2003

7th March 2003
State Library Award for Hunter Catholic Sister
Local Sister of St Joseph, Betty Brown, was recently honoured by the Australian School Library Association of NSW (ASLA) with the prestigious John Hirst Award for outstanding commitment to school libraries and teacher librarianship.

According to ASLA, who present the award annually to a worthy recipient, Sr Betty Brown's life is an example to those who are to follow in her footsteps as an energetic and dynamic Teacher Librarian.

After 50 years of service to the community, Sr Betty still shines brightly for practitioners who are currently engaged in the monumental task of engineering the evolution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy.

In 2003, Sr Betty is still at the wheel. She is Curriculum Adviser (Information and Technology Services) in the Catholic Schools Office, Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Not only is she responsible for quality control in the implementation of information and technology services she is also active in working with Teacher Librarians and Assistants, ensuring that they are trained effectively in the delivery of information services to students and staff. She writes and edits articles for professional journals and encourages library staff to promote their activities in local and professional publications.

Sr Betty Brown began her teaching career in 1953 at St Josephs Primary School, Port Macquarie. Through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s she taught in schools in NSW and Queensland taking on many challenging positions with enthusiasm.

After many years as a classroom teacher, she graduated from Canberra University in Librarianship in 1976. She was appointed Principal in 1975 and held this position in two new innovative and team teaching schools until 1986. She developed their libraries with the support of voluntary parent helpers and helped volunteers in other schools with the development and management of their libraries.

From 1987 to 1996 she served as Library Consultant at the Catholic Schools Office, Newcastle, identifying the information services needs of the schools and making recommendations for improving their conditions. She was instrumental in staffing all the primary schools with teacher librarians to work with teachers and students, and library assistants to manage the technical services of the libraries.

She co-coordinated the computerisation of all Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle school libraries (K-12) and was responsible for training and supervision of library staff. She visited the schools regularly and promoted information literacy, emerging technologies and the integration of these into the curriculum. She also promoted children's literature and facilitated the professional development of Teacher Librarians and Assistants.

From 1997 to 2001, Sr Betty was Information and Technology Services Adviser as the emergence of the digital information age began to be felt deeply at the coal face of education. She was involved in planning and implementing the diocesan ICT program and encouraging the integration of the library program and the technology program in all areas of the curriculum. She worked to ensure that information service needs were considered in the roll out of the system technology infrastructure.

Apart from being a committee member of ASLA (NSW) she is also a member of the Children and Youth Services of the Australian Library and Information Association, the Australian Council for Educational Leaders, the Children's Book Council and many other voluntary groups.

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