The Cheryl Haughton Scholarship provides the opportunity for library staff to fulfil a professional development need that is outside of their library’s normal staff development training resources.
Cheryl Haughton was instrumental in the development of QPLA from 1979 when the idea to form an association was born until 1981 when the first meeting occurred. Cheryl was a founding member of the association, holding the positions of President, Vice President and Treasurer, in addition to conference convenor over many years. Cheryl is currently retired, however is still very active within the library sector.
The intention of the Scholarship topic is for the successful applicant to gain skills and knowledge to benefit both the applicant and the management of their library service. It is further expected that the scholarship project will have demonstrated value for the broader QLD public library network.
This year, following a very competitive process with five quality applications, the successful applicant is Alicia Thiang.
Alicia’s project, titled – Implementing a Trauma informed organizational approach to customer service in libraries will investigate how libraries can strategically develop their policies and procedures to ensure the psychological and physical safety of staff while maintaining a customer-centric service model. The focus will be on understanding the trauma experienced by front-line staff and identifying organizational strategies to mitigate associated risks.
Congratulations Alicia.
Can’t wait to see this work product!