Library professionals recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Several Australian library professionals were among those recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Valmai Hankel was made Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia. Hankel was recognised ‘for significant service to library and information services, particularly in South Australia’, as former president of the Friends of the State Library of South Australia and for her career at the library since 1958.

Anne-Marie Schwirtlich was also made AM ‘for significant service to the library and archives sector through leadership roles at state and national level, and to professional information management organisations’. Schwirtlich is the current director-general of the National Library of Australia, and previously held roles as CEO and state librarian at the State Library of Victoria from 2003-2011 in a career spanning more than 20 years.

A Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) was awarded to Patricia Cooper ‘for service to primary education in the Australian Capital Territory’. Cooper has worked as a school teacher from 1980 and was a teacher-librarian at North Ainslie Primary School from 2008-2013.

View the full Queen’s Birthday Honours list here.

Category: Library news