ALA President

CHICAGO – Emily Drabinski, interim chief librarian at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), and Kelvin Watson, executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, are the candidates for the 2023-24 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).

Drabinski has served as chair of the International Relations Committee (2020-21), ALA councilor-at-large (2018-20) and chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee (2019-20). 

WASHINGTON, DC – The American Library Association (ALA) welcomed substantial increases in federal funding for libraries approved today by the House Appropriations Committee. The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, saw an increase of $9 million, raising a total of $206.5 million for the nation’s primary source of federal funding for libraries. The increase for LSTA, if it holds in the final bill, would be the eighth-consecutive increase for libraries.

CHICAGO – During the pandemic, libraries met the challenge of adapting services even when their physical doors were closed. Now that libraries across the country are reopening, they face new challenges and see fresh opportunities to serve their communities.

CHICAGO — Former President of the United States Barack Obama will close the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) Closing Session. He will appear noon – 1 p.m. CT, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and first African American appointed to the role. They will be introduced by Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., president of the American Library Association.