Alexander Soto

Alex Soto (Tohono O’odham Nation) is director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University (ASU) Library. Under his leadership, the Labriola Center has developed and implemented culturally responsive library services, expanded its personnel seven-fold, and re-established its physical locations as culturally safe spaces for Indigenous library users. Alex co-authored ASU Library’s first land acknowledgement statement, is the recipient of the Society of American Archivists 2022 Archival Innovator Award, and recently was awarded a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for “Firekeepers: Building Archival Data Sovereignty through Indigenous Memory Keeping,” a three-year project to preserve Indigenous knowledge through community-based participatory archival partnerships with Arizona’s Tribal communities. He also is the treasurer for the Arizona Humanities Board of Directors and is an American Indian Library Association executive board member. Alex's journey to librarianship comes after years of success as a touring hip-hop musician and activist.