Yasmeen Shorish Elected President of National Academic Library Association
Posted April 17, 2026 in Uncategorized
Yasmeen Shorish, associate dean for research and scholarly communications and professor at James Madison University Libraries, has been elected the next president of the Association of College and Research Libraries, the national association for academic libraries and higher education library workers.
Shorish will become president-elect in July and assume the presidency in July 2027 for a one-year term.
“I am honored and humbled to be elected ACRL’s vice-president and president-elect. My sincere thanks to ACRL members for putting their trust in my ability to achieve my vision,” Shorish said.
Shorish joined ACRL as a graduate student and said her path to a library career grew from a love of learning and helping others learn. During her 16 years of ACRL membership, Shorish has served in a variety of leadership roles, including director-at-large on the ACRL Board of Directors from 2021 to 2025, chair of the ACRL Research and Scholarly Environment Committee from 2018 to 2019, and chair of the selection committee for the ACRL Research Data Management Road Show Curriculum Designers and Road Show Presenters from 2015 to 2017.
Other notable accomplishments include her work on the project team for “Responsible AI in Libraries and Archives,” funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, to support ethical decision-making for artificial intelligence projects in libraries and archives.
At JMU, Shorish received the Madison Scholar Award in 2020–21 and was recently named a special advisor to the provost on artificial intelligence.
“I have enjoyed working with students, staff and faculty in a variety of roles while at JMU,” Shorish said. “That work informs how I hope to serve ACRL and the broader academic library community. I expect that my service to ACRL will, in turn, enhance my contributions to the mission and work of JMU.”
ACRL Executive Director Teresa Anderson said, “ACRL is delighted to have Yasmeen Shorish join the ACRL board of directors as vice-president/president-elect. Along with the entire ACRL staff team, I look forward to working with Yasmeen during her upcoming term.”
ACRL is the largest division of the American Library Association.