Darryl Toerien presented on the FOSIL model, a framework for inquiry-based learning developed for school libraries. FOSIL is based on the work of Barbara Stripling and Carol Kuhlthau and aims to make the school library integral to learning. It represents an unfolding inquiry process supported by an underlying continuum of skills and resources. FOSIL addresses challenges facing UK school librarianship by designing the library to be central to education through collaborative inquiry between classrooms and libraries.

1. INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione
Department of Education
(Re)Discovering Inquiry In and Through the School Library: the FOSIL Model(Re)Discovering Inquiry In and Through the School Library: the FOSIL Model
Darryl Toerien (Head of Library at Oakham School and Originator of FOSIL and the FOSIL Group)y ( y g p)
In collaboration with
#RomaTrenonsiferma / #RomaTredoesnotstop

2. BIO
D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
BIO
Darryl is Head of Library at Oakham School. He serves on the National
Committee of the School Libraries Group (SLG) of the Chartered Institute of
Lib d I f ti P f i l (CILIP) th B d f th S h l Lib
2
Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), the Board of the School Library
Association (SLA), the Section Standing Committee for School Libraries of the
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and is a
Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA). He was shortlisted for the CILIP
Information Literacy Group (ILG) Information Literacy 2019 Award for work onInformation Literacy Group (ILG) Information Literacy 2019 Award for work on
FOSIL leading to the formation of the FOSIL Group, and the FOSIL Group has
been shortlisted for the CILIP ILG Digital Information Literacy 2020 Award.
Oakham School was also shortlisted for the Strategic Education Initiative of the
Year Award in the Tes Independent School Awards 2020 for setting up the FOSILYear Award in the Tes Independent School Awards 2020 for setting up the FOSIL
Group website. He trained as a Workshop Leader for IB Diploma Programme
Librarians and, before becoming a professionally qualified librarian in 2003,
taught Religious Studies & Philosophy. Darryl is the originator of FOSIL and the
FOSIL Group, a growing community of education professionals collaborating onp, g g y p g
equipping children with the kind of knowledge that will help them to gain more
knowledge for themselves (Seymour Papert).
02/04/2020

3. ABSTRACT
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
ABSTRACT3
School librarianship in the UK faces a number of pressing challenges that combine to leave individual school
librarians in the dwindling number of schools that have libraries at the mercy of school-level administrators, most
of whom have neither theoretical nor experiential understanding of the value that a properly staffed and funded
school library programme adds to the education of our children.And then there is COVID-19, which transforms
this pressing and complex challenge into a very real existential threat.
Against this backdrop, the author’s attempts to make his school library integral to learning and teaching, rather
than peripheral (or unnecessary), resulted in FOSIL, or Framework Of Skills for Inquiry Learning. FOSIL, which
remains an unfolding inquiry, is heavily indebted to the work of Barbara Stripling, culminating in the Empire State
Information Fluency Continuum, and Carol Kuhlthau, culminating in Guided Inquiry Design.This paper is an
introduction to and overview of FOSIL and concludes with some thoughts on the potential contribution of FOSILintroduction to and overview of FOSIL, and concludes with some thoughts on the potential contribution of FOSIL
school librarianship in the UK.

4. OUTLINE
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
OUTLINE4
Introduction
1. Why FOSIL?
2. What is FOSIL?
3. Where does FOSIL come from?
4 Why does FOSIL matter?4. Why does FOSIL matter?
Final remarks
Essential References
Contacts

5. INTRODUCTION
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
INTRODUCTION5
School librarianship in the UK faces a number of pressing challenges, all exacerbated by COVID-19:
a profession that is represented by two national associations whose purposes do not always align,
and in which even the definition of professional is contested and divisive; a failure to provide even
th t b i f i l d ti t i it l l ifi ll f h l lib i hi dthe most basic professional education at a university level specifically for school librarianship, and
where training exists, it lacks overarching purpose and coherence; an overemphasis on reading for
pleasure at the expense of reading for learning from information, and where there is a concern with
reading beyond pleasure, it tends to focus narrowly on information literacy; a lack of engagementg y p y y g g
with the profession internationally, specifically IFLA, and so lacks a broader perspective; and an
education system that does not require school libraries by law so has grown to have little need of
them in practice.
This situation leaves school librarians at the mercy of school level administratorsThis situation leaves school librarians at the mercy of school-level administrators.
Against this backdrop, FOSIL model represents an increasingly successful attempt to make the
school library integral to learning and is tied up with the future of school librarianship in the
UK.

6. WHY FOSIL?
02/04/2020D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
WHY FOSIL?6
This does not happen by chance.
FOSIL is an attempt to achieve this byp y
design.

7. WHAT IS FOSIL?
02/04/2020D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
WHAT IS FOSIL?7
FOSIL is
• a model of the inquiry process.
• an underlying continuum of skills.
• resources to suppport inquiry.
• at the centre of the FOSIL Group.
FOSIL has been endorsed by the “Great
School Libraries” campaign as itsSchool Libraries campaign as its
recommended model of the inquiry
process.

8. WHERE DOES FOSIL COME FROM?
02/04/2020D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
WHERE DOES FOSIL COME FROM?8
Two interrelated problems in the IB
Diploma Programme Extended EssayDiploma Programme Extended Essay
• Citing and referencing
• The research process• The research process
FOSIL and Barbara Stripling / the ESIFC
FOSIL and Carol Kuhlthau / ISPFOSIL and Carol Kuhlthau / ISP

9. WHY DOES FOSIL MATTER?
02/04/2020D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
WHY DOES FOSIL MATTER?9
FOSIL as a steadfast refusal to accept that
the principal lesson that school teachesthe principal lesson that school teaches
has to be the need to be taught (Illich,
1973)
FOSIL as the space between classroom and
library
FOSIL i l h GSL iFOSIL as integral to the GSL campaign

10. FINAL REMARKS
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
FINAL REMARKS10
“It is not the library that ‘supports’ the classroom … but the classroom that leads (or should lead)
” ( S 969)inevitably and essentially to the library” (Beswick in Sheehan, 1969).
This does not elevate the library above the classroom.
Rather, it represents a complex reality in which collaboration between the classroom and library
effectively equips our children with the kind of knowledge that they most need, which is knowledge
that will help them to gain more knowledge for themselves (Seymour Papert), and which is
k l d th t th ill d t i t f t th t h d li t d d lknowledge that they will need to navigate a future that we have made more complicated and less
certain for them.

11. ESSENTIAL REFERENCES
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
ESSENTIAL REFERENCES11
• Bellow S. (1987). Foreword. In A. Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (pp. 11-18). NewYork: Simon &
Schuster Paperbacks.
• Colebourn R. (1986). The School Library Association 1936-1986:A personal survey of fifty years. Oxford: School
Library Association.
• Duke N. & Bennett-Armistead V. (2003). Reading andWriting InformationalText in the Primary Grades: Research
Based Practices. NewYork, NY: Scholastic.
Illi h I (1973) D h li S i L d P i• Illich I. (1973). Deschooling Society. London: Penguin.
• Kuhlthau C. C., Maniotes L. K. & Caspari A. K. (2015). Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century (2nd ed.).
Westport:, CT Libraries Unlimited.
• Sheehan H. (1969).The Library-College Idea:Trend of the Future? LibraryTrends, 18(1), 93-102.Sheehan H. (1969).The Library College Idea:Trend of the Future? LibraryTrends, 18(1), 93 102.
• Small R.V.,Arnone, M. P., Stripling, B. K., & Berger, P. (2011). Teaching for inquiry: Engaging the learner within. New
York, NY: Neal Schuman.
• Willard D. (2014). The Divine Conspiracy. London: William Collins.

12. ESSENTIAL WEBLIOGRAPHY
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
ESSENTIAL WEBLIOGRAPHY12
• IFLA School Libraries Section Standing Committee. (2015). IFLA School Library Guidelines.
(B. Schultz-Jones, & D. Oberg, Eds.) Retrieved from IFLA School Libraries Section:
https://www ifla org/files/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-
library-guidelines.pdf

13. ESSENTIAL WEBSITE REFERENCES
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
ESSENTIAL WEBSITE REFERENCES13
• CILIP, https://www.cilip.org.uk/
• CILIP Information Literacy Group, https://infolit.org.uk/
• CILIP School Libraries Group,
https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201313&id=687966
• Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, https://slsa-nys.libguides.com/ifc
• FOSIL, https://fosil.org.uk/fosil-cycle/
• FOSIL Group, https://fosil.org.uk/
• Great School Libraries, https://www.greatschoollibraries.org.uk/
• IFLA School Libraries Section, https://www.ifla.org/school-libraries
• School Library Association https://www sla org uk/School Library Association, https://www.sla.org.uk/

14. CONTACTS
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
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D. Toerien, Oakham School, UK
CONTACTS14
Mail to: dt@oakham.rutland.sch.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFosilGroup