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Korie Buerkle is the 2020 recipient of the Evelyn Sibley Lampman award for her significant contribution to Oregon in the fields of children’s literature and library services. Assistant Director and co-manager of Children’s Services at the Newberg Public Library, she has served in various positions on the CSD Board and was 2017-18 OLA Secretary. She currently serves as the Finance Chair on the executive board of OBOB.  Korie has been active in the Oregon library community for many years.  She regularly presents at OLA conferences.

Recently, Korie worked tirelessly to champion the book George by Alex Gino. The story of a transgender 4th grader, George was on the 2018-19 OBOB list. Its inclusion on the list garnered national controversy.  At the same time, Korie was recovering from a concussion received at work. For this work, the committee received the 2019 Intellectual Freedom Champion as part of the OBOB committee.

Korie continues to advocate for getting diverse books into the hands of kids. She recognizes the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, and is always learning what she, personally, can do to ensure positive change in the field of children’s literature and library services. She sees the great value in literature that includes characters from marginalized populations, particularly #ownvoices books. One of her more recent projects is a list of Christmas books that provide windows and mirrors to their readers. She shared her list with the Oregon children’s librarian community and invited other librarians to share their ideas in order to have the most comprehensive, updated list possible. Korie often shares what she is learning with other children’s librarians by sharing both successes and challenges through kids-lib.

 Please go to the Lampman Award page for a slideshow of the presentation.

The National Book Awards were handed out on November 18, 2020.   See this link for the full list of winners and finalists.