Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to share an update and highlight a memorial that I completed some time ago but forgot to share here.
Many of you know that I've found deep meaning in the LWHL initiative since Kathleen McCook introduced it in 2024, inviting us to remember librarians who have passed away between 1976 – 2026 as part of ALA's sesquicentennial next year. When Pauline Atherton died shortly after, I felt compelled to write her memorial, which led to documenting others who have shaped our field (I've led 10 so far). These memorials emphasize personal connections and collaborative remembrance. Kathleen was inspiring in the far larger number of librarians she memorialized and Brett Spencer was unflagging in his coverage of these memorials-he created a special digital memorial page on the LHRT News and Notes website and diligently copied every one posted on ALA Connect there.
To ensure this grassroots effort received proper recognition-including for promotion and tenure purposes (not mine but others')-I wrote a resolution this past summer honoring the project and its contributors. LHRT Chair Alea Henle welcomed the "Resolution to Honor the Contributions of Librarians Commemorated in the 'Librarians We Have Lost' Initiative (1976–2026), A Sesquicentennial Memorial Project" and presented it to their Executive Committee, where Dr. Ellen Pozzi agreed to take it to ALA Council (where Dr. Karen Schneider seconded it), which approved it, making the project official.
To further facilitate contributions, I created a submission form that Brett added to the LHRT website. Brett drafted an invitation to share here, and Kathleen encouraged us to reach out to ALA affiliates and get it posted on their official forums– for example I invited colleagues in the Music Library Association, Medical Library Association, and the Association of Information Science and Technology. This has successfully encouraged more colleagues to share their remembrances. In October, the project established its presence on ALAIR (ALA's institutional repository) through the efforts of Kathleen, Brett, LHRT Chair Jennifer Bartlett, ALA librarian Colleen Barbus, ALA archivist Cara Setsu Bertram, and ALA interim director Melanie Welch, bringing together contributions from many more groups.
I'm writing today primarily to share a memorial honoring Paul G. Zurkowski that I wrote in January (and Brett shared on the LHRT News website) but I forgot to share here. While Zurkowski was not a professional librarian but rather an information industry executive and consultant with an intellectual property law background, his 1974 report for the U.S. Commission on Libraries and Information Science popularized the term "information literacy." His work helped define a concept that has become integral to library and information science. Zurkowski was also known as the "Johnny Appleseed of Information" for his efforts to spread information literacy concepts.
You can read his memorial online here: Information Literacy at 50. [URL: https://infophilia.substack.com/p/information-literacy-at-50]
Zurkowski's memorial will also be available in ALAIR soon, which currently hosts 48 memorials (as well as on LHRT). This work reflects what I call adaptive infophilia-an information literacy grounded in our love of information, collaboration and connections, truth, and remembrance.
I invite you to browse the ALAIR memorials [https://hdl.handle.net/11213/23350] and consider sharing your remembrance of a librarian, library worker, or library school teacher who influenced you or meant a lot.
Best,
Anita
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Anita Sundaram Coleman, PhD | Infophilia, A Positive Psychology of Information
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