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The Infrastructure for Library Resistance in the USA: A Modest Guide

Today’s news about the US Administration’s unlawful Executive Order to dispense with IMLS, inspired me to write this short guide.  It’s basically how I keep up with the tsunami of library news and information about the threats to all libraries (including public, government, Higher Ed and K-12), library support organizations (like IMLS an, NCES, Broadband funding, etc.), and library workers in the USA.

Of course, we all have to engage our information fluency skills regularly and keep our foil hats on, but you can start (if you haven’t already), with adding these sources of higher quality library and information pro news and information to your feeds or personal learning strategies:

ALA (PLA, ACRL, AASL, CORE, RUSA, YALSA, ALSC, et al)

The big dog is ALA.  It may be huge and represent a diversity of library types, but it’s always there for us.  If it wasn’t having an impact on public policy, then states and the feds wouldn’t be attacking it or demanding that state libraries and other libraries stop their memberships.  I understand that ALA’s tax status requires its lobbying efforts to be educational but that isn’t completely true.

Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement: https://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/oif/LBOR-FTR-statement-pamphlet

Try these links:

American Libraries magazine: American Libraries magazine is the voice of the profession and the flagship magazine of the American Library Association.

EveryLibrary

The other big dog is EveryLibrary.  This is the PAC (Political Action Committee) for all types of libraries.  They are leading on the political front and their research and information is amazing.  I admire all of their work.  They are a proven success in funding and policy work.  They are very thoughtful and strategic as they respond to threats.

Try these links:

Library Journal

LJ generally shies away from politics editorials and controversial topics except for reporting data collection on books bans and funding, and such.  It’s still a good read.

To follow specialized library sector news, I recommend the following:

Association of Research Libraries

While the following cover a lot of library news (not just government and political content), these sources are must follows for me:

Urban Libraries Council (ULC)

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

Other

I follow a ton more sources, and curate what I consider the most memorable and important through my own blog, Stephen’s Lighthouse.  You can find it here:

http://www.stephenslighthouse.com

Lastly, American media is not presenting a lot of news that is covered in the international media.  I recommend following a few sources outside of the USA for balance (and trusted reporting).  These include:

If you can only afford one USA news source, I follow The New York Times which still does investigative reporting: https://www.nytimes.com/ca/

As a Canadian citizen and resident, byut working globally, I follow Canuck news sources too, but that’s for me.  I also follow library folk and information leaders/library adjacent people too that I respect and admire every day.

Anyway, we appear to be in for the long haul dealing with threats to freedom in the USA, trade and tariff wars with Canada and internationally, and so much more.  My wheelhouse if library land, so that’s where I’ll try to make a difference from as well-informed a perspective as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted on: March 15, 2025, 6:20 pm Category: Uncategorized

By: Stephen Abram

rev="post-58447" 1 comment

One Response

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  1. Gerald R. Brown said
    on March 15, 2025 9:36 pm

    Thanks Stephen. This an awesome collection ,… and all so readily available. Now we need to act on getting colleagues to put these ideas into action on a regular basis. Fine work.
    I think we need something like this for Canadian libraries too, so that they don’t have to make the translations or transfers which take considerable time. Can you get it on the ALA Direct daily mail to members ?

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