Montclair State University’s 2025 Public Relations Student Society of America Bateman Team is ready to lead – and read. The PRSSA Bateman Team recently started their Every Library Every Voice campaign, which advocates for nonprofit EveryLibrary’s mission to support public libraries and fight against media censorship.
The Every Library, Every Voice team reads in the library Photo credit: Libby Brennan
Montclair State’s Every Library, Every Voice campaign is competing against universities across the country – all creating their own campaigns for EveryLibrary. The team won second place last year against 60 nationwide schools.
Senior social media and public relations major Libby Brennan is the Head of Media Relations for Every Library, Every Voice. She joined the team for the hands-on experience participating in the Bateman competition provides but found herself connected to EveryLibrary’s mission.
Senior social media and public relations major Libby Brennan poses for the camera Photo credit: Kaitlin Swift
“It was really exciting to hear about the client this year because I also am a huge book fan,” she said. “It’s helping me become more passionate about our work for the campaign. We don’t select the client, but it’s working out because I love books, and I also support everything that this organization supports. I’m just really happy to be a part of it this year.”
Brennan emphasized the importance of the wealth of knowledge in libraries and the importance of the representation they hold.
“I think it’s so important to support [libraries] because books hold so many different diverse voices,” she said. “These voices need to be heard, and that’s important because different voices share different perspectives.”
Junior social media and public relations major Noelia Aguirre is the Content Strategist for Every Library, Every Voice. Her inspiration for getting involved with Every Library, Every Voice came from the importance of libraries as a resource during her youth.
Junior social media and public relations major Noelia Aguirre poses for the camera Photo credit: Kaitlin Swift
“Coming from an immigrant household, libraries were very important, at least where I grew up. I always went to my local library [Parsippany] to learn how to speak English with my parents,” she said. “It was very meaningful to me because I want to support other people trying to go into libraries more often and making sure that a lot of the voices that are in the books being censored also get heard.”
Aguirre encouraged students to get involved with the campaign. “My hopes are that students get involved and we keep libraries open and funded and hopefully we also fight against censorship in community libraries as well as public school libraries.”
Senior social media and public relations major Mary Lage is the Social Media director of Every Library Every Voice. She underlined why students should get involved with the campaign.
“By participating in this campaign, students can have a say in ensuring libraries remain well-funded and accessible,” she said. “It’s also a great opportunity to build leadership, advocacy, and community organizing skills.”
Every Library Every Voice plans to connect with students through events on campus. They have held two tabling events so far, and plan to partner with Res Life for a banned book movie night on February 26th.
On Feb. 19, Every Library Every Voice held a roundtable event with Telemundo, the Puerto Rican Student Association, NextGen Service Corps, students, professors, and Telemundo news anchor Cristina Navarrete, who served as a moderator, to discuss public libraries as an important resource in multicultural communities.
“Some students may have outgrown their libraries, or they just don’t know the resources that they can provide,” said Professor Nicosia, an English professor at Montclair State.
Students can get involved by following Every Library Every Voice on Instagram (@everylibraryeveryvoice) and TikTok (@everylibraryeveryvoice). Students can also pledge to become a library ally here. More resources and ways to get involved can be found in their Linktree.
