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

Agenda for the Children’s Librarians Section on June 27, 1922, including the first presentation of the John Newbery Medal.

Newbery: The First Medal

Cara Bertram January 23, 2026

In 1921, Frederic Melcher, a publisher, bookseller, and chairman of the Children’s Book Week Committee, proposed the idea of a medal to be awarded in recognition of children’s literature and for it to be named after John Newbery, an 18th century British bookseller and children’s books publisher. With a growing audience for children’s books, more librarians being trained in children services, and the emergence of children’s book departments in publishing companies, the time seemed right for such an award and the idea gained traction.

Caldecott Award Seal

The Caldecott Medal: ‘A Hasty Idea Thrown Out’

Cara Bertram January 22, 2026

The Caldecott Medal is of one of the most prestigious children’s book awards in the world. Established in 1937 to recognize the most distinguished American picture book for children, the first medal was awarded in 1938 to Dorothy P. Lathrop for the book, “Animals of the Bible.” However, the idea was first presented in 1935 in a letter by Frederic G. Melcher.

Left: Effie Power with Newbery medal, Los Angeles, 1930. Right: Rachel Field and Milton J. Ferguson. Ferguson announced to Field that “Hitty” was chosen to receive the Newbery Medal. Los Angeles Conference, 1930.

Celebrating the Newbery: ‘Publicity of the Best Kind’

Cara Bertram January 21, 2026

Publicity around the Newbery Medal has drummed up excitement amongst librarians, readers, and the public for the past century. Often this has meant events, press releases, newsletters, radio programming, television broadcasts, and newspaper and magazine articles. However, some publicity ideas were more daring than press conferences and radio programs.

Keynote speaker E.J. Josey speaking at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observation and Sunrise Celebration at the 2000 ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio.

‘The Spiritual High Point’: The Dr. MLK Holiday Observation and Sunrise Celebration

Cara Bertram January 19, 2026

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observation and Sunrise Celebration celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. King, featuring a keynote speaker, representatives from National Associations of Librarians of Color, the ALA President, and the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” The celebration started in 2000, but efforts to observe the MLK Jr. Holiday during ALA’s Midwinter Meeting started long before.

Sibert Medal

Twenty-Five Years of the Sibert Medal

Phil Morehart January 15, 2026

As the American Library Association celebrates its 150th birthday this year, one of the Association’s prestigious book awards also reaches a milestone anniversary. For 25 years, the Robert F. Sibert International Book Medal has been awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished non-fiction informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.

Present at the Creation

Wayne Wiegand January 12, 2026

The first “congress of librarians” and the beginning of the American Library Association

See all