Students in the English for Older Beginners class at Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts, build their language skills through activities like field trips. Photo: Lynne Weintraub It’s not unusual ...

Nick Potkalitsky writes: “We’re living through a profound shift in how text gets created. For the first time in history, our children will grow up in a world where much of what they read (homework ...

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 ...

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 ...

A woman using the card catalog at the main reading room of the Library of Congress, circa 1940. Photo: Library of Congress OCLC printed its last library catalog cards on October 1, 2015, ending an era ...

The world is changing rapidly: socially, technologically, and ecologically. Even while the “tech backlash” phenomenon is making headlines, libraries must still anticipate and adapt to digital advances ...

On January 27, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, digital media, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, ...

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 ...

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 ...

Contemporary research in the humanities has expanded beyond anything that could be considered traditional. Historians are building interactive digital maps, literary scholars are using computers to ...

A New Adults Advisory Board at the Kingston Frontenac (Ontario) Public Library brings together patrons ages 18–30 to offer insights for better serving this category of library user. Students at Furman ...

Libraries loaning “stuff” isn’t a new concept. Framed paintings were available for checkout at the Newark (N.J.) Public Library back in 1904. “Libraries were sharing before sharing was cool,” says ...