Current Issue: July/August 2025
Feature
Russell Michalak, Kevin Hunt, and Devon Ellixson
From Book Club to Campus-Wide Engagement
The Power of a Graphic Novel in a First-Year Common Reading Program
Since it started in 2013, the Goldey-Beacom College library has hosted and led a book club for students with the financial support of the Student Government Association (SGA). The book club has been more than just a forum for discussion ...
Feature
Glenda Alvin, Erica A. Bruchko, and Michelle Cronquist
The African American Subject Funnel Project
Definitions, History, and Processes
In 2021, Jean L. Cooper, the principal cataloger at the University of Virginia, sat down to catalog the book Slavery at Sea by Sowande’ M. Mustakeem ...
ACRL TechConnect
Brett Oppegaard, Talea Anderson, and Suzanne James-Bacon
From Sights to Sounds
A New Model for Integrating Audio Description into Library Digital Image Collections
Libraries and other cultural heritage institutions have grown their image collections through large-scale digitization projects, including, for example, the US Library of Congress, which just in the past five years has added 21 petabytes of data ...
Academic Library Workers in Conversation
Jillian Speck and Kristina Clement
Finding a Mentor in Libraries
You’re Not Alone, Even If You’re Solo
Academic Library Workers in Conversation is a C&RL News series focused on elevating the everyday conversations of library professionals. The wisdom of the watercooler has long been heralded, but this series hopes to go further by minimizing barriers to traditional publishing with an accessible format. Each of the topics in the series was proposed by the authors, and the authors were given space to explore. This issue’s conversation returns to mentoring and how it is essential for healthy careers and our profession.
The Way I See It
Cheyenne Kelly and Jill Stockton
Captain Underpants and the Conundrum of Creating a Custom Cookie Cutter
Creating a Unique, Edible Treat for Banned Books Week
The University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Reno, celebrated Banned Books Week in late September 2024 by hosting their popular Edible Books Festival. The annual event celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Each fall semester, the University Libraries’ Outreach Committee, faculty, and staff host the Edible Banned Books Festival to show the libraries’ shared support of the freedom to read. ...
Perspectives on the Framework
Katherine Tucker
Resisting Neoliberalism
Information Literacy Instruction as a Political Act
Much scholarship, especially in the field of critical university studies, has been written concerning the trend toward neoliberalism in higher education. Less of this work focuses specifically on academic libraries; however, librarianship has, to some extent, internalized neoliberal values. This internalization appears in the language we use. We “market” our services to faculty members, even making “elevator pitches.” Students ask to “rent” books from the library, and some libraries even intentionally call patrons “customers.”. ...