The following speech was delivered on May 27 in Halifax, at the Canadian Association for School Librarians AGM and Awards Ceremony. Congratulations once again to Moira Ekdahl (Teacher-Librarian Mentor, Vancouver Board of Education) on receiving the 2011 CASL Angela Thacker Memorial Award!
Moira on the occasion of accepting her award:
"In thinking about how to say thank you for this award, it was necessary to do some serious research. Being something of an expert in inquiry, as TLs are, I sought advice from colleagues who had worked as TLs during Angela B. Thacker’s time in school libraries and was re-directed to the expert Liz Austrom, formerly the District Principal of Learning Services for Vancouver, now retired.
What were the qualities of Angela and her work that would lead to the creation of such an award? I asked. Liz was clearly a fan.
- Formidable, she said, a very strong presence, a force to be reckoned with. She spoke her mind, spoke directly, but with such good manners that, should you disagree, you were always at a loss because she had said it so nicely.
- She knew everything about school libraries, a shining light who got the excitement going.
- When she was in charge of library services in West Vancouver, they were the best-funded in Canada. Her work in West Vancouver set a standard that generated respect for the work and thus enabled other districts to move ahead.
- She was the President of the BCTLA and the CSLA; she was a founding member of the ATLC (now CASL).
- Angela was always looking for ways to make things better and for better ways to keep TLs moving forward. As Angela moved forward, she pulled others in her wake. She just kept going and going and going.
Surely, I thought, working with this Angela B. Thacker must have been a little like tailing Haley’s Comet. Even as I compare some of what I bring to the field to the qualities exemplified by Angela -- maybe a certain obsessiveness and unrelenting focus, certainly a strong sense that we must move forward, and a tendency to use the words “school library” in every second sentence! – I am struck by the powerful message about the importance of relationships in what we do.
I am fortunate to work within the most supportive of professional learning communities, the teacher-librarians in Vancouver and in British Columbia. I have been well introduced to the field by truly excellent role models and lucky to have had fantastic opportunities to travel to hear and work with some of the biggest names in provincial, national, and international school library contexts. I always hope that the excitement about learning and moving ahead in school libraries, in partnership with others in our schools, as well as the drive to provide new and improved services and resources for teachers and students, have been shared. TLs are, like Angela, always so gracious, so appreciative of work done to support their work. I do believe that we have moved ahead, despite setbacks here in BC, that we are seeing glimpses of the light now and will soon be taking our rightful place in the provincial conversations about education reform grounded in collaboration and in meaningful teaching for the love of reading and the pursuit of inquiry, the integration of technology including new tools and resources, and learning to learn.
In a recent post to his blog The Culture of Yes, West Vancouver Superintendent Chris Kennedy, an influential voice in the provincial conversations about change, wrote that, as we move forward, 'teacher librarians are more important than ever.' He said that his experience has been that, 'next to the principal, the teacher-librarian is often key in moving the learning agenda forward. In schools that are moving forward, it is very often the teacher-librarian, working side-by-side with teachers on staff, who find new ways of working with students. ... As we lament that little change has taken place, or how slow the change has been, many teacher-librarians have transformed what they do to stay relevant and ahead of the curve. [Many] are seeing their roles ... “as producer, concierge, connector, teacher and impresario.'
Couple Chris’s vision with the recent political development, the BCTF’s winning their years-long challenge under the Charter of Rights that had sought to reverse the 2001 Liberal government’s stripping of language and ratios that had, amongst other dreadful effects, undertaken a deliberate and intended outcome of reducing the numbers of TLs in BC schools. Add in that the judge expressly declared an expectation of remediation within a year, and you can see there is reason for hope for restoration of TLs and strong school library programs in BC schools. We have been working hard to make sure our TLs are ready.
On this hopeful note, I wish to end by thanking CASL for its important work in supporting the very different struggles to keep school libraries alive and strong across Canada and, in particular today, for honouring me with this Award which Judith Comfort is gratefully accepting for me. In speaking with Liz Austrom, I found myself incredulous and incredibly honoured to think that in some small way, by comparison, I have been enabled to follow the very significant and clearly hewn path laid down by the formidable Angela B. Thacker.
Thank you again."
The Summer issue of The Bookmark, "Diversity and the Magic of Three", has been published online on the BCTLA website. Check out the Summer issue today!
