***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS ON-DEMAND WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***
A PLA 2026 Virtual Conference On-Demand Webinar
Often overlooked as sites of innovation in archives, public libraries are drawing on their connections to the community to lead the way in community-centered preservation initiatives. In this on-demand webinar, panelists share how public libraries across the country are disrupting silences in the historic record by working to preserve and provide access to local stories. Learn how you can take practical steps to establish a community archives program at their library.
Recorded live during the PLA 2026 Virtual Conference, April 1–3, 2026.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this on-demand webinar, participants will be able to:
- Demonstrate the essential role public libraries play in community-focused preservation work;
- Design a project that documents, preserves, and shares community stories; and
- Articulate how libraries can mitigate representational gaps existing in a community’s local history record.
Who Should Attend
This on-demand webinar is intended for any public library worker wishing to sample the educational offerings of the PLA 2026 Virtual Conference.
If you were registered for the PLA 2026 Virtual Conference, or were an in-person full-conference registrant who purchased the Virtual Conference add-on, then you already have access to this recording in the online Conference console until July 3, 2026.
Panelists
Anna Trammell is the Program Manager, Community Archiving at the Internet Archive where she manages collaborative programs that empower libraries, archives, and museums to preserve their community's digital heritage. Previously, she was the Manager of Archives and Special Collections at Tacoma Public Library where she led the development of the award-winning Tacoma Community Archives Center with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She also has experience working in special collections in both large and small universities. She holds an MLIS from the University of Illinois and is a Certified Archivist. Anna can be reached by email at atrammell@archive.org.
Marika Cifor is Associate Professor in the Information School and adjunct faculty in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is a feminist scholar of archival studies and digital studies. Her qualitative research investigates how individuals and communities marginalized by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, disability, and/or HIV-status are represented and how they document and represent themselves through archives, data, and digital technologies. Cifor has published widely in critical information studies, gender and sexuality studies, science and technology studies (STS) and American studies on topics including affect and archives, feminist data studies, and community-based information practices. She is the author of Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), which charts how activists, archivists, and curators documented AIDS activism in the 1980s and 1990s, and the ways that contemporary activists, artists, and curators use those records to challenge the injustices that undergird digital age pandemics. Cifor regularly teaches courses on gender, race and technology and archival studies. She works mentors and works closely with iSchool students in the Informatics, MLIS, and Information Science PhD programs.
Meral Agish is the coordinator of the Queens Memory Project at Queens Public Library, a community-engaged archiving program and oral history collection covering the borough of Queens, New York. An oral historian with 20 years of experience, Meral leads regular public workshops on oral history and personal archiving, manages collaborations with community partners and library colleagues, and hosted the award-winning second season of Queens Memory's podcast, "The Borough We Became: Queens Residents on Life during COVID-19."
Carissa Pfeiffer is a librarian and archivist in the Special Collections department of Buncombe County Public Libraries. At BCPL, she has led projects in community archiving, oral history, web archives, and artists-in-residence. Most recently, each of these elements has been part of Come Hell or High Water, a multifaceted and collaborative effort to document Hurricane Helene's impact on Western North Carolina.
Important Registration Information
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Accommodations
This on-demand webinar is closed captioned in English (United States).
If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your access to this on-demand webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) prior to registering so we can attempt to provide appropriate accommodations.
Tech Requirements
To play this on-demand webinar you should use a browser with native HTML5 support. Please use the most up-to-date version available of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, or Edge. A fast Internet connection and computer is recommended.
Contact
This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).
If you have questions or problems accessing a recording, send a message to plawebinars@ala.org or call 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).
