Library, had a clear answer when one of my colleagues asked why she had flown into town for the event. “It’s like asking why ...

Are you looking for a smart and efficient way to store your library’s growing collection of books, journals, and other materials? Do you want to optimize your offsite storage space and reduce ...

March 9, 2026 150 × 100 Vote in the 2026 ALA Election ALA Elections Your Voice Matters Vote Today ...

Film programming is a natural fit for libraries. It’s another tool in our arsenal of storytimes, book groups, and lectures to create educational, emotional, and silly programs for every age and ...

ALA's webinar, “Turning Congressmembers into Library Champions,” offers tips for getting your representatives’ attention.

Libraries loaning “stuff” isn’t a new concept. Framed paintings were available for checkout at the Newark (N.J.) Public Library back in 1904. “Libraries were sharing before sharing was cool,” says ...

A woman using the card catalog at the main reading room of the Library of Congress, circa 1940. Photo: Library of Congress OCLC printed its last library catalog cards on October 1, 2015, ending an era ...

Welcome to the 2025 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries throughout North America. Today’s libraries are places where people from diverse ...

Patrons are rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty with the offerings cropping up at public libraries across the country—farms, gardens, orchards, and food-literacy classes, to name a few—and ...

In summer 2020, during the national outcry that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the concept of antiracism—or actively opposing racism and promoting tolerance ...

When Jessie Carney Smith arrived at Fisk University in Nashville in 1965, she says many people there did not know about black literature. Smith, the dean of the library, says, “Many scholars were told ...

The year 2023 was another record-breaker for book bans. The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) documented 1,247 attempts to censor library books and other ...