Tag: Canadian Librarians

Library Hall of Fame

October is Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month. As we celebrate CLM and ISLM each year, we highlight notable librarians who have made significant contributions to libraries and librarianship. We also celebrate librarians who have raised the profile of libraries and librarianship with their fame in other fields. Here are the 2026 inductees into our Library Hall of Fame. Please note that all of them worked closely with many other people, some whose names we will never hear:

Abdel Kader Haidara

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Abdel Kader Haidara (b.1964) In 2012, Abdel Kader Haidara and his team helped save hundreds of thousands of historic manuscripts from destruction in Mali. Fundamentalist Jihadist forces, aligned with Al-Queda, had seized power in Mali. They target Books and any other media which presented a more moderate expression of Islam for destruction. Haidera, who had inherited responsibility for a substantial private library of historic manuscripts, took great personal risks in masterminding a smuggling operation to protect the precious pieces of Timbuktu’s glorious history. His story is told in The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer

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Amanda Jones

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Amanda Jones is one of the heroic librarians featured in the 2025 documentary feature “The Librarians.” Jones is an award winning teacher librarian from Louisiana who is a prominent anti-censorship advocate. Her story is told in “The Librarians,” recounting the attacks she faced for speaking out against book banning, and her resolve to stand up and fight back.

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Dick Ellis
Toni Samek

Dick Ellis and Toni Samek were the co-recipients of the 2025 CFLA-FCAB Intellectual Freedom Award. Both were honoured for lifetime achievements in advocacy for Intellectual Freedom in Canada. Dick Ellis (1942-2025) had a distinguished career as a librarian and educator, including decades at Memorial University in Newfoundland.

Toni Samek has also been one of Canada’s most prominent advocates for Intellectual Freedom. She is a University of Alberta Professor, and has spoken out about the current issues facing Alberta school and public libraries. Samek is a strong voice both in Canada and internationally. Among her current roles is Scholar in Residence for the Centre for Free Expression.

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Previous Library Hall of Fame Inductees:

  • Brian Deer
  • Shiela Egoff
  • Ed Greenwood
  • Zoia Horn
  • Gene Joseph
  • Audre Lorde
  • Nancy Pearl
  • S.R. Ranganathan
  • Ken Roberts
  • Leslie Weir
  • Jessamyn West
  • Zenodotus




Library Hall of Fame

October is Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month. As we celebrate CLM and ISLM each year, we highlight notable librarians who have made significant contributions to libraries and librarianship. We also celebrate librarians who have raised the profile of libraries and librarianship with their fame in other fields. Here are the 2025 inductees into our Library Hall of Fame:

Shiela Egoff

(source)

Sheila Egoff (1918-2005) was one of Canada’s most outstanding librarians. Egoff worked in both public and academic libraries. Egoff was also a writer, a historian, a professor, a literary critic. Among her many accomplishments, Sheila Egoff was Canada’s first tenured Professor of Children’s Literature (at the University of British Columbia.) Egoff was named to the Order of Canada. The Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for excellence in children’s and young adult literature, has been awarded in her name since 1987.

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Audre Lorde

(source)

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) spent many of her early years as a teacher librarian in New York Public Schools, before garnering greater fame, and many honours, as a poet, academic, novelist, activist, philosopher, feminist, and more. Much of her work spoke to fight for the freedom and equality of the oppressed and marginalized, including the intersections of race, gender and sexual orientation.

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S.R. Ranganathan

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S.R. Ranganathan (1892-1972) is known as the “Father of Library Science”in India. Best known for “The Five Laws of Library Science,” Ranganathan also developed the Colon Classification system. His work not only revolutionized the practices of libraries and librarians in India, but grew in influence throughout the world.

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Previous Library Hall of Fame Inductees:

Brian Deer
Ed Greenwood
Zoia Horn
Gene Joseph
Nancy Pearl
Ken Roberts
Leslie Weir
Jessamyn West
Zenodotus


Library Hall of Fame

October is Canadian Library Month and International School Library Month. As we celebrate CLM and ISLM each year, we highlight notable librarians who have made significant contributions to libraries and librarianship. We also celebrate librarians who have raised the profile of libraries and librarianship with their fame in other fields. Here are the 2024 inductees into our Library Hall of Fame:

Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood (source)

Ed Greenwood is a library clerk from rural Ontario. He is more famous for his prolific creativity in the world of role playing games and fantasy literature. He is the creator of the Forgotten Realms game world, which he first developed as a young child and integrated with Dungeons and Dragons. He would go on to develop intricate role playing game worlds, and write myriad novels, novellas, short stories and articles for fantasy and gaming magazines. He has won numerous awards and honours, including induction into the Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Leslie Weir

Leslie Weir (source)

Since 2019 Leslie Weir has served as Librarian and Archivist of Canada. She is the first woman to hold this post. Weir has served in many important roles in Canada’s academic libraries, including President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and University Librarian at the University of Ottawa. She has been honoured with numerous awards during a distinguished career.

Ken Roberts

Ken Roberts (source)

Ken Roberts is a Canadian librarian. He had distinguished career in many positions, including President of Canadian Library Association, and Chief Librarian in the Hamilton Public Library. He is also a well known as an award winning writer of books for children and young adults, including Past Tense, a Governor General’s Award nominee. Roberts has won numerous honours during his career. One supporter offered this high praise of Roberts, “What stands out for me with Ken is that, in spite of all his accomplishments, he is a librarian first and foremost, and a humble man.” (source)

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Ed Greenwood

Leslie Weir

Ken Roberts

Previous Library Hall of Fame Inductees:

Brian Deer
Zoia Horn
Nancy Pearl
Gene Joseph
Jessamyn West
Zenodotus