Charleston Conference

The conference was started in 1980 by Charleston librarian Katina Strauch,[1] under the name "Issues in Book and Serials Acquisition".

[2] Strauch started the event after being unable to afford to attend the American Library Association's Annual conference.

[2] Each conference tends to have a focus topic, such as open access publishing[7] or the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on collections management.

[8][9] Presentations and discussions can address a broad range of issues that affect scholarly publishing and librarianship, including electronic collections, remote learning, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, open research, publishers agreements, workflow technologies, data analytics, standards,[8] copyright law, the U.S. government appropriations process, the impact of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)'s 2022 Nelson Memo,[10] intellectual freedom, disinformation, and legal challenges against libraries.

[11] Against the Grain has become a periodical for librarians, dealing with a broad range of topics in librarianship including American copyright law.