At the Opening General Session, journalist, author, and podcaster Rachel Maddow set the tone for a convening that was both celebratory and deeply reflective on what’s happening in the world. Shifting demographics, rapid advances in technology, and the rise of authoritarianism are all affecting how libraries serve their communities. But libraries give Maddow cause for … Continue reading 2026 Annual Conference Wrap-Up
Neal shared the story of the initiative in the June 27 “Breaking Barriers, Building Brands: Supporting Beauty Entrepreneurs in Libraries” session at the American Library Association’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. “I’m now the beauty librarian,” Neal declared. “I just made that my thing.” The multi-pronged program included a LibGuide that Neal developed … Continue reading Library Programming Gets a Glow-up
At the “Pokémon Club @ Your Library: Engaging Young Learners Through Play and Community” session, held June 26 at ALA’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, TPCi representatives and librarians who offer the clubs in their libraries discussed the first nine months of the partnership—TPCi’s first of this kind—and what the clubs can offer … Continue reading Catch ’Em All
Bunker, children’s librarian at Centennial Park Library (CPL) in Greeley, Colorado, had that opportunity as she prepared for one of her most popular summer programs last year. She also set out twigs, moss, leaves, pine cones, acorns, rocks, grass, berries, and other items gathered from her own home and around the library grounds. Her workshop, … Continue reading The Gnome Depot
It was the winning moment of the inaugural speed puzzling tournament at Mid-Columbia Libraries (MCL) in southeastern Washington last January. Piece Out triumphed over 46 other teams—with names like The Misfits, Separation Anxiety, and Planet Fit This—in the competition, which coincided with National Puzzle Day, January 29. “People really liked to take [a victory] away … Continue reading Racing the Clock
I am a school librarian. My community supports the school library, and students are active library users. At the same time, rhetoric from that legislative session and in the years since have shown me that the public has limited knowledge about how we choose books and select programming to make the library a place students … Continue reading Walk with a Purpose
While game jams—accelerated game creation events—started as a way to develop videogames, they’re also useful for creating tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). The best-known TTRPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Call of Cthulhu, include rule books that can run to hundreds of pages and have steep price tags, but there are a host of smaller, … Continue reading Jam Forever
“The only way to reach out to the world was through this very cool gaming setup that the hospital would bring into the room,” he recalled. An in-game friend “became my solace in a place where every day they were hurting me and I was scared.” Spohn, director of the Mount Sinai Back to Life … Continue reading Adaptive Arcade
Advancing a Culture of Creativity in Libraries: Programming and Engagement By Megan Lotts As Lotts puts it, library workers must engage their communities and plan innovative spaces and services for the future “all the while assuming that the future will almost certainly come with a 10%–20% budget cut.” This volume helps employees develop and maintain … Continue reading Ready for a Refresh
I am a school librarian. My community supports the school library, and students are active library users. At the same time, rhetoric from the 2023 legislative session and in the years since have shown me that the public has limited knowledge about how we choose books and select programming to make the library a place … Continue reading Walk with a Purpose
“If you have anxiety, you can build your worst-case [driving] scenario and then play through it as many times as you need to realize that you have power over that scenario,” says Gabriella Norton, a librarian at MEBAL who helped bring the technology to the library. “What could you do if, God forbid, an actual … Continue reading License to Learn
A total of 14,292 people registered for the event, whose programs included many dedicated to anticensorship efforts, programming challenges, funding cuts, and other existential threats. In these dark times, when the very mission of libraries is being scrutinized and politicized, attendees took comfort in collective engagement and critical discussions about intellectual freedom, diversity, and other … Continue reading 2025 Annual Conference Wrap-Up
