American Library Association election polls are open now through April 6, 2022. If you are an ALA member, you will have received an email ALA Governance Office with information about how to vote online. More information can be found here.

The ALA JobLIST Placement & Career Development Service will host complimentary virtual career coaching sessions on June 8th & 9th. Each one-on-one session is open to any library worker. More information can be found here.

Committee on Library Advocacy (COLA)

  • ALA is hiring for a Deputy Director for Broadband & Digital Inclusion based in Washington, D.C. The application can be found here.
  • National Library Week is April 3-9, and ALA has provided a free online toolkit. Download resources here.

Committee on Legislation (COL)

  • ALA encourages library workers to check eligibility and apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver before October 31. More information be found here.
  • ALA predicts the need to significantly increase advocating for more federal funding the FY2023 budget. More information can be found here.
  • ALA announced $1.55M in a second round of emergency funding for libraries impacted by COVID-19. More information can be found here.

Conference Committee

  • ALA Annual Conference registration is now open. Advanced registration rates are only available through March 31. Register here.

Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE)

  • COPE is working on a Q&A document to provide guidance to ethical issues on ableism through the ALA Code of Ethics. Please consider completing this survey to support the creation of the Q&A by March 31.

Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF)

  • ALA released a press release in support of Ukrainian library community.

Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC)

  • IFC and ALA have released Privacy Field Guides. They can be downloaded and printed here.

EDI Assembly

  • The ACRL EDI Committee will award memberships to both ALA and ACRL to 25 library workers who identify as BIPOC. Applications are open until May 1 and can be accessed here.

Hi everyone!  My name is Kelsey Ford (she/her), and I am YALSA’s new ALA Liaison for 2021-2022.  I am representing YALSA on several ALA Committees, and I plan to share monthly updates on YALSA’s blog to keep you all posted about what is happening in ALA.  Below please find some important ALA updates for September.

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