be published in Canadian School Library journal and made available to academics studying school librarianship in Canada. Individual data will not be shared at any time.

    The deadline for completing the survey is Friday May 1, 2026. 

  • General Demographics

  • What is your position?*
  • Which grade levels does your school cover?*
  • Is your school in the public or private system of your province/territory?*

  • School Library Learning Commons Programming

  • Does your school library consider itself a learning commons?*
  • Which of the following Canadian School Libraries resources have you used?*
  • Have you attended any CSL events?*
  • Which of the following staffed aspects of a library learning commons program do you offer?*
  • Which of the following spaces do you have in your library learning commons?*
  • Which of the following virtual/digital spaces do you have in your library learning commons?*

  • Staffing

  • Is there a certified teacher-librarian, school librarian or library technician assigned to the library learning commons at this school?*
  • Please indicate level of training of the person in charge of the school library learning commons:*

  • We realize that district and boards across Canada use different percentages and language to describe Full Time Employment (FTE). For this survey, a Full Time Employment position is equal to 1.0 or 5 Full School Days. For example, this means that 0.6 is the equivalent of 3 Full School Days.

    Please provide your best estimates in the next few questions:

  • The next 3 questions will ask you about percentages of your work week as library staff. If you aren't sure, make an educated guess. The amounts will add up to 100%. There's a calculation after to help you see if you made a mistake.

  • Where is the processing and cataloguing of books done?*
  • If you were absent any days during the 2024-2025 school year and working as library staff, was there coverage for your duties?*
  • Compared to last year, how has your motivation and morale as library staff changed?*

  • Budget

  • How does this compare to the library's budget in 2024-2025?*
  • Which of the following are covered by this school's library learning commons budget? (select all that apply)*

  • The next few questions will ask you about the rough divide of your budget based on your answer above. The percentages should add up to 100%. There will be a check field showing you how much your three answers add up to.

  • Which of the following additional monetary sources supplement this library learning commons' budget for the 2024-25 school year? (select all that apply)*
  • Do you have access to your library learning commons budget? (e.g. Are you told what it is at the beginning of the school year and able to check the balance throughout the school year?)*
  • Do you have autonomy over how you spend your school library learning commons budget? (e.g. You can buy what you need when you need it; does not require approval from admin.)*

  • Book Challenges

  • Does your district have a formal policy for dealing with book challenges?*
  • Have you encountered any requests for reconsideration of library learning commons materials over the past year? (Formal or informal)*
  • Did you enter the challenge(s) into the Centre for Free Expression Library Challenges Database? (https://cfe.torontomu.ca/databases/library-challenges-database)

  • Provincial/Territorial Organization

  • This information will be shared with the provincial / territorial organizations in aggregate form only. No individual answers will be shared.

  • Are you a member of your province or territory's school library organization?*
  • What are the reasons you are not a member?
  • What are the reasons you are a member?

  • Additional Comments

  • Should be Empty: