Cultivating a Special Collection

How the personal touch can sow the seeds for a major acquisition

A Digital Library for Everyone

The project seeks to digitize the country’s cultural archives and share them—free of charge—with the public

Filtering and the First Amendment

When is it okay to block speech online?

Meet the Candidates for ALA President and Treasurer

Four candidates unveil their campaign statements and appeal to ALA members for their vote

10 Great Technology Initiatives for Your Library

Want to incorporate new ideas into your library’s digital strategy? Here are some tips

Manufacturing Makerspaces

University’s App Provides Tour of Black History

Students, faculty given access to materials and information not normally seen

The Conversation Starts in Seattle

2013 Midwinter Preview

Seattle: Food Heaven

Your dining guide to Midwinter 2013

The Library as Lifeline: Getting Past Superstorm Sandy

How Queens Library is stepping up in the Rockaways

Library Design Showcase Has Moved to September/October 2013

Live at Your Library!

How to plug into your local music scene and charge up your communities

Writing for Civilians

By writing for the publications our users read, we build visibility—and support—in our communities

Terror Has Not Withdrawn: Daily Life for Librarians in Iraq

Although it’s a year since the war officially ended, the struggle has just begun to rebuild Iraq’s cultural and educational institutions

Library 2.012 Conference Explores the Future of Libraries

Personal Branding for Librarians

Distinguishing yourself from the professional herd

Zombies Invade the Library

Anchorage partners with the walking dead to teach disaster preparedness

Rocking the Joint

Thinking Purposefully at the ALSC Institute

Forbes Folly

Demonstrating the real net worth of a library degree

Geek Out

Digital learning labs convert consumers into creators

What’s New in LIS Schools

A snapshot of librarianship’s never-ending metamorphosis

First Winners of Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Nonfiction

Interviews with Anne Enright, author of The Forgotten Waltz, and Robert K. Massie, author of Catherine the Great

Summer Reading Goes to School

An Iowa university and Connecticut high school are reinventing recreational reading programs

Copyright for Librarians and Teachers, in a Nutshell

Who controls uses of your on-the-job writing?

Annual Conference Preview: Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves

First Andrew Carnegie Book Medals, revamped ALA Awards presentation, new Inaugural Brunch highlight 136th Annual Conference

Transforming Libraries . . . Continued

The next chapter in the evolution of libraries—and ALA

A Digital Dilemma: Ebooks and Users’ Rights

New technology may prove inhospitable to privacy

Navigating the Ebook Revolution

Players in the publishing realm voice their thoughts and concerns

Warning: You Are About to Enter the Ebook Zone

Libraries and publishers are moving into a shadowy land where everything they’ve long known is up for grabs

New ADA Signage Standards Take Effect

New rule changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act will improve services to blind or visually impaired patrons

Time to Dine in Anaheim

QR Codes Extend Library Programming

Reflective Teaching for Librarians

Mirroring the best practices of colleagues—while adding your own pedagogical tweaks to the mix—is what moves the profession forward

The Once and Future Library

An architect’s perspective on designing for changing constituencies

Women in the White City

Lessons from the Woman’s Building Library at the Chicago World’s Fair

Preserving Black Academic Library History

Celebrating the triumphs of HBCU libraries

Ebooks and School Libraries

Schools face unique challenges in their efforts to offer digital texts

Threats to Digital Lending

Does the durability of ebooks pose a digital danger to libraries?

The Revolution Isn’t Just Digital

For libraries, the growing importance of digital content has repercussions that go far beyond technology

Reflecting Our Communities

Internship programs open doors and minds

This Political Library Gets Everyone’s Vote

Special collection preserves a “primary” tradition

Achievement Unlocked

Three stories about selecting, archiving, and creating games in libraries

Preserving Bits

Inside the Library of Congress’s Video Game Collection

Grassroots Advocacy: Putting Yourself Out There

Find fresh ways to energize support for libraries

Main Street Public Library

Study challenges traditional assumptions about libraries’ roles in the community

Leading By Example: Emerging Leaders

ALA’s Emerging Leaders represent the profession’s future

Avoiding the Path to Obsolescence

Riches-to-rags tales in retail business hold survival tips for libraries

First Things First: First-Class Service for 1st Graders

Emerging readers get a special welcome at Selma–Dallas County Public Library

How to Offer More than a Movie

Producing film discussions that are serious cultural events

Libraries and the Future of Electronic Content Delivery

Seizing the opportunity to preserve unfettered access to information

Who’s the Boss?

Does private management have a place in public libraries?

Fanbase to the Rescue: A Massachusetts Tale

How social media mustered a groundswell that saved cooperative library services

Keeping Our Message Simple

Here’s the fundamentally different approach to advocacy we need to adopt—yesterday.

Facebook for Libraries

It’s easy to use social media’s most popular tool to connect with your community

Reading for Life: Oprah Winfrey

The television talk-show host and media mogul has championed books and libraries

Renewing Our Mission in New Orleans

New combined opening session/exhibits kickoff, an extended film series, and a host of authors and speakers are on tap for 135th Annual Conference

Born Here, Died Here

Preservation awareness makes possible the digitization of vital records by the University of Cincinnati Library

Booking Passage to a New Home

Expert Army transporters needed transportation for their own repository of recorded knowledge and culture.

One Book for Every Young Child

Author and illustrator visits bring fun to early literacy program

Building a Culture of Literacy through Día

Library events celebrate bilingual bookjoy

This Old Library

Strategies for reducing energy consumption

Susan Stroyan

Candidate for ALA President

LSSI Finds More Resistance to Its Library-Management Bids

Recession-stricken communities fight to retain local control

Running a Passport Acceptance Facility at Your Library

Processing patron passport applications enhances customer service—and your library’s bottom line

Telephone Reference: A Children's Author Learns to Work the Wires

What one children’s author learned about getting the answer to a simple question

Is the Association Ripe for Rebellion?

ALA Connect is the library world’s communication tool

Info Pro: Adopting Tools from the World of Business Consulting

A successful ServiceScape encourages consumer-staff interaction and makes everyone’s tasks easier.

12 Ways Libraries Are Good for the Country

A gift from American Libraries magazine of one dozen ideals toward which libraries strive.

Ted Danson, Neil Gaiman Headline Midwinter

Youth Media Awards, celebrity authors, and what to expect from the new U. S. Congress highlight San Diego conference

Booking to the Future

Paper or electronic? Futurists have been pushing one option for years—but do we have to choose?

How to Be Prepared in Case Violence Strikes

Proactive security audits trump written policies

Chicano Librarianship

On the 40th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium, a leader in the movement remembers the early years in East Los Angeles County

Gaming 2.0

Playing games in Houston leads to families learning and having fun together

Librarians Laud National Book Festival

Report from Washington: The big book event is a readers paradise

Twenty Years of Assistive Technologies

Celebrating 20 years of American with Disabilities Act

Winning Grants: A Game Plan

How to write proposals that work

Early Literacy: A Sustainable Statewide Approach

A coalition in Colorado may serve as a template for other regions to establish programs critical to the development of our youngest citizens

Reaching Undergrads: Recruitment via Internship

As interns, undergraduate students can cultivate a career in library and information science and technology

Librarians Head for the Hill to Rally for Reading

ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., attracts 26,000 enthusiastic professionals.

Our Authors, Our Advocates

Four authors help kick off ALA President Roberta Stevens’s “Our Authors, Our Advocates” presidential initiative

Books and Literacy in the Digital Age

Can we grow technophiles who are also bibliophiles?

Wisconsin Says “Cheese!”

Library Snapshot Day ups awareness

Frontline Advocacy Is Everybody’s Job

ALA President Camila Alire’s presidential initiative offers a systematic approach to staff participation

Build Your Own Instructional Literacy

Librarians can shape ourselves into educators by devising our teacher identities

Everyday Existence

The founder of StoryCorps talks about the central role of libraries in this national oral history project that records the lives of ordinary people.

Librarians, Self-Preservation, and Construction Budgets

Be prepared for cost overruns, finger-pointing, and bad publicity

Canadian Library Serves Community as Olympics Host

The Winter Games were an opportunity to show the world that libraries are more than just books

A Library Grows in Newburg

An underserved community gets a long-awaited branch

Designing Space for Children and Teens

How to carve out a niche that epitomizes service

To Help You Plan

Ready reference for public programming

Partnership Possibilities

Your library can reap resources from these nonprofits

Tough Times and Eight Ways to Deal with Them

Be the Bridge

Librarians can span the gap between students and their instructors

The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Building a buzz is an effective—and free—way to create public awareness and support.

Pipeline to the People

Public awareness is the key to more and better library use, leading to stronger and more powerful advocacy

E-readers in Action

An academic library teams with Sony to assess the technology

From a Distance

Library professionals have long been at the forefront of information technology

Chicago Crowd a Record

ALA’s executive board calls this conference a spectacular success.

Arne Duncan on Libraries in Economic Recovery

The U.S. Secretary of Education shares his views on volunteerism, No Child Left Behind, and reading readiness.

On the Line for the First Amendment

A July 1995 interview with Judith Krug, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, who died April 11. The towering champion of free...