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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 […]
Image depicting an early Indy 500 race, held by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway archive. Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway 30,000Number of objects—in addition to 40 million pages of documents—held at the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Ralph Wilson Jr. Pro Football Research and Preservation Center in Canton, Ohio. The archive has more than 100 scrapbooks, game […]
Banned Books Week takes place October 5–11. This year’s theme is “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” 1982Year that ALA held its first Banned Books Week. 2,452Total number of unique titles challenged in libraries in in 2024 that were documented by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. While that number is a sharp decline […]
20th-century vintage sewing and knitting patterns in the library at Arizona State University’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Photo: Arizona State University’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising London, Milan, New York, and Paris will host their Fashion Weeks throughout September and October. 754Number of 20th-century vintage sewing and knitting patterns […]
Photo: University Library Special Collections and Archives/University of California, Santa Cruz International Workers’ Day is May 1. 8Date in April that National Library Workers Day was celebrated this year. Since 2004, it has been commemorated on the Tuesday of National Library Week. 25,000Number of library workers represented by the American Federation of State, County, and […]
Photo: Arizona State University Library, Special Collections American Library Association’s LibLearnX Conference in Phoenix will take place Jan. 24–27. 28,000Number of Indigenous artists represented in the Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives (BJBLA), located within the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Like the museum, BJBLA’s holdings include traditional and contemporary American Indian artists’ art, written works, […]
A 1981 concert flier for Dr. Cool and Cold Crush Brothers, archived in the Hip-Hop Collection at Cornell University Library. 1,000Number of event fliers in the Hip-Hop Collection at Cornell University Library (CUL) in Ithaca, New York. These handmade fliers, made between 1976 and 1984, advertise early live performances by genre trailblazers like Grandmaster Flash […]
The Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat statue outside Geisel Library, the main library of University of California San Diego Photo: Felix Lipov The American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition will be held June 27–July 2 in San Diego. 4Number of crown-shaped chandeliers designed by author L. Frank Baum for the Hotel del […]
Photo: University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor May is National Inventors Month 135,850Number of items in the Edison Sheet Music Collection, housed at University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph in 1877, spearheaded this collection as a way for his phonograph company to select vocal and instrumental scores […]
Meridian (Idaho) Library District’s Tiny Library. 75%Percentage of recycled material required for each item featured in Mattapoisett (Mass.) Free Public Library’s RE-ART show, held in September 2023. Among the pieces local artists submitted: a robe constructed with upcycled quilts and a purse made from a vintage book. 1,000Number of volunteers who support the annual book […]
A catalog from the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play in Rochester, New York. 230,000Number of volumes available at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, located at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The library houses books, […]
Banned Books Week takes place Oct. 1–7 1,269Number of book challenges documented in 2022 by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). This is nearly double the number reported in 2021 and the highest number of book ban attempts since OIF started compiling this data more than 20 years ago. The 2022 challenges […]
Code Talker by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila 1979Year that the American Indian Library Association (AILA) was founded. AILA, an affiliate of ALA, is a membership group that supports individuals and institutions working to improve library services to American Indians and Alaska Natives and disseminate information about Indian cultures, languages, and values. 300Number of […]
Salt Lake City Public Library’s community garden. Photo: Jeri Gravlin 71Number of institutions recognized by the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries. These libraries are often housed within public gardens, arboretums, or universities around the world. 2004Year the first seed library opened in a public library. Hudson Valley Seed Library—which has since evolved into Hudson […]
An image of the Uncensored Library, an online repository of banned reporting available within the video game Minecraft. Screenshot: Reporters Without Borders. 30Number of years World Press Freedom Day has been observed. In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly deemed May 3 a day to honor, evaluate, and defend freedom of the press around the […]
Photo: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Presidents’ Day is February 20 1955Year Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act, establishing the Presidential Library System. Before that, many presidents’ archives were lost, destroyed, or separated. 887,000Number of copies of Barack Obama’s 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, that sold in the US and Canada within the first […]
This movie poster is one of 3,000 items in the Witchcraft Collection at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Photo: Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 19thCentury in which Halloween was popularized in the US, thanks in part to the arrival of Irish and Scottish immigrants. Halloween has its roots in the […]
Photo: ©Lightfield Studios/Adobe Stock May is Older Americans Month. 1963Year President John F. Kennedy established Senior Citizens Month, now called Older Americans Month. 2030Year when all baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—will be at least 65 years old. 43%Percentage of baby boomers in the US who visited a public library or bookmobile over a […]
Stats to honor Valentine’s Day (February 14) and Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 13–19). 1,100Number of public submissions received for Love Letters in Light, a poetry project conceived by artist Leila Hamidi in partnership with Los Angeles County Library (LACL) and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In May 2021, LED signs were […]
A Charlie Cart mobile kitchen. Illustration: The Charlie Cart Project 350Number of classes offered annually through Free Library of Philadelphia’s (FLP) Culinary Literacy Center. According to FLP, this kitchen classroom is the first of its kind created at a public library in the US. $9,000Amount that Chattanooga (Tenn.) Public Library spent on a Charlie Cart—a […]
