Patricia Symons of the Bruce County Public Library Board was awarded this year's James Bain Medallion by the Ontario Public Library Association. This honour is given to a library board member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in governing a public library in Ontario. Her acceptance speech is on our Facebook page.
Marzio Apolloni, long-time CEO of the Bruce County Public Library, wrote the following letter of support of Patricia's nomination, specifically noting the importance of her strong advocacy in challenging political times.
Dear OPLA Council,
I am pleased and honored to provide a letter of support for the nomination, of Patricia Symon, for the OPLA James Bain Medallion.
I have known Patricia Symon since 1988 (I was the C.E.O. of the Bruce County Public Library 1988 – 2012) and have seen firsthand her work, and her approach to public libraries in the community and the province of Ontario.
It would be quite easy to rhyme off Patricia’s activity in her local community, within the County of Bruce, on the Bruce County Public Library Board, SOLS etc. Those activities are important and crucial for a library board trustee (I’m sure the list is provided in the accompanying documentation). But just as important is the person who does those things.
It has often been said that we are a product of our environment. Patricia was born and raised on the Bruce Peninsula. It is a place which could best be described as a ‘terrible beauty’. The summers are idyllic while the winters are harsh and unforgiving. Lake Huron and Georgian Bay can be picturesque but can turn into a squall seemingly in an instant. This is where you will find people like Patricia who are fiercely independent and passionate about their beliefs. Patricia has those qualities and more, a determined ferocity about the role of public libraries in the communities of Bruce County and the Province of Ontario.
She has earned the respect of all who encountered her at every level in Ontario, especially with elected officials who recognized her as the voice of the people the library serves. She saw the County Library system as a viable model for others to emulate. It represented what would happen in the community, people getting together to help each other. To that end she helped support the Board’s membership in the Federation and actively encouraged participation in the Federation by Bruce County. The Board and the County benefited from that relationship immeasurably.
It is much to her credit that the Bruce County Public Library Board has an enviable relationship with elected officials, as was not always the case in other jurisdictions in Ontario. As the C.E.O. I could try and deliver a message on behalf of the library, and be discounted as a paid civil servant. Patricia would say the same thing, and her message carried the day.
The 1990’s is a time seared in my memory, when the provincial government cut the per house hold grant by over 50%. Public Libraries were under attack and there was a real fear many would be closing, especially in rural and remote areas of Ontario. We needed the public to get behind the library in a bigger way. Thus Patricia became the voice of the board, in helping to establish Friends of the Library across the county, representing 18 branches. She was instrumental in seeing the library through that dark time. Her focus then, as now, was the person coming to the library and the staff who served them.
I consider Patricia Symon the quintessential library board trustee, a fierce and determined defender of the role of public libraries in our communities. Her fearlessness is an inspiration to anyone who encounters her especially as the recipient of the James Bain Medallion.
Sincerely,
Marzio Apolloni (H.B.A., M.L.S.)
