Letters of the Law is a new online column exploring a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, from a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer, and Tomas A.

Z! Haukeness from the Shine Initiative—a nonprofit based in Madison, Wisconsin—keeps a prominent profile in a glass room in the middle of Madison Public Library, where he and a coworker spend 30 hours ...

Two participants at Denver Public Library's Community Learning Plazas create a monoprint on a traveling printing press studio. Photo: Will Chan Gloria Velez waited 13 years to immigrate to America ...

“Decent, but not too highbrow.” That’s how one volunteer described the kind of fiction he and his colleagues solicited from their Hibbing, Minnesota, neighbors for the second of three book collection ...

Although TV talking heads discuss trillion-dollar bailouts for broken industries as if you might trip over one on your way to the unemployment office, libraries—which aren’t broken—struggle to make ...

The Library of Congress opened its reading room for the blind in 1897. Photo: Library of Congress This year marks the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ...

In November 2013, American Libraries Live hosted one of its most popular panel discussions, on tablets and mobile applications. The online show—archived at americanlibrarieslive.org, along with other ...

As the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates 150 years, we’re drawing inspiration from key events since its 1876 founding: from the first conventions and library schools, through wartime and ...

Librarian Sondra Eklund spends her time stocking books for the public library system she works for in Virginia. One of her patrons recently asked the library to acquire a children’s book about pets ...

Fred Stielow, a self-confessed wonk, has been involved in digital automation for decades. In the 1970s, he was on the project team for HyperTies, the first DOS-based hypertext program used on the ...

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 ...

After two years of pandemic-imposed social distancing and virtual meetings, librarians will once again gather in person at the profession’s largest event. The American Library Association’s (ALA) 2022 ...