150 YEARS STRONG

Call for Proposals: Shape ALA’s 150th Anniversary Conference

The ALA 2026 Annual Conference & Exhibition, June 25–29, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois will be a milestone event marking ALA’s 150th Anniversary. The Annual Conference explores key challenges and opportunities facing libraries, with professional development rooted in timely research, innovation, and best practices. For the 2026 conference, programming will include a broad variety of perspectives that celebrate, commemorate, or educate about the impact that ALA and our affiliate partners have made on the profession and on libraries nationally and internationally over the last 150 years – or will make in the next 150 years. An ALA 150th tag will be used to designate programs that fall into this content category.

Opportunities to contribute to Annual programming include proposing education programs or posters, organizing preconferences, in partnership with an ALA office or division, coordinating President/Chair programs, and more. ALA accepts a wide variety of program, meeting and event submissions for Annual Conference.

We invite member groups to discuss opportunities to engage around the 150th anniversary and consider submitting ideas to enhance our programming. There are two engagement opportunities currently open: education programs and posters.

Education programs are 60 minutes in length, which may include 10-15 minutes of Q & A. There are nine proposal juries to choose from when submitting a proposal: one of ALA’s eight Divisions or the ALA jury (which includes representation from Round Tables, Offices, and Affiliates).

Poster sessions include six poster categories, and poster presenters share their posters as part of a 90-minute session.

Visit the ALA 2026 Annual Conference website for more information, including submission guides and links to the submission sites.

Both submission sites will close on Monday, September 22 at 11:59PM Eastern.

Be on the lookout in November for other ways to participate, including Meetings and Events, Ticketed Events (includes preconferences and tours), President/Chair Programs, and Now Showing films.

Promotional image for the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, showing several attendees at a discussion table. Text invites submissions for program and poster proposals, with a deadline of September 22. The conference dates are June 25-29, 2026, celebrating 150 years of the American Library Association.
150 YEARS STRONG
Librarians in Nantucket, Massachusetts, 1906. From the F. W. Faxon Collection in the ALA Archives.

For 150 Years

Sam Helmick January 5, 2026

As ALA celebrates 150 years, we are called not only to reflect but to act. Our century-and-a-half legacy is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of librarians and library workers everywhere.

Crowd at the Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women. Photo: George M. Eberhart/American Libraries

Librarians on the March

American Libraries December 2, 2025

A mass of enthusiastic demonstrators took part in the Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women held on January 21, 2017, during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits. A contingent of at least 200 librarians participated, brandishing signs like “Make America read again” and “Keep your hands off my area studies.”

Meet Me in St. Louis

American Libraries November 10, 2025

October 17–22, 1904, was “American Library Association Week” at the St. Louis World’s Fair, formally known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in commemoration of President Thomas Jefferson’s acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. Like many other organizations, ALA saw the fair as a wonderful opportunity to hold its annual meeting in a historic venue that offered unlimited educational benefits.

Restoring a Piece of ALA History

Cara Bertram October 23, 2025

In 1926, Boston Public Library presented the American Library Association (ALA) with a scrapbook of letters, postcards, and documents tracing the origins of the Librarians’ Conference of 1876, the start of the association. It has now been restored thanks to the ALA Archives at the University of Illinois.

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