2026-2027 Follett Chair
Trevor A. Dawes is the 2026 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year and a nationally recognized leader in academic librarianship. He currently serves as Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian at the University of Delaware, as a professor at the Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics, and as a founding partner of Inclusive Knowledge Solutions. He brings extensive experience helping academic libraries strengthen their programs, develop their people, and advance organizational effectiveness.
Mr. Dawes designs and facilitates workshops and training on leadership, organizational development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion for librarians and library workers at all levels. A prolific author and sought-after speaker, he has written and edited books, book chapters, and articles, and presented across local, national, and international venues on topics ranging from library leadership to diversity and organizational culture.
A dedicated servant-leader, Mr. Dawes is a past president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), served as 2024 president of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and is the 2026-2027 Follett Chair at Dominican University. He serves on the boards of multiple library and library-related organizations and remains an active contributor to the profession.
Mr. Dawes is a 2008 Frye Fellow and a member of the 2014 UCLA Senior Fellows cohort. He holds a Master of Library Service from Rutgers University and both a Master of Arts in Educational Administration and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Spring Activities
Annual Follett Lecture: more information to come in the spring.
Past Follett Chairs and Lectures
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2025-2026
The 2025-2026 Follett Chair, Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, Ph.D., spent the fall engaged with LIS, MAYL, and ASJ students conducting a Critical Race Content Analysis of youth literature, lecturing on the history of Chicana/o librarian activism, and a critical race feminista historical analysis of Latinx children’s literature and librarianship. In the spring semester she delivered the annual Follett Lecture on Latinx literature across time with 'From Abuela’s Stories to Tomorrow’s Shelves' (on April 28, 2026,) and accompanied the LIS 796: International Book Fair course to Italy for the Bologan Children’s Book Fair.
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2024-2025
The 2024-2025 Follett Chair, Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, explored low-morale experiences in academic and public libraries in a two-part Follett Fall Forum in October 2024 about her research into the causes and impacts of low-morale experiences and how these challenges are particularly acute for library workers from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds:
- "The Low-Morale Experience in Academic and Public Libraries: Development, Influences, and Impacts"
- "The Low-Morale Experience: Differentiation and Continuing Research"
- The Low-Morale Experience: Exploring Fractals of the Phenomenon and Considering Humane Library Futures Watch the recording (link opens in new window)
In addition to the Follett Fall Forums in October 2024, Kendrick taught a course in the spring, Critical Hope and Self-Preservation in Contemporary Librarianship, and delivered the Follett Lecture in April 2025.
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2023-2024
The 2023-2024 Follett Chair, Dr. Lynn Connaway, hosted Chicago-area library leaders for a fall round table workshop titled "New Model Library: Pandemic Effects and Library Directions." Dr. Connaway also taught a spring research methods course for students in the SOIS doctoral program and presented "Expanding Relationships: Libraries' Impact on the Global Community" as her Follett Lecture on April 18, 2024.
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2022-2023
The 2022-2023 Follett Chair, Cutcha Risling Baldy, presented two spring mini-courses and the Follett Lecture, “Grandfather’s Boarding School Journals: An Indigenous Experience Firsthand Account”, in spring 2023.
- “Ishi’s Return”
- “Traditional Ecological Knowledge”
- Follett Lecture
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2022-2012
The 2020–2022 Follett Chair, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, presented "The Shadow Book: Reading Slavery, Fugitivity, and Freedom in Children’s Books and Media." Watch the 2022 Lecture The 2020–2021 Follett Chair, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and author Renée Watson presented “Fantastic Black Girlhoods: A Conversation with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and Renée Watson” on March 29, 2021.
The 2019–2020 Follett Chair, Bernard Reilly, presented "Money, Technology, Politics and the Future of Memory Institutions" on April 20, 2020. Reilly also presented a spring 2020 lecture series: "Memory Institutions and Digital Evidence in a Civil Society."
The 2018–2019 Follett Chair, Verne Harris, presented "A Time to Remember, A Time to Forget: Fred Hampton, Nelson Mandela and the Work of Memory" on April 16, 2019.
The 2017–18 Follett Chair, Andrew Dillon, presented “Shaping a Better Information Space: Putting Humans at the Center of Our World” on April 26, 2018.
The 2016–2017 Follet Chair, David Lankes, delivered 2017 Lecture, "The Social Responsibility of the Library and the Librarian in a Post-Factual World" on April 12, 2017 with a respondent panel of Nicole A. Cooke, Miguel Figueroa, and Scott Walter.
The 2014–2016 Follett Chair, Dr. Janice M. Del Negro, presented "A 'Belligerent Profession:' Telling the Library Story" on April 8, 2015 and "The All-White World of Children's Librarianship: Baker, Rollins, and the Quest for Diversity" on April 13, 2016.
Mary Minow, Follett Chair from 2012 through 2014, presented "Copyright in the Digital Age" on April 15, 2013, "Ebooks and the Reader" on March 13, 2012, and "The Right to Control? Writing and Publishing Religious Works" with special insights from Sr. Janet Welsh on April 29, 2014.