Librarians, Let’s Make 2019 the Year of the Book via PW

Librarians, Let’s Make 2019 the Year of the Book

@ala_rusa

Libraries today offer a range of vital, innovative services, but books are still our bread and butter

PW: 1.18.2019 by Sari Feldman*

This week, the library world will gather in Seattle for the American Library Association’s 2019 Midwinter Meeting, where a slate of great authors will take the main stage to give keynotes, and where publishers and other content-related service providers will make up the bulk of the booths on the exhibit floor. As always, the publisher booths will be the most prominent and widely visited booths at the show. Anyone who has ever been to an ALA conference knows well that librarians will happily wait in long lines (often with bookbags slung over both shoulders) for the chance to meet authors and get signed ARCs. That’s because America’s libraries are built on a foundation of books and literacy.

Even as the digital age has progressed, changing the way many people access information, surveys shows that books and literacy remain closely associated with the library brand, and that reading services remain a major source of support and advocacy for libraries, as well as for the ALA. But as libraries continue to expand and transform in response to evolving community needs, I sometimes question whether the ALA is losing sight of just how central books and reading are to the work of libraries.

As I glanced through the professional program for this week’s conference, it seems to me that the ALA and its divisions are offering less conference programming focused on books—particularly adult books. Aside from a handful of publisher-led Book Buzz sessions, what’s happened to the programs that provide practical advice to librarians who want to support adult readers? And what does this shift in programming say about the future of libraries?

If I could suggest one New Year’s resolution for the ALA, it would be to make 2019 the year of the book.  And a good place to start that effort is with the ALA’s Notable Books Council.

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When I see recent trends indicating a national resurgence of independent bookstores, I am thrilled to think of new homes for readers. But I also fear that libraries will lose ground if we don’t compete better for readers’ attention. So I am calling on ALA to explore ways to better support our book-related services, and to ensure that the next generation of readers’ advisors will have a home in libraries.

When ALA introduced its successful Libraries Transform campaign in 2015, it was meant to build on our foundational principles. What’s more foundational to libraries than books? If we envision 2019 as the year of the book, imagine the transformation we might lead.  READ MORE >>

*PW columnist Sari Feldman is executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Cleveland, Ohio, and a former president of both the Public Library Association (2009–2010) and the American Library Association (2015–2016).