Originally published in the NJAL Newsletter for Fall 2025.
SCARLA is the Student College, Academic and Research Libraries Association at Rutgers University. For the Fall 2025 semester, SCARLA has focused on building and strengthening our community by offering support and connection through open dialogue and information sharing. Our three major events this semester have focused on asking questions, offering support, and the current challenges we are facing as librarians.
First, we celebrated ALA’s Banned Books Week during October with our Celebrating Intellectual Freedom open-mic where participants shared the words of authors whose work has left a profound impact on them. We discussed ALA’s State of America’s Library report and the rise in book challenges from organized movements and people in positions of power. These pressure groups have become the majority of those who challenge books. Participants also shared resources for getting involved in resisting these attempts at censorship and their personal library experiences with book challenges. For this event, we partnered with LISSA, the Library and Information Science Student Association at Rutgers University.
For our second event, we were so excited to invite Jay Singley for a CritLib discussion of their investigation into censorship in AI research assistant tools. Jay wrote the ACRLog blog post “We Couldn’t Generate an Answer for Your Question” and discussed the apparent censorship of topics related to marginalized peoples. We had a lively discussion about our responsibility as librarians to keep a critical eye on the tools we use for research and discovery and their effects on the communities we work with. Jay also offered a peek inside their journey from idea to research to publication for the students interested in professional writing.
And third, recent Rutgers MI graduates Chelsea Rizzolo, Lisa Thornton, and Taylor Baugher joined us to answer students’ questions about searching for jobs, career
experiences, and how their time at Rutgers supported their work. Navigating the transition from school to finding a first librarian job can be an intimidating process, and we were happy to bring guests who could offer practical tips and insight to current students.
Some of our smaller happenings were the two general meetings we hosted for students to gather and have a less structured conversation. We are also in the process of doing a major website renovation to make sure that our group is offering the most up-to-date information on our events, organization, and helpful resources for students. We are excited to soon celebrate the end of this busy semester and plan for the spring.
SCARLA is the graduate student organization at Rutgers University dedicated to academic and research librarianship; it is affiliated with the NJAL College and University Section and the New Jersey Chapter of ACRL. For more information, including details about upcoming events, visit https://scarla.rutgers.edu. If you are interested in connecting with SCARLA, you can email rutgers.scarla@gmail.com or join the listserv by sending an email to comminfo_scarla-join@email.rutgers.edu, with the word “subscribe” as the subject line. Check your spam folder if you do not receive an email. If you have an employment or internship opportunity you would like to post to the SC&I Job Board, please email details to Ildi Koczan, Assistant Director of Student Services for Careers at ildi.koczan@rutgers.edu.
by Lauren Gaudite