Christenbury Fund recipient selected
Basil Forrest, majoring in both English and anthropology with plans to graduate in 2027, is VCU Libraries’ 2025 recipient of the Leila Christenbury Literacy Fund.
The recipient will receive funding to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia, June 26-June 30, 2025. At the ALA conference, the student will be paired with a librarian mentor from VCU Libraries, attend literary award ceremonies, tour exhibits and attend author and publisher sessions. As part of this honor, the student also will receive an associate membership in ALA, the nation’s most significant professional organization for librarians.
Forrest (pronouns he/him/his) plans to attain a master’s degree in library and information sciences. Of this opportunity, he says: “This opportunity is a perfect space to begin to understand what library work could look like, not just as a passionate patron, but as an active contributor to keeping literature within the realm of accessibility and engagement. I’m excited to branch into the professional field and explore what my career could mean—how library sciences can be used as a tool to help our communities at large.” Forrest aspires to have a public-facing job in a school or university library.
The ALA awards the United States’ most respected prizes in children’s literature including Newbery, Caldecott and the Coretta Scott King Awards. Medalists and honorees, authors and illustrators of the year’s honored books for children and young adults appear at talks, signings and at other gala events during the conference–which will provide the VCU student a rich experience in exploring a panorama of literature for young people.
He is excited about attending the conference, saying: “I’m not sure what to expect, I’m just excited to be in a big room with thousands of librarians. That sounds like the best place in the whole world. … This is also going to be a pivotal conference due to the current climate in the US. The federal funding to public libraries is under attack right now, and so I think it’ll be a well-timed meeting for the national community to address how to move forward. A lot of the talks are about fighting censorship, community-building and libraries’ roles in America’s future. These values are definitely being called into question federally, and I think the conversations will be decisive in the role libraries play in the next couple of years. I’m really grateful to be able to witness it directly.”
From the Glouster/Yorktown area, Forrest recalls the first time he saw Cabell Library on a new student tour, “I was shocked that a library could be four floors tall and made my mom walk back through it with me after the tour was over. The English department was also so friendly and passionate on the tour, which won my heart a little bit.”
A frequent visitor to Cabell Library, he says: “Cabell is an entire experience for me every time. I usually go in with the idea to work, maybe a call number or two written down to check out, and I always leave with a ridiculous amount of books — some related to classes, and some that just look interesting. I regret it on the walk home, but I’ve found some really cool stuff.”
The differing kinds of spaces at Cabell meet varied study and social needs. “A lot of my most stressful papers were written in little corners on the upper floors curled up by a window, and I got to know my freshman year friends during some very unproductive study sessions in the group study rooms. The lower floors are very communal. I love running into people in the library and sitting down with them for a couple hours to work, and then inevitably getting distracted talking about movies or internet deep dives or something.”
“I also really appreciate how it’s right across from Hibbs, so if it’s raining and I’m stuck on campus, I run across the Compass really fast and take shelter.”
In his application essay, Forrest shared his more serious view about the essential nature of libraries. He wrote:
“I hold a lot of hope in libraries as one of the last bastions of intellectual freedom in a system of highly streamlined educational and informational institutions. Existing in our culture as one of the only locations not monetized or structured for the sake of a particular career, a good library acts as an accessible ‘third space’ outside of home and classes. The thing about libraries, and why I’m so drawn to working in one, is that they give you the choice to immerse yourself in information freely, offering a plethora of seemingly disparate knowledge grouped together in one physical space. Rather than adhering to a structured syllabus, you can stumble across something completely random that ends up enriching your studies — some of my favorite research projects have been inspired by things I grabbed on a whim! A library’s books carry a degree of distance from anything you ‘have’ to read. They offer learning for fun; libraries are particularly unique because it costs nothing to check out a book, even if you don’t end up reading it. Because of the monetary and academic barriers to accessing literature, it is critical to keep information both available to the public and actively enjoyable — which is becoming hard to find as other information hubs are sensationalized, biased and steeped in advertising.
“Intrinsically motivated learning is hugely important at a K-12 level. Watching my younger brother, who absolutely detests his English class and struggles to write papers, always tag along with me to pick up some sci-fi novels from our local library, I believe it can be life-changing to create a personal relationship with books outside of classes that tell him he’s ‘bad’ at engaging meaningfully with texts. After working in childcare for several years and observing this in many talented but academically discouraged children, I’m realizing more and more that this is often made possible through the committed work of librarians that guide searches, set up curated displays and recommendations, and are fighting hard to keep the whole operation running. As censorship rises in public schools and federal funding is cut from educational resources, a lot will rest on librarians to keep these spaces free and relevant to public use.”
Funding for a VCU student to attend the conference is provided by the Leila Christenbury Literacy Fund along with support from the Friends of the VCU Libraries. The Leila Christenbury Literacy Fund was established in 2007 with gifts from Leila Christenbury, Commonwealth Professor Emerita in the VCU School of Education. Well-known in national education circles, Christenbury taught English Education at VCU for 32 years, serving as professor, department chair and interim dean.
Categories Awards and Honors, Gifts, In the News, Librarians at Work