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 ...

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that politically the library profession is quite liberal. There may be a lot more conservatives in the profession than I know about but if they exist, they ...

Alcohol-free events have gained significant traction in recent years. It’s a trend reflected in the growing popularity of wellness challenges like Dry January, a time when millions of people abstain ...

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 ...

“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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

When Jessie Carney Smith arrived at Fisk University in Nashville in 1965, she says many people there did not know about black literature. Smith, the dean of the library, says, “Many scholars were told ...

Patrons of Thomas County (Ga.) Public Library System use litter cleanup kits they checked out. The initiative, launched in 2020, has been popular with groups of all sizes.Photo: Keep Thomas County ...

Within the research projects of doctoral students in library and information science lie ways to mitigate the challenges of an inequitable world. Too often, these valuable findings go underused.