Advocacy

Core Classroom: Designed with You in Mind: Welcoming Patrons and Staff with Disabilities in Your Library Spaces

CHICAGOJoin Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures this September for the Core Classroom "Designed with You in Mind: Welcoming Patrons and Staff with Disabilities to Your Library." This four-week virtual workshop with videos, discussion forums, scenarios for practical application and real-world resources focuses on navigating the many facets libraries can employ to serve patrons of all ages with disabilities of all kinds.

Core Event: 2022 Online AvramCamp

CHICAGOCore is pleased to once again sponsor AvramCamp, an AdaCamp-inspired event that is named in honor of library innovator Henriette D. Avram.

ALA Annual Conference Advisory

WASHINGTON, DC -- American Library Association (ALA) members and staff are continuing to monitor the situation related to today’s Supreme Court decision. While we grapple with the implications of this decision, our immediate priority is the safety of those attending the 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibits in Washington, D.C. Currently, protests are concentrated at the Supreme Court. Should the situation change, we will inform members. We encourage conference attendees to check social media for traffic and other updates to the shuttle schedule and programming as appropriate.   

IMLS and FCC Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Help Close Digital Divide

WASHINGTON, DC -- The American Library Association (ALA) has issued the below statement on the memorandum of understanding between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), announced on June 24, 2022:

ALA President Patricia “Patty” Wong said, “We are pleased by today’s move by the FCC to recognize the role libraries play in bringing digital equity to communities across the country. The closer the connection between the FCC and IMLS, the closer America comes to closing learning gaps.

Authors Jason Reynolds, Nancy Pearl join high schoolers to Unite Against Book Bans at world’s biggest library event in Washington, D.C., June 25

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Award-winning young adult author Jason Reynolds, Book Lust author Nancy Pearl and American Library Association (ALA) intellectual freedom advocate Deborah Caldwell-Stone will join Bell Multicultural High School (Washington, D.C.) students to make the case for defending the right to read—and the joy in claiming that right. The discussion will take place at the largest library event in the world, the ALA Annual Conference and Exhibitions, held in Washington, D.C., June 24-27. 

2022 John Cotton Dana Awards Announced

The 2022 John Cotton Dana (JCD) Award winners, recognized for their strategic communications efforts, have been selected. The John Cotton Dana Awards provide up to eight grants for libraries that demonstrate outstanding library public relations. The award is managed by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Core Division and EBSCO Information Services and consists of $10,000 grants from the H.W.

Library, author, bookseller groups condemn legal action attempting to censor books in Virginia

The American Library Association (ALA) joined with Virginia librarians and booksellers, publishers and civil liberties organizations to issue a statement on June 1 condemning a Virginia political candidate’s legal action that seeks to halt distribution of two well-received books in Virginia. Based on the unfounded claim that the books might be "obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors,” such legal actions threaten Virginians’ freedom to read, according to the coalition’s members.

2022 PR Xchange Award Winners Announced

The PR Xchange Committee is delighted to announce the winners of this year's PR Xchange Awards Competition. This year, we have awarded 20 print winners and 24 electronic winners. Congratulations to those libraries! The PR Xchange Committee is charged with coordinating the annual awards competition, under the direction of the Awards and Scholarships Subcommittee of Core, a division of the American Library Association (ALA).