PhD student Jamillah R. Gabriel will give the keynote address at the 17th Annual Digital Commonwealth Conference, which will be held virtually on April 11. Digital Commonwealth provides resources and services to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by libraries, museums, historical societies, archives, and other cultural institutions in Massachusetts. The theme of this year's conference is "Facing the Digital Future: Addressing Systemic Issues in Cultural Heritage."
Gabriel will present "Standing the Test of Time: Building Resilient Collections." In her talk, she will discuss how institutions can address issues of accessibility, diversity, and sustainability in their collections.
Gabriel serves as the critical pedagogy research librarian in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Her professional experience includes 22 years in public and academic libraries as a librarian, archivist, and library paraprofessional. Her research focuses on issues at the nexus of information and race and interrogates how these issues impact Black people and communities. Gabriel holds an MLIS from San Jose State University and an MA in museum studies from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.