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“You don’t need to stream C-SPAN or binge West Wing reruns to know that the annual US federal budget process isn’t always linear or logical.
Progress is incremental, margins are razor-thin, and, as the library community has felt acutely over the last year, victories are rarely final.
To help equip and energize advocates in an environment of heightened stakes, ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office launched a webinar series as part of its
Show Up for Our Libraries campaign. Below are excerpts from the sixth installment, ‘Turning Congressmembers into Library Champions.’”...
American Libraries feature, Mar./Apr.
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Carli Spina and Rebecca Albrecht Oling write: “Getting started with web accessibility improvements can feel overwhelming.
The ultimate goal should be a website that maximizes accessibility and considers inclusive access in all decisions.
But even incremental improvements have real benefits.
A good approach is to look at the most high-impact changes you can make early in the process to improve accessibility for users, even if the entire site is not fully accessible.
The following sections outline several changes that can have a significant impact without requiring the wholesale redesign of a website.”...
American Libraries feature, Mar./Apr.
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ALA has published
Digital Pathways: Online Health Literacy Programming for Adults, a free guide for libraries that contains information on online health literacy and telehealth, lessons on video visits and privacy, best practices, and replicable programming ideas with budget tiers and assessment tools.
The 100-page guide also explores what library workers can and cannot do in nonclinical settings.
Twelve libraries have been selected for a
nine-month pilot program to support online health literacy programming, receiving an $8,000 stipend to implement programs from the guide....
ALA Public Programs Office, Mar.
20
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Violet Fox writes: “The person who has lost their job is probably going through some form of grief.
They’re losing financial security, their professional identity, their expectations of a stable future.
Much of the same advice applies about things you’d say (or not say) to people grieving the loss of a loved one.
Your colleague who has lost their job may not be as communicative as you’d expect. If you’re looking for ways to support a colleague who has lost their job, here are a few places to start.”...
ACRLog, Mar. 21
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By hosting community conversations, libraries create intentional spaces that encourage listening, learning, and a deeper sense of respect among neighbors.
Leading Polarizing Conversations, a new free guide from ALA, will equip library workers with the tools needed to facilitate challenging conversations on divisive issues, promoting understanding and empathy. Also available is “Libraries as Leaders in Bridging Divides,” a free five-module asynchronous e-course that provides prompts, templates, and a conversation planning tool to help library workers lead impactful conversations on polarizing issues....
ALA Public Programs Office, Mar.
18
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ALA President Sam Helmick issued a statement on
H.R. 7661, a bill that threatens funding promised by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 from any school that provides or promotes literature or other materials to children that include “sexually oriented material,” after the bill passed the US House Committee on Education and Workforce on March 17. “H.R. 7661 is a dangerous bill that steals the power to choose what kids read away from parents, local communities and well-trained educators and librarians, and gives it to politicians,” Helmick said....
ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Mar.
18
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Rachel Grover writes: “If you’re anything like me, you’re quickly realizing that National Poetry Month is right around the corner. My middle school teachers have very little time outside of what they are required to teach, so sometimes collaborations can be difficult. However, as I was scrolling the recent We Are Teachers article ‘35 Inspiring Poetry Games and Activities for Kids and Teens,’ all I could think about was how easy some of these activities would be for almost any teacher to include poetry in what they are already doing.”...
Knowledge Quest, Mar.
23; We Are Teachers, Mar.
9
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Angele Latham writes: “Rutherford County (Tenn.) Library System Director Luanne James is facing discipline after refusing to move 132 books from juvenile shelves, saying the board did not following proper removal procedures and that the action violates the First Amendment.
The books come from a previous list of over 3,000 books that were flagged as part of a
state-instigated collections review in October.” In an
email to the board, James said “I am professionally and ethically bound to uphold the First Amendment of the US Constitution.” The board
recently removed the Library Bill of Rights and other ALA documents from its policy manual.
The
board will meet March 30 to address the situation....
Nashville Tennessean, Mar.
23; Nashville Scene, Nov.
10, 2025; The Advocate, Mar. 21; Book Riot, Mar. 23; WKRN-TV (Nashville), Mar. 19
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Andrew Albanese writes: “In an unexpected development, Baker & Taylor this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey, offering more details about the leading library supplier’s
sudden collapse in 2025. The filing comes after the company revealed in court documents that it has fully repaid its secured creditor, CIT Northbridge Credit LLC, and is now seeking protection as it works to distribute any remaining funds to its unsecured creditors.” The
filing asserts that the company has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors, and total liabilities between $100 million and $500 million, including $33 million owed to libraries....
Words & Money, Mar. 20; American Libraries Online, Oct.
8, 2025; Publishers Weekly, Mar.
18
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Allan Cho writes: “The mission of academic libraries has been to steward literary archives, preserving the manuscripts, correspondence, and records that underpin scholarly research.
Yet they have been less visible as spaces where literature is actively created.
In this essay, I explore how the University of British Columbia Library’s Writer-in-Residence program reimagines the academic library as a collaborative space where community engagement, literary practice, and research intersect.
By embedding practicing writers on campus and in the broader community, the program positions the library not only as a repository of cultural memory but also as an active site of literary creation.”...
The Journal of Creative Library Practice, Mar.
21
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Allison Bailund et al.
write: “Library workers and patrons have long been frustrated with Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for being out of date and lacking well-known concepts with abundant usage.
Contributors to the Subject Authority Cooperative Program have made many improvements to LCSH by proposing new headings and revising existing terms.
Those attempts, however, have sometimes been hampered by the Library of Congress’s preference for supposed neutrality within the vocabulary.
Our article examines the ways in which neutrality is enforced in LCSH rejections between July 2005 and December 2024.”...
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Mar.
18
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Hana Lee Goldin writes: “Information literacy—the ability to recognize how content, interfaces, and systems are shaped to influence our behavior—is usually framed around headlines and misinformation.
But it applies just as directly to the design of the apps and platforms we use every day.
When we can identify the specific technique being used on us, we stop experiencing it as vague, ambient pressure and start seeing it clearly as a technique with a name, a mechanism, and (most importantly) a countermove.”...
Card Catalog, Mar. 19
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