Ohio Private Academic Libraries Conference 2018

We are excited to be a part of the Ohio Private Academic Libraries (OPAL)’s 2018 conference! This year’s theme “Stronger Together: Voices Raised in Advocacy” explores activism, outreach, collaboration and services.

Catalysts, Pioneers and Provocateurs: 21st Century Academic Libraries

Academic libraries inspire discourse and connect students, faculty and communities to new ways of thinking. At a time of heightened awareness of inequalities for women, people of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants and other marginalized communities, what are the roles of libraries, academic institutions and external partners? Join us as we discuss how academic libraries have positioned their programs and collections to spark dialogue. Panelists will share how their work advocates the library as a platform and how their constituents and community have benefited. Further, we’ll chat about their vision for what’s next. Don’t miss this timely talk with following Q&A!

Meet the Panelists

Jenny Robb
Curator and Associate Professor
The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Jenny Robb is Curator and Associate Professor of The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the largest academic research institution dedicated to cartoons and comics. Before coming to Ohio State in 2005, she served as Curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco for 5 years. She holds masters degrees in history and museum studies from Syracuse University. Jenny has curated numerous cartoon and comics exhibitions, including Exploring Calvin and Hobbes; The Long March: Civil Rights in Cartoons and Comics; and Looking Backward, Looking Forward: U.S. Immigration in Cartoons and Comics. She is the author of “Bill Blackbeard: the Collector Who Rescued the Comics” published in the Journal of American Culture and co-author of “Finding Archives/Making Archives: Observations on Conducting Multicultural Comics Research” published in the book Multicultural Comics: From Zap to Blue Beetle, among other comics-related articles and catalog essays.

Krista McDonald
Director
Miami University Regionals Rentschler Library

Krista McDonald is the Director of Rentschler Library at Miami University’s Hamilton Campus. She has just completed a three-year term leading the Academic Library Association of Ohio and is currently serving on its Diversity Committee. At Miami Hamilton Campus, Krista has completed Safe Zone training and works with the MUH PRIDE student organization as well as with the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Services, the Association of Latino and American Students, the TRiO Student Support Services Program and Student Disability Services. Krista earned her Master of Library Science from the University of Kentucky and her Bachelor of Arts in history from Ohio University.

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins
University Archivist, Assistant Professor
Kent State University Libraries Department of Special Collections and Archives

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins is responsible for managing the Kent State University Archives program, which includes the May 4 Collection. Some of her principal duties involve acquiring and appraising archive records, coordinating the process and preservation of Kent State archival material in all formats, digitization, co-administering with the university’s general counsel, the records retention program, providing reference and research assistance and delivering instructional programming about the Kent State University Archives. Her research areas focus on outreach to marginalized communities, documenting student activism within disenfranchised populations and utilizing narratives of oppressed voices within the curricula of post-secondary education spaces. Her most recent publication is “Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices” [PDF] in the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies. She is the Founder of Project STAND, a national initiative to create a centralized digital space where academic institutions can provide researchers access to historical and archival documentation on the development and on-going occurrences of student dissent. Project STAND focuses on digital and analog primary sources that document the activities of student groups that represent the concerns of historically marginalized communities (e.g., African American, Chicano/ LGBTQ, religious minorities, disabled, etc.). Lae’l is a 2018 Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career Development Fellow and a recent recipient of the Society of Ohio Archivists Merit Award for Project STAND.

Nimisha Bhat
Technical Services Librarian
Columbus College of Art & Design Packard Library

An Ohioan by way of South Dakota, Nimisha Bhat’s education and career have been grounded in the exploration of dialogues between different cultures and communities. Nimisha earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College where she studied Arabic and spent time abroad in India and Egypt. Further, pursuing her master’s degree from Pratt Institute’s library and information science program fed her passion for visual culture and literacy. Working with collections at the Frick, Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art, she has combined her experience in museum librarianship with information literacy at the Columbus College of Art & Design. As CCAD Packard Library’s Technical Services Librarian, Nimisha is passionate about cataloging, teaching through a lens of critical librarianship and advocating for diversity and inclusion within library services.

Bryan Loar (Moderator)
Co-Founder and Board President
Cbus Libraries

As Co-Founder and Board President of Cbus Libraries, a tax-exempt charitable nonprofit, Bryan champions Central Ohio libraries, library enthusiasts and the love of reading. Through a variety of programming, Cbus Libraries promotes the exceptional work of Central Ohio libraries via monthly features, raises scholarship funds for traditionally underrepresented library students and creates literacy experiences at community events and public spaces. In 2017, Bryan moderated Resistance + Refuge : Bookstores + Libraries at Columbus, Ohio’s Flyover Fest. Bryan earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in History of Art and Italian from The Ohio State University and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Kent State University. Bryan serves as a trustee at the Ohioana Library Association and on the advisory council for Choose to Read Ohio. He is a member of ALA’s Association of College & Research Libraries.