RMRT Chair Program

ALA Events

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Bob Wedgeworth headshot
Former ALA Executive Director Robert Wedgeworth (1972 to 1985) will share details of his experiences growing up in racially intolerant times and the inside stories of developments in the library world chronicled in his 2026 book, Breaking Barriers: A Librarian’s Story of Changing Times (Bloomsbury, 2026).

The only Black student in his freshman class at Wabash College and on its basketball team during the waning years of the Jim Crow era, Wabash’s Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies Library is named in his honor. As an influential national and international leader, Dr. Wedgeworth was the second American president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and elected in 2021 to Honorary Membership, ALA’s highest honor in recognition of his outstanding contributions of lasting importance to libraries and librarianship. He has been recognized with a wide range of professional honors. He completed his doctorate at Rutgers in 2013 and continues to serve as a trustee of Chicago’s Newberry Library.

Event tags:
ALA Events
Free
Illinois
In-Person
June 28, 2026
10:30 - 11:30am CDT

McCormick Place, W 194 B

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