Amy Katzenberger's headshot. She has long blonde hair, wears glasses, and is smiling.

11 Questions: Amy Katzenberger

November 12, 2024

She answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members. Coffee, tea, other? Coffee—Café Bustelo What’s the first website or app you check in the morning? Notifications first, including the Katzenberger GroupMe chat, referred to by my mother-in-law as The Groupon. Best career advice you’ve ever received? Make time for thinking. Credit to Peg … Continue reading 11 Questions: Amy Katzenberger


10 Things Every Board Member Needs to Know

July 1, 2024

As libraries and library workers face censorship attempts, campus protests, and budget cuts, among other challenges, Harrington—a consultant and current president of the Timberland Regional (Wash.) Library board of trustees—led the program “Top 10 Things Every Library Board Member Should Know—but Often Doesn’t.” As the heart of an organization, the board must function as a … Continue reading 10 Things Every Board Member Needs to Know


Khris Hutson, library media specialist at Francis C. Hammond Middle School

Pivot! Pivot!

January 20, 2024

The average collection date was 2002 and the average circulation rate was 461 books per month. Since Blaylock and FCHMS’s library media specialist, Khris Hutson, began making improvements last January, they have raised the collection date to 2008—and in fall 2023, they recorded 1,277 books circulated per month. This is one of the ways that … Continue reading Pivot! Pivot!


Erin MacFarlane, customer experience administrator for the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Library District (right) speaks with US Rep. Raúl Grijalva during ALA's 2023 fly-in at Capitol Hill.

ALA Launches FY2024 #FundLibraries Campaign

March 14, 2023

This year, there is a remarkably brief window for action: the deadline for signatures is March 20. The Library Services and Technology Act (LTSA) letter, circulated by US Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), urges House of Representatives appropriators to provide $232 million for LSTA to fund a wide range of essential library … Continue reading ALA Launches FY2024 #FundLibraries Campaign


Illustration by Gaby FeBland

Three Years Later

March 1, 2023

In those early days, libraries grappled with the same issues as everyone else: closed buildings, plans put on hold, and diminished access. With this special report, we take a look at some libraries’ behind-the-scenes decisions to keep their communities connected and missions fulfilled. On the following pages, you’ll find stories about: early-pandemic adaptations and innovations … Continue reading Three Years Later


Three illustrated figures are seen reaching out to touch an illustration of a smartphone.

Getting Back to Giving Back

March 1, 2023

In a milieu of uncertainty caused by worldwide shutdowns, Brooks, executive director of Friends of the Library, Montgomery County (FOLMC) in Maryland and a United for Libraries board member, didn’t know if it was insensitive to ask the community to support the library with donations. She attended a workshop in 2020 on fundraising during a … Continue reading Getting Back to Giving Back


Screen cap of the presentation showing Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library's donor wall, with Kimberly Coughran (at podium) and Amanda McKay

Capital Campaigns Made Easy(er)

June 26, 2022

Community connections are critical to successfully making the “ask” for major gifts. McKay spoke about the importance of identifying community prospects, a difficult task as she was new in Effingham. “I went to everything—every chamber event, any civic group that would have me, I went to talk to them,” she said. Coughran credited her membership … Continue reading Capital Campaigns Made Easy(er)