Most people think of libraries as the place where you get books off the shelf, and of course we do that. But there’s so much more. The best libraries reflect and respond to their communities, whether that’s an older population where you’ll see more services for senior citizens or a community with a lot of young families. Today libraries are also expected to be hubs for various services, including the delivery of health services—we’ve provided many grants to develop telehealth centers. Some libraries have programs for innovators wanting to start their own business, and some locations even have seed libraries, with actual seeds people can plant. It really is almost everything under the sun.
Librarians
Suit says transgender book got Georgia library manager fired
A Southeast Georgia county and library system are being sued by a local woman who alleges they fired her as the manager of the county’s public library because she allowed a book about a transgender child to be part of a display.
Sacred stacks: An interview by Allison Nash-Jordan | The Christian Century
Sam Helmick, who served as 2025–2026 president of the American Library Association, is community and access services coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library. A longtime advocate for intellectual freedom as a basis for healthy relationships between libraries and the communities they serve, Helmick has advocated against censorship and book bans in libraries across the world.
Not you average librarian interview!
Student Loans for Librarians: Now More Difficult! – ACRLog
The new restrictions are disheartening. I don’t have a solution to this systemic problem. But I encourage everyone to talk about it more. If you’ve been in the profession for decades, talk with newer professionals and students about how much the financial picture has changed since you were in school—they should understand this isn’t how things have to be. If you have student loans, talk about them (and not just when you get them forgiven!), so people can get their heads around the idea that it’s not a moral failing to be in debt. Our cultural silence about money issues is damaging: it fuels anxiety, shame, and financial illiteracy. You have the power to change that, one conversation at a time.
‘You Chose to Pick a Fight with Librarians?’ – CT Examiner
You chose to pick a fight with Librarians? Seemingly the only humans left fighting to protect all people’s right to read for free, and you’re calling us the biggest censors!? Do you have any idea how outrageous of a statement that is? You’re projecting your politics onto the library, Sir, and they have no place there. Walk into any library and you will find books of all kinds from all sides. Don’t see what you want? Ask your librarian. They may buy it for their collection, or they can get it for you from another library. Books are available to all. Just because a book is there doesn’t mean you need to read it. Do you go to the grocery store and complain to the manager every time you walk past a food you don’t like or are allergic to and call the whole grocery store a garbage heap? There will always be books someone doesn’t like. That doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable to another person who is living that experience, seeing themselves in it. That is why we have all the books.
Booked Solid: You’re overdue to meet these LGBTQ+ BIPOC librarians doing the work in Ohio
In this Q&A with The Buckeye Flame, BIPOC LGBTQ+ librarians Amia Brown and Lisa Sanchez of Cleveland and Lajmar Anderson of Dayton share their own perspectives on librarianship, shaped by their experiences as LGBTQ+ people of color and their relationships with libraries.
Former Rutherford County librarian sues after firing over book relocation
Nearly six months after her firing in a dispute over where children’s books should be shelved, former Rutherford County Library System Director Luanne James is suing the library system, its board and eight board members.
As They Supposedly Battle AI Slop, Major Publishers Reportedly Cover Their Books in It
An agent says they’ve started making publishers agree in advance not to run entire unpublished manuscripts through LLMs in order to generate promotional text—something that had apparently become an issue. “Ostensibly, that was meant to protect authors from tech companies, but it also applies to the company buying and publishing the book,” the anonymous agent said.
‘Radical Street Librarian’ Transforms Trolley into Mobile Library for Kids
Today, the self-described “radical street librarian” is bringing books directly to children in neighborhoods with limited access, turning a green-and-gold trolley into a rolling destination for young readers.
Why Do We Keep Debating the M.L.S.? (opinion)
Here’s why librarians can’t resolve our recurrent arguments about the import of the field’s professional degree.
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