Thank you Gaston, Lisa, Dominion Energy and Leadership Center of Arlington for this honor. I am humbled to stand among you as the latest recipient of this distinguished award.   

In the announcement of my selection, Lisa Fikes was quoted as saying, “Diane lives her values, even when it is difficult.” I believe our current times can safely qualify as difficult.     

When I began my career in 1974, there were no computers, no Internet, no digital, no social media. More than 61 million people in America subscribed to a daily print newspaper; CBS News anchor Walter Kronkite was called the most trusted man in America; and the practice of “disinformation” was the reserve of Cold War spy v spy, Orwellian intrigue. My, how times have changed.  

In the 1980s, micro-processing became the Apple of everyone’s eye and ushered in a digital age which continues to have a profound effect on society. Technology has provided many benefits to libraries, enabling them to reimagine themselves as 24/7/365 third places. The heart of communities, and one-stop shops for information, recreation, and increasingly, social services.

Innovations inevitably give rise to negative consequences. It’s the nature of the beast. For example, there are enormous benefits to the range of social media now available at our fingertips. They can shrink distances and build social capital by easily connecting people with ideas and information from anywhere in the world. Just as easily, they can be destructive, facilitating cyber bullying and social isolation, enabling polarizing behaviors, and poisoning the body politic with demeaning language and grotesque othering of those with whom we disagree.  

Standards of decorum, norms, and institutional guardrails are being jettisoned in deference to influencers who, obsessed with likes and followers, willfully recast information to suit the agendas of the powerful and the wealthy. The unifying principle: a blatant desire to transform our glorious “melting pot” of different cultures and tastes into a loaf of Wonder Bread, to be consumed only by those who look, act, love and worship a certain way. It’s ironic that as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our “American experiment” we are methodically removing stories from museums and archives and expunging judicial actions, to whitewash our history.

Which brings me back to libraries and librarians, now often the last bastions of free speech. Attempts to ban books from public and school libraries have reached unprecedented levels. During the 2024-2025 school year alone, there were close to 7,000 incidents recorded, across 23 states—Tennessee, Texas and Florida leading the way—and 87 public school districts. These efforts are increasingly driven by organized pressure groups rather than individual parents, often targeting books that feature LGBTQ+ characters, racial diversity or themes related to gender and sexuality. I am proud to say that many authors who find themselves on banned book lists have been featured in Arlington Reads programs, among them George M. Johnson, Judy Blume, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and Nikole Hannah-Jones.   

Libraries are committed to presenting a diversity of viewpoints, a principle enshrined in the First Amendment which prohibits the removal of books simply because someone finds the ideas within them offensive or "woke." I have often said, if we do our jobs as librarians well, there is something in the collection to offend everyone. It is why we asked the Arlington County Board to pass a resolution in 2023 declaring Arlington Public Library a book sanctuary, “committed to protecting banned and challenged books and the right of the residents of Arlington to read the books they choose without fear of suppression.” And our public programs similarly reflect a commitment to the values of inclusion, equity and truth. 

As ethical leaders, our work is never done. And in a room like this, I realize I am preaching to the choir.   

This current cultural and political moment will pass. Until it does, we must keep asking questions, holding leaders to account, standing up for what we believe and using our voices to call out injustice. And we must never give up. We must continue to honor the privilege we have as leaders to make a difference in our communities and not take that privilege lightly. There is no one coming to save us; we are the change we wish to see.

In closing, I am proud to affirm Arlington Public Library is truly “open to all.” And it is the honor of a lifetime to have played a part in making it so.  

Thank you.