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This information sessions discusses two current CFP for Special Issues:
Digital Librarianship in an Eroding Democracy
The current experience of digital librarianship in the U.S. and around the world is defined in part by precarity and crisis. In March 2025, Trump issued an Executive Order that dismantled the IMLS; as of April 2026, his proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year does not include IMLS funding. Demands to censor books representing the experiences of LGBTQ+ people continue to break records. Tech companies inundate our digital platforms with AI tools dependent on extractive environmental practices, exploitative labor, and copyright infringement. Libraries are reorganized and consolidated in grasping attempts to prove relevance and stretch resources. These examples are specifically relevant to our work as information professionals, but we are also affected by broader atrocities. As ICE’s federally-mandated acts of cruelty, bragging promises of war crimes, and ongoing genocide in Palestine fill our newsfeed, we continue to be faced with questions about the impact and sustainability of our digital library work.
This special issue of The Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship invites current students, recent graduates, and early career librarians to reflect on the transition from the classroom to the profession and the many pathways that lead to and through digital librarianship. As this occupation continues to evolve from its origins in the 20th century ‘digital turn,’ what are the challenges and barriers facing those who are new to the field? Digital library roles continue to be characterized by highly specialized or niche job requirements while also asking librarians to have or develop divergent skills across multiple disciplines.
Presenter Info
Leah Duncan
Leah Duncan is the Digital Humanities Librarian at Davidson College, and the editor of the Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship. She holds a Ph.D. in English and an MLIS from Louisiana State University. As a member of Davidson’s Digital Learning & Scholarship team, she hopes to empower teachers and learners to make critically-informed decisions about leveraging technology in their scholarship.
Rachel Starry
Rachel is the Head of Digital Scholarship & Publishing at the University of Pittsburgh Library System. Since obtaining her PhD in Classical & Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College, she has worked in academic libraries supporting computational research, data services, and digital publishing.
Emily Zinger
Emily is the Southeast Asia Digital Librarian at Cornell University where her primary role is as project manager of the Southeast Asia Digital Library. She has a Masters of Information Studies from McGill University and Bachelor degrees in Psychology and English from the College of William & Mary.