About the Contributors

Lara Aase is a Youth Services Librarian at Farmington Public Library in New Mexico. From 2016 to 2019 she worked as the Special Collections librarian at a Native American-serving non-tribal liberal arts college in the Southwestern United States. During her MLIS at the University of Washington she focused on special collections, multilingual metadata, and non-majority user populations, and she worked as a library technician and associate librarian for many years prior to obtaining her degree. Lara is an active member of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials and the American Indian Library Association. She has an MA in Comparative Literature and has published several articles on decolonizing special collections.

Raina Bloom (Public Service Librarian, College Library) works with undergraduates, especially those who are new to academic research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also supervises and mentors graduate students from UW-Madison’s iSchool. Her research and professional interests include the history and philosophy of librarianship, critical pedagogy, the undergraduate library movement, and library work as social justice work. She has published work in the Library Juice Press anthology The Feminist Reference Desk, Ada: A Journal of Gender, Media, and New Technology, and JASIST. Raina received her MLIS from UW-Milwaukee and a BA in English from UW-Madison.

Erin Boyington works as a prison library consultant in Colorado, a state with excellent prison libraries that are supported by two state agencies. Censorship is on her mind daily, as a professional correctional librarian and as a person. In grad school, she didn’t have strong moral or ethical objections to censorship until she saw how it was done firsthand. That changed everything.

Peter Bromberg is the Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Public Library, the Advocacy Chair of the Utah Library Association (ULA), and a Board Member of EveryLibrary. The Utah Library Association was awarded the American Library Association 2019 Gerald Hodges Award given to the most innovative and effective intellectual freedom project covering a state or region based on the work Peter did to restore Ebsco databases in Utah. He can be found online at peterbromberg.com.

Shana Chartier is an Assistant Professor and Reference and Instruction Librarian at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH. She has written on the topic of information literacy, obtained her MLIS from Simmons College, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. Outside of librarianship she is a published author with works of fiction that span genres, from Young Adult and picture books to literary fiction and short anthology stories. When she is not writing or teaching she spends her time with her family enjoying the vast beauty of New England.

Rebekah Cummings is the Digital Matters Librarian at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library and President of the Utah Library Association. Her primary areas of interest are digital humanities, data management, and intellectual property. The Utah Library Association was awarded the American Library Association 2019 Gerald Hodges Award given to the most innovative and effective intellectual freedom project covering a state or region based on the work Rebekah did to restore Ebsco databases in Utah. She received her MLIS from the University of California, Los Angeles with a specialization in data curation.

James Allen Davis has over 15 years of public library experience. He currently works as an Adult Services Librarian for the Central Branch of the Denver Public Library. James is President of the Colorado Black Library Association and currently sits on the Executive Board of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Hadiya Evans is a reference librarian at Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales Branch of the Denver Public Library, with a MA and MLIS in Library Information. Her professional trajectory hasn’t been a sprint, but a marathon with pit stops that have enriched her career due to the inspiration and guidance of unofficial mentorship. Hadiya is a librarian with a passion and commitment to engagement that is rooted in nurturing collaborative partnerships and creating relevant and community focused programming. She is the current vice president of the newly formed Colorado Black Library Association, an affiliate of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Carme Fenoll Clarabuch is a Catalan librarian. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Library Science and Documentation, a Master's Degree in Cultural Management, and several specialization postgraduates. Her primary work has been in public and school libraries. She directed the Library Service of the Government of Catalonia (2012-2017). She has been instructor in library management in the university field and for all types of administrations. She is currently working as Head of the Rector's Bureau of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech. She participates actively in educational platforms and in cultural projects in literary and dramatic fields.

Daniel Forsman is the City Librarian of Stockholm Public Library - the largest library system in Sweden – consisting of some 40 branches. Before joining Stockholm Public Library, Daniel was the University Librarian of Chalmers University of Technology and Head of the faculty department of Communication and Learning in Science. Daniel’s background is in agile management, digital transformation, user experience/service design and development of user relevant library services. He was previously focused on academic libraries but now enjoys the challenges of the vibrant public library sector.

Lisa Hoover is a Public Services Librarian at Clarkson University and an adjunct professor in criminal justice at SUNY Canton. In addition to her MLS, Lisa holds a JD and an MA in political science. She is particularly interested in intellectual freedom, free speech and the First Amendment, and has blogged for The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association.

Carrie Kruse (Director, College Library, User Experience & Library Spaces) provides leadership for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College Library, which provides primary service to undergraduates and is a heavily-used, dynamic environment with a student-centered mission. Her work on “library as place” is evident in the many space-related services in the library, including a café, innovative digital-media and active learning classroom spaces, a large computer lab, 24-hour service, and sustainability initiatives. Carrie has been professionally active in a variety of areas including undergraduate education, information literacy, multimedia tutorials, diversity and social justice initiatives, and Women’s Studies. Carrie received her MLS from UW-Madison and a BA in English from Earlham College.

Megan Lotts is the Art Librarian at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where she facilitates programming, provides reference and instruction support, builds collections, and engages with students and faculty researching in the Arts. Lotts has presented her research both nationally and internationally and has published articles in Art Documentation, portal: Libraries and the Academy, Journal of Library Administration, multiple articles in College and Research Libraries News, and more. Her research interests include outreach, engagement, and makerspaces, and she is known for her work with implementing LEGOâ play, at the Rutgers Art Library, as well as her work curating the Rutgers Art Library Exhibition Spaces.

Lorena Neal has a BA in History and International Studies from Illinois Wesleyan University. She received her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, and practiced law for 5 years. She received her MSLIS from the University of Illinois, and currently serves as the Legal Literacy Librarian at the Evanston Public Library in Evanston, Illinois.

Sandy Parks decided to be a librarian when she was 14, and at 56 is a Nationally Board Certified Librarian in a middle school in the highly diverse community of Harrisonburg, VA. Before graduating to middle school, she served as a high school librarian for 13 years. She is also a storyteller who has been deeply involved in technology planning, while also maintaining the importance of story in her library. Her goal to provide diverse books for all of her students is one of the things she is most proud of -- but this work has also led to a few challenges.

Leah Shlachter is the Adult Program Coordinator at Teton County Library. She is a Kundiman Fellow and holds an MFA from Pacific University. Her poems have been published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Hawai'i Review, Talking Writing, Black Lawrence Press and Bamboo Ridge. She lives in Jackson, Wyoming.

Rhiannon Sorrell (Diné) is the Instructor and Digital Services Librarian at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. Born to Kinłichíí’nii (Red House People) and Ta’neezahnii (Tangle People) Clans, Rhiannon has an interdisciplinary background in English and information literacy instruction, creative nonfiction, and special collections and archival services. She is a member of the 2018 cohort of ALA’s Emerging Leaders and serves on the executive board of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Tribal Colleges and Universities Library Association (TCULA). Rhiannon is a partner and Diné coordinator for the NEH funded project, “The Afterlife of Film: Upgrading and Tribesourcing Southwest Materials in the American Indian Film Gallery.”

Jennifer Stickles currently serves as Library Manager of the Salamanca Public Library in rural NY. Previously, she was the Head of Youth and Adult Programs at the Olean Public Library. She holds an MLS from Clarion University and has eighteen years of experience working in academic and public libraries. She is one of the founding members and current President of the LGBTQIA Round Table of the New York Library Association. Jennifer has presented at the New York Library Association (2018 and 2019 conference), and the Association of Small and Rural Libraries 2019 Annual Conference on the topic of LGBTQIA services in public libraries. Her program, Drag Queen Kids' Party, received the Western New York Library Resources Council 2018 Outstanding Library Program Award.

Tom Taylor is director of the Andover Kansas Public Library where he has been the last five years. Previously Taylor was the Member Library Services Coordinator for the South Central Kansas Library System for five years. He has also worked at public and academic libraries in Kansas and Florida. Taylor holds a MLIS from the University of South Florida. He is a past president of Wichita Area Library Association and the Rotary Club of Andover. Taylor lives in Wichita with his wife and two sons.

Carrie Valdes has been the Director of the Grand County Public Library in Moab, UT since 2007 although she has worked for the library for almost 20 years. She has a MLS from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor in Human Resources. She has lived in Utah all her life (except for a brief stint in Mexico) and is passionate about reducing institutional barriers to library access for all community members.