SA Teacher Librarian of the Year Winners

This award recognises and honours an exceptional South Australian teacher librarian in a school setting whose professional practice makes a positive impact on student achievement and information literacy. The winner of the South Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year Award is nominated for the national award with the winner and nominees being announced on International School Libraries Day, 24 October.

2008 - Sue Johnston

Sue Johnston takes her job seriously, and what a job it is. She is the manager of a large and complex library which serves the Marden Senior College (an adult re-entry school) and three distance schools of the Open Access College: the R-10 School of Distance Education, the Port Augusta School of the Air and the Senior Secondary School of Distance Education. Her work is certainly diverse, ranging from selection of reading materials for Reception students to reference assistance for senior secondary students across all curriculum areas and developmental levels. She moves easily between the physical library building, the virtual classroom of Centra, and travelling to meet distance students face to face.

Principals from across these schools provided testimonials to the impact of Sue's professional practice on student learning.

"Sue has a comprehensive and practical understanding of how students learn, how students develop independence and interdependence in their learning and the benefits of this for the individual and the group. She has worked to develop learning tasks and assessment tasks that are valid, relevant, challenging and reliable."

"Sue's contributions to our school reinforce her commitment to team work and collaborative planning. The emerging technologies such as Janison, Moodle, Centra and wikis etc are impacting on student learning and Sue plays an active role in making effective use of these and other online tools to enhance teacher programes and improve student engagement and learning."

"Strong evidence of her commitment to students and her understanding of effective pedagogy is the management and promotion of Reading Recovery resources which support teaching and learning programs."

2007 no award

2006 - Carol Miller

Carol Miller manages a diverse library service at Hamilton Secondary College. It is a large, multilayered educational site. Students range from those in year 7 to adult students, 70 years and beyond. It includes a middle school, a senior school, an adult campus and a unit for students with severe and multiple disabilities. Carol is able to meet the needs of all these client groups.

Her Principal and colleagues comment on her abilities to meet the selection criteria of the award. “Carol is highly regarded for her energy, her outstanding skills as an information specialist and manager, her willingness to both lead and support, and her commitment to her role. Not only does she keep abreast of curriculum developments across the eight learning areas, she also advises new teachers to the College of the print and electronic resources available for the huge range of subjects. She is a curriculum leader and information specialist as well as a very effective resource manager. She is fastidious about chasing unreturned resources and passionate about ensuring that budget allocations satisfactorily resource the library. Her management of the library is exemplary but her influence does not rest with herself alone. She is an excellent role model for her co-workers and has lifted the level of service provided by all library staff. Her commitment to the service of all staff and students has made her a valued library manager. She is innovative and always looking for better ways of servicing the information needs of the College community. Her influence endures in students who move on to higher education and who have developed sound information literacy skills from Carol’s work….

I have worked in many schools….the resource centre at Hamilton Secondary College is the most complex and is by far the most dynamic environment of any of those schools. While other schools merely have libraries, Hamilton’s is truly a resource centre….Carol clearly recognizes her role foremost as a teacher and carries out that role very effectively with staff, secondary students and adult students. She is highly regarded by her peers in other schools with whom she has an excellent rapport”. (Doug Moyle, Principal).

Carol was also winner of the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year 2006

2005 - Fran Knight

Fran from William Light R-12 School has had a long experience as a teacher librarian and has demonstrated outstanding dedication to improving educational outcomes for students. Acting as a mentor for library staff, she has generously shared her expertise for the good of students.

Fran’s lifelong interest in adolescent literature was developed while doing librarianship at Magill Campus, the university of South Australia, in the early 1980s. Fran has a total commitment to the promotion of reading and willingly sends off lists of fiction to individuals, talks at conferences, reviews new fiction for Fiction Focus, Magpies, SLASA and the South Australian English Teachers’ Association. Best of all, she loves talking about books with kids.

Currently she is sharing her reviewing expertise and encouraging other teacher librarians to read and review. This will result in a wider pool of south Australian expertise. Her excellent knowledge of fiction has enabled teachers, teacher librarians and students all over Australia to have access to titles of quality books. We have been extremely proud to publish five of her books and believe that they have impacted on the reading growth of students on a national basis.

Ngadjuri: Aboriginal people of the Mid North Region of South Australia, co-authored by Fran, has gone to every school in SA and will be a valuable contribution to students’ knowledge of Aboriginal culture and South Australian history.

2004 - Margaret Holman

Margaret’s Principal at Black Forest primary School and referees describe her professional contribution in the following words: "Margaret believes that her main role as teacher librarian is to assist children to become confident and critical users of information, and this is mainly achieved through the Resource-based Learning (RBL) programme. She ensures that children are also confident and critical users of digital information and electronic communication facilities, and her programmes of work incorporate the use of digital information.

She sets the scene for the whole school literacy programme, as she is the driving force behind it through her experience, knowledge, skills, understanding and promotion. Margaret was also the driving force behind the current RBL/ICT programme. The RBL/ICT programme has improved the learning outcomes for pupils (and teachers!) and staff selected it as the most valued programme in the school. Margaret managed the development and implementation of the school's Information and Communication Technology Policy - this has made a significant impact upon our students' achievements, and Margaret had an active role in establishing a Learning Exchange Group in our site to look at the broader range of theories and applications that are occurring across education.

Margaret ensures that the library is a stimulating and vibrant place. This starts with the organisation and breadth of the resources all the way through to the visual element of displays. Margaret has the wonderful ability of encouraging and supporting whilst, at the same time, challenging. Her interpersonal skills are such that she finds out what children and adults are good at and then encourages them to use and extend those skills. She takes on a mentor role for staff, supporting them and encouraging them to take their learning and practice further. In her teaching role she offers children a wide range of opportunities and learning experiences that allow all children to achieve success and to be challenged.

She is an inspirational teacher and leader and her qualities are such that she offers children structure, whilst at the same time offering them diverse and exciting tasks. Margaret's confidence, personal, friendly style has enabled her to translate the big picture of learning into meaningful experiences for staff and students. In summary, her Principal states: "Margaret's enthusiasm for education and her position as Teacher/Librarian, is infectious and over the last 10 years has had a major impact upon student learning across our school, District and State."

Margaret was also awarded 2004 Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year.

2003 - Bev Endersbee

Bev has been the Teacher Librarian at Para Hills East Primary School for the past 13 years during which time she has firmly established her school library as the 'hub' of the school community. She accomplished this in many ways, some of which were to:

• cooperatively plan innovative units of work that accommodate diversity in cultural backgrounds
• ensure the development of Information Literacy skills as a high profile priority and the driving force of the school’s change and improvement agenda
• use many students from Reception to Yr 7 as library monitors ensuring they are critical role models in the use of information resources
• establish a Library Promotions Group which has planned events for students within the school

Beverley’s collaborative and cooperative work has extended well beyond the walls of the school library. She has facilitated and presented at a number of conferences and workshops within South Australia, nationally and in New Zealand. She has also played significant roles in national and state projects. As one of her peers has written: “Working with Bev is an exciting, stimulating and evolving journey. The Library is the focus for learning within collaborative teams of classroom teachers and students, a place where technology lives, where the joy of books consume all of us as we live our fantasies, experience real life, everyday heroes and share our lives through a range of media while having fun.”

Bev was also awarded 2003 Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year.