Norman librarian wants a book for a child from every walk of life
Throughout her career as a school librarian, Amanda Kordeliski has always had a goal that students from all walks of life can visit a Norman Public Schools library and find a book about a character or written by an author who looks like them.
She is well known as an advocate for all students, modeling the OEA core values of equal opportunity and a just society.
It is these traits that earned Kordeliski OEA’s 2022 Kate Frank Award, one of the association’s Human and Civil Rights Awards.
The Kate Frank Award is presented to an OEA member and/or local association who demonstrates a concern for the well-being of association members through the advocacy of members’ rights and recognizes the responsibility to assist others in their growth toward an increased level of association advocacy.
In her current position as director of librarians and instructional technology for Norman Public Schools, Kordeliski helps librarians build diverse collections to benefit Norman students. She has written grants and secured donations that have provided books with diverse characters and authors so that each NPS library has a set of books representing their unique populations.
Kordeliski issues book challenges to NPS librarians, encouraging them to read books from their school collections that include a wide range of diversity of characters and authors.
“Amanda continues to help librarians diversify their collections,” said Brittany Arnold, Professional Educators of Norman president, in her nomination of Kordeliski for the award. “She has made it clear that building a truly diversified collection doesn’t just mean buying books with diverse characters, but that it takes reading these books and having open and free discussion surrounding the topics that are presented.”
Kordeliski’s advocacy doesn’t stay within NPS. She has served on the Sequoyah Selection Committee, been involved in National History Day, traveled with students to Washington, D.C., and twice won a spot in the prestigious Memorializing the Fallen. She has shared her passion with the Oklahoma Library Association’s School Libraries Division and worked with legislators to secure better funding for school libraries.
