"Spirit of Librarianship" Award Nominees Announced for Summer 2006

A nice innovation for the process this term is that the SoL sub-committee asked all nominators to give a brief blurb about their nominee.  Looks like Student Council also had their first-ever joint nomination (although the form that came out looks like they only want us to vote for one of the three people who were jointly nominated.  Too bad as I think that working together is as much of what Spirit of Librarianship should be about as anything.)   Anyhow, congratulations to all the nominees.  I honestly have no idea who might win as there are a number of deserving candidates. 

Here's the notice that was sent out by student council:


You may vote any time between now and August 7th at
11:59pm.

Late votes will not be counted.

I have included a description of the nominees and why they
were selected as an attachment to this email.  You can only vote for one person, and your first vote is
final.

Please send your vote with the subject heading “SOL VOTE” in
the subject line to the following email address: 

lholdsw@uwo.ca 

And here are the nominees:

Baird, Catherine
Boltd, Gabe
Bussier, Linda
Dupont, Quinn
Fyfe, Bruce
Jansen, Becky
Liebregts, Daniella
Peters, Jay
Remillard, Tracy
Smith, Mark
Thibault, Michael

Thank you for your participation! 

The Spirit of Librarianship Committee
Lindsay Holdsworth
Gillian Webster

Spirit of Librarianship Nominees: Summer 2006

Boldt, Gabe
Gabe Boldt is a wonderful person and exudes the spirit of
librarianship.  He has actively participated in the student council for
this semester as the SOGS rep.  As the SOGS rep, he attended meetings and
recruited many MLIS’ers to join him.  Overall, I nominated Gabe because I
think he has done an excellent job of participating in many events and
showing the true spirit of librarianship.

Bussiere, Linda
In my opinion, Linda exemplifies librarianship at its best
because she is passionate about the profession, generous with her knowledge,
and very supportive of her fellow students. Furthermore, she actively
participates with both the MLIS community and the community at large, and
volunteers for numerous programs such as the Freedom to Read Week, and the
Student Council Coffee House.

Dupont, Quinn
Quinn embodies many of the qualities of the ideal librarian
– whether it is enabling access to information by sharing digital versions of
readings with his classmates or by raising awareness by running a movie series
that is focused on librarians and library-related issues.  Beyond this,
Quinn has a deep intellect and a collegial manner.  One classmate summed up his presence like this: “Did you ever notice that Quinn's the
only one of us, who, when he puts up his hand to make a point in class,
everybody stops typing or daydreaming and pays attention?”  Finally,
although it is only in the planning stages right now, his idea to do a
“Captain Commons” comic book in response to Access Copyright's biased
and library-unfriendly “Captain Copyright” character is a stroke of
genius that I'm sure will show another side of the copyright debate and garner
much attention from the wider library community, across Canada and the beyond.

Fyfe, Bruce
Bruce has the spirit of librarianship because he is friendly
to everyone and he puts in extra effort with the Special Libraries Association
to bring in guest speakers.

Peters, Jay
Jay has a ready smile; his laugh fills the NCB with
warmth.  He is welcoming to all, encourages us all to be our best,
and is a wonderful communicator.  He is always ready to lend
a hand.  Jay has served two terms on the student council, and
will be graduating in August.

Remillard, Tracy
Tracy was student council chair this past semester and with
her help the council had one of its most successful semesters ever.  It
comes as no surprise, as Tracy is a wonderful leader.  She lets
others decide for themselves without interfering, and is very secure
in her own likes and dislikes, is fair to everybody, and gives off a
positive feeling everywhere she goes.  Tracy is finishing her
studies in London and will be returning to work in Ottawa.

Smith, Mark
Mark came into the MLIS programme with significant work
experience as a library technician and I have noticed that he has demonstrated
an eagerness time and again to share his knowledge with his classmates. In
addition to his helpfulness, Mark's sense of humour has also made a positive
difference to the studying environment.

Thibault, Michael
Mike Thibault is a well deserving candidate for the Spirit
of Librarianship award.  Mike has always been willing to assist fellow
students by offering a hand or by sharing his knowledge and library work
experiences.  Mike’s active involvement in Student Council, his relaxed
good nature and generous involvement in social events has helped to create a
pleasant atmosphere and has made the MLIS experience a memorable one.


Baird, Catherine; Jansen, Becky; and Liebregts, Daniella

(Note: you cannot vote for the group, only one individual)

I'd like to nominate the
three co-chairs, operations, of Librarians
Without Borders, Catherine Baird, Becky Jansen, and Daniella Liebregts,
and propose that we give the first ever joint Spirit of Librarianship
award.  These three students have numerous individual strengths but it's
through their work together as a group that they've really made an
outstanding contribution over the last couple of terms.  I feel that they
really demonstrate the spirit of librarianship at its finest.

Since Melanie Sellar graduated, LWB has been in a state of flux, poised to
move beyond an internal FIMS-student-organized nonprofit to a larger
organization with registered charity status and a much broader community.
The work that's been done toward making this transition couldn't have been
done without these three keeping things going with the current and new
MLIS students and also reaching out to current and potential members
around the world.

Daniella has been membership co-ordinator since 2005 and Catherine and
Becky took over as communications co-leads in January 2006.  Together
these three have been the on-the-ground managers of LWB operations, as
well as being the public faces of the organization.  They have managed the

day-to-day operations of LWB and recruited and managed volunteers,
interns, and work study students.  They've created fundraisers and managed

to keep the spirit alive despite their own heavy workload and the heavy
workloads of the students they've been trying to recruit.

All three have taken leading roles in planning and co-ordinating the
Sponsor-A-Book fundraising campaign, which we hope will ultimately provide
books for a community library in Angola.  Their jobs have involved
liaising with other educational, non-profit and government organizations
both in Canada and in Angola and have included quite a lot of p.r. work
here at FIMS and abroad.  They have promotions within the university and
within the city, and were responsible for a very successful poster
presentation at the 2006 CLA conference in Ottawa.

Together they've really kept LWB going and, more than that, thriving.
They've created newsletters and updates, created and maintained a database
of members, managed volunteers, organized guest speakers, planned the
transition from nonprofit organization to charitable organization and
attended to all of the requisite legal and financial details, answered
questions, made presentations, provided advice and input on the creation
of a digital resource centre for the LWB site, twisted arms for karaoke,
and a thousand other jobs that none of us see.

I think the thing that impresses me the most is that even when things are
looking completely unmanageable, they manage to find the reservoir of
strength to go on, and to go on with a smile.  Despite many LWB ups and
downs over recent months, the three have maintained an excellent working
relationship that is characterized by maturity, respect and good humour.
Disagreements have been negotiated, differing opinions sought out, and
compromises reached.  All this while carrying on MLIS course loads and
other responsibilities.

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