Margaret Friesen, an Administrative Librarian Emeritus from UBC, has been honoured with an Honourary Life Membership Award from the British Columbia Library Association (BCLA). The award and a plaque were awarded on May 12 at the BCLA Annual General Meeting, held in Richmond, B.C. The Honourary Life Membership Award is given to those who have made “substantial and recognizable long standing contributions to BCLA and to library service in the province.”
Margaret worked at UBC Library for more than 40 years; her most recent position before retiring in December 2011 was Assessment Librarian. During her career, she made many contributions to B.C.’s library services, including serving as Manager of the B.C. Post-Secondary Interlibrary Loan Network from 1977 to 1995. She also was a member of advisory committees for the Greater Vancouver Library Federation, several Vancouver Public Library planning groups, the council for UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, and other regional and provincial library agencies. She published articles and presented workshops for more than four decades for B.C. audiences, including the public library, government/special library and academic library sectors.
Margaret also contributed to the BCLA, and served as its President for two terms (1983 to 1985). In addition, she sat on many committees, and served as a researcher (principal co-investigator) for the B.C. Newspaper Project from 1984 to 1987. She received the BCLA Honourary Member Award in 1989 and the BCLA Merit Award in 1990.
Congratulations Margaret!