In November last year, the Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) South Australia Division presented the Graeme Dimond Memorial Award to Burnside Library Manager, Margaret Moxon. The award includes a $2,500 scholarship for professional development.
Margaret Moxon has been Manager of the Burnside Library for 11 years. She commenced her career as a junior library assistant at Flinders University in South Australia and received her librarian qualifications in 1979. From there she spent ten years in the former Public Libraries Branch (Department of Local Government) until moving to Burnside.
With the recently completed $9 million redevelopment of Burnside Library, Margaret’s role was to ensure that the new facility would meet the needs of current users as well as have the flexibility to respond to future needs.
“Staff involvement through the design and construction was crucial to the success of the new building, as was keeping the community fully informed throughout the whole process,” she said.“Relocating the library to smaller adjacent premises and maintaining quality services for a year while the old library was demolished and the new one built on its former site was challenging.
“I was delighted and honoured to win the award and to receive the scholarship for professional development. Winning the award now that the library has been open for its first year is very timely, providing an excellent opportunity for me to refocus on key service issues and future service directions. With the award I intend undertaking a study of economic opportunities for public libraries in a virtual environment focusing on the impact of e-books and the development of Internet services including their potential future commercialisation.
“The only management book I’ve ever read is Ricardo Semler’s Maverick. The main thing I learnt from it was to never file anything. If you asked me what the key qualities of a successful manager are I would say honesty, the ability to earn people’s respect, a positive outlook, a sense of humour, a balanced life, common sense, commitment to your customers, total loyalty to your staff and no shoulder pads!” Margaret Moxon said.
