Congrats to Frank Baker! 

The OELMA Presidential Award recipient is selected by the OELMA President with the support of the Board of Directors and honors the contributions of an individual to the school library field.  This year, the recipient of the OELMA Presidential Award is Frank W. Baker, media consultant who has made it his mission to bring media literacy education to teachers and students for more than 25 years.  For him that meant creating an internationally recognized website, writing books for educators, and conducting hundreds of hands-on interactive workshops.  He believes that teaching critical thinking skills about media is more important than ever in a world where it seems everything on the internet is manipulated.  He applauds the work of school library media specialists - who are constantly on the frontiers of teaching media literacy and fighting for students’ rights. Frank very much values his long relationship with OELMA: contributing to its conferences and posting on the listserv.

Frank was unable to be with us at the conference.  He sent a video to address the OELMA audience. You can watch it here. 

Below is also the text of his acceptance speech:

Thank you so much for this honor.
The late Jane Goodall in one of her last interviews talked about her MISSION.  I can relate to that word. I’ve been on a mission.
She said: “what you do makes a difference”
As a missionary I wake up everyday asking myself: what more can I be doing; who have I not reached.

Today, It is me that should be honoring you!  Why? Because you all are at the FRONTLINES, with students and teachers everyday
and have the knowledge and skills to teach media literacy.  You make a difference.

With social media and algorithms spreading misinformation daily, it is more important than ever that WE redouble our media literacy efforts.

Finally, thank you OELMA for inviting me into your world.

Frank’s lifelong media literacy work was recognized by UNESCO's Global Alliance Partnership for Media & Information Literacy (GAPMIL) in 2019

For 10 years (2012-2022) he authored a blog about media literacy at Middleweb.com. 

In November 2025, Frank was awarded the Elizabeth Thoman Service Award by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) for his contributions to media literacy.