SRRT Year in Review
A look back at SRRT activities!
2024-2025
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| April 23, 2025 | Sanford (Sandy) Berman is announced as recipient of the 2025 Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality (press release) Photo by Eric Mueller |
| April 7, 2024 | SRRT held the free virtual summit, Building Spaces of Solidarity and Connection: A Historical, Theoretical, and Practical Lens on Libraries’ Commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Justice. Speakers from across the country offered historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on how institutions, library staff, and adjacent organizations have engaged with minoritized, vulnerable, and structurally marginalized populations. They shared learnings and tools that librarians and information workers can apply to develop more inclusive and equitable services, spaces, and programming. (recordings) |
| March 19, 2025 | John Oluwaseye Adebayo and Libby Anderson are announced as the winners of SRRT’s 2025 Conference Travel Grants (press release) |
| February 27, 2025 | The SRRT Programming Committee held a listening session where participants shared their experiences, questions, concerns, and suggestions on their feelings of inclusion in ALA and SRRT. |
| January 26, 2025 |
The 26th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration took place at LibLearnX in Phoenix, AZ. The event featured selected passages from the works of Dr. King, a keynote address by author Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a call-to-action from Rodney Freeman., and a tribute to Satia Marshall Orange by Tracie D. Hall, former executive director of the American Library Association.
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| January 14, 2025 | Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 announced their picks for their 2025 list and their Top Ten feminist books for young readers (press release) |
| December 4, 2024 | Claire Kelly was selected as SRRT's 2025 Emerging Leader. The sponsorship consists of a $1000 award towards attendance at the LibLearnX virtual event and the 2025 ALA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. |
| September 12, 2024 | Given the positive feedback from our program at Annual, we brought back our program, Combating Voter Suppression: What Can Libraries Do? as a free virtual event. (recording) |
2023-2024
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 31, 2024 | We held the 5th Annual Afternoon of Social Justice! This free virtual event featured scholars and librarians as they present on a variety of topics including jail libraries in the Philippines, support for library workers seeking accommodations, patrons experiencing homelessness, and film viewing and Q&A for the documentary, Breaking the News. (recordings) |
| June 29, 2024 | At ALA Annual, our Combating Voter Suppression in Your Library program was heavily attended. |
| June 29, 2024 | The SRRT Coordinator staffed the ALA Connect 20 Minutes Huddle to talk with conference attendees about the Social Responsibilities Round Table. |
| May 30, 2024 | The International Responsibilities Round Table hosted the virtual discussion The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: Challenging Disinformation and Efforts to Silence Debate/Discussion featuring Dr. Shira Klein of Chapman University and Dr. Sonia Boulos of Antonio de Nebrija University. (recording) |
| April 7, 2024 | We hosted the online program, Dialogue with Palestinian & Israeli Jewish Peace Activists featuring Osama Iliwat and Iris Gur from the binational organization, Combatants for Peace. (recording) |
| March 22, 2024 | Emma K. McNamara and Don Michael Jr. are the 2024 recipients of the SRRT’s Conference Travel Grants (press release) |
| March 18-19, 2024 | SRRT held the two-day virtual summit Abolitionist Visions and Intersections: Centering Human Relationships and Building Institutional Connections for Social Justice. Conference panels explored information access and censorship in carceral settings, creative arts programming in prisons, archival stewardship of incarcerated persons' records, financial divestment and community organizing, innovative public library programming to serve vulnerable and reentry populations, solitary confinement, public safety, the interface of immigration and policing, and more. (recordings) |
| February 29, 2024 | Ann Sparanese is selected as the 2024 recipient of SRRT’s Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice and Equality (press release) |
| January 24, 2024 | The Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 announced the book list for 2024 (press release) and their top ten books (press release) |
| January 21, 2024 |
The 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration took place at LibLearnX in Baltimore, MD. The event featured selected passages from the works of Dr. King, a keynote address by David Delmar Sentíes, a call-to-action from Dr. Claudette S. McLinn and closing remarks by Lynn Silipigni Connaway.
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| November 27, 2023 | Leah Tucker was selected as SRRT's 2024 Emerging Leader. The sponsorship consists of a $1000 award towards attendance at the LibLearnX virtual event and ALA Annual Conference in San Diego. |
| November 15, 2023 | SRRT hosted the webinar Intellectual Freedom, Social Responsibility, and Praxis in Librarianship and Education. |
| October 7, 2023 | We held the first session in our Current World Events Discussion Series for Library Staff & Community Members. |
| August 9, 2023 |
The 4th Annual SRRT Afternoon of Social Justice free virtual event was a great success! Sessions included What Can U.S. Librarians Learn from Feminist Struggles in Ukraine, Sudan, and Iran?, Disability is Not a Bad Word, and Film Screening & Discussion: Boycott. (Note: no recording of the Boycott session was made due to copyright restrictions). (recordings)
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| July 13, 2023 | SRRT hosted a book talk & facilitated discussion of Matthew Desmond's Poverty, By America to explore what factors contribute to the persistence of poverty in America, who benefits from it, and how libraries are approaching this issue. |
2022-2023
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 25, 2023 | Attendees learned about anti-boycott legislation in the Boycott film screening at the ALA Annual Conference |
| June 25, 2023 | Our SRRT Coordinator met with attendees at the ODLOS Diversity Fair and handed out SRRT and Rise buttons. |
| June 24, 2023 | SRRT hosted Trita Parsi for his talk, US-Iran Relations in the Biden Era, at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference. |
| June 23, 2023 | We saw lots of new faces at the All Task Force and Annual Membership meeting! |
| June 2023 | SRRT introduced two resolutions at ALA Annual, both which were approved: Resolution on Maintaining Equitable In-Person Participation for All at ALA Membership Meetings and A Resolution Honoring the Life of Daniel Ellsberg. A third resolution, Resolution Against the "New Cold War," was passed by SRRT Action Council and sent to IRC for response. |
| June 2023 |
Dr. Michele Villagran was named winner of the second Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality. This award recognizes an individual for outstanding leadership in promoting social justice and/or equality within the library profession. (press release)
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| May 2023 | Action Council began working with the ALA Membership Office to create a coupon code (SRRTSTUDENT23) for free student membership to SRRT once the new due structure goes into place on September 1. |
| May 2023 | Samantha May and Katherine Witzig were named winners of the 2023 SRRT Travel Grants that allowed them to attend the 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. |
| May 2023 | The SRRT Membership Committee sent out a survey to LIS students to learn about student involvement in ALA and other library groups. |
| March 2023 |
Working with the ALA Archives, SRRT was able to add the last of the missing SRRT Newsletters to our Newsletter Archive. The archive now includes over 200 newsletter going all the way back to 1969.
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| February 2023 | In February, Action Council approved two new SRRT Committees: SRRT Programming Committee and Social Media & Web Committee. |
| January 2023 | Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 announced their picks for their 2023 list (press release) |
| January 29, 2023 |
The 24th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration took place at LibLearnX in New Orleans, LA. The event featured selected passages from the works of Dr. King, a keynote address by author Sheryll Cashin, a call-to-action from Past ALA President, Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., and a tribute to Virginia "Ginny" Bradley Moore. (program book) |
| December 2022 |
Amanda He was selected as SRRT's 2023 Emerging Leader. The sponsorship consists of a $1000 award towards attendance at the LibLearnX virtual event and ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Amanda worked on the Community Vote Survey and presented a poster at Annual with her group. (press release)
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| November 2022 | Working with the ALA Archives, the last of the historic SRRT minutes were scanned and uploaded to the SRRT website. Minutes go all the way back to SRRT's founding notes in 1968! |
| November 14, 2022 | Homelessness Summit - This day-long free virtual event featured six sessions. Speakers included librarians, social workers, and those with lived experiences. Recordings are available online! |
| October 2022 | Working with ALA Archives, we were able to locate and scan most of our missing historic resolutions. Our Resolution Archive now contains over 250 resolutions dating back to 1969. When possible, additional information such as voting records, related minutes, and related policies are included. |
| August 3, 2022 | SRRT Afternoon of Social Justice - This free virtual program featured two sessions: Paying Better Attention to Indigenous Communities and Neurodiversity in the Library. |
