On Wednesday, May 7, 91精选 sent an open letter to the BC Minister of Education, the Honorable Lisa Beare, regarding the state of education funding in the province and the impact it is having on library learning commons across the province. Since this letter was sent Kamloops-Thompson (School District 73) has also cut back library assistant jobs. As stated in the letter, while there is record funding in BC for education, there is also record costs and these two numbers are not keeping up with each other. So while the BC Government has put more into education that has historically been the case, the costs have risen much higher than that allocation. This is causing districts to cut back wherever they can. Full text of the letter is below.

Diana Maliszewski is a teacher-librarian at Agnes MacPhail Public School, a prolific presenter, former editor of The Teaching Librarian and course instructor for the Teacher-Librarian Additional Qualification at both York and Queen’s Universities. Internationally, she represents Canada with the North American and European chapter of UNESCO鈥檚 Media and Information Literacy Alliance, and as vice-president for the Association for Media Literacy (AML).

Diana Maliszewski鈥檚 contributions to the advancement of teacher librarians includes鈥�

鈥ontributing to the growth and development of teacher librarians not only in Ontario, but across the country. She is tireless in her dedication and commitment to the growth and development of school libraries and devotes a great deal of her time toward mentorship. Diana has contributed more to the success of teacher librarians and school libraries over the course of her career than anyone I know. She has been personally instrumental in my growth as a librarian and she is someone I look up to and aspire to be like professionally and personally. 鈥� Jonelle St. Aubyn, Teacher-Librarian, Louise Arbour Secondary School, Peel District School Board  

91精选 is delighted to honour Diana Maliszewski as a 2025 recipient of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award.   

What is the Angela Thacker Memorial Award?

The Angela Thacker Memorial Award has been established in memory of Angela Thacker, teacher-librarian, library coordinator, and school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate who served the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canada School Library Association (91精选A) in many capacities.  This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.

To learn more visit Angela Thacker Award

Jenn Brown is a teacher-librarian and guidance educator at Caledon Central Public School in Peel School District, Ontario. A past president of the Ontario School Library Association (OSLA), the Peel Elementary Teacher-Librarian, a writer for The Teaching Librarian and Open Shelf magazines, she has contributed a great deal to the profession. Jenn has presented in multiple provinces, written articles for numerous publications, and encouraged and supported new generations of aspiring librarians through presentations to York University Librarianship Advanced Qualification courses.

Working with Jenn every day and being able to first-hand witness the transformation of an outdated library space to a vibrant school library has been both a joy and a learning experience. Her dedication reminds me daily to bring the pedagogies of the school library into my classroom work – to honor the lived experiences and contributions of my students, to continually seek out current stories and books from authors that represent my students and a view onto the winder world, and lastly, to find the joy in my students鈥� interactions with maker materials and their own independently inspired inquiries. 鈥� Beth Lyons, OSLA President, 2022.

91精选 is delighted to honour Jenn Brown as a 2025 recipient of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award.   

What is the Angela Thacker Award?

The Angela Thacker Memorial Award has been established in memory of Angela Thacker, teacher-librarian, library coordinator, and school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate who served the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canada School Library Association (91精选A) in many capacities.聽 This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.
For more information go to Angela Thacker Award

Inspired by the creativity and inventiveness of school library professionals over the past few most difficult years, this edition of 91精选 Journal focuses on the future. From Canadian School Library Day to the wonderful collaborative work at the seventh Treasure Mountain Canada symposium, it is clear that thinking in school libraries is future focused.

In this edition we feature articles coming out of the work of TMC7, highlight 91精选 Award recipients and their contributions, and share our usual full range of inspiring and useful ideas from school library professionals across the country.

This edition of 91精选 Journal is dedicated to the memory of Caroline Freibauer, 1961 鈥� 2022.

Leigh Borden
Rabia Khokhar
Rebeca Rubio
Jonelle St. Aubyn

as recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award 2022

The Angela Thacker Memorial Award has been established in memory of Angela Thacker, teacher-librarian, library coordinator, and school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate who served the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canada School Library Association (91精选A) in many capacities. This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.

Leigh Borden is a K-4 teacher-librarian and President of Teacher Librarians of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the past decade, she鈥檚 worked to advocate for school librarians and teacher-librarians across Newfoundland and Labrador, and has served on a variety of committees and working groups intended to grow the school library learning commons movement in the province. Leigh completed a BA (Hons) at Memorial University of Newfoundland, an MA in English literature at the University of Toronto, and a Master of Teaching at OISE/UT. When not happily working in her school library, Leigh loves to read, run, hike, and camp.

Leigh Borden鈥檚 contributions to the advancement of teacher librarians includes a lengthy list of positions and activities. Since 2008, Leigh has organized and/or facilitated a wide range of professional learning sessions for teacher librarians through Teacher Librarians of Newfoundland and Labrador (TLNL), the Department of Education, and the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District including membership on the writing team of the new curriculum support document , NL Department of Education, 2016-18. Leigh is currently Teacher Librarian at Holy Trinity Elementary School, Torbay NL.

Leigh is the epitome of what the Angela Thacker Memorial Award is about, particularly in her publications, advocacy, and professional development for Teacher Librarians鈥� In her role as she works hard with her Executive to offer TLC 鈥� Teacher Librarians Connect, a yearly provincial conference for Teacher Librarians (TLs) and people in Teacher Librarian (TL) positions. In the pandemic, Leigh has been instrumental in providing a conduit to the professional development that is available to us virtually. She facilitated access for all Teacher Librarians in the province to online sessions available during the OLA Super Conference. She added many new features to our , including an area for TLs to share documents and library programs they have developed, including and a . Further evidence of her advocacy and professional development efforts can be found on and in her activities.

Heather Godden (Former President, TLNL) and Beth Power (Communications, TLNL)

Leigh is a passionate advocate for equitable access to school libraries across Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond. In her role, Leigh has grown her Professional Learning Network; provincially, nationally and internationally. Her in the 91精选 Journal provides a glimpse of the passion she brings to the Teacher Librarian (TL) role and highlights the vital parts the TL and the LLC play in education. She is involved with The 91精选 Association and has contributed to their journals. She explores current research and resources. Her professional learning has been invaluable in supporting the recent growth in both the TL role and the transition of the School Library to an LLC throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In March 2015, Leigh was awarded the Newfoundland Education Foundation Educator鈥檚 Innovation Award in recognition of transition from a school library to a learning commons. Leigh is a driving force behind the current success of the transition from Library to Library Learning Commons in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is through her relentless efforts and advocacy that our province is well positioned to be a leader, nationally and internationally, in this area鈥t is, indeed, our great privilege to endorse Leigh Borden as an ideal candidate for the Angela Thacker Memorial Award.

Belinda Loder (Program Specialist for Reading, Newfoundland and Labrador English School District) and Darlene Tilley (Program Specialist for Reading, Newfoundland and Labrador English School District)

Rabia Khokhar is a teacher and teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board and a PhD student at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education and an equity and educational consultant at . She is passionate about ensuring schools are inclusive spaces where all students with their multiple and intersectional identities are reflected, represented, included and seen through an asset-based lens. Rabia is a strong advocate for the school library and believes it plays a central role in raising students who are critical thinkers and committed to issues around equity and justice. Rabia is passionate about books and the role libraries can play in creating positive change.

Rabia has made an impact in the school communities where she has taught. Rabia reflects on her own experiences as a racialized Muslim teacher-librarian to advocate for diversity and equitable representation in book collections. Her work focuses on carefully curating and selecting book collections and library school programming based on equity, diversity and inclusion. Rabia has made a significant difference in libraries at the local, provincial and national level. Rabia has contributed articles and worked on projects with 91精选 Journal, The Teaching Librarian, and Treasure Mountain Canada, and continues to make book recommendations to the Toronto Star. She has presented workshops at the Ontario Library Association鈥檚 Super Conference as well as presented to teacher-librarians and library professionals nationally. Through social media like her Twitter platform, Rabia continues to reach a wide audience locally and nationally. She shares her thinking, passion, learning, ideas, experiences, book recommendations and current research with teacher-librarians, teachers, library professional and community members.

Her (Rabia鈥檚) presence at our school has been incredible. Ms. Khokhar has transformed our library space, previously more of a computer lab, into a true diverse and inclusive Library Learning Commons, a safe space for all students through her lessons and carefully selected culturally relevant and responsive books. Her lessons to students, from Kindergarten to Grade 6, explore issues of truth and reconciliation, anti-oppression, anti-black racism, and equity in general with thought and deep caring. Her work with our students has moved our school along the Equity continuum in terms of diversity and inclusion.

Andreas Ghabrial, Retired Principal, Indian Road Crescent Junior Public School

Rabia was the teacher-librarian at my children鈥檚 elementary school, where she worked tirelessly to build up the school library with books that featured a broad representation of cultures and communities. Her curriculum reflected essential questions to encourage children to consider the ways representation matters. Her hard work instilled an important baseline for what a school library should focus on, and it is exciting to see her continued work on inclusion and representation through story.

Stacy Lewis, Parent

Rebeca Rubio is the Coordinator for Libraries and Information Services in SD38 Richmond, where she supports teacher-librarians in developing programs, managing spaces and developing learning commons spaces. She supports teachers and schools with resource acquisition, database navigation, digital literacy and other literacy initiatives. She also manages and maintains the District Resource Centre, acquiring and circulating valuable resources for all SD38 educators. Every year, Rebeca coordinates, plans and executes a full district conference for all 50 SD38 Teacher Librarians. She manages the District Resource Center (DRC) focusing on creating quality kits that support equity and diversity. Through her leadership the DRC has a robust Indigenous collection and she is currently working on Righting Canada鈥檚 Wrongs (focus on Japanese internment, residential schools etc.).

Rebeca has brought (DA) to her district. Last year all the secondary sites completed a robust DA, and this year she discovered that DAs have been written into the district鈥檚 Strategic Plan. Rebeca works with schools undergoing seismic upgrades, by supporting with visioning and creating flexible learning spaces in libraries and labs.

Rebeca has done presentations and published locally, provincially, nationally and internationally on many subjects related to library learning commons including involvement with the 91精选 Diversity Toolkit, travelling to South Carolina in July 2022 to present it at International Association of School Librarianship (IASL). Rebeca is a contributor to the 91精选 Journal and to TM Canada Symposia.

Her work as a teacher librarian in her district, the province and nationally on diversity, anti-racism and mental health has been incorporated in many schools in BC as well as nationally鈥ith a changing world and the recognition that diversity is an important component of our societal values, Rebecca has sought to educate teachers and teacher librarians in evaluating their collections and diversifying the content to recognize the diversity of our population and the students attending our schools鈥� I can鈥檛 think of a better recipient for this award based on all the work and advocacy she has done on our behalf since she became a teacher librarian.

Richard Beaudry, Teacher-Librarian, Coordinator of the Teacher-Librarian Diploma and Certificate Program at UBC

Rebeca works tirelessly to promote libraries and teacher librarianship in the Richmond School District. It is very hard to describe Rebeca鈥檚 role as District Coordinator for Libraries and Information Services: while working closely with senior staff on issues connected to or involving LLCs, she also directs the development of district level resource sets, the acquisition and maintenance of district wide resources (such as study sets, on-line databases, and cataloguing programs), co-ordinates with the BC Teacher Librarian Association, and provides front line TLs with support in their daily challenges. For the past several years, a consistent focus for theses conferences has been on developing our awareness of the role LLCs can play in supporting, some might argue in fact driving, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the school community.

Perhaps one of the most important journeys Rebeca has brought teachers on is the undertaking of a Diversity Audit鈥ebeca鈥檚 work with Diversity Audits has moved beyond the Richmond School District. In addition to being the Keynote speaker and presenting her work to the British Columbia Teacher Librarians Association annual professional development day in 2020 and leading the BCTLA鈥檚 work on the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Rebeca just presented at the IASL in South Carolina (2022). Moreover, the Sooke School District has also reached out to Rebeca for support with their first steps in this direction.

Tom Morley, Teacher Librarian RC Palmer Secondary School

Jonelle St. Aubyn has been teaching for 21 years with the last 7 being in the School Library Learning Commons (LLC) as the full-time Teacher Librarian at Louise Arbour Secondary School in the Peel District School Board, Ontario, transforming the space and programming from a traditional library to an LLC, making it a focal point and educational hub of the school. Recently, she was one of the team members that revised the Teacher-Librarianship Additional Qualification course guidelines for the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). She has presented at numerous conferences, events and workshops, including nationally at the Quebec Library Association (ABQLA) Conference, provincially at the Ontario Library Association (OLA) Super Conference and locally at various PDSB workshops and Family of Schools (FOS) events.

Jonelle is a published author, contributing numerous education packages, resources and articles to Treasure Mountain Canada (TMC), Hot Docs – Docs for Schools, and TEACH Magazine. She is currently the chair of the Peel Fiction Review Committee which reviews books from local vendors and determines their suitability for secondary schools in the PDSB. In 2020, she was a recipient of the OSSTF District 19 Inspiring Moments Campaign Award and the Teachers Life Exceptional Educator Award. In 2022, she was a recipient of an OSSTF District 19 Teacher Recognition Award. Passionate about social justice, equity and human rights, Jonelle has been curating resources for staff, students and community members to move this work forward at Louise Arbour Secondary School and beyond.

Jonelle demonstrates incredible collaboration skills and often brings together a variety of stakeholders to guide the work. For example, her transformation of the Library Learning Commons Spaces always includes gathering ideas from students, in addition to a great deal of research and collaboration with colleagues. When she embarked on the Human Library initiative, she worked diligently to secure a variety of diverse presenters who had stories to share that would engage and inspire the students of Louise Arbour Secondary School. Jonelle鈥檚 innovative experimentation and research have provided her with insights that she has been able to share with other Teacher Librarians through articles or papers that she authored for publication, as well as through presentations at professional conferences, such as the Ontario Library Association Conference, where she was a presenter in both 2020 and 2022. She has also been invited to present at the Manitoba Library Association鈥檚 SAGG Conference in 2022 and to participate as a panelist for the OLA鈥檚 2022 Freedom To Read panel with Deborah Ellis.

Sharron Kuhl, Principal, David Suzuki Secondary School, Peel District School Board

Jonelle is an exemplary teacher-librarian, and has made a positive impact on her school. She has also significantly contributed to the field of school librarianship beyond her school and her school board. She was part of the team that revised the Ontario College of Teachers guidelines for Teacher Librarianship AQ courses. She was a podcast guest for Read lnto This, was consulted for the article about Taming the Library Dragon: Mission, Ethics and Library Routines, ran a podcast about marketing the school library (as well as other podcasts for ONEd Mentors), sat on the Collection Diversity Toolkit writing committee for 91精选, and has written papers for Treasure Mountain Canada. I had the pleasure of presenting a session with her called “Agency and Equity: Students Shaping School Library Collections Pre- and Post-COVlD” at the Manitoba School Library Association’s conference in 2020.

Diana Maliszewski, Teacher-Librarian, Agnes Macphail Public School, Toronto District School Board

91精选 is delighted to honour Leigh Borden, Rabia Khokhar, Rebeca Rubio, and Jonelle St. Aubyn as the 2022 recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award. The awards will be presented as part of 91精选’s Kick-Off Dinner, Friday October 21, in New Westminster, BC.

The 2022 awards will be presented at the Treasure Mountain Canada (TMC7) dinner on Friday October 21 in New Westminster, BC.聽聽

Nomination Deadline:聽Thursday June 30, 2022

Find complete information and nomination forms here.

91精选 is seeking nominations for our two biennial awards, the聽Angela Thacker Memorial Award聽and the聽Leading Learning Implementation Award.

罢丑别听Angela Thacker Memorial Award聽honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions, research or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.

罢丑别听Leading Learning Implementation Award聽has been established to recognize, honour and applaud school districts, provinces and territories who have developed and/or enhanced their school library learning commons on a systemic basis, founded on the tenets, principles and continuous growth and renewal focus of the five standards of聽Leading Learning.

The 2022 awards will be presented at the Treasure Mountain Canada (TMC7) dinner on Friday October 21 in New Westminster, BC.聽聽

Nomination Deadline: Thursday June 30, 2022

Find complete information and nomination forms here.

Alison Bodner
Alanna King
Sarah Wethered

as recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award 2020.

The Angela Thacker Memorial Award has been established in memory of Angela Thacker, teacher-librarian, library coordinator, and school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate who served the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canada School Library Association (91精选A) in many capacities. This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.

Alison Bodner. teacher-librarian at Bairdmore Elementary School in the Pembina Trails School Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba, has provided outstanding contributions and leadership in the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship across the district and province. Her expertise as co-teacher and collaborator provide the best possible educational outcomes for her students and role model for colleagues including serving in leadership positions and leading activities with the Manitoba School Library Association, where she received the 2019 Manitoba School Library Association鈥檚 鈥淥utstanding Teacher-Librarian of the Year鈥� award.

As Consultant, I sincerely appreciate how as a seasoned teacher-librarian, Alison continues to want to learn more.  She attends all school library related professional learning sessions provided at the divisional level and continually shares her expertise with others.  She is the model of a life-long learner that the students and staff at Bairdmore School have benefitted from for many years. She is selfless in her determination to use her position as teacher-librarian to the greater good of all students and staff.

Jo-Anne Gibson, Library Learning Commons Consultant, Pembina Trails School Division

Alison offers a wide variety of learning opportunities as she leads learning from the library learning commons. She encourages students to critically consider real-world issues such as human rights, gender equality, and cultural diversity. She supports students in their discovery of these ideas through her modeling of inquiry-based learning and information literacy. She teaches students how to stay safe online and how to be digital leaders rather than followers. Alison continues to act as a mentor and role model for students, new and experienced teachers, community members, and other educators.

Doug Jonasson, Principal, Bairdmore School

Alanna King is a very active and innovative teacher-librarian and a leader for Ontario鈥檚 school libraries. Her exceptional expertise and leadership in the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship has been continually demonstrated in schools, school districts, the province, nation and internationally including contributions to the Treasure Mountain Canada Research Symposium and the 91精选 Research Archive. Alanna鈥檚 written contributions to the field of school librarianship can be found at on her and her presentations including her most recent, Jornada de Bibliotecas Escolares, September 2019, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sponsored by UNESCO and IFLA) can be found .

The award describes Angela Thacker as 鈥渟chool library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate鈥�. These words can also describe Alanna King. Alanna is passionate, creative, whimsical, thoughtful and driven. With over 4500 followers on Twitter (), she is a huge influence and a force to be reckoned with.

Diana Maliszewski, Teacher-Librarian and Kate Johnson-McGregor, Head of Library, Brantford Collegiate Institute

I had the opportunity to watch Alanna consistently demonstrate her passion for the library as a hub of cross-curricular learning for the whole school community through everything she did, and keep a focus on guiding resources like Together for Learning and Leading Learning.

Lisa Unger, Teacher-Librarian, Orangeville District Secondary School

Sarah Wethered has provided outstanding expertise and contributions to the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship which has been noted and applauded in her school, district, and province including leadership with the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian’s Association and implementation of an innovation grant aimed at improving school library learning commons programs in areas identified in Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.

Sarah works tirelessly on the behalf of the teacher-librarians of New Westminister, whether in advocating for other teacher-librarians or supporting them by sharing various strategies to promote literacy and inquiry in their own schools. Sarah has an open-door policy for all teacher-librarians to come observe her practice.

Lisa E. Seddon, M.A., M.L.S.

Sarah has shown herself to be a strong leader, mentor, and advocate for teacher-librarians both locally and provincially. She was the president of the New Westminster Teacher-Librarian Association for many years, and she also currently devotes her time for teacher-librarians at a provincial level in writing the BC Teacher-Librarian Association newsletter and as vice-president of the BCTLA. Sarah is currently an adjunct professor for the Teacher-Librarianship program at Queens University, another example of how she is fostering growth for the profession. The list of Sarah鈥檚 achievements and accomplishments extends far more than the examples I鈥檝e highlighted above. She truly is an exemplary teacher-librarian and I cannot imagine a more supportive person to work with and learn from. Her passion for and dedication to the professional development of teacher-librarianship is clearly demonstrated through her tireless actions and efforts.

Jenny Chang, Teacher-Librarian, New Westminster Secondary School

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