Leonard Kniffel

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. He was the creator and publisher of the @ your library public awareness website. As part of his role with AL, Kniffel would often interview public figures who attended ALA events. 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.

Kniffel was born and raised in Michigan. 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.