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On January 31, in a virtual event produced by Wildbound Live, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced 30 finalists in six categories—autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, general nonfiction, and poetry—for the best books of 2022. In addition, finalists were announced for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, nominated by the organization’s regular members, and winners were announced for several annual prizes.

Brooklyn Public Library's Nick Higgins, Amy Mikel, Karen Keys, Jackson Gomes, and Leigh Hurwitz have been named LJ's 2023 Librarians of the Year for their work on Books Unbanned, providing free ebook access to teens and young adults nationwide to help defy rising book challenges across the country.

Virginia Cononie, assistant librarian/coordinator of reference and research at the University of South Carolina Upstate Spartanburg Library, was named one of Library Journal’s 2022 Movers & Shakers for her library advocacy work. LJ recently reached out to Cononie to learn more about her Share Your Story campaign, a collection of success stories from libraries in South Carolina that were compiled into a book and sent to South Carolina lawmakers.

Elisandro Cabada has worn many hats during his career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Assistant professor for the university library, interim head of the Mathematics Library, and 3-D printing project coordinator, among others. His commitment to developing and using technology for library service and outreach won him a 2022 Movers & Shakers award. Library Journal recently reached out to learn more about his innovative work.

Conscious inclusiveness has earned Cedar Rapids Public Library the 2022 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize. Honorable mentions go to New York’s Patchogue-Medford Library and Columbia, SC’s Richland Library.

Lorisia MacLeod, currently learning services librarian at the Alberta Library, Canada, previously worked as an instruction librarian at NorQuest College, Edmonton. A member of the James Smith Cree Nation, MacLeod realized early in her career that there was a major problem with properly citing Native and Indigenous sources in academic papers. The work she set in motion to correct this issue led to her being named a Library Journal 2022 Mover & Shaker. LJ recently caught up with her to learn more about her efforts.

The six-person marketing department at Nashville Public Library is made up of enthusiastic collaborators—willing to listen, iterate, contribute to each other’s strengths, and involve the rest of the library in coming up with great ideas—with a strong leader who inspires creativity and teamwide respect. Los Angeles and Virginia Beach received honorable mentions.

On September 7, American Library Association executive director Tracie D. Hall was awarded the National Book Foundation (NBF) Literarian Award for 2022. The annual award celebrates an individual “for a lifetime of achievement in expanding the audience for books and reading,” the NBF website states. This marks the second year that the honor has gone to a librarian; 2021’s award was given to Nancy Pearl.

Jillian Rudes didn’t grow up reading manga. But when she discovered it in her first year as a school librarian, she realized that it is a critical format for teaching, cultivating a love of reading, and giving kids what they want, and took a deep dive in, reading everything she could get her hands on.  

During a job hunt while unemployed, Jessica Chaney learned about the opening of CLOUD901, Memphis Public Library’s social, creative, production, research, and performance technology lab. Chaney thought she might be able to contribute her film experience—but library leadership realized she had management potential.

Bill Smith’s love for community service and music led to him work with Dallas Public Library (DPL) staff and volunteers to create a schedule of classes in musical instruction and theory for underserved communities. 

With disinformation more prevalent than ever, teaching students how to analyze and understand what’s coming at them has never been more important.

The Outreach Department at High Plains Library District in Erie, CO, was a seven-person department when Brittany Raines became supervisor. Under her leadership, it grew to 25 staff spread out across the entire county and was retitled as MOVE (Mobile, Outreach, Virtual, and Experiences).  

As 2020 Maryland Library Association (MLA) Conference Director, rather than cancel the conference due to the pandemic, Naomi Keppler worked with staff to reenvision the event online, collaborating with MLA’s technology committee to build a virtual platform that other states replicated.

Barbara Alvarez, while teaching at three iSchools, focuses on building community partnerships for health. To investigate the pandemic’s impact on abortion services for Wisconsin residents, Alvarez conducted weekly mystery calls to 29 abortion clinics in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and upper Michigan..

A few years ago, Melissa Thom attended Nerd Camp for the first time. “I was hooked,” she says. “It’s such a high-energy day where educators, librarians, teachers, illustrators, and authors are all there to nerd out about books. And it’s such an amazing model—it’s a free event, and everybody is there because of the pure joy of books and reading and literacy.” 

Marquita Gooch-Voyd—who became the first person of color to receive the Georgia Public Librarian of the Year award in 2020—sees the impact that technology can have on patrons’ lives and careers. 

Babak Zarin has expanded Access Services at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library (CRRL) to include accessibility in all forms, developed and conducted an accessibility audit, and shared information and insight through presentations for other library systems and one-on-one conversations with library staff. The Deaf Culture Digital Library is the culmination of two years’ work reviewing and developing a program to meet the needs of the Deaf and hearing-impaired community, not just within CRRL, but throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Robin Davis knows that “accessibility isn’t one person’s domain, but everyone’s responsibility.” This shows in the work she does with her colleagues at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries in the User Experience department and on the recently formed Accessibility Committee, as well as mentoring students. 

No matter how robust a library’s services, they can’t reach those who aren’t aware of them. St. Louis County Library (SLCL) Reference Manager Jennifer Gibson has been working to bridge the library’s outreach gap in several critical areas. 

Throughout his career, Elisandro Cabada has been closely involved with the creation of tech spaces in libraries, including the design and development of the IDEA Lab, and the Breakerspace digital scholarship and innovation center at the University of Minnesota’s Walter Library. In addition, he is currently developing library services for CI COM—described as the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine—with a focus on "innovative instructional support, scholarly productivity tools, and entrepreneurship."

Jessica Fitzpatrick meets student athletes on their turf as she grows the next generation of book enthusiasts. “I became aware that our athletes weren’t reading because of how many different responsibilities they handled,” she explains. “At a Title 1 school, our students are not only busy being athletes, students, and just teenagers but they are also working to put food on the table and support their families.”  

Queens Public Library’s (QPL) Immediate Access: Technology Reentry program helps new parolees overcome the many barriers to restarting their lives outside of prison. Program Manager Jill Anderson is an expert in removing roadblocks. This includes listening to program participants and community partners about what they need or can offer, and to funders about what opportunities are available.

When life gives you honeybees, make honey. That could be the motto of Amy Thatcher, manager of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Richmond Branch. “I believe pushing against boundaries yields opportunity,” she says. “Be adventurous. Try implementing what appears to be impossible. Most of the time, it’s possible.”  

When Nicole Bryan took on the position of Neighborhood Library Supervisor for the Macon Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) in January 2020, she could not have imagined guiding her branch through a pandemic. In those two years, however, Bryan developed outdoor community programming, a systemwide special edition library card, and programs to reinforce community connections.

When Amy Hermon transitioned from being a history teacher to a school librarian, she found that her on-campus support network drastically dwindled. Teachers and staff were great, but there was no one with the same job available to talk to and draw inspiration from. This inspired Hermon “to create something that has the potential to help people all around the world, and then commit to creating that connection week in and week out.” In 2018, she created School Librarians United.

Jane Gov believes that “to really understand what teens want, they must be involved in the planning.” This is the foundation for the Teen Volunteer and Teen Advisory Board (TAB) programs. The programs’ goal is to be strategic in how the library utilizes the skills of volunteers, and to support a team that doesn’t only give advice and assist with library activities, but creates ideas and makes them happen. 

Among Katie DiSalvo-Thronson projects is building a portal for students and families in need with information about finding food, housing and rental assistance, unemployment, and mental health resources. Knowing that many students didn’t have access to the internet, she worked to produce a print version included with free lunches distributed by local schools. 

Ady Huertas grew up in the library, first while learning English as a preteen and then at 16 serving as library aide at the San Diego Public Library. She celebrates 25 years with the system this year. 

“It’s been the most rewarding career move I never anticipated,” Luke Kirkland says of becoming a librarian. Kirkland initially set out to be a musician, but found his stride leading the teen department at Waltham Public Library. “I’m incredibly honored to receive this recognition. The credit should really go to the teens who made the Teen Room and Real Talk the space that it is.”  

Perry joined Mid-Continent Public Library in 2013 in the new role of business specialist. She spent four years working on a plan to provide business information education in Spanish with two community partners, hosted a support group during quarantine about virtual programming, and helped develop a small business support team that was active in the community.

Shortly before Gregory Stall completed his MLIS, two simultaneous internships—at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress—introduced him to the excitement of public programming with formidable collections. At New York Public Library (NYPL), he has tapped into his own curiosity to stoke interest and bring the community to the library, both in person and virtually.  

Raemona Little Taylor is not satisfied with libraries’ success as spaces of inclusion. “I feel like the first step is acknowledging the long history of libraries as segregated spaces,” she says. “Until libraries and librarians grapple with their history as gatekeepers for white-dominant culture, they will struggle to create welcoming and inclusive workplaces where diverse workers feel like they truly belong.” 

Dieter Cantu knows the power of education. And after having spent three years incarcerated in Texas’s juvenile justice system, he also knows the difficulties teens face getting an education in those systems.

Xenia Yolanda Hernández has collaborated with agencies and nonprofits to help families and businesses in Saint Paul, MN, most impacted by the economic fallout of the pandemic.

After George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, Cindy Khatri advocated for Downers Grove Public Library (DGPL) to issue its first anti-hate statement. She was then tasked with writing the next, following the March 2021 murder of eight people at three Atlanta spas, six of whom were Asian women. She recruited Van McGary as coauthor because “I don’t know if I can do this on my own, and I want to share my platform of power,” she remembers thinking. “We’ve been a dynamic duo ever since.” 

In late 2020, Sophie Kenney founded the Reaching Across Illinois System (RAILS) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) Library Workers group. At the first meeting, Kenney opened the floor to anyone who wanted to be a co-leader, paying forward the leadership opportunities she’d received. Heidi Estrada stepped up. “The rest is amazing history,” says Estrada. 

Librarians face problems ranging from budgets to book challenges, and it takes time, effort, and dedication to battle them. Elissa Malespina was galvanized to act when the South Orange–Maplewood  district, where she lived and formerly worked, wanted to reduce the number of librarians in the middle and high schools. It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually the positions were restored. 

Jessica Alvarado was drawn to library work after seeing how involved the Dallas Public Library (DPL) was within the city and local communities and loves being able to provide diverse, inclusive, and engaging programming. Recently Alvarado has become one of the lead creators of the city’s first Poet Laureate, created to encourage greater literacy awareness and advocacy for the literary arts in the Dallas community.

Jeanie Austin is a champion of information for people experiencing incarceration and returning from it. Previously a juvenile detention center librarian, they not only provide direct service to local facilities, but broadened San Francisco Public Library’s (SFPL) JARS letter-writing reference service program to incarcerated patrons throughout the country.

Virginia Cononie is a tireless advocate for libraries. She conceived, compiled, published, and promoted the book Share Your Story, a collection of more than 100 testimonials and photos from library supporters to be sent to lawmakers in the state of South Carolina, illustrating the value of libraries in their communities.

Initially hesitant to pursue librarianship, Lorisia MacLeod realized early in her career that the field would allow her to combine her interests in leadership, information, people, and advocacy—and has found ample opportunity to incorporate them all.

While working at Norfolk Public Library during the pandemic, Patricia Kendalls observed an increase in the public’s needs around mental health. During programs, patrons would talk “about how stressed and fearful [they] were," she recalls. "I gleaned from these conversations that the community needed avenues to deal with the many stresses that society was facing.”

“TikTok feels like a small city in the prairies,” says Jessie Loyer. She uses her @IndigenousLibrarian account to teach more than 28,000 followers about historical trauma, repatriation, and other Indigenous topics—significant in a field where Indigenous people and culture are underrepresented.

Lessa Kanani‘opua Pelayo-Lozada has become an effective champion of Asian American and Pacific Islander library workers and a strong voice in the American Library Association (ALA) and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, where she was the first Pacific Islander to serve as executive director. She is now ALA president-elect.

Calvin Battles’s work includes monthly meetings with a network of nonprofits and service agencies to determine the most efficient and cost-effective ways to use their resources. About four years ago, they began discussing the criminalization of poverty and the impact it was having on their community.

As chair of the Oklahoma Library Association’s Technical Services Roundtable, Elizabeth Szkirpan passionately advocates for the rapidly changing technical services profession.

Each year, the American Library Association’s Listen List Council publishes a juried list of the year’s best audiobooks, highlighting extraordinary narrators and listening experiences. The librarians who make up the committee listen for hundreds of hours and are true listening experts. We asked 2022 Chair Nanette Donohue, 2023 Chair Janice Derr, and committee members Ron Block and Matthew Galloway to share their thoughts on what makes an outstanding audiobook.

UPDATED to reflect information on where the prize money has been donated.

Founded in 1970, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) is a leading advocate for libraries serving the nation’s African-American community. The award celebrates extraordinary achievement in the presentation of the cultural, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora.

Central Arkansas Library System is the winner of the 2021 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize. Honorable mentions go to Gail Borden Public Library District, Elgin, IL, and Sharpsburg Community Library, Pittsburgh, PA.

Prince George’s County Memorial Library System’s COO for communication and outreach combines two roles to create award-winning initiatives.

The National Book Foundation (NBF) announced on September 8 that Nancy Pearl, a renowned librarian and former executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library, is the 2021 recipient of its Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

The Romance Writers of America (RWA) has again found itself embroiled in controversy. This time, the association gave one of its new Vivian awards to At Love’s Command by Karen Witemeyer, a historical romance that most observers saw as glorifying the genocide of Lakota people at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.

The creative problem solving that allowed Anaheim Public Library to weather the pandemic while meeting pre-pandemic goals have earned it the 2021 Gale/LJ Library of the Year award.

I never imagined that we would find ourselves honoring a second class of Movers & Shakers at a distance owing to the pandemic—albeit now with an end, perhaps, in sight.

While teaching a challenging concept to middle schoolers, Ozy Aloziem told a student, “Practice makes perfect.” The student responded, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes progress”—a light bulb moment for Aloziem that would guide and shape her approach to her work. She believes that we must keep working, she says, and if we fail, learn and try again.

Whether he’s helping community members impacted by wildfires or creating a storywalk and drive-thru storytime during quarantine, County Librarian Todd Deck takes his cues from Tehama County Library patrons’ needs. “Connecting with the community is a foundational tool in being a catalyst for positive change,” says Deck.

When Google’s sister company Wing began using drones in 2019, Kelly Passek’s family was an early adopter. Passek realized the technology could help her meet library goals: She wanted to increase book checkouts and prevent summer slide.

Millie Plotkin’s recovery from an eating disorder began during library school, when she received treatment. Several years later, she heard someone use the phrase “eating disorders information clearinghouse” at a conference. “That planted the seed of an idea that I could combine these two important parts of my life,” says Plotkin. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck last spring, Nini Beegan, organizational learning and innovation coordinator for Maryland State Library (MSL), quickly realized how Zoom could help libraries during quarantine. “I noticed how much our libraries were struggling with communication—amongst staff, with customers, and amongst libraries,” Beegan said. “Maryland has a history of libraries working very closely together, and we are used to communicating easily.”

Bridget B. Striker was en route to her own wedding when she told her groom that her favorite part of her career as an archaeologist and mapping specialist was researching at libraries. It brought to mind the Purpose Diagram, which shows that purpose exists where one’s passion, profession, vocation, and mission intersect. She decided in that moment to pursue her MLS. The rest, she says, is local history.

Four days after her school closed due to COVID-19, Amanda Jones, Teacher-Librarian at Live Oak Middle Library in Watson, LA, launched her first virtual trip for students and their families. To date, she’s completed 50 such trips, with topics ranging from the Renaissance and the Mars Perseverance Rover to Uganda and Nepal.

Whether he’s tossing books at pep rallies, writing grants, developing community partnerships, or convening a student roundtable to improve the school, Dustin Hensley is driven to serve students.

When students came to the library looking for their course textbooks because they couldn’t afford to buy them, Capital Community College’s Director of Library Services Eileen Rhodes started promoting Open Educational Resources (OER). “This became a passion of mine, as I saw…the relief on students’ faces when I informed them that their book was available online for free,” she says.

For the past five years, Heather De Forest has worked to expand the Community Scholars Program, which provides free access to scholarly publications to staff members at nonprofits and charities throughout British Columbia.

When the pandemic began, Marzena Ermler knew job seekers would need help beyond the résumé critiques and mock interviews that New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Career Services team previously offered. “I began brainstorming for a new pandemic-friendly job search service,” she says. Ermler launched what she calls resilience coaching, helping job seekers manage their stress and mental health. Volunteers have provided over 2,500 hours of coaching, she says. 

In summer 2017, Jennifer Sturge took part in the Lilead Fellowship Summer Institute. Participants were challenged to find their why—their core mission as a school librarian. When she returned to her district, she surveyed her colleagues about their whys. One shared realization was the need for diversified collections that reflect the student population. “I want them to see themselves in our collection,” she says.

After the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020, Christopher Stewart, library media specialist at Bell High School, part of the District of Columbia Public Schools, knew his students wanted to protest peacefully and was determined to help. Armed with books, water, snacks, milk (in case students were teargassed), and hand sanitizer, Stewart joined them in protests.

“I came to librarianship with a problem,” says Shaneé Yvette Murrain, director of community engagement at Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). As both an undergraduate at the HBCU Bethune-Cookman University and a master’s student in divinity at Drew University, she couldn’t find primary sources documenting historic Black churches—traditions, women’s leadership, memberships—in digital collections. In her final year, the university’s theological librarian introduced her to the field.

Inspired to pursue librarianship by the range of services provided at her local public library, Zeineb Yousif has worked tirelessly to promote digital access to her university’s research and collections. “I loved the idea of having a job where I could help lots of different people while getting to regularly try doing something new,” she says.

A stack of bundled newspapers from a defunct bookstore in Cairo. Dailies from Republican-era China. Imperial Russian broadsheets dating as far back as 1782. More than 1,000 independent and revolutionary newspapers from 19th-century Mexico. These are a few of the multilingual, globe-spanning media resources that Bryan Benilous has digitized through the East View Global Press Archive.

Emma Molls works with researchers who are interested in shaking things up in publishing—and so is she. As Publishing Services Librarian for the University of Minnesota (UMN) Libraries, Molls leads the development of her department’s core principles. These statements outline the program’s values to guide Publishing Services through changes and shifts in open access (OA) and scholarly publishing.

Not only does Makiba Foster run her own library’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center, she is also a key convener of such centers across the country. She leads Archiving the Black Web, a project that brings together Black collecting institutions, from public libraries to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to map out the future of digitally curating the Black experience. This first-of-its-kind initiative launched during the pandemic—funded by a $150,000 National Leadership Grant from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program—focuses on how to best archive the plethora of digitally born Black culture and content.

As libraries began closing their buildings in March 2020, Callan Bignoli noticed a disconnect between the message being sent by administrators—that libraries should continue to demonstrate value and resilience in the face of looming budget cuts—and what she was hearing from workers, that they felt unsafe being asked to continue working, even behind the scenes or providing curbside pickup; afraid for their jobs if they refused (or even if they didn’t); and dismissed by those telling them to step up.

From her start in publishing to her current work as a librarian at Simmons University, Stacy Collins has always called for structural change. In her own words, she aims not only to educate others about systems of oppression but also to disrupt those interrelated systems through her work and scholarship.

When she served as field manager for OCLC’s Geek the Library community awareness campaign, Jennifer Pearson traveled to libraries across the country. She realized that rural libraries were doing amazing work in their communities, and that led her to take a directorship in a small town, a move that also let her return to the South.

As a PhD student in library and information science in the U.S., Claudia Șerbănuță aimed to apply her learning to the libraries of Romania, her home country. She wrote her thesis on what happened to Romanian libraries under communist rule in the 1970s and ’80s, and worked with Susan Schnuer on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation training program for 12 Romanian public librarians. Șerbănuță not only facilitated language translation but contextualized the learning for the visiting librarians, some of whom went on to take leadership roles in Romanian librarianship.

After Shannon Jones landed a library job at Eastern Virginia Medical School, her interest in medical librarianship was ignited when she watched the librarians interact with physician teams to help with patient care and clinical work. She had not even known such a position existed, and she saw the power of the work to help both medical professionals and patients.

Currently SFPL’s African American Center manager—her “dream job”—Shawna Sherman works to improve the library’s support for Black youth and families. She’s partnered with San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) African American Parent Advisory Council and Black Student Union, 100% College Prep Institute, and the San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators, attending their meetings to share what’s going on at the African American Center and connect with Black families in the district.

While the past year has been a severely challenging time for libraries to provide basic services, let alone examine and revamp them through a racial equity lens, a trio of Madison Public Library (MPL) employees were determined to do just that. Dominic Davis, Jody Mohrbacher, and Yesianne Ramírez-Madera, coleaders of MPL’s Racial Equity Change Team (RECT), kicked their efforts into high gear following the library’s closure in March 2020—and succeeded on many fronts.

As Madison Public Library (MPL) director of public services, Krissy Wick not only transitioned traditional librarian roles to community engagement librarian positions, but instituted robust partnerships with the Madison community. Wick collaborated with the Madison Metropolitan School District and many others to develop the Read Up summer children’s program. More than 75 percent of participating kids maintained or increased their reading levels in the first two years.

When Alison Williams began as Copper Queen Library’s (CQL) program coordinator five years ago, budget cuts only allowed for a part-time position. In her interview, she made it clear that she wanted to increase staff hours, the budget, and community participation, which was in steep decline. Thanks to her work, the role is now full-time, two new positions have been added, and community engagement is on the rebound. She’s also written and been awarded more than $155,000 in grants for new programs and collections.

As a bilingual Family Literacy Coordinator at Nashville Public Library (NPL), Klem-Marí Cajigas believes it isn’t enough to offer Spanish-language content and programs. She scrutinizes books to make sure that translations are of the same caliber as the English versions. In her work delivering literacy workshops to families in Spanish for a grant-funded project between NPL and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Cajigas reinterpreted the entire curriculum so that it was culturally relevant to Nashville’s Spanish-speaking population; the project reached nearly 600 families over eight years.

Southern California is home to the largest Farsi-speaking community in the diaspora. In his three years and counting at the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), M. Ramin Naderi, acting senior librarian at the Venice–Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch, has become a driving force behind much of LAPL’s service to that population of approximately 700,000 people.

Amy DelPo saw firsthand how ageism impacted her parents, especially as each was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Witnessing how the world treats older adults, particularly those with dementia, motivated her to create Older Adult Services at the Denver Public Library (DPL), one of the few libraries with an administrator devoted solely to aging adults.

David Kelsey spent most of his life volunteering at senior facilities, so his outreach programs at St. Charles Public Library are a natural extension. “I wanted to be a minister growing up,” he says, but chose the “outreach ministry” of librarianship instead.

When the pandemic made it impossible for families to attend school, meet with in-person tutors, or take advantage of other educational enrichment opportunities, Hayward Public Library’s (HPL) Education Services Manager Lindsey Vien reached out to her community partners for solutions.

When Allison Waukau originated the Native American liaison position at Hennepin County Library in June 2018, the role was to be grant-funded for 18 months. It has just been made permanent, thanks largely to her ongoing initiatives supporting the library’s Native community.

Christina Jupp Grove has fond childhood library memories, but one bad experience gave her insight that influenced her future. During college, she offered to work off library fines. Library staff rejected that and suggested she pay by credit card. “It made me super cognizant of the default middle-class expectations of public libraries and the barriers that exist for accessing library services for a lot of people,” she said.

Nichelle Hayes has two major passions: her work as a genealogist and the library. She’s married the two, coupling her love of family history with the research skills of librarianship. She is a genealogist with a focus on African ancestry and a special collections librarian with a focus on the African diaspora.

In her 12th year at Microsoft, Carmi Parker wondered, “If I were independently wealthy, what would I do?” The answer surprised her: She’d be a librarian. In 2016, she became an online experience coordinator for Whatcom County Library System, launching a career in which her two loves, books and tech, merged to meet a growing need.

“If you want to see change, find a way to be a part of it,” says Christina Fuller-Gregory. She honed her knowledge of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) best practices as part of the 2017 ALA Emerging Leaders cohort’s Advancing Diversity in Public Libraries project, and at Spartanburg County Public Library (SCPL), SC, developed the SCPL EDI Lexicon, a glossary that defines common social justice terminology for library workers.

During a tumultuous year of COVID-19 and demonstrations against police violence toward Black people, Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) Adult and Community Engagement Coordinator Brenda Johnson-Perkins found the opportunity to put into action her belief that “anyone can bring their whole heart into librarianship to make opportunity and visibility accessible for others.”

The federal E-Rate program provides vital discounts that make it possible for many U.S. schools and public libraries to afford broadband services and equipment. But the application process can be challenging. As manager of E-Rate Services for the Arkansas State Library, Amber Gregory has helped libraries throughout the state navigate the complex process, securing millions of dollars in discounts during the past 10 years.

Emily Dowie, who started working in libraries as a 17-year-old page, created and leads the NYLA Roundtable Coalition for Library Workers of Color. Points of action for the organization include library sponsorship of support staff attending library school, library staff workshops around undoing racism, and the formation of a mentorship program.

Arlene Laverde's persistence kicked into overdrive in May 2020 when Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), announced that librarians would be excluded from receiving compensation for summer school. Laverde immediately launched an email and social media campaign asserting the role of librarians as teachers, their importance in the lives of students, and their support of fellow educators.