ALA Councilor's Report

Continued Rise of Book Challenges Across the Nation

ALA is continuing to see an increase in challenges to reading and curriculum materials. These challenges are happening in schools, public libraries, and higher education institutions. The challenges overwhelmingly target materials supporting LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and others who have faced discrimination and marginalization.

Extreme areas of concern include efforts to declare books obscene—ignoring the legal definition of the word, criminalizing librarians, and declaring access decisions to be the right of parents and the community rather than librarians and teachers. These organized efforts are recognized by ALA as a threat to libraries, as witnessed by the failure of the Patmos library’s mileage. ALA will continue to support libraries facing organized challenges through the United Against Book Bans and the Freedom To Read Foundation.

ALA Constitution & Bylaws

In an effort to streamline the association, ALA Council, the committee on Transforming ALA Governance (TAG) and the Bylaws committee have continued to push forward to align ALA with the needs of our members. To accomplish this TAG has identified several redundancies and overlaps within the ALA Constitution and the Bylaws that impede progress.

At the 2022 ALA Annual and a special August meeting, council has voted overwhelmingly to combine the ALA Constitution and the Bylaws into a single updated governance document. The final draft of the new governing bylaws will be reviewed by council during 2023 LibLearnX. If approved by council the full membership will be given access to the draft bylaws for review. Membership will vote on the Spring ballot on two initiatives; to rescind the current ALA Constitution and secondly, to approve the new ALA Bylaws as the official governing document for ALA.

By Tashia Miller
ALA Councilor, MLA Board of Directors