The 2022 ALA Youth Media Awards will be held next week on Monday, January 24th at 9:00 AM EST. Every January, the American Library Association honors videos, books, and other content for children and young adults. This year, the awards will be held virtually, and can be streamed here. 

Advocating for your school library isn’t a simple task, which is why we’ve compiled some tools and tactics to help school librarians pitch confidently to their principals and administrators.

There’s something innately magical about the act of decluttering and clearing spaces. In the school library, even when our spaces are well organized and functional, the energetic boost that comes from freshly tended-to shelves is something that is palpable to both students and librarians alike. It’s well known to librarians that library weeding often leads to a boost in circulation.

We know that librarians have plenty of challenges to take on, both strategically, long term and on the daily. The modern librarian is not only a curator, they are a tech expert, an innovator, and so much more. Research points out the impact that librarians are making when it comes to access of technology, and so we have gathered the latest data, as well as a few success stories to highlight the biggest takeaways that reveal not only what patrons want from their libraries in terms of technology, but how librarians are exceeding their expectations.

The frustrated faces of young children and teens trying to find a book amidst the Dewey classification system is something that librarians see on a daily basis, which is perhaps why the word “genrefication” is a hot topic for libraries these days! Learn more about how you can use genrefication in your library.

September is here, and that means that public libraries and school libraries around the country are celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month! The observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15th and goes through October 15th each year, paying tribute to the cultures and contributions of those with Central and South American, Mexican, Spanish, and Caribbean heritage.