Welcome Krystal Appiah

We are very pleased to announce that Krystal Appiah started as the Library Company’s African Americana Specialist and Reference Librarian on June 11.  She comes to the Library Company from the Maryland State Archives, where she improved access to the papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society as an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) fellow.  The IMLS sponsors an innovative national program to train library and archives professionals interested in working with African Americana.  Thanks to Krystal’s work at the Maryland State Archives, researchers can now locate information about Society-sponsored emigrants to Liberia more easily.

Previously, Krystal obtained two masters degrees–one in library science from UCLA and one in public humanities from Brown University, which was also her undergraduate alma mater. As part of her training, she worked at Brown University’s Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, where she created lesson plans for middle-school educators; at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture in Atlanta, Georgia, where she developed social media; and at the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum in Los Angeles, where she cataloged rare books.

We could not be more delighted by this newest addition to the staff of the Reading Room and the Program in African American History. Please drop by and say hello to Krystal soon.