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Early in her career, Moni Barrette realized patrons had a passion for comic books. “At that time, there was still stigma and a lack of understanding in the library community about the potential that comics had,” she explains, so Barrette moved into comics advocacy.

Jen Park knew the approach libraries usually took toward political advocacy. “We’d go up to the capitol once or twice a year,” she says. “I always felt like we were leaving something out.” 

Until Janet Hyunju Clarke, Associate Dean of Research and Learning at Stony Brook University Libraries, got involved, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students who make up approximately 40 percent of the school’s population had never had a campus club that was open to anyone (as opposed to only students) or celebration related to their heritage. “We wanted to do something at a campus-wide level to show students that their history and experiences matter,” says Clarke. 

Through her mobile outreach work with the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), adult librarian Amanda Mellor creates vital connections between LAPL and persons experiencing homelessness. It is essential to bring library resources and support directly to them, says Mellor, whose efforts focus on delivering compassionate and responsive services to adults in the city’s Skid Row community.

With COVID, the scaffolding that Gregory developed to support students all but disappeared, and her work shifted to the purely transactional: Check books in, check books out. When the opportunity to join the Illinois Heartland Library System opened, Gregory transitioned from helping students to helping her fellow librarians.

“After COVID, our local newspapers were filled with stories on how teens were struggling. I thought, ‘Why couldn’t we do something for teens?’” says Renee McGrath, manager of youth services for the Nassau Library System, NY. In answer to that question, she envisioned and piloted Teen Calming Corners.

As Director of Donnelly Public Library (DPL), Sherry Scheline stewards a 1,024 square foot space that has become an anchor institution for Donnelly, ID—a town of fewer than 200 people, with a service population of just under 3,000.

“I have been working with virtual reality in my school library since Google Cardboard hit the educational scene in 2016,” Andrea Trudeau says.

Michelle Matthews, community and employee engagement director at Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL), is an Air Force veteran. “As an intelligence specialist,” says Matthews, “I worked with a lot of data and information, but my most valuable piece of service was working with a diversity of people. That taught me to accept people for who they are and where they are”—a lesson she puts into work daily.