Lisa Peet

After a year and a half of virtual networking, many public and academic library leaders and employees were looking forward to attending in-person conferences again, while many others remained apprehensive about travel and large group events. As library organizations and associations began finalizing plans for fall and winter conferences, they needed to balance people’s wishes for some semblance of normalcy—in-person sessions and networking, shared meals, hugs and handshakes, tote bags—with a range of safety and liability concerns.

Elaine Rice Bachmann is the new Maryland State Archivist, Ralph Bingham is named Director of LibraryLinkNJ, Allison Grubbs takes the helm at Broward County, and more library people news for September 21, 2021.

The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently released the syllabus of the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, focused on libraries and archives, as an open source interactive PDF. The syllabus was created as part of the multipart Reckoning Initiative at University Libraries.

On September 9, Ithaka S+R released the findings from its most recent survey of community college library directors on issues of leadership, strategy, and collaboration during the pandemic, “Library Strategy and Collaboration Across the College Ecosystem.” The survey, fielded in February and March, was the third phase of the Community College Academic and Student Service Ecosystem (CCASSE) project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

On June 2 the California Senate and Assembly jointly issued a FY21–22 budget for the state’s public libraries totaling more than $500 million.

On August 5, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, American Library Association, Association of Science and Technology Centers, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Alliance of Museums, and Network of the National Library of Medicine announced the launch of Communities for Immunity, a partnership that will help support libraries and museums in their work to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence across the United States.

On the evening of August 20, Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) CEO Jackie Nytes announced that she would step away from her role, effective at the end of August, in response to accusations that IndyPL leadership has perpetuated systemic racism throughout the system. 

On January 20, his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had already begun its own process in September 2020, when it established an Internal Task Force on Racism following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent increased focus on issues of racial injustice.

Reveal Digital, part of Ithaka’s not-for-profit digital arm JSTOR, has launched a new project, American Prison Newspapers 1800­–2020: Voices from the Inside. The initiative aims to digitize newspapers published in prisons from nearly every state in the United States and make them available on an open access (OA) basis—the first time these documents have been assembled in one place. Development of the collection began in July 2020, with new content added regularly.