Building Community-Based Summers

Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement coming from me early next week on more opportunities to be a part of the growing cohort of libraries building community-based summers!

The Milaan Foundation's The Becoming Initiative

We are thrilled to introduce The Becoming Initiative — a year-long leadership and well-being program designed to support young people ages 14–18 from underserved communities. This program aims to nurture the next generation of changemakers by combining mental wellness, social-emotional learning, and future-readiness skills in an engaging, holistic framework. Feel free to share The Becoming Initiative's flyer with youth in your library: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jKg9X6dtzL_aPvtQCNVNDvoWt1CXbk9Q/view?usp=sharing 

ALA is excited to announce a new professional development event created for the library community-by the library community. Next February, ALA will host a one-day virtual conference designed to equip library professionals with timely insights and practical tools to navigate an ever-evolving landscape. As we shape this event, your input is essential. Building on your feedback from this year's Annual Conference, we're committed to ensuring the 2026 virtual event-and the launch of our 150th anniversary-reflects what matters most to you. Help us design a conference that delivers real value to our members by completing a brief survey. Your responses will directly inform the event's content and format. The survey will close on July 30. 👉 Complete the Survey  Thank you for helping us create a learning experience that is meaningful and relevant to today's library professionals.

ALSC and YALSA Reunification There's Still Time to Submit Initial Feedback. As you may have heard in our initial email to members in June and at our Membership Meeting at ALA Annual, ALSC and YALSA will be reunifying. YALSA will dissolve on August 31, 2026 and the two divisions will be reunified on September 1, 2026. An in-depth member survey will be coming in the future, but in the meantime, you are welcome to submit your initial feedback using this form. You can also see our FAQ page here.

The #ALAAC25 session everyone’s been talking about is coming to C-SPAN! Tune in this Sunday, July 27 at 4:35 PM EDT to see Carla Hayden, former Librarian of Congress, talk with Kwame Alexander about her remarkable career & the unexpected firing that rocked the library world. www.c-span.org/bookTv/