Conference Coverage

Despite recent traumatic events in Minneapolis and people's ongoing fears, the mood at the 2026 PLA conference was, overall, positive. Speakers, sessions, and conversations consistently centered the belief that change is both necessary and possible, that library values still take precedence, and that hope is an effective muscle.

Despite concerns, librarians will assemble for the Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis; LJ talks to the PLA presidential candidates.

This year’s MetLib was held from October 4–9 in Toronto, where Toronto Public Library hosted urban public library leaders from across six continents. Unlike previous MetLib events where participants presented on a wide array of urban library flagship projects and programs, this year organizers settled on one overarching conference theme: From Isolation to Social Connection: Libraries and Well-being, a clarion call for all urban public libraries to tackle the issues of increased social isolation and a lack of social connection, and envision how to enhance civic engagement among urban dwellers around the world.

While the Frankfurt Book Fair is known primarily as a rights fair—where book publishers, agents, and literary scouts gather to buy and sell translation and distribution rights—it’s also an opportunity for librarians to get a sense of the international children’s literature landscape. This global lens for library collections offers what children’s literature scholar and educator Rudine Sims Bishop calls “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” into other cultures for communities across the United States.

Solidarity—not just as a theme but as a practice—was an undercurrent at the 2025 American Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia. As librarians face budget cuts, attacks on intellectual freedom, and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence, this year’s gathering went beyond professional development on these topics and centered collective action, mutual support, and a renewed focus on labor rights in librarianship.

This year’s American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held from June 26–30 in Philadelphia, drew 14,250 participants: librarians and library staff, authors, publishers, educators, and exhibitors, including 165 international members. While still not up to pre-pandemic attendance levels, the conference was—by all accounts—buzzing and busy, with well-attended sessions and a bustling exhibit floor.

The fifth annual U.S. Book Show, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, was held on June 3 at the New York Academy of Medicine. The daylong publishing industry conference drew nearly 800 in-person registrants and sponsors and covered a range of bases.

ALA held its first Annual conference, in 1876, in Philadelphia. While the city has seen a number of Midwinters and Public Library Association meetings, Philadelphia has hosted only five Annuals in ALA’s history, the most recent in 1982. If any year called for reconnecting with American roots and ideals, however, this one is it.

The second Independent Publisher and Librarian Forum—IndieLib for short—was held on April 16 in downtown Manhattan, at New York University’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. The event brought together public and academic librarians, representatives from indie publishers and their distributors, and others across the field to learn more about one another’s work and concerns and imagine new ways to move forward.