Curator of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
Esmeralda M. Kale is a Cameroonian – American librarian and curator born in Cameroon and raised in the United Kingdom, Cameroon and Canada.
Esmeralda is an accomplished librarian and educator with a career spanning three continents. She has held faculty and librarian positions in diverse academic and cultural contexts, developing deep expertise in international librarianship and global education. Currently, she is the Curator of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern. She previously served as the Bibliographer of Africana at the Herskovits Library with a focus on building a general collection that reflects the diverse histories, cultures, and scholarship of the continent.
Esmeralda has held leadership positions within the Africana Librarians Council, the Cooperative Africana Materials Project, and the Africa Subcommittee of the ALA International Relations Round Table. A regular contributor to professional discourse, she has presented at key conferences such as the African Studies Association (ASA), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and SCOLMA.
Esmeralda holds an MA and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Science from University College London, a Graduate Diploma in Library Science from Concordia University, a BA in Sociology from Trent University and a Diploma in Business Administration from University of Ottawa.
Passionate about giving back, she also serves as a student advisor to the African Graduate Student Association, supporting student engagement and cultural advocacy on campus. Esmeralda uses her role as curator to support all the other African student groups on campus. She serves on the North American Association of Scholars of Cameroon and works with DAREM, an organization that supports displaced Mbororo people of North Cameroon.
Esmeralda is an avid reader who enjoys traveling, good food and spending time with family and friends. She is passionate about the continent of Africa. She works to curate Africa at one of the largest African Studies collections in the world.