Makiba Foster

Makiba J. Foster, who has attracted national recognition for leading digital projects that curate the Black experience, such as Documenting Ferguson, and, most recently, Archiving the Black Web, was named Librarian of the College at The College of Wooster in July 2022.

For three years prior to joining Wooster, Foster led the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Broward County, Florida, while also working with a network of public libraries and libraries at colleges and universities on a project called Archiving the Black Web. Foster received a $150,000 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to advance the project, which has a goal of documenting the digital presence of Black culture and content through the practice of web archiving. Library Journal praised the project when it listed Foster as one of its 2021 Movers & Shakers – Digital Developers.

Prior to her work in Broward County, Foster was assistant chief librarian at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library and served as curator of oral history and subject liaison for American History, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, and Sociology at the Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis.

Foster is a triple graduate of the University of Alabama, earning a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in American Studies with a concentration in African American Popular Culture, and a master’s degree in library and information studies.

As Librarian of the College, Foster leads a library system listed on Princeton Review’s Top 20 “Best College Libraries” that houses nearly 700,000 book volumes in three facilities: Andrews Library, The Gault Library for Independent Study, and the Timken Science Library. The Collaborative Research Environment (CoRE) in Andrews Library was created in 2012 to give students the digital technology and resources to conduct research, brainstorm, and collaborate with faculty and other students.