EveryLibrary’s Expanded Focus on Academic Libraries

For the last 13 years, EveryLibrary and the EveryLibrary Institute have been synonymous with defending and advancing school and public libraries across the country. Our work has empowered communities, built coalitions, and fought for the rights of readers and library workers everywhere. But libraries are an ecosystem. Today, we are hoping to share how our organizations are extending our advocacy, research, and policy expertise to meet the urgent needs of academic libraries and the professionals who support higher education and scholarship.

By leveraging our staff, fellows, platforms, partnerships, and decades of experience, EveryLibrary and the EveryLibrary Institute are ensuring that academic libraries and the people who rely on them have access to the same level of advocacy, responsiveness, and resources that have been our hallmark for more than a decade. ​​We are actively participating in and shaping the conversations that matter most for academic libraries.

Charleston Conference 2025

At this year’s Charleston Conference, we will host a half-day pre-conference workshop and two dynamic sessions bringing together librarians, publishers, and policy experts to confront today’s challenges in scholarly communication. Discussions will also include communication strategies and planning for the future of research and academia. 

Safeguarding Scholarly Communication: A Strategic Leadership Workshop for Academic Librarians

Tuesday, November 4
9 am - 12 pm (refreshment break 10:30 am) 

Presenters

• Lucy Santos-Green, Director, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa
• Terri Teleen, President, Americas, Emerald Publishing
• Kathleen McEvoy, Senior Policy Fellow, EveryLibrary Institute

This action-oriented workshop will focus on creating and implementing strategies for demonstrating and amplifying the value of academic libraries. The session will begin with an introduction and scene-setting discussion outlining current challenges to the foundations of the scholarly communication enterprise. This will be followed by an interactive workshop in which participants share experiences, challenges, and opportunities, and brainstorm ideas around effective advocacy.  

Twenty Percent of an Idea. If We Are Confronting a New Reality, How Can We Start from Zero and Move Forward

Wednesday, November 5
1:15 pm – 2:15 pm
Grand Ballroom 3, Gaillard Center

Presenters

• Gary Price, Co-editor and Curator, ARL Day in Review
• Tony Roche, Chief Content Officer, Emerald Publishing
• Kathleen McEvoy, Senior Policy Fellow, EveryLibrary Institute

Reading or watching the news, opening social media, or receiving alerts about new Executive Orders or Supreme Court rulings, it seems we are confronting a new, emerging reality. The changes being confronted seem overwhelming, but is there an opportunity to discuss a framework for a new ecosystem for academic institutions, library professionals, scholarly publishing, and research? Can we reimagine ways libraries should work? This session will be a discussion, led by library, publishing, and policy experts, looking to move on from the fear and the anger and start to discuss what comes next. 

Reclaiming the Library Narrative: Strategic Communication for Academic Leaders

Thursday, November 6
5:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Grand Ballroom 3, Gaillard Center

Presenters

• Alex Hodges. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Librarian and Director, Gutman Library; Lecturer on Education, Harvard University
• Lucy Santos Green, Director, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa
• Lyda Fontes McCartin, Professor and Director: School of Information Science, University of South Carolina
• Kathleen McEvoy, Senior Policy Fellow, EveryLibrary Institute

This Neopolitan session provides library leaders and administrators with concrete perspectives to reframe their institution to advocate and engage with campus leadership and external stakeholders. Practical strategies for positioning libraries as essential partners in solving institutional priorities will be shared. Attendees will discuss aligning library services and expertise with current campus initiatives, from student success and research support to community engagement and digital transformation. The session will focus on actionable communication techniques that help library leaders present their resources, staff expertise, and services as solutions to pressing challenges. 

Charleston In Between

In July 2025, we joined the panel Libraries Under Fire: Defending Scholarship in a Time of Political Pressure, where we stood with colleagues from ARL, Humboldt University, and the Royal Institution to highlight the role of libraries in safeguarding research from political interference at “In Between in Berlin”, which brought together academic librarians, scholarly publishers, and information professionals. In addition to The EveryLibrary Institute’s Senior Policy Fellow Kathleen McEvoy, panelists included Suze Kindu, Science Communicator, Trustee of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and co-organizer of #DefendResearch, Katherine Klosek, Director of Information Policy and Federal Relations at the Association of Research Libraries, and Michael Seadle, Retired Executive Director, iSchool at Humboldt University.

Electronic Resources in Libraries - ER&L 2025

The EveryLibrary Institute participated in the 2025 ER&L Conference held at the University of Texas at Austin in March. This year included a session called Redefine Don’t Cosign; Responding to Weaponized Language about Libraries and the Academy. Senior Policy Fellow Kathleen McEvoy took the audience through the language and framing being used to discuss libraries and academia and the narrative being used to support the Executive Orders, policies, and firings that are prevalent. The session was designed to walk participants through how to recognize the charged language being used and how to reject the predicate, pivot to clear messaging, understand when language is being used to manipulate or dominate the discourse, and how to redefine the debate. 

For the second year in a row, The EveryLibrary Institute took part in the Closing Keynote. This year it was called What is Happening? The Rapid Pace of Change Has Shifted The Narrative and Our Foundations. How to Regain Our Footing and Stabilize Our Next Steps. The panel included Lucy Santos Green, Director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, Yvonne Eadon, Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, Amy Reid, Senior Manager of Freedom to Learn Programs at PEN America who was the former head of the Gender Studies program at New College in Florida, and Kathleen McEvoy, Senior Policy Fellow at The EveryLibrary Institute..

The Legal Landscape of Librarianship Forum

In February 2025, EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chraska kicked off a three-day virtual conference for academic librarians with his keynote The Legal Landscape of Librarianship: An Overview with EveryLibrary. The forum focused on librarians as individuals, as employees, and as part of an institution. Additionally, EveryLibrary presentations focused on each of these aspects, including "Rejecting the Predicate: Semantic Infiltration and Redefining the Argument"; "Rising Above the Fray to See the Entire Board"; and "The Academe Is In Play, And It Is Not A Game". 

Webinars with Partners 

In March 2025, Emerald Publishing became “the first scholarly publisher to sponsor the work of the EveryLibrary Institute.” Together, we are producing a webinar series exploring threats to academic freedom, strategies for response, and practical tools for academic librarians navigating policy and politics.

The webinar series began in April with Emerald President for the Americas, Terri Teleen, hosting EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chraska for Academic Libraries and Threats to Intellectual Freedom: Where Do We Go From Here? In June, Teleen once again hosted Chraska for the second webinar in the series: Creating Response Strategies for Academic Libraries.

Institutional Accreditation and Academic Libraries 

Clarivate, an EveryLibrary supporter since 2023, is extending its support. According to EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chraska, “Clarivate’s support has allowed us to move several important projects forward, including our new report focusing on academic institutional accreditation standards and the future of academic libraries. We have also been able to convene discussions about higher education policy at national conferences and in professional journals.’” 

EveryLibrary’s new report, Institutional Accreditation and the Academic Library: A Strategy for Engagement and Representation, provides strategies for including academic library stakeholders in accreditation discussions, including standards reviews, and ways library professionals can provide input and have an impact on revisions to accreditation standards.

Writing about Academia

The EveryLibrary Institute edits a column in Against the Grain called Seeing the Whole Board where we aim to look beyond traditional library issues and see how the cultural and political pieces are being moved in ways that impact academic institutions, library funding, publishing, and research.

The EveryLibrary Institute publishes The Political Librarian which features articles about multiple aspects of librarianship including academia. This includes the white paper Divisive Politics and Threats to Academic Institutions published in Volume 7, Issue 2. EveryLibrary also published articles on Medium. Including articles specific to Academic Librarianship.

What’s Next

Academic libraries are essential to scholarship, research, and student success. They are also facing new challenges that are political, financial, and cultural, which require focused advocacy and proactive strategies. By bringing the EveryLibrary approach to academic librarianship, we are defending scholarly communication from political interference, supporting academic librarians in their professional and institutional roles, and providing platforms for research, writing, and dialogue across the academic community.

Our commitment to academic libraries is developing and growing. As we continue hosting workshops, publishing research, and convening conversations, we invite you to follow along and support this growing part of our mission. Together, we can ensure that each and every library remains a cornerstone of knowledge, freedom, and progress.