Advocacy

A new documentary, Banned Together—available to stream April 10—shines a spotlight on three young freedom to read advocates, and how, together and individually, they are standing up to make a difference.

Alan Inouye has led advocacy and public policy for the American Library Association (ALA) since 2007, where he’s touched everything from E-Rate to copyright to ebook access, securing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for libraries. His retirement from ALA this month marks a crucial moment for the association, which has weathered significant challenges in recent years and cannot afford to lose ground with relationships in Washington, DC, and across the broader library landscape.

We cannot be caught flat-footed when library funding is called into question. Doing the work of capturing stories today will help ensure we’re prepared to deal with threats that we may face tomorrow.

As libraries face increasingly challenging funding landscapes, a key to securing public support lies in mobilizing a coalition of foundation donors, Friends members, and board volunteers. Successful advocacy campaigns happen when these key stakeholders unite behind the library’s mission, reinforcing its value and amplifying its message to decision-makers. To that end, library directors can use several types of advocacy to strengthen their budget campaigns, including community-driven advocacy, public-private partnerships, and the concept of advocacy through fundraising.

For the past four years, EveryLibrary has been working to fight the book-banning movement. A large part of that fight is developing effective messaging against book bans, as well as conducting extensive message testing, surveys, and focus groups to understand the impact of messaging and determine which messages perform best.

During voter education week, public and academic libraries step up efforts to ensure voters have what they need before they go to the polls.

Monnee Tong’s career has been shaped by her passion for social justice, which carries through to her work as supervising librarian at San Diego Public Library.

Visser's work on E-Rate policy and technology equity has been a game-changer for communities across the country, including in tribal libraries, where she helped improve access to broadband.

When Missouri’s Senate Bill 775 (SB 775) became law in 2022, calling for criminal penalties on educators who provide students with materials containing “explicit sexual material,” Melissa Corey recognized the severe implications for collection development and spearheaded a swift response to preserve compliant books in school libraries.