The OLA Larry Moore Distinguished Service Award


The OLA Board of Directors bestows an honourary life membership on a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the libraries of Ontario through his or her work within the Association. The work done must be seen as significant by members from more than one type of library. This award is presented on an irregular basis. A plaque is presented to commemorate the occasion.

The OLA Larry Moore Distinguished Service Award Terms of Reference
To view past recipients

2017 Award Recipient




   

Anne Bailey

Toronto, ON​

2016 Award Recipient



   

Joyce Cunningham

Fort Frances, ON​
Joyce began her professional career as an English teacher and teacher-librarian and she led the design and building of a new school library. Joyce was a leader and that translated into deeper involvement in the profession. She held the positions of president of the Rainy River branch of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and later represented the northern region on OSLA Council. Her professional background gave Joyce a firm foundation to segue into her involvement with the Board of Fort Frances Public Library in 1995. She immediately urged the Board to develop their very first strategic plan and 5 years later, chaired the second Strategic Plan committee. For fifteen tireless years Joyce worked alongside others in her community to lobby, advocate, cajole, and fundraise and thanks to these efforts in a town of 8,000 with a declining economic basis, the Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre was opened in 2010. OLBA is very proud of Joyce... as are OLA, OSLA, OLS-N and the town of Fort Frances who named her Citizen of the Year in 2010. Joyce once said, “I have come to understand how a library is such an important part of both the social and economic well-being of a community. The dream is never about bricks and mortar; it’s about having community access to possibilities that we have only started to explore.”  Sadly in November of 2015, Joyce’s explorations of her own possibilities were cut short when she passed away, leaving her family, and all of us in the library world, with an aching void which will never be filled.  2015 OLA Board of Directors.