American Library Association

Olympic Medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani are Auditorium Speakers at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Philadelphia

Maia and Alex Shibutani, a.k.a. the ShibSibs, are two-time Olympic bronze medalists, three-time world medalists, Four Continents Figure Skating Champions, and two-time U.S. National Champions. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, they became the first ice dancers of Asian descent to medal at the Olympics and are only the second sibling duo in the history of the sport to share an ice dancing medal. They travel the world and enjoy spending time together (most of the time), eating food (all of the time), and meeting new people (any time!).

Award-Winning Celebrity Chef and Best-Selling Author Jeff Henderson is the ALA President's Program Speaker at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits in Philadelphia

From humble beginnings in South Central Los Angeles, to life as an imprisoned drug dealer, to an award-winning celebrity chef and best-selling author, Jeff Henderson is a role model for anyone in need of encouragement and looking to reinvent their life.

Tiny Library Toolkit Inspires New Approaches to Library Services

A new Tiny Library Toolkit, developed by the Meridian (Idaho) Library District, shares that library's experience creating a "lighter, quicker, cheaper" means of installing a library service point using an upcycled shipping container. The development of the toolkit was funded by the 2018 Future of Libraries Fellowship from the Center for the Future of Libraries.

Nominations will close Oct. 21 for the national I Love My Librarian Award

CHICAGO–Library users have until Monday, Oct. 21 to nominate superstar librarians for the American Library Association’s (ALA) prestigious I Love My Librarian Award. Members of the public can submit nominations online for library professionals who have transformed communities and improved lives. The award recognizes the outstanding public service contributions of librarians working in public, school, college, community college or university libraries in the U.S.

Public libraries across U.S. join American Library Association’s first “digital book club” with gripping new ebook

CHICAGO – Readers nationwide can now borrow and discuss the first ebook selection of the Libraries Transform Book Pick, a new digital reading program from the American Library Association and Rakuten OverDrive. From Oct. 7-21, 2019, book lovers across the U.S. can borrow an ebook copy of the inventive and riveting saga “After the Flood” by Kassandra Montag at their public libraries without waitlists or holds.

Wong, Yates seek 2021-22 ALA presidency

CHICAGO - Patricia "Patty" M. Wong, City Librarian at Santa Monica (Calif.) Public Library. and Steven Yates, Assistant Director, University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies, are the candidates for the 2021-22 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).

United for Libraries invites Trustees to become Library Census Champions

Sign up by Oct. 1 to join launch webinar

Today United for Libraries, the American Library Association (ALA) Public Policy and Advocacy office and the Census Counts campaign launched Library Census Champions, a new network of state, local and tribal library Trustees helping their libraries and communities prepare for the 2020 Census.

ALA and OverDrive collaborate to offer public libraries across U.S. a new action-packed adventure for a “digital book club”

CHICAGO – The American Library Association (ALA) and Rakuten OverDrive have collaborated on a digital reading program – a national “digital book club” – which connects readers nationwide with simultaneous access to the same ebook through their public libraries.

ALA announces National Library Legislative Day to be held in May 2020

WASHINGTON – The American Library Association announced today that the 45th annual National Library Legislative Day will be held May 4-5, 2020, at the Georgetown Conference Center in Washington, D.C.

National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) is a two-day educational advocacy event designed to gather hundreds of library workers, supporters, leaders, patrons and community stakeholders in Washington, D.C., to learn from policy experts and to raise awareness among federal legislators about how and why libraries are vital to communities across America.