ALA webinar helps turn Congressmembers into library champions

Show Up For Our Libraries logo On September 9, ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office will host a conversation with library professionals and a Capitol Hill insider on techniques to successfully engage elected leaders to get positive results: fruitful conversations in meetings with congressional staff, well-received letters to the editor, energizing in-person library visits, and more. Register for free online. Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma demonstrated the value of congressional outreach in a visit from US Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), during which he spoke frequently about his love of libraries.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Aug. 19; Public Libraries Online, Aug. 19

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Hong Zhou and Hiba Bishtawi write: “For decades, discovery has revolved around keywords: carefully chosen terms, Boolean operators, and increasingly sophisticated relevance ranking. Today, generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems are introducing a different interaction model altogether. Instead of asking how to search, researchers are starting to ask what they want to know and expecting the system to figure out the rest. When does natural language outperform traditional approaches, and what do current AI-powered discovery tools actually do well? We conducted a comparative analysis of four widely used AI-enabled research discovery tools.”

The Scholarly Kitchen, Jan. 6
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Hillel Aron writes: “The estate of legendary author Kurt Vonnegut, three authors, and two unnamed high school students sued the Utah Board of Education on January 6 over the removal of hundreds of books from school libraries. Among the books that have been effectively banned from certain school libraries are Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Utah’s so-called “book removal law,” H.B. 29, was updated in 2024 and automatically removes books from all school libraries that have been banned by three or more school districts.”

Courthouse News Service, Jan. 6
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Kelly Jensen writes: “On January 12, the first day back on campus for many universities following winter break, at least eight college and university libraries received bomb threats. Campuses received the threats via email. None resulted in the discovery of a physical threat in or near the targeted area.” At least 15 universities faced similar threats in August, believed to be made by the swatting group Purgatory and mostly directed at library buildings. In January, universities in Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, and Massachusetts received the threats. The Association of College and Research Libraries and Core offer a LibGuide on safety and security.

Book Riot, Jan. 13; Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 26; Center for Internet Security and Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Aug. 27; ACRL, June 25, 2024
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ALA has officially launched its 150th anniversary year, marking a century and a half of empowering library professionals, advancing access to knowledge and protecting the freedom to read. The association will celebrate year-round in 2026 with key flagship events, kicking off with the 2026 Youth Media Awards, honoring outstanding books, videos and materials for children and teens, on January 26 at the Hilton Chicago. ALA President Sam Helmick marked the anniversary with an essay at ala150.org, and ALA has produced a new anniversary video.

ALA Communications and Media Relations Office, Jan. 8; ALA150.org, Jan. 5; YouTube, Jan. 8
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On October 21, Penguin Random House and United for Libraries announced a 2026 grant program for rural and small libraries across the country. Grants of $500 and $1,000 (totaling $25,000), will be awarded to support libraries in need. Specifically, grant funds will assist Friends of Library groups, or nonprofit groups that support and fundraise for libraries in their communities, with priority projects. Applications for the program are open until January 21; learn more in the FAQ, which includes a link to watch a recording of the grant information session.

United for Libraries, Oct. 21
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Sam Suber writes: “Libraries are swimming in data, but raw numbers rarely lead directly to good decisions. To move from a messy spreadsheet to a defensible strategy, you need a process to refine that raw material. In this post, we will walk through the entire data pipeline, which is the structured process of transforming raw data into decision-ready information. We will be using the example of a new video subscription where the vendor’s reporting server crashed in June, leaving a hole in your data. We are going to take that messy data set and turn it into a solid prediction.”

Choice 360: LibTech Insights, Jan. 7
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The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and Sunrise Celebration will stream on YouTube at 10 a.m. Central on January 15. The celebration commemorates King’s legacy and the connection between his work and libraries. This year’s theme is “Where Do We Go from Here?” and will feature a joint keynote from Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, and organizer and writer Noam Sandweiss-Back. Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian, will deliver the call to action.

ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table, Jan. 13

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