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ALIA West
May 2006FA sharr medalALIAWest invites nominations/self nominations of 2005 graduands to be considered for the 2005 FA Sharr Medal. Information on the FA Sharr Medal, application form and the names of recipients can be found on the ALIA web site. Please note that the contact information, and the timing information on the web site is not current - as of 4 May 06, but will change soon. For those who have no knowledge of the FA Sharr Medal, I reproduce the introduction from the web site:
If you know of a Western Australian who completed their library studies in 2005, please consider them for this medal or draw their attention to it so they may self-nominate. The closing date for applications is 30 June 2006, and the medal will be awarded at the Biennial ALIA conference, CLICK 06.
Please send your nomination and accompanying paperwork to: Words from a previous Sharr Medal recipient, delivered at the Alexander Library, Perth on Wednesday 6 March 2002. The F A Sharr Medal is awarded to a graduand in Western Australia who is 'the one most likely to have a positive impact on their preferred stream of the library profession.' Distinguished guests, fellow nominees, ladies and gentlemen, I am very honoured to receive the 2001 F A Sharr Medal, particularly as the award is named in honour of a man who has achieved so much in librarianship, and who was largely responsible for the fine library and information service that many of us here tonight are a part of. I hope that I will be a worthy recipient. For me personally, it has been a long and winding road to where I stand today, as a librarian. My most vivid and early memory of libraries and librarians took place on 7 February 1967, when the most disastrous bushfires in Tasmania's history destroyed 95 per cent and eleven inhabitants of the little town I lived in, a place called Snug. On that day, when I was 10 years old, the fires cut our town in two so that half the population of about 500 took refuge on the beach while the rest of us made it to the brick school. At 1:00pm it was pitch black outside, while inside 200 frightened souls tried to survive what can only be described as 'a firestorm'. As the fires raged outside (in fact, the school itself was on fire, but we did not find that out until later), and the burnt and crying people lay along the corridors, our school librarian opened the big double doors of the library, gathered up every child she could find, and told us that we could choose any books we wanted. While my brother and I read our favourite Tintin books in a quiet corner, the librarian read stories to many of the other children as the fires moved on towards the next town down the valley. And so an incredible day of catastrophe became something almost unremarkable to the children in that library.
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