Welcome to the 2018 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries. These shining examples of innovative architectural feats address user needs in ...

Welcome to the 2025 Library Design Showcase, American Libraries’ annual celebration of new and renovated libraries throughout North America. Today’s libraries are places where people from diverse ...

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 ...

In 2005, an original section of the Patriot Act allowed the FBI to compel anyone they presented with a National Security Letter (NSL) to hand over detailed personal information, including library ...

In summer 2020, during the national outcry that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the concept of antiracism—or actively opposing racism and promoting tolerance ...

A library patron practices new sewing skills at Adulting 101, a program at Forsyth County Public Library in ­Cumming, Georgia.Photo: Jennifer Forbes When Teresa Lucas decided to teach basic life ...

They have been popping up in droves. On front lawns and street corners. In parks, community centers, and hospitals. You can even find them at beaches, malls, and barbershops. What started in 2009 with ...

As she compiled data on challenges to library materials for National Library Week last year, Kristin Pekoll, assistant director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual ...

Late last year, the city of Colorado Springs shut down the Quarry, its largest homeless encampment, forcing its residents to disperse. As a result, says John Spears, executive director of Pikes Peak ...

Our online column Letters of the Law explores a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, with the help of a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer; and ...

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1722. As Philadelphia’s most famous son, Franklin—and his belief in personal ...