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As the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates 150 years, we’re drawing inspiration from key events since its 1876 founding: from the first conventions and library schools, through wartime and the fight for civil rights, to seismic technological advancements and the existential threats of the current moment. Though not a comprehensive timeline of library history, the […]
From wartime appeals to celebrity-studded reading campaigns, library posters have long captured the evolving role of libraries in American life. This feature traces the American Library Association’s (ALA) history through some of its most iconic visuals—the patriotic mobilization of ALA’s Library War Service, the pop-culture energy of its READ posters, the spirited encouragement of the […]
For 150 years, the American Library Association (ALA) has shaped the landscape of libraries and the profession itself—but its leadership has often reflected the racial and gender biases of society at large. For this special anniversary issue, American Libraries spoke with eight barrier-busting Association leaders about their struggles, triumphs, breakdowns, and breakthroughs. The stories and […]
Colleen Barbus, librarian and archivist for the ALA Library in Chicago. Photo: Lauren Ehle Like many American Library Association (ALA) staffers, librarian and archivist Colleen Barbus remembers the Association’s previous headquarters—especially the tendency of new employees to eventually “stumble across the ALA Library and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know this was here,’” she says. […]
In 1876, the year of our nation’s centennial, 103 dreamers gathered in Philadelphia. These librarians and library advocates did not come merely to talk. They came to weave a vision of libraries as lanterns in the night, as havens of thought, as places where minds and hearts could be set free. From that gathering, the […]
While the commemoration of the American Library Association’s (ALA) 150th anniversary kicked off in January, ALA staff and member leaders have been building momentum toward its largest in-person celebration, the 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in our hometown of Chicago. I feel honored and privileged to be here in this moment as we celebrate this […]
A Brazilian tech firm that specializes in protecting networks from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks has been enabling a botnet responsible for an extended campaign of massive DDoS attacks against other network operators in Brazil, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The firm’s chief executive says the malicious activity resulted from a security breach and was likely the work […]
A flier promoting ALA Workers United. Approximately 100 ALA employees began voting on April 24 to form a new union at the 150-year-old association. About 100 employees at the American Library Association (ALA) began voting on April 24 to form ALA Workers United (ALAWU), a new union at the 150-year-old association. If a majority of […]
A 24-year-old British national and senior member of the cybercrime group “Scattered Spider” has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Tyler Robert Buchanan admitted his role in a series of text-message phishing attacks in the summer of 2022 that allowed the group to hack into at least a dozen major technology […]
Digital Collections Technician, Seth Langer Today’s blog post is an interview with Seth Langer, a Digital Collections Technician here at the Library of Congress. You can read other interviews with digital collections staff here. Hi Seth, could you tell us a bit about what you do in the Digital Services Directorate? How would you explain […]
Microsoft today pushed software updates to fix a staggering 167 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and related software, including a SharePoint Server zero-day and a publicly disclosed weakness in Windows Defender dubbed “BlueHammer.” Separately, Google Chrome fixed its fourth zero-day of 2026, and an emergency update for Adobe Reader nixes an actively exploited […]
Today’s guest post is from Kate Murray of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division and co-founder of the C2PA for G+LAM Community of Practice. Released in February 2026 as a product of the C2PA for G+LAM Community of Practice, the white paper “Content Authenticity and Provenance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Call-to-Action […]
In today’s guest post, Lauren Algee, a Senior Digital Collections Specialist & By the People community manager at the Library of Congress, interviews the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) Archives Outreach Manager, Meghan Sorensen. We just celebrated seven years of By the People, which invites virtual volunteers to transcribe historic texts. But did you know there is another crowdsourced […]
Hackers linked to Russia’s military intelligence units are using known flaws in older Internet routers to mass harvest authentication tokens from Microsoft Office users, security experts warned today. The spying campaign allowed state-backed Russian hackers to quietly siphon authentication tokens from users on more than 18,000 networks without deploying any malicious software or code. Microsoft […]
Anywhere Adventures is a mobile-first website that 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. She is now seeking story submissions from readers for two new locations: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the […]
An elusive hacker who went by the handle “UNKN” and ran the early Russian ransomware groups GandCrab and REvil now has a name and a face. Authorities in Germany say 31-year-old Russian Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin headed both cybercrime gangs and helped carry out at least 130 acts of computer sabotage and extortion against victims across […]
Today’s guest post is a reflection from Thalia Lightstone, one of eight 2025-26 Librarians-in-Residence at the Library of Congress. The Librarian-in-Residence program was created for newly graduated MLIS students to gain professional experience while contributing meaningfully to the work of the Nation’s library. Read her interview from last year here. When I began library school, […]
Today’s guest post is from Abby Shelton, a Digital Collections Specialist & By the People community manager at the Library of Congress. Are you a new By the People volunteer? Do you know someone who might be interested in transcribing historical documents? Could you use a refresher about the program? Whether you’re new or an expert, we are inviting everyone […]
Today’s guest post is from Morgan Morel of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center at the Library of Congress. Vrecord is open source video capture software used by video preservation labs across the nation. The idea for vrecord was born from an Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Hack Day project to see if a Bash […]
An ICE protest march that took place outside of Minneapolis Central Library on January 23. The library worked with its union members to have enough staff available to keep the library open as a warming center (in below-zero temperatures) and community space while allowing staff who wanted to participate in the protest to attend. Photo: […]
