Jessica Chapel ’19MS and Katelyn Duncan ’16MS were selected for the 2026 Movers & Shakers by Library Journal.
In the “Team Players” category, Chief of Digital and Online Services for Boston Public Library (BPL) Jessica Chapel ’19MS was highlighted for her work on a pilot project funded by OpenAI/ChatGPT to explore how AI (artificial intelligence) can impact digitization and archival cataloging projects at the BPL. Chapel is keen to protect the library’s collection and establish guardrails for any work with AI and corporations.
“We’re trying to build a multimodal approach to partnerships, so that we are doing this in a way that retains our agency, allows us to bring our values into this [partnership], and really extends our capacity and doesn’t create dependencies,” Chapel told Library Journal.
In the “Change Agents” category, Katelyn Duncan ’16MS has made an impact as the New Americans Librarian at Worcester Public Library. In her efforts to serve the immigrant community, Duncan expanded the library’s World Languages collection, as well as the English Conversation Circle program. She also launched the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Navigator Program, which assists patrons in accessing resources for food, housing, education, and legal services.
“Doing this work as a White person whose immigrant ancestors are many generations back, I am very aware of my privilege,” Duncan told Library Journal. “It’s important to me to use it to advocate for our immigrant communities, especially now.”
Duncan was part of the 2014 SLIS travel course at Yonsei University, and was the first SLIS student to return to Yonsei the following spring for the joint degree.