This week, I decided to switch my schedule around a bit. I haven’t had the time to dive into the new scholarship needed for my journal club, so I am excited to write about my favorite librarian conference, the Association of College and Research Libraries Conference. This year’s theme was Democratizing Knowledge, Access, and Opportunities.
Reflections from ACRL 2025: Imagining, Resisting, and Building Better Futures in Academic Libraries
This year’s ACRL Conference left me feeling both challenged and inspired. In the face of growing threats to academic freedom, the erosion of trust in information systems, and the ever-expanding reach of surveillance technologies, I walked away with a renewed sense of purpose and a reminder that librarianship has always been about imagining new futures.
Ancestral Intelligence, Abundant Futures: Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s Opening Keynote
Dr. Ruha Benjamin opened the conference with a powerful keynote that urged us to resist the narratives of inevitability surrounding technology. She reminded us that we have agency and responsibility to question who benefits from the tools we adopt, how inequity gets encoded into our systems, and what it means to build technologies rooted in dignity, care, and justice.
Dr. Benjamin introduced a different type of AI, the concept of “ancestral intelligence,” a way of drawing on collective wisdom and histories of resistance to inform how we engage with technology today. She cautioned us about “do-gooding data”, the seductive promises of data-driven tools that reinforce biases under the guise of objectivity, such as risk assessments that determine “good citizenship.”
From the dark history of IBM’s role in the Holocaust (a stark reminder from Edwin Black’s book IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation) to modern-day hostile architectures that criminalize certain bodies and communities, she showed how technologies are never neutral. They are mirrors, catalysts, and portals, revealing our shortcomings and our capacity to imagine better.
Her call to action was clear: Our job is to provide information and help people ask better questions. And that requires trust, not as a “soft skill” but as the essential ingredient of our work.
Resources like the Imagination Playbook, Data Nutrition Project, and Tech Freedom Schools offered glimpses into how communities are already resisting and reimagining tech futures. Her keynote left me thinking deeply about how academic libraries engage our communities, how we center trust, and how we create space for dreaming even in the face of oppressive systems.
The sessions I attended echoed these themes of resistance, imagination, and collective action. Some brief notes from sessions that I attended are below.
- At the panel session “Academic Freedom Under Threat,” librarians shared stories of censorship, legislative attacks on DEI initiatives, and the critical need to mobilize through unions, faculty senates, and collective statements. The bold call is to use shame strategically. Listening to the story about one of the panelists writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education to expose gaps in understanding among library administrators stuck with me.
- The roundtable discussion “For Us By Us (FUBU): Ideating a Journal of Black Librarianship” was a generative space where Black librarians envisioned a journal that centers our voices, scholarship, and experiences. The energy at the reminded me of the power of spaces built for us, by us, where imagination and action meet.
- The session on “Democratizing Research Support: A Qualitative Study About Qualitative Research” resonated with my work. The presenters discussed building learning communities, collaborating with qualitative faculty, and the need for free, hands-on workshops—a reminder of how we can democratize access to research methods.
- In a lightning talk on “Quasie Expressiveness and Black Quiet,” I was reminded of the radical power of quietness. It reminded me of a reel that I watched from a Black woman talking about how Black people can’t be introverts at work, and that it is weaponized against us. Oftentimes, the labels come that we are unapproachable, mysterious, etc. Our stillness becomes a spectacle. Our pause is read as an attitude. Our reflection, mistaken for defiance. The burden of performing friendliness, always narrating our thoughts out loud, and smiling when we don’t feel like smiling is exhausting. And yet, in the quiet, there is a reclaiming. A refusal to explain. A sanctuary where we get to belong to ourselves first. It helped me understand the importance of quiet and that it is not always necessary to be loud. Also, academic libraries should remember this.
Final Reflections
Walking away from ACRL 2025, I am holding close to Dr. Benjamin’s words: having time to imagine and dream is so important. I want to give myself space to do so, even in a time of chaos. And as librarians, we have a role to create spaces where our communities and ourselves can engage in that work of imagination, dignity, and justice.
We have access to the recordings 6 months after the conference, which is great. I look forward to gleaning more knowledge from my colleagues.
Did you attend ACRL 2025? If so, what insights did you take away? Or maybe you’ve been to another conference recently. What stuck with you? What lessons, moments, or conversations are still sitting with you?
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