From the floor of ALA to the future of libraries

Author: Robert Hilliker

Director of Library Relations

As June scorched to a close here in Philadelphia, I had a home-field advantage in navigating this year’s ALA Annual Meeting, which I appreciated since I was facing a conference with hundreds of sessions spread over five days, hundreds of vendor booths spread over an enormous exhibit floor, and more than 14,000 registered attendees. Having stepped into my new role as Springer Nature’s first-ever Director of Library Relations (North America) back in March, it was an opportunity to see our library community through new eyes, and to reintroduce myself to that community. This reflection marks the beginning of The Library Link, my new regular column exploring the evolving relationship between libraries and academic publishing.

“Charting a path through the myriad opportunities at ALA is always a challenge; I frequently had three or more sessions I wanted to attend at the same time, a situation shared by many I ran into during the conference.”

Carving out time for the exhibit hall is always a must as well, even if you’re not planning to stand in line for the latest ARCs (Advance Reader’s Copies, which are such a big draw that many folks buy a one-day or exhibit-only pass just so they can stock up on new reads). And the keynote speakers, this year the headliners were Gretchen Whitmer, George Takei, Carla Hayden, and Geena Davis are always top notch. But the most rewarding part of ALA for me was and remains the chance to see so many of my old, new, and soon-to-be friends in a single place and at a single time or perhaps more accurately, in a series of adjacent times and places!

Reintroducing myself to the librarian community

Happily during my career to date I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide range of roles at a wide range of libraries, so I have a diverse network of folks to touch base with. Many of them were curious about my new role, especially about what motivated me to make the move. When I explained that a large part of my job description falls under the heading of “Library Champion”, that I get to represent a library-forward perspective inside our company while maintaining and building connections within our community to make sure I stay current with people’s concerns it made a lot more sense to them.

One of them said “it sounds like you get paid to just be you” while another said, “it sounds like a difficult job you’re going to have to tell people things they don’t want to hear.” There is some truth to both those assessments, but my experience so far is that my Springer Nature colleagues are very eager to hear from me because they want to make sure they are serving our library partners well. Similarly, while this position plays to my strengths in many ways, I am also finding that I have a lot to learn about the business of academic publishing, but also about how to find platforms for sharing my insights with fellow librarians that can help them navigate the challenging environment they face right now.

A challenging landscape for libraries

There were a lot of big announcements at and around ALA this year from the Supreme Court decision protecting the Universal Service Fund, which (among other things) supports broadband Internet access for libraries and schools, particularly in underserved areas; to the arrival of ALA’s new Executive Director, Daniel J. Montgomery, who has spent the past 15 years leading the Illinois Federation of Teachers; to Carla Hayden’s appointment as a senior fellow at the Mellon Foundation, which seems an excellent fit given their history of supporting vital initiatives in libraries and archives.

“What struck me more than any of these big announcements was librarians’ persistence in the face of enormous challenges.”

As many sessions and conversations at the conference highlighted, now is a difficult time for libraries and librarians of all kinds. Whether they’re facing book challenges, cuts to collections funds, hiring freezes, the loss of grant funding, or the further proliferation of misinformation enabled by new technologies like AI, the librarians I spoke to maintain a sense of resilience and a conviction that we must continue doing the critical work that needs to be done to support our communities.

“With my new role, and the new perspective it brings, I see many opportunities for me to engage with fellow librarians to make sure they have the tools they need to succeed.”

In these efforts: whether it’s helping them articulate and demonstrate the value of their support for open access publishing, anticipate the impact of changes to funder policies, better connect with the research integrity concerns of their colleagues in research administration, or relay their concerns to my new colleagues at Springer Nature, my position enables me to make connections that I wasn’t able to in the past, which I find immensely rewarding.

The persistence of library values

“The sessions I attended and the people I met with at this year’s ALA reminded me of something I learned when I first started library school that most of us become librarians because we enjoy helping people find the information they need and use it well.”

Books remain a big part of that, and I think they will for the foreseeable future but at deeper level we are here for the communities we serve. That’s true of the librarians I met at ALA, and it is true of me as I embark on the next phase of my library career.

If you are a librarian reading this and are curious about how Springer Nature’s work aligns with library values or are interested in talking about how we might work together to promote those values, please reach out!

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