Leonard Kniffel

{{Short description|Editor-in-chief of American Libraries (1947–2021)}}

File:Leonard_Kniffel.jpg

Leonard Kniffel (August 25, 1947 – March 19, 2021) was editor-in-chief of American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association, from 1996 to 2011 after starting at the magazine in 1988.{{cite web | title=Kniffel, Leonard (1947-) | website=American Library Association Archives Holdings Database | url=https://archon.library.illinois.edu/ala/?p=creators/creator&id=4026 | access-date=2021-03-24}} He was the creator and publisher of the @ your library public awareness website.{{cite web | title=Leonard Kniffel · Jan Karski Educational Foundation | website=Jan Karski Educational Foundation | date=1912-09-14 | url=https://www.jankarski.net/en/about-us/person/leonard-kniffel.html | access-date=2021-03-24}} As part of his role with AL, Kniffel would often interview public figures who attended ALA events.{{cite news |last1=Keller |first1=Julia |title=Fame and Footnotes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/234364575/ |access-date=24 March 2021 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=May 18, 2011 |page=3}} He compiled those interviews into the book Reading with the Stars which contains interviews with Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Garrison Keillor among others.

Kniffel co-produced, with Pamela Goodes, the documentary Loss and Recovery: Librarians Bear Witness to September 11, 2001 about the effect of 9/11 on libraries located in lower Manhattan and how the librarians who worked there have recovered personally and professionally.{{cite journal |last1=Goodes |first1=Pamela |title=Libraries Commemorate 10th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks |journal=American Libraries |date=September 2011 |volume=42 |issue=9/10 |page=26 |url=https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/0911.pdf|access-date=24 March 2021}}

Kniffel was born and raised in Michigan.{{cite book | last=Kniffel | first=L. | title=Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries | publisher=Skyhorse | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-62636-549-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K37pwAEACAAJ | access-date=2021-03-24 | page=}} He has master's degrees in English and library science from Wayne State University. He worked as a librarian for 18 years at the Detroit Public Library. He lived in Chicago, Illinois.