OLBA Joyce Cunningham Award Public Library Board of the Year
Criteria/Eligibility
A high-performance Public Library Board can be defined as a group of people with
specific roles and complementary talents and skills, aligned with and committed to a
common purpose, and who consistently show high levels of collaboration and
innovation to produce superior results.
A high performance Public Library Board is regarded as tight knit, focused on their goal,
and have supportive processes that will enable any board member to surmount any
barriers in achieving the board’s goals. Within the team, individual board members are
highly skilled and are able to interchange their roles. Also, leadership within the team is
not vested in a single individual; instead the leadership role is taken up by various team
members, according to the need at that moment in time.
Some common characteristics leading to success are:
• Participative leadership: using a democratic leadership style that involves and
engages board members to form an effective team.
• Effective decision-making: using a blend of rational and intuitive decision
making methods, depending on that nature of the decision task.
• Open and clear communication: ensuring that the team mutually constructs
shared meaning, using effective communication methods and channels.
• Valued diversity: valuing a diversity of experience and background in team,
contributing to a diversity of viewpoints, leading to better decision making and
solutions.
• Mutual trust: trusting in the board as an entity, and developing mutual trust
between library staff and the board.
• Managing conflict: dealing with conflict openly, transparently and in a timely
manner so as to uphold team morale.
• Clear goals: developing goals using SMART* criteria; each goal must have
personal meaning and resonance for each team member, building commitment
and engagement.
• Defined roles and responsibilities: each board member understands what they
must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the
team and to support team success.
• Coordinative relationship: ensuring the bonds between the board members
allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and
effectiveness.
• Positive atmosphere: developing an overall team culture that is open,
transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.
* SMART
- Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
- Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
- Assignable – specify who will do it.
- Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
- Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
Additional Criteria
- Public Library Boards that have a member currently serving on OLBA Council are not eligible for this award.
- The nominated Public Library Board must be a member in good standing of OLBA.
- Nominated Boards from small, medium and large libraries are given equal consideration.
Nomination Procedure
- The nominator must be a member in good standing of OLBA or OPLA.
- The nomination form is accessed through the OLA Website on the awards
information page. - The nomination package should include evidence to support the nomination and
demonstrate evidence and outcomes of a successful venture using the criteria
above. - Letters of support are encouraged but not required.
- Nominations will be accepted between: September – November.
- The closing date for nominations in any given year is: 1 November.
- Once the winner has been chosen, the OLBA President will contact the
successful nominator.
o The OLA office will contact all unsuccessful nominators. - Unless otherwise arranged, the OLBA President will also contact the successful
nominee and request a photo for promotion purposes.
o The OLA office will later connect with the nominator and the winner for
award presentation logistics. - If desired, nominators may be involved in the award presentation such as
creating and/or writing the presentation speech. Please indicate your interest to
do so in the nomination form.
Selection Process
- The OLBA Council will appoint the Selection Committee. It will be composed of three OLBA members and will include at least one OLBA Councillor.
- Members of the Selection Committee must declare any identified conflict of interest.
- The OLBA Awards Committee will review all of the applications and assess candidates’ eligibility. Eligible applications will be assessed according to the criteria as above and any supporting the documentation.
- The OLBA Awards Committee will present all qualified candidates to the OLBA Council for consideration. The Council will consider all potential candidates, including those nominated from the membership.
- Nominees who are not selected may be re-nominated in subsequent years with the submission of updated documentation.
- The presentation of the award is at the discretion of the OLBA Council and is not necessarily presented on an annual basis.
Award Presentation Information
- This award is presented by the President of OLBA at the Public Library Awards Gala in conjunction with the OLA’s annual Super Conference.
- The winner will be notified in advance of the award presentation.
- At the presentation, an introductory speech will be delivered outlining the achievements of the award winner.
- The recipient will prepare a short acceptance speech.
- Award winners receive 2 complimentary tickets to the Public Library Awards Gala; one for themselves (or designate), and one for a guest. Additional tickets must be purchased.
