Like many American Library Association (ALA) staffers, librarian and archivist Colleen Barbus remembers the Association’s previous headquarters—especially the tendency of new employees to eventually “stumble across the ALA Library and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know this was here,’” she says. “The stacks led you into a couple of little rabbit warrens.”
The rabbit-warren days are over. Since ALA headquarters moved in 2020 to its present location at Chicago’s 225 North Michigan Avenue, Barbus has presided over a completely reimagined in-house library. Visitors step off the elevator to find a large, open, bright area that’s home to not only the office’s main reception desk but also row upon row of low book-filled shelves, “kind of elementary-school style,” Barbus says. “That way, you see all across the space.”
Focused on the history of libraries and librarianship, as well as mission-critical topics such as intellectual freedom, the collection includes many early editions of books that have won the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and other prestigious ALA awards, going back to the very first Newbery winner in 1922, “The Story of Mankind” by Hendrik Willem van Loon.
When she’s not aiding ALA staffers and members with materials requests, Barbus fields questions from the public, from “How do I get my book on library shelves?” to “How do I become a librarian?” One favorite recent query: “How many Carnegie library buildings are still in operation as libraries in the US?” (Answer: about 750.)
Her only trouble, Barbus says, is keeping herself from over-researching a question just because it’s interesting: “Stick to the assignment!”
This story first appeared in American Libraries, May 2026.
