Our keynote presenter on Tuesday, October 6th, will be author and school librarian, Amanda Jones.

Biography:
"Amanda Jones is currently the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years. Amanda made national headlines in 2022 when she was targeted by extremists in her town for speaking out at a public library board meeting. She decided to fight back and took her harassers to court, while continuing to speak out at both the local and national level against the pro-censorship movement. Amanda chronicles what it is like being the target of white Christian nationalists and the importance of standing up for intellectual freedom, in her book, That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America, which was published in the fall of 2024.

Amanda was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. She enjoys presenting at the national and international level on the importance of certified school librarians, book joy, and why every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books on library shelves. Amanda has received numerous intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association for her dedication to eradicating censorship and promoting libraries in Louisiana.

She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, a group comprised of citizens in her town dedicated to the importance of preserving the freedom of the library to provide services to all patrons no matter their ethnicity, religion, gender identity, education status, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other diversity of life and thought. She is also a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting censorship in the bayou state. Amanda currently resides in Louisiana with her teenage daughter, husband she’s known since first grade, and their cat Juno Mars. When not presenting and fighting the good fight, Amanda enjoys reading, obsessively watching Tiktok, and a good Louisiana crawfish boil."

Our pre-conference on Monday, October 5th, will be led by Dr. Audrey Barbakoff.

Dr. Barbakoff is passionate about helping organizations build capacity for collaboration and belonging by centering their communities. She is the CEO of Co/Lab Capacity LLC, which offers community-centered consulting and training to libraries. With a decade of public library experience and a doctorate in organizational change and leadership, she brings both a practical and scholarly lens to library development. Dr. Barbakoff holds an MLIS from University of Washington and an EdD from the University of Southern California. Her innovative work has been recognized by Library Journal Movers & Shakers, the Urban Libraries Council, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. She has served in a variety of service leadership roles, including the ALA Policy Corps, facilitating the ALA Emerging Leaders program, two terms on ALA Council, and chairing the Intellectual Freedom Round Table. Her newest book, co-authored with Noah Lenstra, is The Twelve Steps to a Community-Led Library. She has also written two picture books, which give her an excuse to dust off her children’s librarian skills for school and library visits.