Wendy Burch Jones was a recipient of the inaugural Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Award, presented at Canadian School Libraries’ Treasure Mountain Canada Symposium on January 31, 2025. The award citation reads:
To honour Jenn’s expertise and contributions to the field of school libraries, school library learning commons, and teacher-librarianship, noted and applauded in her school, district, province and country. Jenn excels as a teacher-librarian, conference presenter, district president of Peel Elementary Teacher-Librarian Association, former president of the Ontario School Library Association (OSLA), writer for The Teaching Librarian and Open Shelf Magazines, and presenter for Teacher-Librarian Additional Qualification Courses York University.
Here we share Wendy’s award acceptance speech.
If you know me, you’ll know that it is not in my DNA to be quiet. About anything really. If I have an opinion or a thought in my head, you’re likely to hear it. If we’re friends, I’ll likely interrupt you to share it. If I have a feeling my face will likely tell you what it is (I’ve been told not ever to sit down at a poker table). And in case we really don’t know each other, I really, really love school libraries. I love everything about them. I love how they are the beating hearts of their school communities, safe havens for those that need them, places where wonder and imagination can run wild, centres where curiosity and innovation can be nurtured and grown, and magical rooms where the spark of #SchoolLibraryJoy turns decoders into life-long readers.
And as the saying goes, if the shoes fit, wear them (especially if they are as fun as these ones)! When sharing the news with my family, my 16-year-old quipped, “So basically you got an award for being loud?” In the press release for this award, my dear friend Joseph Jeffery wrote that I was an “active voice.”. Though I’m not sure that’s how any of my teachers would have characterized it. “Wendy is a talkative student who enthusiastically participates in class.” Yeah, no. I’m loud. I always have
been. And that’s okay. But advocacy doesn’t have to be.
Advocacy is conversations. Thank you to Diana, Mel, Kim, Richard, Lisa, and Ruth – my TL besties and confidantes. You are really good at talking me down off proverbial ledges and encouraging me to “sleep on it” so I don’t say or do something I’ll regret. I am a better teacher-librarian and leader in this profession because of you.
Advocacy is encouragement. Thank you to my principals, especially Ramon San Vicente and Liga Miklasevics for your reassurance and support. Your confidence in my leadership and gentle encouragement to pursue more has helped get me to where I am today.
Advocacy is partnerships. Thank you to Maria Martella, James Saunders, Anita Brooks Kirkland, Judith Sykes and the CSL Board for their unwavering support of both me and the Dear School Library Project.
Advocacy is leadership. Thank you to Michelle Arbuckle, Meredith Tutching, OLA Staff, and OSLA Council for your leadership with the Dear School Library Project, and all our continued advocacy work for school libraries in Ontario.
Advocacy is voices. I want to especially thank all the school library professionals from across the province who sent in photos of the Dear School Library projects in their school communities. Your advocacy speaks volumes and will continue to do so as this project unfolds.
Advocacy is imagery. Thank you to Lindsay Zier-Vogel, author of the 2024 Blue Spruce nominated book, Dear Street. It was this book and Lindsay’s Love Lettering Project that were the inspiration behind the Dear School Library project. Not only did Lindsay offer me her full support, but gave tips and ideas to help ensure it would be successful.
Advocacy is sometimes quietly subversive. Thank you to my friends in TDSB #libraryland. You are leaders and activists who fight for school libraries however you can and for that I am truly grateful. Never stop fighting.
Advocacy is choices. Thank you to my mother, Anne Saunders, a retired teacher-librarian, for making the choice over 60 years ago to go into the library. You showed me what #SchoolLibraryJoy looked like long before I even knew I wanted to be a teacher. You showed me that every display we put up, every collection development decision, every book we choose to put forward facing on the shelves –
each one is an act of advocacy.
Advocacy is love. I want to thank my family – and extra points go to my partner Matt, a man who is as introverted as I am extroverted and loves me through all my rants (edubabble acronyms and all), with a look of love on his face, likely not understanding a word. You fight for me to keep my head above water when I don’t even know I’m drowning, and for that I am ever grateful.
Advocacy is activism. So thank you, each and every one of you. Being here tonight is an act of advocacy. You chose to come to Treasure Mountain Canada because you believe that writing things down and talking about it can bring about change. If that isn’t advocacy in a nutshell, I don’t know what is!
Lastly, advocacy is passion. We are here tonight because we share a love of school libraries that has brought us together to celebrate them. I ardently believe that it is in all these acts of advocacy that we will grow a movement together that cannot be stopped, cannot be quelled, and most definitely cannot be silenced. Our stories need to be heard. So, please keep telling them, in whatever shoes fit. Thank you.
Wendy Burch Jones, BA, BEd, OCT is an elementary teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board who is passionate about literacy, librarianship, and the importance of agency for students and student voice in school libraries. She works to create colourful, welcoming, safe, and student-centred spaces while ardently believing that every child has the right to see themselves reflected in story in every aspect of their intersectional identities. (Please don’t get her started on censorship and the freedom to read – it’s a hill she will die on!) She wears many hats: TDSB TL Mentor Leader & Digital Lead Learner, Forest of Reading Steering & Selection Committee member, President of the Ontario School Library Association, Canadian Children’s Book Centre Review Committee member, foster kitten rescuer, and sometimes she ekes out time to be a partner from whom she steals the covers, and mom to two teenagers that grunt at her in mono-syllablic noises she thinks might be gnomish. Above all else, you will hear Wendy loudly advocating for the key role that libraries and librarianship play in student and school community success.