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In a new insights report from Gale, academic thought leaders discuss their role in championing EDI on campus—and provide advice to help other colleges and universities develop effective, sustainable programs.

Treshani Perera, Music and Fine Arts Cataloging Librarian at the University of Kentucky, has written and spoken on critical cataloging—looking at knowledge organization though an equity lens, examining not only at how content is described, but why those systems exist and how they can be changed.

In the midst of the myriad problems facing libraries in the United States—from the pandemic to burnout to the drastic increase in materials challenges—I want to celebrate a big win: the shift to libraries as at-scale providers of home connectivity for the digitally disenfranchised in their communities.

Who is in charge of your library? In Kentucky, in 2023, the answer will change. Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a state Senate bill was unexpectedly overridden in mid-April, enabling local politicians to take control of public library board appointments, and thus spending, and even the continued existence of facilities.

When former Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) CEO Jackie Nytes stepped down in August 2021 amid allegations of systemic racism throughout the system, Nichelle M. Hayes was one of many employees advocating for change. On March 28, the IndyPL Board unanimously voted to appoint Hayes as the library’s next interim CEO, succeeding John Helling, who had served in the role following Nytes’s departure.

In April 2015 I wrote the LJ article “We Are the Monuments Men” in response to the burning of the Mosul Public Library by ISIS. I asked, What can be done to protect libraries, cultural properties, and artifacts? Sadly, seven years later, the world is witnessing a new conflict, and I am again asking what can we do as librarians to protect, preserve, save information, special collections, cultural artifacts, and rare items in times of conflict?

Book challenges are here; here’s how to respond.

If attendees of PLA 2022 needed a good reason to wake up early on the final day of the conference, Amy Schneider’s Big Ideas talk was it. Schneider, a former software engineer, made history from November 2021 through this past January with her 40-game winning streak on Jeopardy!—the most successful woman to compete on the show, with the second-longest run (Ken Jennings, who won 74 games, was the show’s host during her appearance), and the first openly transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.

At the end of February Steven Potter, CEO and director of Mid Continent Public Library (MCPL), Kansas City, MO, announced his plans to retire after 34 years with the library—12 of them as director—effective June 30. LJ caught up with him shortly before the PLA Conference to talk about his tenure at MCPL and his plans on retirement (spoiler alert: nothing).

30 years of underfunding will take decades to fix.

Academic appointments at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, New Mexico State, UMass Amherst, and others; New York Library Association has a new Executive Director; Indianapolis Public Library gets a DEI Officer; and more people news for February 21, 2022.

Help stressed ex-readers get their groove back.

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.

The field needs to support innovation to meet our changing communities’ needs—but focus on invention can lead to taking essential duties, and the people who do them, for granted.

From October through December, Andi Cloud served as the first Madison Public Library (MPL), WI, Native American Storyteller-in-Residence. Cloud, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, grew up in Black River Falls, WI. Her residency combined virtual and in-person events, including interactive storytelling, guest speaker Zoom events, art workshops, activity kits, and story times.

There is no more time to waste. Climate action is needed NOW. Libraries should be visible leaders and partner in this effort not only to protect the assets the public has entrusted them with but also to ensure library workers and community members have the support they need, through libraries, in the face of disruption.

We interviewed five directors of new or returning 2021 Star Libraries to learn how their libraries were positioned to cope with the pandemic, how they changed their operations to cope with the pandemic, and how their libraries rose to the challenges of the pandemic.

Tanisha Mitchell’s love of music enabled her to connect two roles, as curator and consultant for the Metropolitan Opera Music Library and reference librarian and performing arts coordinator for the Freeport Public Library, NY, where she brings rich classical music programming to a popular audience.

Book challenges are, of course, nothing new to libraries. But they are ramping up in both frequency and intensity, and will take teamwork to resist.

LJ interviewed Baker & Taylor President and CEO Amandeep Kochar about his leading a private investment group’s recent acquisition of the company from its previous owner, Follett, on November 4.

Growing up, Rebecca Cline adored the film Mary Poppins, but as a budding Disney fan, she had no idea that one day she would have an up-close view of the carousel horses that the titular nanny and her charges ride, or the snow globe that Mary holds as she sings “Feed the Birds.” The director of the Walt Disney Archives, Cline now has access to these props and many others.

The movement in public libraries toward eliminating late fines for borrowed materials is equitable—and practical.

Catherine Sheldrick Ross died on September 11. Professor, dean, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she was a renowned library and information scholar. She leaves a legacy of research and publications critical to reader, reference, and public services.

Virtually every public library has something in its local history or current circumstances that could serve as the seed of a program that personalizes big-picture issues by focusing on their relevance to patrons’ own lives and communities.

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 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.

It remains to be seen whether governments that relaxed or eliminated their mask mandates will move as quickly and decisively to put them back in place. But libraries shouldn’t wait for them to do so.

 LJ ’s first readers’ advisory (RA) survey in eight years found that RA is a growing practice, but librarians want more training and tools to do it better, particularly in genres they don’t read for pleasure. Can crowdsourcing help RA keep up?

On June 4, Joy Bivins was named Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research division of The New York Public Library. LJ caught up with her as she settled into her new role to discuss the overlap between collecting for museums and libraries, what has changed in the past year and a half, and what the Schomburg’s users can expect.

The 2021 ParkScore rankings, conducted annually by the Trust for Public Land, show a significant shakeup. It’s not because of major changes to the parks in the past year, but to the scoring: this year the Trust added equity to its decision matrix, which includes access, investment, amenities, and acreage. The resulting change in the lineup of top-scoring park systems shows how inadequate measuring overall access is for learning whether everyone is well served.

This year’s featured MLIS programs trained numerous library leaders honored by Library Journal as Movers & Shakers. Read more to find out which programs helped launch these talented members of the library community.

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.

As a middle school librarian at an independent school, Maegen Rose believes that libraries have a responsibility to shape the growth of their students through developing reading habits reflective of the larger world and deepening critical thinking skills. In a recent article, she wrote that libraries have a responsibility, along with schools, to engage in equity, diversity, and inclusion work. She helps the profession meet that challenge through her advocacy efforts.

This year’s class of Movers has had little choice but to embrace change and run with it. And they’ve certainly risen to the challenge. Their stories and so many more offer actionable examples to replicate and adapt across a range of library environments and communities.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently appointed DeLa Dos as senior director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), effective June 7. They will lead the association’s DEI priorities, working with and providing strategic guidance to ARL’s DEI Committee and Board of Directors. LJ caught up with them and ARL Executive Director Mary Lee Kennedy to find out more about their thoughts on DEI work and the association’s ongoing efforts.

Despite the proven benefits, strategic planning services can be cost-prohibitive, particularly for small and rural libraries. The process itself can also feel daunting, making it easy to defer. Library Strategies, a consulting group of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, in partnership with Montana State Library, has designed a program to address those barriers.

I’ve been delighted to watch the ambitious program in Ohio in which 137 of the state’s 251 library systems (and counting) have chosen to help distribute about 2 million at-home coronavirus testing kits. At press time, libraries had already distributed nearly 60,000 tests through about 365 locations.

Vartan Gregorian, president of the New York Public Library (NYPL) from 1981–89, died on April 15 at age 87. Gregorian took leadership of the library during the tail end of the fiscal crisis that pushed New York City to the brink of bankruptcy and left NYPL facing a $50 million deficit, helping restore the library to solvency through substantial fundraising efforts and advocacy.

Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, vice provost for digital initiatives and dean of university libraries at the University of Washington (UW), recently announced that she will retire on June 30. Wilson has served as dean since 2001; in 2013 she took on the vice provost role as well, leading the libraries’ strategy on digital scholarship, data stewardship, and open access. The network of 16 libraries—one of the largest academic research libraries in North America, with the largest collection in the Pacific Northwest—serves UW’s Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses and Friday Harbor Laboratories.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 2021 virtual conference, taking place April 13–16, started off on a strong note with Tressie McMillan Cottom’s opening keynote. Her thoughts on how to center human rights and justice within an academic framework gave attendees much to think about as they continued on to the many panels, sessions, exhibits, and other offerings.

Jackie Gosselar is a Systems and Discovery Services Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. They shared their experience as a bisexual, nonbinary librarian, and provided some insight into the value of being part of an organizational culture that makes space for all identities.

The challenge for libraries is, first, to obtain and spend federal funding, and second, to parlay that temporary help into a permanent paradigm shift. The new equipment will outlast the emergency. It is up to library leaders to document its ongoing impacts, so that when breakage and age take their inevitable toll, funders will find it unthinkable not to replace and upgrade the gear.

LJ caught up with Dr. Nicole Cooke, Augusta Baker endowed chair and associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, to ask what librarians need to know about how misinformation and disinformation work in the modern era and how they can be combated effectively.

The Califa Group—a nonprofit membership consortium of public, academic, school, research, corporate, medical, law, and special libraries across California—was recently awarded an Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant for the Libraries as Second Responders project, which will help train library staff to serve communities that have been, and continue to be, highly impacted by COVID-19. LJ caught up with Califa Assistant Director Veronda J. Pitchford to find out more about the project.

Kelvin Watson has moved to Las Vegas–Clark County,  Jennifer Nelson is the new New Jersey State Librarian, Denise Stephens has been named University of Oklahoma Dean of Libraries, and more library people news for March 2, 2021.

Much emphasis on STEM in libraries has focused on preparing patrons for careers in related fields, whether they are kids and teens or adults looking to retrain. But providing everyone with the tools necessary to grapple with the impact of STEM on their medical decisions, votes, and consumer choices, even if they never work in scientific fields, is just as crucial.

The University of Saskatchewan Library (USask), Saskatoon, recently wrapped up its inaugural Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence program. The pilot project appointed Lindsay “Eekwol” Knight, an award-winning hip-hop artist and PhD student at the USask Department of Indigenous Studies, to a six-week library residency; Knight presented and talked about her work, held virtual “coffee shops” where campus and community residents shared their stories, and incorporated elements of those conversations into a final project, still in progress. 

Seoud Makram Matta, Dean Emeritus of the School of Library & Information Science (now the School of Information) at Pratt Institute, died November 24, 2020, at the age of 83 due to complications of COVID-19.

Congratulations on your inauguration. I know you face urgent challenges and must take decisive action at scale. I write to urge you to keep libraries in mind as you design structural remedies to ameliorate the immediate crises and prevent the next.

The American Library Association (ALA) closed out its first virtual Midwinter Meeting—which was also its last Midwinter Meeting, as the 107-year-old conference format will be replaced next year by ALA’s LibLearnX event—with a highly anticipated conversation between ALA President Julius Jefferson and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

Librarians Elaine R. Hicks, Stacy Brody, and Sara Loree have been named LJ's 2021 Librarians of the Year for their work with the Librarian Reserve Corps, helping the World Health Organization manage the flood of COVID-19 information.

When I look at the state of the nation, my first reaction is frustration with squandered opportunities for the federal government to address both pandemic spread and economic hardship. Both could have been considerably ameliorated with sustained, coordinated action from the top over the past 10 months.

Teacher, raconteur, debater, mentor, advocate, editor, and above all, librarian: Colleagues and friends from the field recall John N. Berry III’s vital voice.

Gina Millsap, CEO and director of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (TSCPL) for the past 15 years, retired on December 1. LJ caught up with her on her next-to-last day at TSCPL to find out more about her achievements, her challenges, and what’s next on her agenda.

Navigating any place of employment can be complex for transgender and nonbinary people, but having an informed and supportive supervisor can make things easier.