Confronting the Myth of Neutrality: Academic Libraries, Advocacy, and Free Speech (ALA Annual 2021, On Demand)

On Demand Program, ALA Annual 2021
Conference Registration Required

This panel features presenters with experience in balancing issues of library advocacy and free speech in academic libraries. Invited panelists will be both librarians and campus administrators or faculty who are knowledgeable about issues and topics currently contributing to the larger conversations happening on campuses regarding library neutrality, libraries as spaces of advocacy and the complications surrounding these challenges. By exploring these issues, it is our intention that this panel will offer best practices about how libraries can provide a space for engaging in candid discussion, which supports meaningful change. The program is sponsored by the University Libraries Section (ULS), Anthropology and Sociology Section (ANSS), and the Politics, Policy and International Relations Section (PPIRS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Moderator:

Alyssa Denneler
Scholars’ Commons Librarian
Indiana University-Bloomington

Presenters:

Emily Knox, Ph.D.

Emily Knox is an associate professor and the Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America (Rowman & Littlefield) is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mus Scholars Series. She also recently edited Trigger Warnings: History, Theory, Context (Rowman & Littlefield) and co-edited Foundations of Information Ethics (ALA). Her articles have been published in the Library Quarterly, Library and Information Science Research, and the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. She serves on the boards of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Beta Phi Mu, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the National Coalition against Censorship. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics, information policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. She is also a member of the Mapping Information Access research team. Dr. Knox received her Ph.D. from the doctoral program at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information. Her master’s in library and information science is from the iSchool at Illinois. She also holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Smith College and an A.M. in the same field from The University of Chicago Divinity School.

Renate Chancellor, Ph.D.

Renate Chancellor is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America. She received her Master’s and Ph.D. in Information Studies form UCLA. Dr. Chancellor’s research focuses on human information behavior, and social justice in Library and Information Science. She has published in Scholarly journals and has presented her research in national and international venues. Recent publications include: E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader in the Modern Library Profession, Racial Battle Fatigue: The Unspoken Burden of Black Women Faculty In LIS, and From Protests to Practice: Confronting Racism in LIS. She has also be profiled in Library Journal and American Libraries. Professionally active in the Association of Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE), the American Library Association (ALA), and several other professional library organizations, Dr. Chancellor is the recipient of the ALISE/Normal Horrocks Leadership Award and the ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award.

Stacy Collins, MLIS

Anastasia “Stacy” Collins is the Research & Instruction Librarian for Children’s Literature and Social Work at the Simmons University Library. Outside of librarianship, Stacy is a children’s literature scholar and reviewer as well as a trauma-informed facilitator with the Anti-Racism Collaborative of Massachusetts. She is the author of “Language, Power, and Oppression in the LIS Diversity Void,” “The Cultural Doings and Undoings of the Sydney Traylor Book Award,” and the Simmons Library Anti-Oppression Guide. Her work and scholarship centers the denaturalization and dismantling of systematic oppression in the intertwining fields of Librarianship and youth literature. You can follow her online at @DarkLiterata.

Adriene Lim, Ph.D.

Dr. Adriene Lim is the Dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining the University of Maryland in August 2019, Lim was the Dean of Libraries and Philip H. Knight Chair at the University of Oregon and served in leadership roles at Oakland University, Portland State University, and Wayne State University. Lim earned her Ph.D. in library and information science (LIS) at Simmons University in Boston. A first-generation college student and native of Detroit, she holds a master’s degree in LIS and a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, both summa cum laude, from Wayne State University. Lim has published numerous articles and book chapters, and given presentations about managerial leadership, technology, and diversity and inclusion in higher education, as well as being active in the American Library Association, the Library and Information Technology Association, and the Association of College and Research Libraries. She recently served on the board of the Association of Research Libraries, and currently serves on the board of the Center for Research Libraries.

Visit the program page for additional information.

Program Planning Committee

University Libraries Section (ULS): Alice Daugherty; Alyssa Denneler; Elana Karshmer; Fannie Cox; Leeanne Romane; Michelle Demeter, Jennifer Sharkey, Chair

Anthropology and Social Sciences Section (ANSS): Melissa Hackman; Paula Dempsey

Politics, Policy, and International Relations Section (PPIRS): Elizabeth White, Chair