The Librarians (2025) Director: Kim A. Snyder thelibrariansfilm.com Running time: 92 minutes About: The Librarians follows librarians in Florida and Texas as they work to protect children’s rights to access books from challenges like Texas’s Krause List, which targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQ+ stories and has triggered book bans across the … Continue reading The Stacks on Screen
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
With more than 600 vendors and a variety of live stages and pavilions, the Library Marketplace showcased products for libraries facing intense new challenges. Services and solutions that focused on libraries’ ongoing needs for efficiency and impact were in high demand. Palpable politics The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) booth, which sat empty … Continue reading Solidarity amid Uncertainty
With The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page (Philomel Books, April), Davis offers a funny and self-referential take on embracing differences. She talked to American Libraries at the American Library Association’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia about her new book, striving for equitable representation in media, and the roles for which … Continue reading Newsmaker: Geena Davis
Clockwise from top left: Tiwanna Nevels, assistant state librarian at State Library of North Carolina in Raleigh, sits with some of her favorite challenged books in the Big Chair (sponsored by Sage, the Banned Books Week Coalition, and ALA’s Unite Against Book Bans); Amy Hermon, librarian at Royal Oak (Mich.) High School and host of … Continue reading Bookend: Speaking Out
Now the Archive is under attack again, as a music industry copyright infringement lawsuit against it seeks nearly $700 million in damages related to the Archive’s Great 78 preservation initiative. American Libraries caught up with Kahle to discuss the lawsuit, the Archive’s future, and the developments making him feel “very encouraged.” What’s the latest with … Continue reading Newsmaker: Brewster Kahle
ALA returns to this historic and vibrant city for its 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition, to be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center June 26–30. As the Association—and the nation—approach monumental anniversaries, library workers will reaffirm and celebrate what it means to run institutions foundational to democracy, equity, and civic discourse. Many sessions in this year’s … Continue reading 2025 Annual Conference Preview
Even COVID-19 couldn’t slow our culinary roll, and while we lost many old favorites and promising new spots to the pandemic, we quickly bounced back—and back onto the lists of internationally acclaimed restaurants—all somehow without losing our street cred for comfort food. As an Annual Conference attendee, you’re doubly lucky to be stationed at the … Continue reading Revolutionary Eats
That relief has been a long time coming for Hickson, who retired late last year from her job as media specialist at North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, New Jersey. Just three years earlier, she had been called a pedophile and a pornographer at a public school-board meeting by a group of parents demanding to … Continue reading Banning the Book Bans
Throughout her more than 25-year career, Lin has garnered many accolades, including a 2010 Newbery Honor, 2019 Caldecott Honor, and 2022 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. In advance of her appearance at the American Library Association’s upcoming 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia, she talked with American Libraries about being inspired by myths, the insidiousness … Continue reading Newsmaker: Grace Lin
Welcome to Edible Alphabet, the flagship series of Free Library of Philadelphia’s (FLP) Culinary Literacy Center. Since 2015, the program has convened those learning English as a second language (ESL)—many from the Caribbean, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia—to practice conversation and cook a recipe under the direction of an ESL … Continue reading Bookend: Eat and Greet
Harmeyer—who holds the 11th longest consecutive winning streak of any player on the show—spoke with American Libraries about her longtime love of the game, her least favorite category, and how she blazed her path to the Masters. As an adolescent, you auditioned for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament and weren’t selected. And now you’re one of … Continue reading Newsmaker: Adriana Harmeyer
