Felicia A. Smith

Felicia A. Smith, MLIS, is the inaugural Racial Justice and Social Equity Librarian at Stanford Libraries. Felicia is responsible for outreach to faculty and students across all schools and departments including the Department of African and African American Studies (DAAAS), and Stanford Center for Racial Justice (SCRJ), as well as the Equity, Community, Leadership (ECL) centers. Felicia is responsible for collection development of research materials in all formats that support the research and teaching needs of scholars. She works with other bibliographers to identify publishers and data sources that expand the breadth of Stanford’s collections.

Felicia believes that as an African American librarian, she is charged with the awesome responsibility of being a keeper of the light and protector of our shared memories.

Felicia was the visionary for Stanford University Libraries' exhibit titled, Say Their Names – No More Names. This forget-me-not exhibit highlights 65 names of recognizable victims who represent larger groups of lesser-known victims. This exhibit includes the names of 330 victims, 3 admitted cases of governmental systemic racism and is online at https://exhibits.stanford.edu/saytheirnames

In addition to her numerous national and international presentations, Felicia has published several peer-reviewed articles as well as a book, Cybrarian Extraordinaire, detailing her highly successful and unique approach to library instruction. Felicia created a program that taught Information Literacy using Kindles for inmates in a Juvenile Jail. Previously, Felicia was as a Criminal Defense Private Investigator in Chicago, Illinois, specializing in homicide and narcotics. Her motto is, "I make the unknown, known."

Felicia received a Master of Library Science degree, from Dominican University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her past positions include serving as the Latino Studies Subject Specialist as an Assistant Librarian, at the University of Notre Dame.