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
“We’ve always had a hardcore group of local writers,” says AADL Librarian Erin Helmrich. The library first launched a program to provide support, learning, and advice for local emerging writers. That program, she says, “started the idea percolating of how else we could support the local writing community.” And so emerged Fifth Avenue Press, AADL’s … Continue reading Going to Press
99% Percentage of public libraries that offer a summer reading program for kids, teens, or adults, according to the Public Library Association’s 2022 Public Library Services for Strong Communities Report. 61% Percentage of school-age kids who enjoy summer reading, according to the 2024 Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report. 20% Percentage of school-year gains in … Continue reading By the Numbers: Summer Reading
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
Over the past five years, DC Public Library has partnered with Playful City Lab, a game design initiative from American University (AU) in Washington, D.C. Together, we developed a project called Engaging Beyond Our Walls, which has yielded a budget-friendly platform and toolkit that facilitates storytelling through text messages and audio. Staffers at more than … Continue reading Press 1 for Engagement
On January 24, the American Library Association (ALA) presented the awards as part of the LibLearnX conference in Phoenix (watch the video here). Among the recipients were four academic librarians, three public librarians, and three school librarians, each nominated by community members for their expertise, dedication, and impact. Awardees received $5,000, as well as complimentary … Continue reading Meet the 2025 I Love My Librarian Award Honorees
The pre-Prohibition-style lager they crafted together was called 1895, a nod to the founding year of Johnson City Public Library (JCPL), located just a few blocks from the brewery’s downtown taproom. Inspired by beers of the late 19th century, it features three flavors: coffee (for its connection to books), black currant (for a vintage flare), … Continue reading Brewing Connections
International Workers’ Day is May 1. 8 Date in April that National Library Workers Day was celebrated this year. Since 2004, it has been commemorated on the Tuesday of National Library Week. 25,000 Number of library workers represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). AFSCME represents more library workers than … Continue reading By the Numbers: Workers’ Rights
The removal was done in transgression of the library board’s book reconsideration policy. The book’s catalog record also vanished. Local media outlets reported that the book was removed by our then-director who, a few weeks into the role, was called into our town first selectman’s office along with the head of the library board and … Continue reading Into the Fray
About a decade ago, Logsdon started documenting life in libraries throughout the country. Since she began filming, public libraries have been on the front lines of a battlefield over intellectual freedom as they face threats of closures and an unprecedented surge of book challenges and bans. In the upcoming PBS documentary Free for All: The … Continue reading Newsmakers: Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor
It would be 24 days before the Eaton Fire was fully contained. In that time, the fire destroyed more than 9,000 Altadena homes and businesses and killed 18 people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. While many of the buildings and houses surrounding the library were destroyed, ALD’s Main Library was … Continue reading Return to Normalcy
US Rep. Natalie M. Blais (D-Mass.), who grew up in nearby Derby Line, Vermont, calls the library her “entryway to other worlds growing up in a really small town.” The line on the floor delineating the border, she says, never seemed particularly important. “It just wasn’t something that we paid attention to,” Blais says. “Being … Continue reading Feds Curb Canadian Access to Library on the Border
