A New Model: The Barack Obama Presidential Library

In celebration of National Library Week, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, in partnership with the Dresher Center for the Humanities, welcomes Dr. Kenvi Phillips, Inaugural Director of the Baraka Obama Presidential Library.

A New Model: The Barack Obama Presidential Library 

Dr. Kenvi Phillips will explore presidential libraries as a digital repository. With approximately 95% of its records created digitally, the Obama Presidential Library is the first digital repository among the 16 presidential libraries stewarded by the National Archives and Records Administration. The library is constantly developing new pathways to process and make records available to the public. This talk will explore how we are bridging the gap between traditional brick-and-mortar library needs and expectations and digital possibilities.

This public forum is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Bio: For more than 20 years, Kenvi Phillips, PhD has worked in libraries, museums, historic sites, for Federal, local government, private, and academic institutions. Through the varied positions, she has worked to preserve, promote, and protect history. Dr. Phillips currently serves as the inaugural Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library, one of the 16 presidential libraries within the National Archives and Records Administration system. In this role, she is shaping the first digital presidential library and establishing a new model for presidential libraries. The Obama Presidential Library stewards the government records and artifacts while their partner, the Obama Foundation, stewards the Presidential Center. Prior to joining the National Archives, she had other notable firsts. She served as the inaugural Director for Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion at the Brown University Library, where she led an initiative to develop a Racial
Justice Resource Center within the library system.

She also served as the inaugural Johanna- Marie Fraenkel Curator for Race and Ethnicity at Harvard University’s Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. In this capacity, she led the efforts to amplify the voices of women of color within the collections. During her tenure, the library’s collections related to black women. Notably, adding the papers of scholar and activist Angela Davis, scholar and attorney Lani Guinier, writer Alice Randall, and activist Dorothy Height.

Dr. Phillips served as the Assistant Curator for Manuscripts at Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Research Center. Additionally, she has advised and collaborated with academic and community organizations in the US and abroad to improve equity in information access. These institutions include the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, the City of Boston, Providence Public Libraries, and the Regional Public Libraries in the state of Illinois.