Advocacy & Issues
As libraries and library workers nationwide grapple with attacks on our field and shifts in the national policy landscape, ALA continues our long-time advocacy work to stand up for libraries. Advocacy is central to everything we do, from intellectual freedom to library funding. ALA will always be ready to stand up and advocate for libraries.
Learn more about ALA's advocacy through the Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Public Policy & Advocacy Office in Washington.
Take Action Now!
ALA supports librarians facing censorship challenges and encourages reporting, even if no assistance is needed. Reports are confidential, and the information gathered helps create tools to combat censorship in all our libraries.
Sign up to receive critical action opportunities and advocacy updates from ALA's Public Policy & Advocacy Office in Washington. We call on advocates like you to make your voice heard at the local, state, and national levels on issues affecting libraries.
Timely Advocacy Resources
ALA compiles data on book challenges from reports filed by library professionals in the field and from news stories published throughout the United States.
Invite your elected officials to your library and show them the impact your library has on your community!
Intellectual freedom guidelines, sample policies, and resources for libraries.
On-Demand eLearning for Libraries on the Frontlines
Best of Core Forum: Advocacy in a Polarized World
First Amendment Audits: What Your Library Board and Staff Need to Know
How to Hug a Porcupine: Relationship Building with Lawmakers and Why It’s Impo…
Addressing Challenges in America’s School Libraries
Media and Crisis Communications for Trustees & Friends
Our Advocacy Work
Intellectual freedom--the right to read, seek information, and speak freely-- is a core value of the library profession, and a basic right in our democratic society. A publicly supported library provides free, equitable, and confidential access to information for all people of its community.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are fundamental values of the association and its members, and diversity is listed as one of ALA's Key Action Areas. The Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services uses a social justice framework to ensure the inclusion of diverse perspectives within our profession and association to best position ALA as a trusted, leading advocate for equitable access to library services for all.
The American Library Association supports the principle that lifelong literacy is a basic right for all individuals in our society and is essential to the welfare of the nation.
ALA confirms that libraries of all types, as appropriate to their mission, have the responsibility to make literacy a high priority in planning and budgeting for library services.
Privacy is essential to free inquiry in the library because it enables library users to select, access, and consider information and ideas without fear of embarrassment, judgment, punishment, or ostracism. True liberty of choice in the library requires both a varied selection of materials and the assurance that one's choices are not monitored.
ALA's Public Policy and Advocacy Office (PPA)
The American Library Association advances key policy priorities by lobbying Congress, partnering with coalitions, and helping our library supporters in the field build strong relationships with their elected officials. ALA's Public Policy and Advocacy team serves as the voice for libraries in Washington, D.C. Through strengthening connections with members of Congress, grassroots mobilization, and regulatory advocacy, ALA aims to drive federal policy on the issues that impact libraries.
