SJSU iSchool’s Celebration of Black History Month
What's a Black Job? The Evolution of Black Librarians

Webcast February 25, 2025 - 10:00am - 12:00pm Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson Carolyn Norman Nichole Brown Aaisha Haykal Fobazi Ettarh Wanda Brown Dr. Brian Kelly

Please join the San José State University School of Information for our symposium on Black History Month presented in collaboration with the California Librarians Black Caucus (CLBC) and SJSU iSchool Black Student Library Collective (BSLC).

To register for our FREE symposium, sign up today:
https://sjsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5bmHk8aKSxq43EF7lvMKCA

AGENDA

Welcome (10:00 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Pacific Time)

Dr. Anthony Chow, PhD: Professor and Director, SJSU iSchool
Carolyn Norman: President, California Librarians Black Caucus (CLBC)

Opening Keynote Address (10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time)

Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson: Chief Curator, African American Museum and Library at Oakland

Panel Discussion on Black Librarianship in the Past, Present, and Future (11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. Pacific Time)

Moderated by Nichole Brown: Librarian II, Oakland Public Library and Treasurer, California Library Association
Aaisha Haykal: Manager of Archival Services, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston
Fobazi Ettarh: PhD student, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Wanda K. Brown: Director of Library Services, C. G. O’Kelly Library at Winston-Salem State University
Dr. Brian Kelly: Reader in US History, Queen’s University Belfast; 2024-25 PALS Fellow, Birzeit University, West Bank, Palestine

Student Spotlight (11:50 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. Pacific Time)

Presented by Nichole Brown: Librarian II, Oakland Public Library and Treasurer, California Library Association
Black Student Library Caucus

Concluding Remarks (11:55 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time)

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Speaker January 22, 2025

Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson
Chief Curator, African American Museum and Library at Oakland

Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson, chief curator at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, received his undergraduate and graduate training in cultural anthropology at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also earned the M.A. degree in Museum Studies from Southern University in New Orleans. Results of his anthropological fieldwork in Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa, and in Haiti, Brazil, and Southern United States in the African Diaspora have focused on comparative family studies, spiritual traditions, and visual art.

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Carolyn Norman
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Carolyn F. Norman has experience in advancing initiatives at the local, state and national level. As Coordinator of Library and Learning Resources Programs for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office she led the development, implementation and management of the Library and Learning Resources Programs in the 100+ institutions in the California Community College system.

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Aaisha Haykal
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Wanda Brown
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Dr. Brian Kelly
Reader in US History, Queen’s University Belfast; 2024-25 PALS Fellow, Birzeit University, West Bank, Palestine

Brian Kelly is Reader in US history at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland),
where he has taught for 25 years, and is former director of the After Slavery Project.
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class in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States, with a concentration on
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SJSU iSchool’s Celebration of Black History Month
What's a Black Job? The Evolution of Black Librarians

Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson
Chief Curator, African American Museum and Library at Oakland

Carolyn Norman
Library Consultant

Nichole Brown
Librarian II, Oakland Public Library and Treasurer, California Library Association

Aaisha Haykal
Manager of Archival Services, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston

Fobazi Ettarh

Wanda Brown
Past ALA President (2019-2020); Director, Library Services at C.G. O'Kelly Library at Winston-Salem State University

Dr. Brian Kelly
Reader in US History, Queen’s University Belfast; 2024-25 PALS Fellow, Birzeit University, West Bank, Palestine

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SJSU iSchool’s Celebration of Black History Month What's a Black Job? The Evolution of Black Librarians

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SJSU iSchool’s Celebration of Black History Month
What's a Black Job? The Evolution of Black Librarians