At the end of June, three Countway librarians joined 14,000 others at the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference in Philadelphia! In a time full of both challenges and exciting innovations, people from across the library world came together to learn, connect, and celebrate all that libraries do. Here are some highlights from our staff’s experiences at the conference.
Scott Lapinski, MS, ALM
Open Access, digital repositories, scholarly communication, data services, publishing workflows, bibliometrics, etc. etc.... For me, these have been the focal points of the panels/committees I routinely attend at ALA. (Perhaps too routinely during my 25 years of ALA membership.) At ALA this year I made a deliberate effort to not attend those "familiar" sessions and instead take a "path less traveled". Rather than seek out my "usual panel topics", I made an effort to attend sessions that had a more indirect intersection with the areas I support here at Countway. As a result, I think I found some of the most impactful sessions (and new networking opportunities) than I otherwise might have during that four day conference in Philly.
At first, the panel-topics I attended might not sound related to the primary areas our Publishing & Data Service team supports here at Countway, but in each case, after hearing from the speakers, it was quite clear how very connected their work links back to the open science, scholarly publishing, digital projects, and data sharing initiatives we support. Major highlights for me included sessions and conversations with children's book illustrators, understanding more about library programs for kids with severe disabilities, seeing examples of innovative solutions to meet ADA/digital accessibility requirements, and exposing political/information (in)justices within the HBCU community and both censorship and defunding specifically targeted at Black-centered libraries, archives and museums. All of which prompted highly engaging conversations and an opportunity to grapple with important issues impacting our profession on a much larger scale.
Tré Quarles, MLIS
This was my third time attending the ALA Annual Conference, and it was the most fulfilling experience I’ve had so far. I attended as part of an ALA fellowship that focuses on leadership development and ALA governance. Through this opportunity, I gained a deeper understanding of how the organization functions behind the scenes, especially the work of the Executive Board and Council. It was interesting to see how such a large and complex organization manages its priorities and decision-making processes.
I also learned more about ALA’s current and future areas of focus, including efforts to support some of the most vulnerable libraries in the United States, such as rural and small public libraries that often face limited funding and increasing challenges.
I expected to spend most of my time in meetings during the conference, and that was largely true. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how many meaningful connections I made. Compared to previous years, this experience felt much more engaging and connected. I left feeling inspired, better informed, and more optimistic about the future of library leadership and my own role in it.
Matthew Noe, MSLS
ALA Annual has been a regular part of my professional development and networking since 2018 and every year I tell myself that this is the year that I will make a plan and stick to it... and predictably, every year that fails like the year before! 2025 was no different, as I went into Annual with simultaneously more accepted educational panels and fewer exhibitor panels on my to-do list than usual, and, for the first time in some time, more time to spend on things other than my comics expertise.
This year, my energy at Annual was split in roughly thirds: a third for my typical conference work of talking about graphic medicine and comics librarianship; a third for being a self-admitted Luddite and pushing back on the adoption of generative AI in librarianship; and a third for everything else, including catching up with colleagues I know from spaces as varied as the ALA Core Values Working Group on defining libraries as a Public Good to fellow-constantly-harassed-for-our-vocal-advocacy library workers and friends. This made the event a bit more chaotic than even usual for me, as I rushed from panel to panel and networking event to networking event, with more than a few people finally catching up with me on the last day of the conference remaking that they’d seen me moving quickly more than once and only finally caught up!
I mentioned panels, so let me note two of mine. First, I hosted a panel of fantastic librarians and educators from different environments to talk about graphic medicine, highlighting the role it plays in their libraries and classrooms and about what we can do to continue advocating for the field, genre, practice, and community. This was the first time I’ve hosted a graphic medicine panel that went through the full, conference committee chosen panel process rather than running it through the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table—and it was a great success! Second, in another unusual first, I was a panelist on a Library Freedom Project panel about the Ethics of AI in Libraries—and there was so much interest in this panel that ALA asked us to deliver it twice, both times to an auditorium-sized room full of attendees! It was great to get to talk about our reservations with this technology, to push back on the hype on display all throughout ALA Annual*, and to meet up in real space with like-minded colleagues. It is so important to know that you aren’t alone in a fight—whether that is about AI, book challenges, or library funding—and ALA Annual always delivers on the chance to find your people.
*including a truly gut-wrenching digital screen on the exhibit floor that claimed to be offering an “AI Librarian” to help patrons with book recommendations, directions, and more. There is no world in which an AI bot can replace a librarian. Please don’t fall for this!