December 15, 2021 (REVISED December 17, 2021) Connecting Communities Digital Initiative Welcomes New Program Director

The Library of Congress has welcomed Marya McQuirter as program director for the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI).  The Connecting Communities Digital Initiative is the key digital component of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path initiative, a multiyear, Library-wide effort funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Of the People: Widening the Path, connects the national library more deeply with Black, Indigenous and communities of color historically underrepresented in Library’s collections.

McQuirter comes to the Library of Congress from the University of Arizona, where she served as an assistant professor in the Department of History and affiliate faculty in the Africana Studies Program and School of Art. She also held a joint appointment with the university’s libraries and served as director of the Public History Collaborative. As director, she worked with colleagues to make collaboration one of the central methods of producing history; including the transformation of a 900 square foot room into a vibrant makerspace in which the public, students, faculty and staff workshopped ideas and projects. In fall 2020, she collaborated with CATalyst Studios and Kindred at Pima County Public Library on the Movement/Rest Quilting Bee, a virtual quilting makerspace.

Before her tenure at the university, McQuirter curated the “dc1968 project,” a digital humanities project highlighting art, activism, architecture and everyday life in 1968 in Washington, D.C.

“The work of CCDI is critical to achieving the Library’s vision that all Americans are connected to the Library of Congress, and Marya is the perfect person to lead this effort,” Kate Zwaard, Library of Congress director of digital strategy, said.

The Connecting Communities Digital Initiative is a four-year program to invite creative uses of its digital collections to highlight the histories and lives of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian American/Pacific Islander and other communities of color whose stories have too often been undertold in our nation’s history and in the Library’s collections. 

As program director, McQuirter will recruit and lead short and long-term grant-funded staff, internships and residencies. She will also initiate and participate in vital conversations addressing how the centering of Black, Indigenous and other communities of color, fundamentally reshapes how we understand and produce American history both inside and outside the Library. 

“I have a long history with the Library of Congress, as a place where I’ve conducted research for my own work, including the dc1968 project,” McQuirter said. “Now, I’m excited to be on the inside, working with colleagues to provide money and support to individuals, memory keepers and institutions to use and remix the digital collections in imaginative ways.”

About Of the People: Widening the Path
Launched in January 2021, Of the People: Widening the Path is a multiyear initiative to connect the Library more deeply with Black, Indigenous and communities of color traditionally underrepresented in the Library’s collections. Funded through a gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, it provides new opportunities for more Americans to engage with the Library and add their perspectives to the Library’s collections. This work will expand the Library’s efforts to ensure that a diversity of experiences is reflected in our historical record and inform how we use those materials to understand our past.

About the Library
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

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PR 21-080
2021-12-16
ISSN 0731-3527