Luddy student’s quest to discover history of Black librarians leads to Oct. 17 screening of his documentary; Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, October 6, 2026

 Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University; Luddy student’s quest to discover history of Black librarians leads to Oct. 17 screening of his documentary

"Sometimes the person with the questions ends up being the one who must find the answers.

That’s just what librarian, preservationist, and Luddy School graduate Rodney Freeman has done—and the result is his film Are You a Librarian?The Untold Story of Black Librarians. It will be shown Oct. 17 at the Madam Walker Legacy Center in Indianapolis.

The film won Best Short Documentary at the 2026 International Black Film Festival this fall in Nashville, Tennessee.

Freeman relied on the skills he honed at IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indianapolis to develop his inaugural film project, which explores the compelling history of Black librarianship in the United States.

The Luddy School’s Department of Library and Information Science “gave me the foundation for all of it: research methodology, database searching, evaluating sources, organizing information so it can be discovered,” says Freeman, who is working on his Ph.D. from Luddy Indianapolis, where he earned his master’s degree in library and information science...

His journey into filmmaking began with questions that came to mind and wouldn’t go away, Freeman explains.

“It started at an (American Library Association) conference where I was surrounded by other Black librarians, listening to them talk about serving their communities,” he says.

“I kept thinking, ‘Who is going to tell their story?’ And then a bigger question: ‘What is the full story of Black libraries in this country? Who were the pioneers?’...

“Today I’m the founder of Reminisce Preservation, a legacy creation and preservation organization, where I bring together librarianship, documentary filmmaking, and digital preservation as one public history practice. That includes The Black Male Archives and Powerful Women of Color, digital platforms built to capture and promote positive stories about people of color, and Voices of Colored Libraries in Segregated America, an ArcGIS StoryMaps collection.”"