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City's library chair awarded for efforts

Local teacher and board chair gets recognition for efforts from library association
Janaya Fuller-Evans

Sharon Freeman, board chair of the Burnaby Public Library, won the inaugural Young Adult and Children's Services Section Award from the British Columbia Library Association last month.

Freeman is a classroom teacher and teacher-librarian at Stride Avenue Community School.

The first annual award, which recognizes exceptional service in the area of children's or teen librarianship in British Columbia, was

granted to Freeman and Allison Taylor-McBryde, coordinator of children's and young adult services for the North Vancouver District Public Library, who retired last year.

Mayor Derek Corrigan and Burnaby councillors congratulated Freeman on the award at Monday night's council meeting, when Freeman and Burnaby's head librarian, Edel Toner-Rogala, appeared to present the library's 2011 annual report.

"Sharon is a tireless advocate for children, literacy and libraries," Toner-Rogala said in an email to the NOW.

Freeman has been a teacher-librarian and classroom teacher in the Burnaby School District for more than 20 years, and in that time has brought many innovative programs to the community, according to Toner-Rogala.

Freeman has brought in programs such as Burnaby schools' Battle of the Books, the Reading Rebus for intermediate students who have outgrown primary reading clubs, and she has organized Family Literacy Day events at Stride.

She served on the library board from 2001 to 2006, and was board chair in 2006.

Freeman was reappointed to the board by mayor and council in 2009, and was again elected chair at the beginning of 2012.

She is also chair of the InterLink board - InterLink is a co-operative federation of 18 public libraries in B.C. - and she is a member of many organizations in her industry.

In 2009, Freeman was given a local hero award by the City of Burnaby, and in 2007, she was awarded the B.C. Library Trustees' Association's Nancy Bennett Merit Award

"The public library community in the Lower Mainland has benefited, and continues to benefit, from Sharon's passion for reading, her commitment to children, youth and families and her belief in the potential of public libraries to make a difference in people's lives," Toner-Rogala said.