Brittani Sterling, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Librarian, (Libraries) was the invited keynote speaker of The Innovative Library Conference (TILC) 2023. Her address discussed the importance of academic librarians utilizing their unique positions as third space facilitators, scholar practitioners, and community change agents to infuse social and restorative justice concepts into their outreach efforts, while intentionally engaging communities of color. She used personal case studies to demonstrate her 4 lenses framework for planning impactful, creative community engagement. The lenses include the consideration of 1) Social Justice Centered Community Impact, 2) collectivist responsibility & the cultivation of academic reputation from a stance of community trust, 3) the long term effects of community outreach efforts on career trajectory, and 4th) utilizing Wilcox and Chia's "Stickiness model" to engage academic library users in a way that creates spaces for innovation, relevance, and convenience to library users and the local and campus communities.
