Jean Rhodes was a teacher librarian at St Mark's Highgate before moving to Chisholm College when the two schools amalgamated. She directed the re-organisation and integration of the two libraries.

During her career she created a support service for Catholic primary school libraries which she did as Library Consultant for the Catholic Education Office. The primary and secondary information sharing sessions were part of this support system and later continued successfully under the C.E.O. Library Liaison Team of which Jean was the first Co-ordinator.

While directing the Chisholm libraries, Jean also gave her time to serving on several school library committees, both at state and national levels, and was elected the President of WASLA for 1992.

Over the years Jean Rhodes made a huge contribution to the development of school libraries. The AISWA Librarians’ Group decided to present an annual award to a practising school librarian to honour that contribution . The Jean Rhodes Memorial Award was implemented in 1992.