Editor’s Note: In the lead-up to the 2025 ALA/ACRL election, we’re profiling the 2025 ACRL Board of Directors candidates. We’ll feature one candidate in slate order each weekday from February 26 – March 7. Complete details on candidates for ACRL offices are available on the election website. Make sure to vote for the candidates of your choice starting March 10.
Elaine Hirsch is the associate director of the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and a 2025 candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors as Director-at-Large.
1. Describe yourself in three words: Collaborative, engaged, inclusive.
2. Describe ACRL in three words: Adaptable, dedicated, supportive.
3. What do you value about ACRL? Its commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and the ACRL Plan for Excellence; coordinated leadership and advocacy in advancing learning and scholarship across higher education; professional development opportunities for academic library workers throughout their careers.
4. What would you, as a candidate for the ACRL Board, like to see ACRL accomplish in the area of EDI? With the current political landscape, ACRL’s commitment to dismantling oppression and prioritizing EDI is extremely important for the membership and the institutions we serve. ACRL’s resources and allyship can provide an anchor and direction during a frightening and confusing time for many library workers in higher education. The goals and objectives established in the ACRL Plan for Excellence can help guide this work, and my current service on the Awards Committee of the College Libraries Section has provided insight into the work being done by ACRL’s Excellence in Academic Libraries Awards Committee. The committee’s detailed process to broaden and streamline equitable and inclusive recognition and awards is an encouraging indicator of ACRL’s commitment to structural change within the division and beyond.
5. In your own words (an open-ended statement or reflection about life as an academic/research librarian): I have spent most of my career at a small, liberal arts college library, and have been an active member of ALA and ACRL throughout this time. With my experience, I believe I can fully engage and robustly contribute to the ACRL Board of Directors, and represent the unique circumstances and needs of small to medium sized academic libraries. I have seen first hand how a student centered institution focused on teaching, learning, lived experience, and dialogue can cultivate relationships, collaboration, and effective outcomes. I also understand the challenges many institutions in higher education face with declining enrollments and financial concerns, and how these matters can impact our service oriented profession and association.
My career centers on public services, student support, community outreach, and staff development broadly, with focus on equitable and inclusive services, resources, and library spaces, as well as student and staff engagement and well-being. By creating a welcoming community center for teaching and learning, academic libraries have the unique and important opportunity to help recognize and level individual experiences and circumstances through thoughtful services, resources, exhibits, and events which contribute to student belonging and success on campus.
6. What are you reading (or listening to on your mobile device(s)? For the last four years, Lewis & Clark libraries have partnered with our local public library system to support and promote Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s one-community-read project in Portland, Oregon. I am currently reading this year’s selection, Solito, a memoir by Javier Zamora, recounting his migration to the USA from El Salvador at the age of nine. I look forward to an impactful conversation at an upcoming book discussion on campus.