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I am honored to stand for election as president-elect of ALA. My career has been shaped by a profound belief in the power of libraries to advance equity, expand opportunity, and strengthen our democracy. For more than two decades, I have served in leadership roles across ALA, state associations, and professional divisions, and throughout that […]
Libraries changed my life. As a Hispanic, first-generation high school and college graduate, born and raised in South Texas, every book I read and every library activity I participated in helped shape my understanding of the world. My state and national library associations furthered my library leadership journey by expanding my professional networks and growth […]
The Airport Library at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport provides physical books, oversized chairs, and charging access. Photo: Chad Showalter/Kenton County (Ky.) Public Library The layover was supposed to last two hours. Instead, it stretched into four or five. Traveling alone through Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), a woman wandered the concourse looking to pass the […]
Photo: Kings Mountain National Military Park/Open Parks Network 400Approximate number of libraries operated by the National Park Service (NPS). 3.5 millionNumber of materials housed in the NPS History Collection at the Harpers Ferry (W.Va.) Center for Media Services. The collection includes art, documents, photos, sound recordings, uniforms, and other objects. 25Number of parks represented in the […]
Librarians are used to being generalists, able to research all kinds of questions. But when someone seeks help filling out a form or understanding their rights, those same staffers may be wary of crossing the line from legal reference to unauthorized practice of law. Moreover, public library collections often have few legal resources for patrons. […]
Fundraising is a perennial concern for libraries of all types and sizes, regardless of location. With federal funding increasingly threatened, library professionals will be called on to source money for collections, programming, and beyond. These titles are valuable resources and guides through the labyrinthine process of fundraising. Winning Grants, 3rd edition By Stephanie K. GerdingThis […]
Anywhere Adventures is a mobile-first website which brings local history to users through comics and travel logs. In the first year, 2025-2026 Innovator in Residence Vivian Li developed stories for three locations: Seattle, Washington, Chicago, Illinois, and Southeast Wyoming. This guest post is written by Vivian, and is a follow-up to a post asking readers […]
The Institute of Museum and Library Services’ empty booth at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia. Terra Dankowski/American Libraries In the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency, libraries have been buffeted by a string of policies and executive orders. Some changes have been sweeping, while others were smaller in scope but […]
Admittedly, it’s more of a band-aid approach, but it’s gotta be better than nothing. Aaron Tay has a lengthy post describing what’s going on with ghost references, and I’m thinking specifically about how Google Scholar creates them. Here’s a link to the example in question (now up to 56 citations!), and here are the sections […]
We’re on the hunt for two U.S. communities to include in Vivian Li’s Innovator in Residence Project, Anywhere Adventures! Visitors to the mobile experience are currently able to explore three American communities, Seattle, Chicago, and Southeastern Wyoming, through items from the Library’s digital collections and learn about the stories, people, and events that shaped everyday life in these places. With the site, visitors can do a […]
This post is co-written by Abbie Grotke (Section Head), Amanda Lehman (Digital Collections Specialist), and Melissa Wertheimer (Senior Digital Collections Specialist) of the Web Archiving Section to close our 25th-anniversary celebration year with some highlights of the program. We Have a History In 2025 we wrapped up our 25th year of web archiving at the […]
Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress digital collections? The Signal shares regular updates to our digital collections and we love showing off our colleagues’ hard work from across the Library. Read on for a sample of recent additions and a few favorite highlights. Click here for all previous updates. This […]
Illustration: Мария Пестова/Adobe Stock At a time when libraries are facing immense, unprecedented challenges—fiscal, logistical, institutional, existential—the role of library supporters has never been more critical. These types of challenges were top of mind at United for Libraries (UFL) Virtual 2025, held in late July. Every year, UFL brings together trustees, foundation and Friends members, […]
Illustration: Antonio Rodriguez/Adobe Stock The world of college admissions drastically shifted in 2023, when the Supreme Court’s landmark rulings in two cases—Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina—rejected race-conscious affirmative action policies. Just two years later, as some schools report declining enrollment of students of color, a flurry […]
The Monkeypuzzlers were one of 47 teams across 10 branches to compete in Mid-Columbia Libraries’ inaugural speed puzzling tournament in southeastern Washington last January. Photo: Madison Rosenbaum/Mid-Columbia Libraries Hands flew, timers ticked, and tensions ran high. But team Piece Out found success by sticking to a classic strategy: starting its 500-piece jigsaw puzzle with the […]
Brian Selznick Photo: Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Until recently, Caldecott Medal–winning author-illustrator Brian Selznick had never written for young adults, nor written a full-fledged love story. That changed with Run Away with Me (Scholastic, 2025), a YA novel about a transformative summer romance between two teenage boys in 1980s Rome that is interwoven with love stories spanning […]
Zora Neale Hurston. Photo: Library of Congress, Prints and Photography Division 10Number of Zora Neale Hurston plays—most of which were never published—held by the Library of Congress (LC) in Washington, D.C. The prolific 20th-century writer and anthropologist wrote the plays between 1925 and 1944, but they were not widely known until found in an LC […]
Your story matters. Not just because you curate collections or answer reference questions, but because you build bridges between people and knowledge. You have witnessed quiet triumphs: a child learning to read, a student discovering their passion, a senior reconnecting with history. These moments are part of our collective story, and they deserve to be […]
2025 wasn’t the best year in memory. Between job challenges, 8 months of unemployment, and spending weeks recovering after having 20% of my right kidney removed due to renal cell carcinoma….let’s just say it wasn’t the best year for me or my family. But even in the midst of all of the troubles, there were […]
Getting started with web accessibility improvements can feel overwhelming. The ultimate goal should be a website that maximizes accessibility and considers inclusive access in all decisions. But even incremental improvements have real benefits. A good approach is to look at the most high-impact changes you can make early in the process to improve accessibility for […]
