Marisa Méndez-Brady has been named a 2019 ‘Mover & Shaker’ by Library Journal. | Photo courtesy of Méndez-Brady.
Earlier this month, Library Journal named CalArts Reference & Instruction Librarian Marisa Méndez-Brady a 2019 Mover & Shaker, the trade publication’s annual award for “people shaping the future of libraries.”
For her “equal commitments to serving her patrons and making the field itself better” as well as her dedication to mentoring and empowering librarians of color while working to dismantle systems of oppression and racism in the academic library, she was honored alongside 53 other librarians representing seven countries.
In addition to her library work, Méndez-Brady has pursued personal scholarship applying a critical lens to theory and practices surrounding librarianship, with her current research focusing on the intersection of critical race theory and library and information science — recently distilled in the publication We Here: Speaking Our Truth.
Over the next year she’ll be co-authoring a chapter for a forthcoming MIT Press book, Who’s Afraid of Race? Critical Race Theory in Library and Information Science and co-presenting a panel, “Moving Beyond Race 101: Speculative Futuring for Equity,” at the national 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) biennial conference. In all of her roles, she will also be continuing her crucial advocacy work supporting and encouraging people of color pursuing careers in information science and libraries.
“If I have helped one other person of color feel empowered in library spaces and [feel] like they belong in this profession, I count that as high impact,” Méndez-Brady told Library Journal.
This year’s Movers & Shakers will be honored at the annual American Library Association conference June 20-25, 2019, in Washington, D.C.