When the Urban Library Leaders series launched in 2020, it created a space for urban library pioneers and innovators to share the successes, challenges. and the importance of libraries as community institutions.

The series now continues into 2021 when Jersey City Free Public Library Director Jeffrey Trzeciak hosts Urban Library Leaders #4: Documenting the Black Web on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m.

Trzeciak will be joined by guest Makiba J. Foster, manager of the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) in Fort Lauderdale, FL, a branch of the Broward County Library. The webinar will be held on Zoom; advance registration is required at bit.ly/JCLibraryULL4.

Fosters project, Archiving the Black Web, is a digital archive documenting the diversity of Black culture and content found on the internet.

The project is a collaboration between the AARLCC and national partners representing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) libraries and African-American cultural institutions at public libraries.

Archiving the Black Web aims to define the vision for a sustainable long-term discipline to preserve Black culture on the internet. Foster and Trzeciak also worked together on Documenting Ferguson, a digital media archive at Washington University in St. Louis. Documenting Ferguson was that was born out of the response to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, MO, police officer in 2014.

Past installments of the series have featured Shamichael Hallman, manager of the Cossitt Library in Memphis, TN, who spoke about the power of public libraries as agents of civic engagement, and Yesenia Lpez, who shared the story of the New Jersey Hispanic Research & Information Center at the Newark Public Library.

Participants in the webinar will have the opportunity to be part of the discussion by asking questions and sharing their comments; questions may also be submitted in advance to hello@jclibrary.org. All who register for the webinar will receive a recording of the event after it airs live.

Past Urban Library Leaders webinars are available for viewing at bit.ly/JCLibraryULLplaylist. Upcoming installments are planned for April and June, with featured guests to be announced.

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Preserving Black culture on the web is topic for JC Librarys Urban Library Leaders - nj.com