Freedom to read faces federal scrutiny Following the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the US Naval Academy removed nearly 400 books deemed DEI-related from its Nimitz Library (later returning most of them to circulation). Meanwhile, in April, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case brought by … Continue reading 2025 Year in Review
Stories have extraordinary power to connect people across cultures, ages, and experiences. By curating diverse narratives, libraries promote inclusion and understanding. Librarians are natural storytellers, yet many of us stay behind the scenes. Perhaps it’s humility. Perhaps it’s the belief that the work speaks for itself. But in a world filled with noise, your steady, … Continue reading Your Library Story
I am thankful for the work of my predecessors Peter Hepburn and Maggie Farrell, and of Dina Tsourdinis, ALA’s chief financial officer, and her team to get our financial house in order. That means everything from timely reporting to clean audits to properly recording grants to an updated operating agreement. Unfortunately, ALA’s financial picture, while … Continue reading Bold Changes
As I write this, still in my early weeks at the Association, I’ve been asked often about my own priorities for ALA. Well, my primary goal is this: to support us in achieving the vision outlined in the ALA Forward initiative. This includes ensuring ALA’s financial stability, fostering membership trust and growth, and bolstering advocacy. … Continue reading Reinvigorating ALA
Wellness and well-being The terms wellness and well-being are often used interchangeably. However, well-being includes social, spiritual, and other dimensions that go beyond standard definitions of wellness. Wellness programs promote healthy lifestyles and disease mitigation or prevention. They concentrate on physical and mental health through programs that promote exercise, improved eating habits, smoking cessation, and … Continue reading Professional Development Is a Wellness Program
The caller wanted to donate his father’s collection—not of boards or game pieces, but of the literature of checkers. “I’m thinking, ‘How much can this be?’” Sleasman remembers. The answer? Twenty-seven storage tubs. It’s all in a day’s work for Sleasman, who (along with two catalogers and two archivists) wrangles 260,000 library holdings, 3,000 linear … Continue reading Bookend: Playing Along
Likewise, our state association has challenged other bills designed to curtail access, intellectual freedom, and professional integrity. Each time, Iowa Library Association has mobilized quickly to alert members to these proposals, provide action plans, and connect with community partners. These nimble responses are possible because chapters know the local context, the lawmakers, and the stakes. … Continue reading The Pulse of Our Profession
Neither of my parents went to college, but I am fortunate that they read constantly and took me and my siblings to the library every week. No vacation began without a trip to the bookstore or library to stock up—everything from comic books to Robert Louis Stevenson (I still have my hardcover Treasure Island from … Continue reading Ready to Go
What is your earliest memory of a library? I think it’s probably my elementary school library. I went to public school in a suburb of Detroit called Bloomfield Hills—Pine Lake Elementary. It was this really beautiful building. The classrooms were all round. In my memory, we’d be in the library a few times a week. … Continue reading Meet Dan Montgomery
“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
Currently a PhD candidate in East Asian languages and literatures at Yale, Kuang returns to both fantasy and higher education in Katabasis (August, HarperCollins), a tale of two students in Cambridge’s Department of Analytical Magick who journey to hell in search of their famed, feared, and abruptly deceased advisor, Professor Grimes. American Libraries spoke with … Continue reading Newsmaker: R. F. Kuang
Aldo Leopold, a writer born in my hometown and a pioneer in modern conservation, once wrote, “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” His words resonate powerfully with … Continue reading Sustainability at Our Core
