Librarian Willie Mae Wilson displays her Certificate of Achievement. HOUSTON- Bastian Elementary Educator Willie Mae Wilson wins HISD Librarian of the Year for 2009-2010. After completing a scrapbook, a presentation, and a personal interview, the Houston Association of School Librarians (HASL) and five judges: Holly Koile and Stephanie Borgman both from the Harris County Public Library; Peg Patrick from St John’s School; Elizabeth Eastman from River Oaks Elementary and Gayle Brown, a retired HISD librarian, selected Mrs. Wilson as the 2009-2010 Librarian of the Year. Mrs. Wilson was honored at the HASL banquet.
After graduating from Grambling State University, Wilson decided to further her education when she received a stipend to attend the Library School at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champagne, Illinois. There she earned a M.S. Degree in Library Science and the privilege to become a member of the Beta Phi Mu–International Library Science Honor Society. During her 33-year career, she has been the librarian at Peck, Wilson, Piney Point, Grady, Harper, Douglas and Pilgrim Elementary. Since 1999, she has been serving the students at Bastian, where Mr. Bruce Goffney is principal.
When she decided to take 18 hours of Library Science courses instead of three more hours of shorthand (to graduate) she never dreamed that her career would be out of her “minor” instead of in her “major”. She says, “I do not regret it at all! There have been a lot of great moments in the last three decades. A lot of lives have been changed; students have visited many lands and met a lot of people, just because they’ve been read to or given a book to read!”