Join us for this fascinating panel discussion about the strengths and challenges of libraries today. Whether a special, academic, independent or public library, there is something unique to learn about all of these amazing institutions and their representatives.

About the Panelists

Elizabeth Gibson is the President of the Friends of the Benton Library, Inc., which supports and operates the historic Everett C. Benton Library, a non-profit independent library run by volunteers and supported by donations. She is a Belmont resident and has been involved in various town activities including School Committee, Town Meeting and the Oakley Neighborhood Association.

Jen Greenleaf has worked in libraries and research for 25 years. She is currently a social science and management librarian at MIT, specializing in Political Science, Women and Gender Studies, and Supply Chain Management, and a researcher on the B4B team at Harvard Business School Baker Library. She has worked in a law firm library, textbook publishing research, corporate market research, and an international school library. In the greater library community, she serves on the programming committee of the Special Libraries Association and the Research, Teaching, and Learning Planning Group for the Ivy Plus Library Confederation. Jen holds a BA from Colby College and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois. She lives in Belmont with her two children and is a big fan of the Belmont Public Library.

Kelly Linehan (she/hers) is the Director of the Waltham Public Library in Waltham, Massachusetts and a Strategic Planning Consultant. She is currently the Mass Library Association State Representative for the New England Library Association, and a Past-President of the Minuteman Library Network. She has over twenty years of urban public library experience, with a special focus on service to the unhoused and mentally ill populations. She was a member of the first cohort of the American Library Association Leadership Institution and is the creator of the award winning Watch Read Listen community story program and the Play Imagine Experience space an interactive, museum inspired immersive environment where children play and learn interactively.

Marc A. Mamigonian is the Director of Academic Affairs of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. He has served as the editor of the Journal of Armenian Studies and the volume The Armenians of New England (Armenian Heritage Press, 2004), and is the co-author of annotated editions of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Alma Classics, 2014; with John N. Turner) and Ulysses (Alma Classics, 2015, with John N. Turner and Sam Slote) and of the volume Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses (Oxford University Press, 2022; with Turner and Slote). He has published articles in Genocide Studies International, James Joyce Quarterly, Armenian Review, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, and elsewhere.

Thanks to the Friends of the Belmont Public Library and our community co-sponsors who make this amazing series of events possible.