News Articles

U-M Libraries Territorial Acknowledgment Working Group hosted an event centered on the Maawn Doobiigeng System.

Democrat Rhode Island lawmakers on Wednesday promoted a suite of bills motivated by the Freedom to Read movement — an assertion of libraries’ right to hold controversial books, amid an ongoing culture clash over the written word.

Expert Contributes to First Update in American Library Association Standards Since 1992

"The health of the nation’s libraries is a national security issue," writes Elyse Graham.

DEI programs bolster college students’ sense of identity and belonging. Without these programs, they stand to miss out on crucial learning and career opportunities.

For Black librarians like me, libraries also symbolize the literacy that was denied.

Mychal Threets’ sudden rise to fame as a pusher of ‘library joy’ isn’t over despite his exit from his job to focus on himself

Systemic racism is a reality in Canada. At many junctures in life, a person’s access to opportunities and fair treatment will be affected by their race, skin colour, or indigineity. The legal profession, in order to do its essential work in our society, must recognize and confront systemic racism. So far, most formal efforts to […]

The President of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, expressed deep concern over the challenges faced by law firms’ diversity initiatives following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject affirmative action in colleges and universities. The ABA, the largest voluntary bar association in the country boasting around 166,000 members as of 2022, has conveyed […]

The American Bar Association may soon require law schools to adopt free speech policies, a change that follows several high-profile campus incidents in which students disrupted controversial speakers.

On July 21, the Movement for Black Lives’ National Day of Action, a team of four public librarians with backgrounds in social justice launched a new initiative, Libraries4BlackLives (L4BL). Jessica Anne Bratt, branch manager at Grand Rapids Public Library, MI; Sarah Lawton, neighborhood library supervisor for Madison Public Library, WI; Amita Lonial, learning experiences manager at Skokie Public Library (SPL), IL; and Amy Sonnie, adult literacy and lifelong learning librarian at Oakland Public Library, CA, joined forces earlier in the summer to create a website that would bring together library-based advocates who want to support the ideals and activism behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

AI is being used in DEI efforts to enhance insight and implementation in employee lifecycle-related tasks, and to scale and support the work of DEI staff.

Arkansas is among a growing number of Republican-led states that have passed laws that criminalize lending certain library books to children.

Indiana school librarians worry a new law banning materials that are “obscene” or “harmful to minors” will cause them to essentially self-censor when picking books, cutting LGBTQ students off from material they might connect with. Supporters of the law say it will protect children from pornographic…

KPMG’s head of talent and culture offers three pillars for equipping managers and all employees with resources to manage mental well-being.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that restricts how race and gender can be taught in the state's public colleges and universities.

California's governor pays tribute to librarians and the impact they have on students and communities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Library Association praised the Prison Libraries Act, introduced today by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO-5th), along with co-leads Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18th) and Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH-11th), and 25 cosponsors.

The proposal is not yet final; it must clear the state Senate. But for those who manage or use the state’s 160 library districts, especially in rural areas where services are not as robust, the threat feels real, librarians and patrons told the PBS NewsHour.

Parishes are getting into heated arguments over the discussion to ban books in libraries, which some argue is a targeted attack towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Nearly half the states in the U.S. now allow people previously convicted of felonies to vote.

pIn March 2020, the Internet Archive, a nonprofit created by the entrepreneur Brewster Kahle, launched a new feature called the National Emergency Library. Restrictions linked to the spread of COVID-19 had made it difficult or impossible for people to buy books or visit libraries in person, and so the Archive removed limits on the digital […]/p

The move “allows them to exist in their own context,” library cataloger Kate Peck says.

When news organizations say they support diversity efforts but their actions don't match, teams and communities lose faith

The Lillian Goldman Law Library has launched a books-to-prison initiative to establish libraries in jails and prisons across Connecticut.

Freedom libraries in the south provided Black residents with access to spaces and books, whether in church basements or private homes.

For black conservationists, work can be a challenge: 'All you have to get is that one person who's going to call the cops and you're the next hashtag.'

The first of 1,000 planned ‘Freedom Libraries’ opens in the Massachusetts prison where the campaigner was incarcerated in the 1940s

Librarianship has remained overwhelmingly white for decades. Leaders say recruitment, retention and a change in policies and culture are needed.