The Literary Compass 🧭

A school librarian and educator’s guide to unlocking creativity, collaboration, and digital learning.

If you have spent time in education, you have surely heard of Canva. Maybe you have opened up the webpage and browsed the many different templates and possibilities to be creative. Canva is my best friend; it travels with me everywhere. On my laptop, iPad, and mobile device. However, the more time I spend exploring Canva, the more I realize that so much can be done through its various resources, templates, and creative avenues. This can be a useful tool for campus librarians, as it allows them to create, teach, collaborate, and promote the library in a fun and creative way.

So…what exactly is Canva?

It is an online platform with access to many different templates to create all kinds of digital content. From presentations to posters, to videos, and even websites. Canva provides the opportunity to be creative and go the extra mile. Want to know the best part? Canva offers Canva Education to eligible K-12 educators and students. Teachers can sign up and be verified for FREE!

Besides its easy accessibility for teachers, it has everything you need to be productive. You no longer need five different websites or programs to do five different things. Canva has it all, for the most part.

Some examples of how to use Canva in the library include:

📚 Book recommendations
🎨 Digital Storytelling Projects
🔎 Research & Information
📊 Infographics
💻 Digital Citizenship
📖 Newsletters
🎉 Event Flyers
📱 Social Media

These same examples can be used by students to transition from paper to technology. A research topic can easily become an infographic or digital story.

What is there to like? Gives room for creativity and easy collaboration.

But There Are Some Things to Consider…

Of course, like most things, Canva is not perfect.

One of the biggest things to look out for is the copyright. Canva makes it very user-friendly to find images, graphics, videos, and other design elements. Because of this, students must understand that when using digital content, there comes a responsibility to ensure they are not infringing on copyright. This is a great learning experience, as you can guide them by teaching them about copyright, attribution, and responsible digital creation. Along with copyright, Canva also includes the use of AI, which can be easily disabled for students by the administration when using Canva for Schools.

In short, would I recommend Canva?

Yes! Canva is a useful addition to a school library as it is easy to become a part of the everyday library life. Or a librarian’s new best friend. However, the value does not come from Canva itself, but rather from the opportunities for creativity and ownership that it encourages.