Solidarity—not just as a theme but as a practice—was an undercurrent at the 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Philadelphia. As librarians face budget cuts, attacks on intellectual freedom, and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence (AI), 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.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM AS A LABOR ISSUE

Emily Drabinski addresses a pre-conference workshop focused on building library workplace solidarity and advocating for improved working conditions Photo by Claire Kelley

At a preconference workshop cosponsored by the Library Freedom Project and AFSCME Cultural Workers United, former ALA president Emily Drabinski framed censorship and book bans not only as a political attacks, but as workplace issues. “Attacks on intellectual freedom are not only attacks on our values. They are also attacks on the library workers who produce the conditions for that freedom in the first place,” she said.

Drabinski emphasized that the conference served as a space not just to discuss working conditions, but to act in solidarity with others—like the hotel workers from UNITE HERE Local 274, who were picketing several of the hotels housing the conference’s 14,000 attendees. “So many of us understand that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. You could see that at the conference when members showed up to picket with hotel workers from UNITE HERE Local 274, when they showed up for each other at sessions about organizing collective power.”

ORGANIZING LIBRARY WORKERS

That collective power was the focus of “Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers,” a Saturday session hosted by the ALA-APA Salaries and Status of Library Workers Committee. The session shared a title with a forthcoming ALA book by Angelo Moreno, Kelly McElroy, Meredith Kahn, and Emily Drabinski (Fall 2025).

Bizaye Banjaw, a library clerk with AFSCME, speaks at the UNITE HERE Local 274 picket outside the Hilton Hotel during the ALA Annual Conference. Library workers and ALA members joined in solidarity with hotel workers, many of whom were employed at conference hotels. Photo by Claire Kelley

Kelly McElroy, an outreach librarian and associate professor at Oregon State University, highlighted the link between solidarity and library advocacy. “When we face book challenges, funding crises, and other difficult situations, library worker unions offer a place to strategize, problem solve, and stand together with greater strength,” she said.

BUILDING NETWORKS OF SUPPORT

Urban Librarians Unite, which released the Urban Library Trauma Study in 2022, introduced a new initiative at the conference, the Library Worker Support Network. The peer network facilitates meetings with separate affinity groups for supervisors and managers as well as Black and queer library workers. The network was created to address study findings that library workers feel isolated in dealing with the unique challenges they face, including volatile patron behavior, exposure to addiction, and public safety concerns.

Christiana Parish, a peer leader and moderator, said that the Library Worker Support Network “does have a code of conduct, and there are checks and balances for privacy and security’s sake. But essentially, it's a place where folks can come together and vent…. There’s so much job insecurity out in the world right now, and in these sessions people can speak freely and openly and advocate for themselves and each other.”

RESPONDING TO AI WITH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Presenters for the “AI Ethics and the Library” panel included (back row, l.-r.) Alison Macrina, director, Library Freedom Project; Helen Lutke, web services librarian, City of San José; Tess Wilson, deputy director, Library Freedom Project. (front row, l.-r.) Matthew N. Noe, lead collection and knowledge management librarian, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School; Katie E. Anderson, reference librarian, Robeson Library, Rutgers University Camden, NJ; Reanna K. Esmail, lead librarian for instruction, Cornell University Library. Photo by Claire Kelley

Another topic of interest to conference attendees this year was artificial intelligence and its impact on library work. The Library Freedom Project hosted a panel discussion on AI ethics, vendor accountability, and impact on library labor. The session on Saturday was so popular, an encore presentation in a large auditorium was added to the ALA conference schedule on Sunday morning.

“Library workers are desperate for critical positions on artificial intelligence—they’re being sold a hype machine from vendors, and they don’t like it,” said Alison Macrina, director of the Library Freedom Project. “Librarians recognize the existential threat. We know what AI does to the climate, knowledge production, and even the future of critical thought and inquiry. We’re getting much more radicalized about our labor because we know the potential it has to take our jobs away from us.”

Some unions are already taking action. The Boston Public Library (BPL) Professional Staff Association added clauses to its contract requiring 30 days’ notice for any technology changes and the right to bargain over their impact. The clauses were put into practice recently when BPL piloted an OpenAI project for metadata creation.

At the University of Michigan, the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO)—which includes library workers—negotiated language granting staff discretion over AI use. “We are proud of this language because it recognizes our autonomy and professional expertise,” said Meredith Kahn, librarian for gender and sexuality studies and a founding member of LEO’s organizing committee. “As the first union at the University of Michigan with contract language addressing AI, we look forward to how our comrades and colleagues build on this modest win.”

LOOKING AHEAD: ALA’S FUTURE AT 150

In a panel titled “ALA at 150: Envisioning the Next 50 Years,” speakers reflected on the organization’s future role in empowering both libraries and library workers.

Stephanie Chase, executive director of Libraries of Eastern Oregon, called for a shift in how members view their relationship with ALA. "Right now, it's so transactional: what do we get from ALA when we belong?” she said. “What we get is the ability to collectively effect change. An ALA membership is an investment in our core values, and, once we are a member, it is really up to us to define what membership looks like for us.”

Emily Knox, interim dean and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Information Science, agreed. “In order to survive for the next 50 years, ALA must find a way to bring all library workers together. As we go through this time of budget cuts, book bans, and anti–library worker legislation, it’s important that ALA remain a strong voice for libraries and library workers.”

The annual conference this year coincided with ALA’s announcement that the association’s new Executive Director will be Daniel J. Montgomery, who held leadership roles for the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). Drabinski, who served on the search committee, underscored the significance of his background with the teachers’ union. “Montgomery represents the first time our trade association has been directed by a trade unionist. I look forward to working alongside him and our more than 40,000 members—most of them library workers—to advance our shared commitment to the public good.”