Bookend: Speaking Out

Attendees expressed their views on a range of topics—and each in their unique way—at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held June 26–30 in Philadelphia.

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 the School Librarians United podcast, models her jacket patches; Elizabeth Portillo, head of youth services at Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, New York, and peer leader at Urban Librarians Unite, makes a page for the collaborative zine; and Melisa Yang, recent graduate of University of South Carolina in Columbia, shows off a button she made in support of library funding at the Busy Beaver Button Company booth.