Association of College and Research Libraries Archives

Council I: Elevating Intellectual Freedom

By Megan Bennett | June 29, 2024

The Council rules (CD#5.1) and agenda (CD#8.4) were adopted. The minutes from ALA’s 2024 LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore (CD#2.2) meetings were approved. Interim ALA Executive Director Leslie Burger shared the Executive Board’s actions since LibLearnX (CD#15.1) and the implementation of Council Actions from the January conference (#9.1). Cindy Hohl, ALA president-elect and Committee on Committees … Continue reading Council I: Elevating Intellectual Freedom →

Citational Justice

By Sheila Craft-Morgan | June 3, 2024

These findings contribute to the notion that scholarly knowledge comes from a homogenous group of researchers, thereby overlooking the contributions of other groups. This phenomenon has been referred to as epistemological racism or screening, among other terms. In 2017, I read about the “Cite Black Women” campaign founded by Christen A. Smith, an anthropologist whose … Continue reading Citational Justice →

Shifting the Narrative

By Payal Patel | March 28, 2023

“Everything we believe comes from a story we’ve been told,” McGhee said. “So, ask: ‘Who is selling us these stories?’” The New York Times–bestselling author and board chair of racial justice advocacy organization Color for Change shared key insights from her 2021 book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can … Continue reading Shifting the Narrative →

Screenshot for "Equity and Inclusion Strategies: How Does My Library Start?"

Efforts in Equity

By Raymond Garcia | March 28, 2023

At “Equity and Inclusion Strategies—How Does My Library Start?: Case Studies from the Borderlands,” librarians from Texas universities along the US-Mexico border discussed bridging their libraries and communities and advised attendees on ways to kickstart inclusion efforts at their own institutions. Speakers shared practical advice for how to serve first-generation college students, building community networks, … Continue reading Efforts in Equity →

Screenshot of "Building Bridges into Library Leadership" presentation

What Leadership Looks Like

By Payal Patel | March 28, 2023

During the panel discussion “Building Bridges into Library Leadership,” five women who were recently appointed to top positions within their institutions shared experiences, challenges, and advice, highlighting the importance of expanding opportunities for women. Rachel Rubin, dean of libraries and archives at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, in Canada, encouraged those in hiring … Continue reading What Leadership Looks Like →

The Stories We Tell

By Raymond Garcia | March 28, 2023

Award-winning advocate, journalist, and Cherokee Nation citizen Rebecca Nagle opened the conference, shedding light on the lack of representation of Native Americans in media and how it affects public policy. “The stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we come from inform our public policy,” Nagle said. Through her award-winning podcast This … Continue reading The Stories We Tell →

11 Questions: Robert “Jay” Malone

September 8, 2021

As ACRL’s new executive director, Malone will lead the largest of ALA’s eight divisions, which includes more than 9,000 individual and institutional members. Prior to ALA, Malone worked at the History of Science Society, where he served for 23 years, helping the organization further its advocacy goals; promote equity, diversity, and inclusion; create a fundraising … Continue reading 11 Questions: Robert “Jay” Malone →

ACRL 2021 Closing Session speaker Mona Chalabi

ACRL Day Four: Humanizing Information

By Amy Carlton | April 19, 2021

Charts all have the same visual language—lines, bars, pies—but Chalabi said she tries to marry her illustrations with their subject matter to retain her viewers’ attention. A chart about candy sales uses bars of chocolate, for example, so that the meaning is clear even if the labels are removed. Chalabi described her two criteria for … Continue reading ACRL Day Four: Humanizing Information →

ACRL 2021 invited speakers (from left) Jennifer Brown, Jennifer Ferretti, and Charlotte Roh of We Here

ACRL Day Three: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries

By Amy Carlton | April 16, 2021

Jenny Ferretti, We Here founder and digital initiatives librarian at Maryland Institute College of Art, opened the session “Systemic Oppression Requires Systemic Change: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries in Contemporary Contexts” by providing background on the racial past and present of libraries. Libraries, she said, are traditionally white-serving institutions, citing Todd Honma’s “Trippin’ over … Continue reading ACRL Day Three: Recasting the Roles of Academic Libraries →

ACRL 2021 Virtual Conference Invited Speaker Kaetrena Davis Kendrick

ACRL Day Two: Getting to Welcome

By Amy Carlton | April 15, 2021

She began her talk by laying out the challenges facing the field—such as rising tuition costs, student retention, competition, and the pandemic—and their corresponding opportunities, including attracting nontraditional students, expanding degree programs, tapping alumni resources for networking, and rethinking what the campus experience could mean to students after the pandemic. Kendrick spelled out her theory … Continue reading ACRL Day Two: Getting to Welcome →

ACRL 2021 Opening Session speaker Tressie McMillan Cottom

Ascending into an Open Future

By Amy Carlton | April 14, 2021

Cottom, associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, spoke about how these discussions inform the courses she teaches as well as her current thinking about the role of the academic library. One course, “Networks of Racial Capitalism,” examines the effects of information capitalism and structural inequality. … Continue reading Ascending into an Open Future →

Illustration: Figure shines light into the larger head of another figure (Illustration: ©Feodora/Adobe Stock)

Mitigating Implicit Bias

By Molly Higgins and Rachel Keiko Stark | January 4, 2021

Staffers defended the decision to use the racist term because the donors, mostly US servicemen, used it in the materials. Alburo points out several important things about this choice. First, it is a choice made by people. The archives staffers chose to center the experiences of US servicemen, rather than the Vietnamese people represented in … Continue reading Mitigating Implicit Bias →

Latest Library Links

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John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
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Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
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Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
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Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
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ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14
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Emily Weak writes: “Something I always hear from hiring managers is that they want to build a resilient, diverse workforce. Sometimes we say we want a resilient workforce, but what we mean is that we want staffers who are willing to go above and beyond, or to do more with less. These concepts are deeply entrenched in librarianship, but I think we’re beginning to see how they can cause problems. Instead of trying to hire people who will do more with less and who will thrive amid adversity, let’s think about resilience as an organizational feature.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Elisabeth B. White writes: “How can librarians ensure their instruction materials are as accessible as possible? One way is through Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, a set of best practices to improve teaching and learning and create inclusive and equitable educational experiences for all students. The guidelines include three principles that instructors must provide via multiple means: engagement (the ‘why’ of learning), representation (the ‘what’ of learning), and action and expression (the ‘how’ of learning). However, to create a truly equitable educational experience, school library workers need to consider accessibility principles as well.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.

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