News

Mehra, B. (moderator and organizer), Black, K. (presenter), Williams-Cockfield, K. C., and Jaber, B. (presenter). (under review). Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in the Internal Public Library Workplace (Education Program abstract). Program of the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition, June 26 – June 30, 2025, Philadelphia, PA.

Mehra, B. (moderator and organizer), Black, K. (presenter), Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (presenter), and Jaber, B. (presenter). (under review). “Exemplar Libraries” to Promote Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries (Poster abstract). Program of the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition, June 26 – June 30, 2025, Philadelphia, PA.
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​Black, K., Mehra, B., Jaber, B. S., and Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (under review). The Thematic Construction of Racial Justice Across Community Domains: AI-gorithmic Implications of Practitioner Discourse. Proceedings of the iConference 2025 (Living in an AI-gorithmic World), virtual (March 11-14, 2025), onsite (March 18-22, 2025: Bloomington, Indianna).

Mehra, B., Black, K., Williams-Cockfield, K. C., and Jaber, B. (under review). “Diversity is a Fact, but Inclusion is a Choice”: Exploratory Open-Ended Qualitative Perspectives of Public Library Staff about the Racial Climate in the Internal Workplace of the American South (short paper). Proceedings of the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 19-21, 2025.

Mehra, B., Black, K., Williams-Cockfield, K. C., and Jaber, B. S. (forthcoming). “Why Should We Care?”: Motivations of Public Librarians in the American South to Expand Civic Engagement for Racial Justice (short paper). Proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (Putting People First: Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Care in Information Research and Practice), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 25-29 October, 2024.

Mehra, B., Black, K., Jaber, B., and Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (2024a). Collaborations between Public Library Educators and Practitioners to Apply a Theory of Change and Promote Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in the American South (paper). Proceedings of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) 2024: Ethics & Evolution of Truth & Information, Portland, OR, October 14-17, 2024.

Mehra, B., Black, K., Jaber, B., and Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (2024b). Civic Engagement and Collective Impact for Social Change: Public Libraries Promoting Racial Justice in the American South (paper). Program of the 52th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science/Actes du congrès annuel de l’ACSI/ l’Association canadienne des sciences de l’information (CAIS/ACSI) 2024 (Leaps & Stumbles), June 4-7, 2024 (online).

Mehra, B., Black, K., Jaber, B., and Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (2024c). Using Theory of Change to Promote Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries (poster abstract). Program of the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition, June 27 – July 2, 2024, San Diego, California.

Mehra, B., Black., K., and Jaber, B. S. (2023) (panelists). From Research to Strategic Planning to Collective Action: A Logic Model Using Theory of Change to Further Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries. (Panel title: Making a Difference: Translating Information Research into Practice, Policy, and Action) [Panelists: Albright, K. S., Black., K., Chu, C. M., Du, J. T., Edgar. B., Jaber, B. S., Mehra, B., and Turner, C.]. 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology, October 29-31, 2023, London, United Kingdom.

Mehra, B., Black, K., Jaber, B., and Williams-Cockfield, K. C. (2023). A Logic Model Using Theory of Change Applied in Grant Development of Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries: Implications for LIS Education (poster abstract). Proceedings of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) 2023: Bridge the Gap: Teaching, Learning, Practice, & Competencies, Milwaukee, WI, October 2-5, 2023.

Mehra, B., and Black, K. (2023). A Logic Model Using Theory of Change Applied in Grant Development of Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries (paper). 14th Annual Discerning Diverse Voices Symposium, University of Alabama, March 1, 2023.

Mehra and Collaborators Make Excellent Progress on Three IMLS Grants, SLIS Renewals, Volume 4, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama: https://slis.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/SLIS-Renewals-Newsletter-Feb-23-Vol-4.pdf

​Mehra and Collaborators Launch Three IMLS Grants, SLIS Renewals: Volume 3, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama:  https://slis.ua.edu/slis-renewals-a-quarterly-newsletter/

SLIS Faculty Receive Over $1.2 Million in IMLS Grants, College of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Alabama, https://cis.ua.edu/2022/08/22/slis-faculty-receive-over-1-2-million-in-imls-grants/.

Faculty Spotlight: August 2022, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama: https://slis.ua.edu/2022/08/03/faculty-spotlight-august-2022/. 

Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries (RJ@PL). Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG-L)– FY 2022 Guidelines (Implementation – Project Type), August 2022 – July 2025 (University of Alabama and Chicago State University) [PI: B. Mehra. Co-PI: K. Black]. [LG-252354-OLS-22]. https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/lg-252354-ols-22.