The American Library Association (ALA) has elected a 20-year library veteran and self-described Marxist—who is also a lesbian mom—as its president-elect.
Emily Drabinski, interim chief librarian at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, was elected to the position Wednesday by members of the ALA, the oldest and largest library association in the world. As president-elect of the 57,000-member organization, she will serve as vice-president this year and step into the president role from 2023 to 2024.
Drabinski ran what Jacobin magazine called an “openly socialist” campaign, with a platform of “collective power for public good.” Her platform called for “reinvestment in schools, libraries, and communities, economic and racial justice for library workers and the communities in which we live and work, environmental sustainability, and collaboration and cooperation beyond our borders.”
“I will direct resources and opportunities to a diverse cross section of the association and advance a public agenda that puts organizing for justice at the center of library work.”
—Emily Drabinski
Drabinski’s platform expanded on the need for “Social and economic justice and racial equity,” explaining that this “requires that we make a material difference in the lives of library workers and patrons who have for too long been denied power and opportunity on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, national origin, spoken language, and disability.” As president of the organization, she said, “I will direct resources and opportunities to a diverse cross section of the association and advance a public agenda that puts organizing for justice at the center of library work.”
Other foundations of her platform were “A Green New Deal for libraries” to “preserve libraries and communities” in the face of climate change; “International connections” with “a global vision of librarianship in which international cooperation and exchange are central to equity and justice”; “Public infrastructure for public goods,” meaning “a public conversation about the implications of corporate control of core library functions” and “strategies for pushing back”; and “Collective organizing for collective power,” where Drabinski will “bring an organizing approach to association leadership, getting us talking with each other as we collectively develop a national campaign for libraries.”
After her election, Drabinski tweeted:
I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!
And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.
Her scholarship has included work on applying queer theory to library cataloging and library spaces, including a 2014 paper in which she critiqued how gender is identified in library cataloging rules, and a 2008 paper in which she explored some implications of a Florida county’s negative response to a library Pride exhibit. While her stated goals for the ALA go beyond just censorship and queer issues, clearly she has thought deeply about these matters and will bring that experience to bear.
The ALA has long championed freedom of expression, helped raise awareness of censorship, and elevated LGBTQ-inclusive books. Drabinski’s election seems not to represent a sea change in that regard. Yet her socialist/Marxist approach clearly resonated with many, suggesting that they feel she can be even more effective in addressing the problems libraries face today, including the record number of challenges to books with LGBTQ and other marginalised characters across the U.S.
Drabinski has worked in libraries for more than 20 years, “in positions ranging from looseleaf legal filer to library director,” she says on her website. She has served as chair of the International Relations Committee (2020-21), ALA councilor-at-large (2018-20) and chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee (2019-20). Additionally, she is a member of Core (Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures), co-chair of the ACRL President’s Program Planning Committee (2020-21), and reviews editor for College & Research Libraries. She is also a member of several ALA Round Tables: International Relations; Library Support Staff Interest; Social Responsibilities; Sustainability; and Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange; and a member of several ALA affiliates: the Black Caucus of ALA, REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, the American Indian Library Association, the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, and the Chinese American Librarians Association.
Drabinski holds an MLIS from Syracuse University, a BA in political science from Columbia University, and an MA in composition and rhetoric from Long Island University, Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her partner, their teenage son, and three cats.
