Darryl Toerien is Head of Inquiry-Based Learning at Blanchelande College in Guernsey. He is the
originator of FOSIL and the FOSIL Group. He is a member of the UK School Library Association (SLA),
the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), and the School Libraries Section (SLS)
of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). He served a term
on the Board of the SLA, two extended terms on the National Committee of the School Libraries
Group (SLG) of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), and a term
on the Standing Committee of IFLAS’s SLS. He taught Theology and Philosophy before becoming
a professionally qualified librarian in 2003. He is married to Jenny, who is College Librarian at
Blanchelande College, and who taught Physics before becoming a professionally qualified librarian
in 2011. They have a son Reuben, who is in his last year of the primary phase at Blanchelande
College, and who accompanied them to IASL 2019 in Dubrovnik and IASL 2023 in Rome.
FOSIL (2011, 2019) is a model of the inquiry process based on the work of Barbara Stripling as
expressed in the evolving Empire State Information Fluency Continuum (ESIFC 2009/2012, 2019),
which is undergirded by a PK-12 framework of learning skills – metacognitive, cognitive, emotional,
social and cultural – and a growing collection of resources that support the systematic and progressive
development of these skills. To support growing interest in FOSIL from around the world, Darryl
established the FOSIL Group in 2019, which is an international community of inquiry centred on
FOSIL, but not exclusively so, and which is free to join. This initiated a close and ongoing collaboration
with Barbara Stripling in 2020, whose work on engaging and empowering students as inquirers is
prodigious and profound.
The ESIFC and FOSIL are entirely free to adopt or adapt under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED – freely we
give, for freely we have received. FOSIL is endorsed by the SLA (UK), which also supports the work of
the FOSIL Group.
