PEEL DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Statement from our Director of Education: Library Learning Commons Resources Across PDSB

The Peel District School Board follows the library weeding guidelines set by the Canadian School Libraries Association. These guidelines direct the teacher librarians at our 259 schools to keep books with any publishing date that are accurate, relevant to the student population, inclusive, not harmful, and support the current curriculum from the Ministry of Education. 

To be clear, books such as The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and the Harry Potter series remain in our collections, and where needed, newer versions may be purchased if the book is in poor condition. 

The weeding and seeding, or replenishment, of school book collections has always been a part of the responsibilities for all teacher librarians within Peel District School Board and at school boards across Canada. The replenishment process significantly enhances the school libraries' capacity to offer a more precise, inclusive, culturally relevant, and responsive collection of texts for students.

PDSB teacher librarians have not been given the direction to remove all books published with a publication date older than 2008, nor has the board received provincial direction to remove particular books from our collections. Regardless of publication date, older or damaged books that are accurate, relevant to the student population, inclusive, not harmful, and support the current curriculum may stay within the school or schools have the opportunity to repurchase newer copies of the same title to replace the damaged ones. 

Teacher librarians will continue to be advised to follow the recycling guidelines from the Region of Peel and in collaboration with the school's custodial staff when determining how to dispose of books.

Training is conducted annually, and we will be reviewing our training process to ensure consistency in replenishment of Library Learning Commons Resources across PDSB schools.

The Peel District School Board continues to work to nurture student-centred learning environments that allow children to see themselves reflected in their school every day.

Rashmi Swarup
Director of Education
Peel District School Board