It was the WA library world's night of nights - the Library Board Awards were held on Thursday July 20th at the State Library of Western Australia. This year, the awards were held in the library's beautiful theatre.
The ALIA West team were ready and waiting to greet the guests as they arrived.
Drinks and canapes were served as the guests congregated outside the theatre door. It was an opportunity for colleagues to reconnect and celebrate. Some had travelled from regional libraries and even from inter-state to be there for the night of nights.
Ingrid Cumming gave a heartfelt Welcome to Country and set the mood for the evening, asking everyone to clap along as she sang.
Then, CEO and State Librarian, Catherine Clark, began the official proceedings for the evening.
Chair of the Library Board of WA, was invited up to the podium to announce this year's Fellow of the Library Board of WA. This honour was awarded to Margaret Allen, former State Librarian, who had returned to Perth to be at the ceremony. This was a wonderful reminder of all the fantastic work Margaret Allen did in her time in the role of CEO and State Librarian, just over a year on from her retirement.
John Day then awarded the Library Board Award for Innovation and Collaboration (Metropolitan and Large Regional Category) to the City of Karratha Public Library for their Memory Preservation Station. Though she was unable to be there in person to accept the award, ALIA West was very proud to see 2019 FA Sharr Award recipient (and past convenor), Taylor Coventry, projected up on screen to make her speech and tell everyone a bit about this project which aims to collect and preserve recorded materials and oral histories which might otherwise be lost through the obsolescence of their recording format.
Special mention was also given to Curtin University for their work on indigenising and decolonising their library services.
The Library Board Award for Innovation and Collaboration (Small Regional Category) was awarded to Boyup Brook for their redesign of library services project.
Then, finally.... the moment we had all been waiting for! It was time to announce the winner of the 2022 FA Sharr Award. 2021 winner, Emily Paull, was called on stage to announce the winner. The award was presented to Melissa Pettit, a passionate librarian whose work for the education department in supporting school library staff to combat the twin evils of illiteracy and aliteracy is the embodiment of the #studentsneedschoollibraries movement. Melissa's love for what she does shone through in her presentation about her journey to becoming a librarian and the work she has been doing since she joined the team at the education department. She was supported by a number of colleagues as well as her two children. And, to top it all off, she was dressed the part of Super Librarian in her striking red cape.
The evening concluded with the presentation of a number of ALIA membership pins by ALIA board member, Dr Nicole Johnston, before the attendees adjourned back to the foyer for more drinks and photographs.
Congratulations to all the nominees!
