Columns Archives | American Libraries Magazine

The Pulse of Our Profession

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 →

Ready to Go

Columns
Executive Director's Message
By Dan Montgomery | November 3, 2025

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 →

Ready for a Refresh

Columns
Librarian's Library
By Rachel Rosenberg | November 3, 2025

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 →

An Introduction to the Endowment

Columns
From the Trustees
By Brett Bonfield | October 17, 2025

ALA’s endowment is a major component of the Association’s finances, contributing millions of dollars each year to the budget to support ALA activities. It’s also one of the least visible aspects of Association operations, and investment activity can be complicated and intimidating to examine. The trustees value transparency and collaboration. In an effort to uphold … Continue reading An Introduction to the Endowment →

A group of patrons examining displays and books at the pop-up Star Wars Library at Singapore's Changi Airport

Global Reach: These Are the Books You’re Looking For

Columns
Global Reach
October 16, 2025

Chile Librarians at the National Library of Chile in Santiago discovered a cache of hidden texts from the government of 1970–1973 President Salvador Allende, the Latin American Post reported. After the September 11, 1973, military coup, dictator Augusto Pinochet sought to destroy “dangerous” texts, including leftist books, Allende-era speeches and pamphlets, and books published by … Continue reading Global Reach: These Are the Books You’re Looking For →

Students exploring the tables at the Freedom Walk program at Clark High School

Walk with a Purpose

Columns
On My Mind
By Lucy Podmore | October 6, 2025

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 →

Sustainability at Our Core

Columns
President's Message
By Sam Helmick | September 2, 2025

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 →

Academic insights by Jasmine Simmons and Sophia Medina

Reading the Room

Academic Insights
Columns
By Jasmine Simmons and Sophia Medina | September 2, 2025

In 2021, we created the peer-to-peer Undergraduate Library Advisors (ULA) program, where four students help to spread awareness of library resources and services among UF’s nearly 40,000 undergrads. Our goal was to make sure students knew that our six vibrant campus libraries offer myriad academic resources—as well as student wellness resources and opportunities to discover, … Continue reading Reading the Room →

The Teen Scene

Columns
On My Mind
By Christine Herman and Jo Phillips | September 2, 2025

We looked to Search Institute, a nonprofit focused on positive youth development. Its Developmental Assets Framework lists supports and strengths that can help young people succeed. On that list is involving teens in decision making, a practice that already guides our programming. Why not involve them in our space planning too? We next turned to … Continue reading The Teen Scene →

Our Own Stories

Columns
Librarian's Library
By Allison Escoto | September 2, 2025

That Librarian: The Fight against Book Banning in America By Amanda Jones Jones found herself the target of an online hate campaign after speaking out against censorship at her small Louisiana public library. A school librarian and former president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, she writes about the emotional, psychological, and physical toll … Continue reading Our Own Stories →

Why We Show Up

Columns
President's Message
By Sam Helmick | July 23, 2025

As library professionals, we often traffic in the timeless—in books, archives, and community memory. But this year’s ALA Annual Conference reminded us that timing matters, too. At a moment when the core tenets of librarianship—intellectual freedom, the right to read, equitable access to information—are under direct attack across the country, gathering in Philadelphia felt as … Continue reading Why We Show Up →

Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association

Honoring Spirits

Columns
President's Message
By Cindy Hohl | June 2, 2025

These intellectual freedom warriors have been instrumental in helping me serve in this capacity. First, my heart goes out to my husband, Nathan, who gives his all to our family—and as a manager at Johnson County (Kans.) Library (JCL). I am grateful to Team JCL for all their support during this interesting and important time. … Continue reading Honoring Spirits →

Latest Library Links

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Bobbi L. Newman writes: “I know many of us are struggling right now. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.”

Librarian By Day, Nov. 6
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Kristen Griffith writes: “Maryland’s school board is reversing Harford County’s removal of a book from public school libraries. The November 4 decision comes after the Harford County school board banned the young adult graphic novel Flamer by Mike Curato last summer. The local board had overruled the superintendent and a review committee who had decided to keep Flamer in middle and high school libraries. This is the first time the state board has ruled on a local book ban since the 2024 passage of Maryland’s Freedom to Read Act.”

Baltimore Banner, Nov. 5; Sept. 10; American Libraries feature, June
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Rodney Freeman Jr. writes: “We are living through a period of profound uncertainty and systemic challenge—where erasure of truth and history is not only possible but actively underway. History is protected by those who collect, preserve, and share the facts, and the archive becomes a battleground where every saved story is an act of resistance. The future will only remember what is preserved today, and the choice is between standing by as stories are diluted or destroyed—or fighting for the record, for the archive, and for the truth with steady, everyday work that anyone can participate in.”

Common Dreams, Nov. 2
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John Herrman writes: “Drawing on a new global survey of 250,000 adults in 50 countries by analytics firm GWI, John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times provocatively argues that, amidst all the fervor about artificial intelligence, another consequential story is unfolding more quietly: ‘In years to come, we may well look back on September 2025 as the point at which social media jumped the shark and began rapidly accelerating its transition from the place to be seen,’ he writes, ‘to a gaudy backwater of the internet inhabited by those with nothing better to do.’”

New York Magazine: Intelligencer, Nov. 10; Financial Times, Oct. 3
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While there were relatively few local elections in the US November 4, several that were held delivered good news for libraries. Washington County, Oregon, approved a library levy increase from 22 to 37 mills. School board members who had supported book bans lost in Cypress-Fairbanks (Tex.) Independent School District. In Ohio, 18 of 20 public library levies passed, and voters rejected several school board incumbents who ran on culture-war issues including banning books. In Pine-Richland School District in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, a slate of candidates opposing the school board’s new policy giving themselves power to add or remove library books, won the majority of board seats.

OregonLive, Nov. 5; Houston Press Nov. 5; Cleveland.com, Nov. 5; Signal Ohio, Nov. 10; TribLive (Pittsburgh), Mar. 18, Nov. 5
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For the first time since 2018, ALA will host the National Library Legislative Day February 25–26, 2026. The event will combine advocacy education, networking, and in-person meetings with legislators and congressional staff. Interested participants must complete an interest form by December 12 to be considered, as capacity is limited to 235 people and ALA is working to ensure equitable state representation. During the February 25 training portion, participants will share advocacy stories, learn from policy experts, and strategize for meetings on Capitol Hill the next day.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Nov. 10
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Corey Halaychik writes: “Libraries have long been the backbone of academic and public access to knowledge. But over time, we have handed over too much control to vendors—companies that provide us with books, databases, discovery systems, and other essential services. If we continue down this path, we risk losing our ability to shape the future of information access. But libraries don’t have to be passive consumers of vendor products. We can be creators, leaders, and innovators. The question is: Are we ready to take that step?”

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Nov. 7

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