i

Editor’s Introduction

IT IS MY PLEASURE AND PRIVILEGE to present to you the seventy-
fifth installment of the Summary of Proceedings, the official record 
of Atla’s annual conference. Most authorities attest that the seventy-
fifth is the diamond anniversary, although confusingly the same title 
is also applied to the sixtieth. In any case, Atla Annual 2021 was a 
diamond-worthy jubilee, abounding in content demonstrative of a 
firm and lustrous commitment to the highest values of our profes-
sion. Gathered here in the Proceedings are the fruits of nearly three 
dozen papers, conversation groups, panel discussions, listen-and-
learn sessions, and other offerings for your edification.

Owing to the persistence of the pandemic, attendees were 
obliged to convene exclusively online for a second consecutive year. 
Indeed, COVID-19 made its mark throughout the program, occasion-
ing numerous presentations on the ways in which librarians have 
adapted their services to the exigencies of this time of salubrious 
social separation. Topics such as remote instruction, open access, 
and controlled digital lending would have been of trending interest 
in any case, but the COVID crisis lent them an urgency none could 
likely have foreseen before March 2020.

Also of surpassing urgency and prominence was the fourfold 
issue of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). Reflect-
ing the association’s recent push to foster constructive action around 
this timely concern, many of our colleagues offered practical advice 
in such areas as implementing antiracism in cataloging, closing the 
Wikipedia gender gap, and developing more accessible spaces and 
websites.

Naturally, there was room for presentations on perennial library 
topics as well, including cataloging and classification, collection 
development, flourishing through a construction project, and much 
more.



ii  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

The editor’s introduction has often remarked on the charm of 
the host city and the high times enjoyed there among friends. This 
year’s virtual venue may have lacked the appeal of the towering firs 
of Vancouver or the waving palms of Long Beach, but it brought us 
together all the same. In next year’s volume, Deo volente, there will 
be cause to wax rhapsodic about the Mid-Atlantic grace of Charm 
City itself. But until then, happy reading!

Derek J. Rieckens
Editor-in-Chief