As a senior staff member for 15 years at the Central Branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL), Carl Cavanagh supported diverse community needs in a busy downtown environment. He built partnerships with frontline organizations such as the Mustard Seed Food Bank and Our Place Society, bringing “pop-up libraries” to their clients and expanding access to books for underserved populations.
Carl is also recognized for establishing and sustaining a volunteer-run library at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre (VIRCC), which has been in place since 2011. Working in collaboration with GVPL, Russell Books, Bastion Books, the Times-Colonist, the Books to Prisoners organization of Vancouver, and many generous community donors, he helped develop a broad collection of fiction and non-fiction titles of all kinds.
The VIRCC library operates without a dedicated budget for staff or materials and now holds nearly 6,000 volumes. Each month, approximately 1,000 books are circulated among the prison’s living units, with inmates able to request materials to support their education, personal development, and recreation. Carl’s leadership brought together multiple partners to create a lasting resource within the facility.
