LJ’s Class of 2024 Movers & Shakers highlights 50 individuals helping move library work forward
Plain City, OH (May 1, 2024) – Library Journal (LJ) today announced recipients of the 2024 Movers & Shakers awards—a vibrant cohort of Advocates, Community Builders, Change Agents, Innovators, Educators, and Ban Battlers from all corners of the field.
Allison Jennings-Roche
Allison Jennings-Roche, lead teaching and learning librarian at Towson University and PhD candidate at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies (INFO), received this prestigious award in the Educator category. Jennings-Roche teaches students, faculty, and librarians that research is “really about understanding systems of information, and how they work within society, how you can interact with them,” she says. Jennings-Roche has written and published on the topic of intellectual freedom in the United States, exploring how libraries exist as a civic institution within American society and the political influences on them. “It’s not really about the books, it’s about controlling who is and isn’t allowed to be heard in the public sphere,” she says. (Click here to learn more about Allison Jennings-Roche.)
The new class of Movers and Shakers, showcased in LJ’s May print 2024 issue and online, represent an inspiring sample of the work being done in and around libraries today. They are developing programming for patrons with disabilities, providing a place to land after school for teens, creating and restoring balance to their boards, connecting libraries with federal funding, helping design sustainable facilities, teaching community members how to archive their collections, battling censorship attempts, and more—the 50 individuals profiled here demonstrate 50 different ways to move library values forward.
“Our 2024 Movers represent a range of innovative, proactive, and supportive work; they are imaginative and kind and brave in a world that needs those qualities—and the results they produce—very much,” said Library Journal Executive Editor Lisa Peet.
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Founded in 1876, Library Journal is a trade publication serving librarians and library workers. Sharing important news and perspectives that shape the field, surfacing best practices and innovations to invest in, identifying emerging leaders, guiding purchasing decisions, and acting as an advocate for librarians and libraries, Library Journal has been leading the field through the great changes and innovations required to keep libraries strong for nearly 150 years.