Lauren Comito is a cape wearing, sword swinging, activist librarian in NYC. Lauren is currently the Neighborhood Library Supervisor at the Leonard Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and Board Chair of Urban Librarians Unite. She is committed to creating space for communities to connect and grow, whether in her neighborhood or among library workers.
Lauren is also very invested in growing the profession and the careers of her colleagues. She has served in numerous capacities in ALA (Council, Committee on Library Advocacy) and in the New York Library Association (President Leadership & Management Section, Chair of the Communication Committee). As the Chair of the Board of Urban Librarians Unite and a founding member of the organization, she started ULU’s Urban Librarians Conference and has organized this highly regarded conference since 2013 with speakers and attendees from across the country.
Lauren Comito was named the 2020 Library Journal Librarian of the Year with her partner Christian Zabriskie and awarded a Library Journal Mover & Shaker award for her work with tech training and job readiness. Her workgroup received the 2015 Gale Cengage Award for Excellence in Reference & Adult Library Services for the Where in Queens project. She is regularly asked to speak at regional and national conferences on topics of tech, tech training, women in leadership, cross generational management, and library advocacy.
She is creative, passionate about connecting library patrons to services, and a true believer in the ability of the library to build the connections that change people’s lives and communities for the better. If you aren’t a believer, get the hell out of her way.