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Library Excellence Award
Faculty turns mourning, loss into life of giving
Thursday, June 14, 2012
By Julie Titone, College of Education
Barbara Ward, a Hurricane Katrina refugee, now serves as a WSU clinical assistant professor, teaching literacy at the WSU College of Education in Pullman. Photo by Julie Titone, Collge of Education.
PULLMAN, Wash. - Barbara Ward sat in a Baton Rouge shelter with the other refugees, her New Orleans home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. But the longtime teacher was mourning a greater loss. The floodwaters had turned her huge personal library into a sopping mass of paper and mold.
Since then, Ward, a faculty member at Washington State University, has had thousands more books come into her life – and given many of those away to the WSU Libraries. On Wednesday, she was honored with the university’s Library Excellence Award for her donations, her contributions to literacy education, and her passionate belief in public access to books.
"She’s given more than $50,000 worth of books to the library’s juvenile collection. It’s been expanded beyond belief,” said education library supervisor Lipi Turner-Rahman, who nominated Ward.
Life after Katrina
Ward is a clinical assistant professor who teaches literacy at the WSU College of Education in Pullman. Her first job with WSU was in the Tri-Cities, where she arrived in 2005. That was the year she received her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of New Orleans – and the year that Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
Her home was flooded with 10 feet of water. "I lost every book I owned,” said Ward, who taught for 25 years in New Orleans public schools. "Thousands of books. Treasures.”
Her home was flooded with 10 feet of water. "I lost every book I owned,” said Ward, who taught for 25 years in New Orleans public schools. "Thousands of books. Treasures.”
On the Tri-Cities campus, she was mentored by Professor Terrell Young, a children’s literacy expert. Through him, she was appointed to several national book award committees, which send her up to 500 books a year for review.
Children's, young adult literature
"I saw that WSU had an awesome library system but next to nothing when it came to children’s and young adult literature, which are my passion,” she said. "So after reading the books, I decided to pass them along.”
Steven Bisch, circulation supervisor at the WSU-Tri Cities library, credits Ward with providing materials that WSU education students can use and, in turn, "provide quality education to students across the state and nation.”
Public access
The librarians noted that the books can be checked out by the public as well as by university faculty and staff.
WSU Dean of Libraries Jay Starratt presented the Library Excellence Award. After hearing Ward’s passionate remarks, he told her: "I’ll bet you’re a good teacher.”
He’s right. Ward received the WSU College of Education’s 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2009, she won the State Literacy Award from the Washington Organization for Reading Development.
Contacts:
Barbara Ward, Barbara_ward@wsu.edu, 509-335-6390
Julie Titone, WSU College of Education jtitone@wsu.edu, 509-335-6850
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