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.[1] He was the creator and publisher of the @ your library public awareness website.[2] As part of his role with AL, Kniffel would often interview public figures who attended ALA events.[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.[3]
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.[4]
Kniffel was born and raised in Michigan.[5] 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.