Angela Thacker Memorial Award: 2020 Recipients

Canadian School Libraries is pleased to announce

Alison Bodner
Alanna King
Sarah Wethered

as recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award 2020.

Angela Thacker
Angela Thacker

The Angela Thacker Memorial Award has been established in memory of Angela Thacker, teacher-librarian, library coordinator, and school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate who served the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (ATLC) and the Canada School Library Association (CSLA) in many capacities. This award honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or school library learning commons.


Alison Bodner

Alison Bodner. teacher-librarian at Bairdmore Elementary School in the Pembina Trails School Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba, has provided outstanding contributions and leadership in the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship across the district and province. Her expertise as co-teacher and collaborator provide the best possible educational outcomes for her students and role model for colleagues including serving in leadership positions and leading activities with the Manitoba School Library Association, where she received the 2019 Manitoba School Library Association’s “Outstanding Teacher-Librarian of the Year” award.

As Consultant, I sincerely appreciate how as a seasoned teacher-librarian, Alison continues to want to learn more.  She attends all school library related professional learning sessions provided at the divisional level and continually shares her expertise with others.  She is the model of a life-long learner that the students and staff at Bairdmore School have benefitted from for many years. She is selfless in her determination to use her position as teacher-librarian to the greater good of all students and staff.

Jo-Anne Gibson, Library Learning Commons Consultant, Pembina Trails School Division

Alison offers a wide variety of learning opportunities as she leads learning from the library learning commons. She encourages students to critically consider real-world issues such as human rights, gender equality, and cultural diversity. She supports students in their discovery of these ideas through her modeling of inquiry-based learning and information literacy. She teaches students how to stay safe online and how to be digital leaders rather than followers. Alison continues to act as a mentor and role model for students, new and experienced teachers, community members, and other educators.

Doug Jonasson, Principal, Bairdmore School

Alanna King

Alanna King is a very active and innovative teacher-librarian and a leader for Ontario’s school libraries. Her exceptional expertise and leadership in the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship has been continually demonstrated in schools, school districts, the province, nation and internationally including contributions to the Treasure Mountain Canada Research Symposium and the Canadian School Libraries Research Archive. Alanna’s written contributions to the field of school librarianship can be found at on her blog and her presentations including her most recent, Jornada de Bibliotecas Escolares, September 2019, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sponsored by UNESCO and IFLA) can be found here.

The award describes Angela Thacker as “school library colleague, mentor, leader and advocate”. These words can also describe Alanna King. Alanna is passionate, creative, whimsical, thoughtful and driven. With over 4500 followers on Twitter (@banana29), she is a huge influence and a force to be reckoned with.

Diana Maliszewski, Teacher-Librarian and Kate Johnson-McGregor, Head of Library, Brantford Collegiate Institute

I had the opportunity to watch Alanna consistently demonstrate her passion for the library as a hub of cross-curricular learning for the whole school community through everything she did, and keep a focus on guiding resources like Together for Learning and Leading Learning.

Lisa Unger, Teacher-Librarian, Orangeville District Secondary School

Sarah Wethered



Sarah Wethered has provided outstanding expertise and contributions to the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship which has been noted and applauded in her school, district, and province including leadership with the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian’s Association and implementation of an innovation grant aimed at improving school library learning commons programs in areas identified in Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.

Sarah works tirelessly on the behalf of the teacher-librarians of New Westminister, whether in advocating for other teacher-librarians or supporting them by sharing various strategies to promote literacy and inquiry in their own schools. Sarah has an open-door policy for all teacher-librarians to come observe her practice.

Lisa E. Seddon, M.A., M.L.S.

Sarah has shown herself to be a strong leader, mentor, and advocate for teacher-librarians both locally and provincially. She was the president of the New Westminster Teacher-Librarian Association for many years, and she also currently devotes her time for teacher-librarians at a provincial level in writing the BC Teacher-Librarian Association newsletter and as vice-president of the BCTLA. Sarah is currently an adjunct professor for the Teacher-Librarianship program at Queens University, another example of how she is fostering growth for the profession. The list of Sarah’s achievements and accomplishments extends far more than the examples I’ve highlighted above. She truly is an exemplary teacher-librarian and I cannot imagine a more supportive person to work with and learn from. Her passion for and dedication to the professional development of teacher-librarianship is clearly demonstrated through her tireless actions and efforts.

Jenny Chang, Teacher-Librarian, New Westminster Secondary School