Civic, social, and education innovators set stage for Symposium on the Future of Libraries

CHICAGO – A tech accelerator program for Black and Latina women founders of high-growth tech companies. A livable, inclusive, and sustainable neighborhood revitalization through creative place-making, local business development, and public-private partnerships. A living laboratory for imaging what is next for education, developing and testing new educational platforms and techniques.

The innovators behind these three initiatives – digitalundivided’s BIG Innovation Center and BIG Accelerator Program, we love buhi, and Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities – will be among the plenary speakers at the 2017 Symposium on the Future of Libraries, part of the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta.

As library professionals gather to consider our futures, leaders from civic, social, and education innovation will highlight some of the issues that they are tackling, the innovative practices they are leveraging, and the opportunities they see for the future. Attendees will have a chance to consider these leaders’ work in light of our own values and the values that we seek to provide to our communities, campuses, and organizations.

Social Innovation will be the focus of Saturday morning’s plenary (January 21, 2017, 8:30 am – 10:00 am) with speakers Darlene Gillard Jones and Isha Lee. Gillard Jones is Chief Community Officer for digitalundivided and their BIG Innovation Center and BIG Accelerator, the first and only space and tech accelerator program dedicated to the training and support of Black and Latina women founders of high-growth tech companies. Isha Lee is Chief Network Officer for Welcoming America, a national network for nonprofits and local governments interested in developing plans, programs, and policies that embraces immigrants, foster opportunity for all, and transform communities into vibrant places where people respect each other. The Social Innovation plenary will be moderated by Spectrum Scholar Charlotte Roh, representing ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services.

Sunday morning (January 22, 2017, 8:30 am – 10:00 am) will look into the future of cities, communities, and neighborhoods with Marian Liou and representatives from Atlanta's Center for Civic Innovation. Atlanta’s Center for Civic Innovation helps find and test new solutions to local challenges, with tools ranging from open data to community dialogue. Marian Liou is the founder of we love buhi, a community based organization that combines arts, business, design, and play to catalyze and support Atlanta’s Buford Highway corridor, a multiethnic community north of Atlanta. The Civic Innovation plenary will be moderated by PLA President Felton Thomas.

It’s back to school on Monday morning (January 23, 2017, 8:30 am – 10:00 am) as education innovation from K-12 through higher ed takes the stage with Dr. Stephen Harmon and Jeffrey Martín. Dr. Stephen Harmon is Director of Educational Innovation at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U), which tests educational techniques in actual classrooms to develop technology-driven solutions that result in optimal student outcomes and creative institutional change. Jeffrey Martín is Founder and CEO of honorcode, a non-profit social enterprise that provides curriculum and training to schools to bring more web-development into the K-12 classroom – and Jeffrey and honorcode just won Forbes’ Under 30 Summit Change The World Nonprofit Competition. The Education Innovation plenary will be co-moderated by AASL President Audrey Church and ACRL Past President Ann Campion Riley.

The Symposium on the Future of Libraries, organized by the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries, is included with 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits full registration. In addition to the three plenary sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in three days of sessions exploring the many futures for academic, public, school and special libraries.