school libraries Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Award winner Jessica Gleason speaking at the awards ceremony podium

Meet the 2025 I Love My Librarian Award Honorees

By Chase Ollis | May 1, 2025

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 →

Fourth-grade students at George A. Jackson Elementary School in Jericho, New York, work on podcasts. The project was spearheaded by their librarian and teachers.Photo: Lauren Kawasaki

Amplifying Voices

At George A. Jackson Elementary School in Jericho, New York, educators wanted to help students discover the power of their voices. During the 2023–2024 school year, as part of a unit about natural hazards and disasters, 4th-graders used library and classroom time to create podcasts about their research. After National Public Radio (NPR) recognized one … Continue reading Amplifying Voices →

Collage of government directives and MLIS acting director Keith Sonderling

100 Days into the Trump Administration

By Hannah Weinberg | April 30, 2025

In response, the American Library Association (ALA), along with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. On April 30, a federal court hearing will rule on ALA’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the further dismantling of IMLS. Meanwhile, censorship attempts persist, IMLS staffers … Continue reading 100 Days into the Trump Administration →

Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Libraries

By Hannah Weinberg | March 19, 2025

While the legality of many of these actions is still being decided by the courts, librarians, archivists, and other information professionals have been working through the confusion to preserve access to information. Below are several examples of the challenges libraries have faced over the past two months and the ways in which librarians and advocates have … Continue reading Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Libraries →

Assessing AI

By Sarah Tribelhorn | March 3, 2025

Training and operating AI tools like large language models, for instance, require substantial computational power. Generating one image could use as much energy as charging an average smartphone, according to a 2023 study by AI developer Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the first study of its kind to measure the carbon and … Continue reading Assessing AI →

2025 Youth Media Award Winners

January 27, 2025

A complete list of the 2025 award winners follows. John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: The First State of Being, written by Erin Entrada Kelly, is the 2025 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Four Newbery Honor Books also were named: Across … Continue reading 2025 Youth Media Award Winners →

Sitting area with fireplace in Brown County Library, East branch.

Submissions Open for Library Design Showcase

January 2, 2025

We are looking for examples of innovative library architecture that address patrons’ needs in unique and effective ways. We are especially interested in submissions from libraries that are approaching design with sustainability, accessibility, and smaller budgets in mind. Partial renovations, projects under $1 million, and school libraries are encouraged to apply. To be eligible, projects … Continue reading Submissions Open for Library Design Showcase →

An older woman and a child look at a photo of a Ferris wheel.

For the Ages

By Rosie Newmark | November 1, 2024

“There’s so much that we share / That it’s time we’re aware / It’s a small world after all,” several older adults sang along with students, who were visiting from nearby Totoket Valley Elementary School (TVES) as part of an intergenerational book club. The song was part of the club’s discussion of the picture book Mr. … Continue reading For the Ages →

Beyond the Book List

By Melissa Jacobs and Vincent Hyland | August 28, 2024

Have you been hearing that refrain more often lately? We are certainly hearing it in New York City. Where many in the library profession used to bemoan the fact that the kids don’t read, the conversation has shifted in recent years to the more urgent question of whether they can. Bearing in mind the steep … Continue reading Beyond the Book List →

Wendy DeGroat stands with a microphone in front of a slide at ALA Annual 2024 in San Diego

Seeing the Inner Light of Humanity

By Carrie Smith | June 30, 2024

That’s why, in 2021, when the national storytelling nonprofit StoryCorps launched One Small Step (OSS)—a program that encourages those on opposite sides of political issues to understand each other as people—DeGroat leapt at the chance to adapt it for her students. On Saturday, June 29, DeGroat shared her experience with OSS in “Fostering Conversation and … Continue reading Seeing the Inner Light of Humanity →

Allison Frick (left), lower school STEAM librarian, and Sara DeSabato, first grade teacher at Friends Select School in Philadelphia, present “Let's Talk About Sex: Gender and Sexuality Education in Elementary School Using Age Congruent Literature"

Expanding Gender, Sexuality Education

By Megan Bennett | June 29, 2024

“When they think sex education, they think of themselves in middle school where all the girls go into one room, all the boys go into another, and then they learn about completely different things and never talk about it again,” she says. “We want to make it really, really clear that is not what we’re … Continue reading Expanding Gender, Sexuality Education →

Show Yourself

By Sara Kelly Johns and Susan D. Ballard | May 1, 2024

You might be thinking, “Our school library has a brand?” Most of us associate the word with a name, logo, tagline, and design elements that a corporation uses to distinguish itself from others. It also involves marketing and merchandising to promote the organization’s product or service. When all these components are combined, the result is … Continue reading Show Yourself →

Latest Library Links

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On May 19, Teresa “Teri” Anderson became executive director of the Association of College and Research Libraries, one of the largest ALA divisions. Before joining ALA, Anderson spent more than three decades at ASIS International, a professional organization for security management professionals. She held several positions at the organization, most recently serving as vice president of innovation and outreach, a role in which she provided subject matter expertise and liaised with partners across the security industry. Anderson is a certified association executive through the American Society of Association Executives. She answered our 11 Questions to introduce herself to ALA members.

AL: The Scoop, May 27
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Rachel Milburn writes: “Teen advisory boards (TABs) are an excellent resource for libraries. TABs are the perfect group to promote a library’s young adult collection. What better way to do this than through social media? Plano (Tex.) Public Library regularly includes our TAB in social media posts to promote all sorts of things, including our collections. Our teens (and their caregivers) sign photo release forms, which allows us to include them in our online presence. Here are a few easy ways to incorporate your library’s TAB in social media posts.”

Young Adult Library Services Association: The Hub, May 23
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Kwame Alexander writes: After the firings of Carla Hayden and Shira Perlmutter from the Library of Congress, “It feels urgent for us, as citizens, to gather and plan together how to respond to this attack on our freedom to read, write, and learn. We are bringing together some smart folks, including Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi, Meg Medina, Amanda Jones, and Tracie D. Hall, to speak out about what intellectual freedom means to us and form an action plan to stand up for these freedoms.” The rally will be held May 31 at DC Public Library’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 5 p.m. Eastern and livestreamed for those not able to attend in person.

Kwamealexander.com; DC Public Library
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Danielle Melia, Lauren Kawasaki and Reshma Seth write: “George A. Jackson Elementary School’s library wants to provide a dynamic and inclusive learning environment. That makes podcasting a perfect fit. It gives students a platform to express their creativity, explore new ideas, and collaborate with peers while learning real-world skills. Our podcast project started as a collaboration between librarian Danielle Melia and coteachers Lauren Kawasaki and Reshma Seth. We wanted our 4th-graders to work in pairs to create an episode related to our unit on natural hazards. Students developed episodes to answer thought-provoking questions.”

American Libraries Trend, May
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Cinzi Lavin writes: “In the summer of 2023, a controversial book—Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe—was removed from the shelves of the small Connecticut library where I worked as a part-time paraprofessional. The removal was done in transgression of the library board’s book reconsideration policy. Our small staff was upset and bewildered. As the granddaughter of Europeans who fled to the US to escape fascism just before World War II, I found that the fight against this injustice in our library became very personal. I offer the following considerations to other small libraries facing similar challenges.”

American Libraries column, May
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Rosie Newmark writes: “While creating one of their in-house brews, employees at Johnson City (Tenn.) Brewing Company brought in some unexpected assistants to pour barley into the batch: library staffers. The pre-Prohibition-style lager they crafted together was called 1895, a nod to the founding year of Johnson City Public Library, located just a few blocks from the brewery’s downtown taproom. The partnership marks a growing trend of libraries working with local brewers to create signature drinks for fundraising and awareness campaigns that expand the library’s visibility to younger adult crowds.”

American Libraries Trend, May
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On May 20, the Trump administration filed a status report describing its compliance with a federal judge’s preliminary injunction in Rhode Island v. Trump, which ordered the administration to restore terminated Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) staff and grants to recipients in 21 plaintiff states. However, the Administration has filed an appeal and requested a stay of the order. ALA has filed its own, nationwide challenge to the elimination of IMLS, ALA v. Sonderling. A temporary restraining order on May 1 halted further actions to dismantle the agency, and a ruling on ALA’s request for a preliminary injunction is expected by May 29.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, May 21; AL: The Scoop, May 2

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