by Zach Miller
Quick Summary
James Neal, Senior Program Officer at the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, will deliver the opening keynote address at Minitex Connect 2023 on May 2. A former Peace Corps volunteer and student of anthropology, Neal has charted a career path through independent bookstores, marketing and public relations, school teaching, scholarly publishing, public libraries, and more.
Minitex is excited to announce that James Neal, Senior Program Officer in the Office of Library Services at the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, will deliver the opening keynote address at Minitex Connect. The conference gets underway on Tuesday, May 2.
In his talk, James will represent IMLS and its programs, strategies, and ideas while calling attention to trends and currents related to our theme, Empowered Communities & Enriched Lives.
About James Neal
James holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College and is a graduate of the MLIS program at the University of Maryland's College of Information Science, Maryland's iSchool. He worked for two years as a librarian with Prince George's County Memorial Library System and maintains a strong interest in the future of public libraries. His background and experience include bookselling in several independent bookstores; volunteer service in the Peace Corps in Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo); graduate education in anthropology; publicity, marketing, editorial, and sales roles in academic and scholarly publishing; public school teaching; public relations; and user experience design for the web.
In his current role, James manages a portfolio of grants and applications focused on building equitable digital communities, including open educational resources (OER), digital inclusion and digital equity, data privacy and security, open data, public interest/civic technology, and ebooks.
About Minitex Connect
Minitex was conceived as a library information network, and that's what it still is today. We are our connections with libraries across Minnesota and beyond. Minitex Connect celebrates this interconnectivity and builds upon it by inviting each and every part of the library community to come together to help us realize the vision that is the purpose of that connection: Empowered Communities & Enriched Lives.
