Wendy Burch Jones

Wendy is an elementary teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) who is passionate about literacy, librarianship, and the importance of agency for students and student voice in school libraries. She works to create colourful, welcoming, safe, and student-centred spaces while ardently believing that every child has the right to see themselves reflected in story in every aspect of their intersectional identities. (Please don’t get her started on censorship and the freedom to read - it’s a hill she will die on!) 

She wears many hats: TDSB TL Mentor Leader & Digital Lead Learner; Forest of Reading Steering & Selection Committee member; President of the Ontario School Library Association; Canadian Children’s Book Centre Review Committee member; foster kitten rescuer; and sometimes she ekes out time to be a partner from whom she steals the covers; and mom to two teenagers that grunt at her in mono-syllablic noises she thinks might be gnomish. Above all else, you will hear Wendy loudly advocating for the key role that libraries and librarianship play in student and school community success. 

Wendy shares the honour of winning the inaugural 2025 Donald Hamilton School Library Advocacy Award from Canadian School Libraries with the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian Association for her innovation with the Dear School Library Project.