The American Library Association’s 2025 Annual Conference, held in Philadelphia from June 26–30, found attendees simultaneously anxious about the future and in a fighting mood, with multiple presenters describing librarians as the “frontlines” and the “lifelines” of American democracy. Energizing keynotes, notably an appearance by former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in conversation with author Kwame Alexander, inspired standing ovations.

Estimated attendance stood at a robust 14,134 members. This preliminary figure included around 2,000 first-timers, upward of 450 student members, and 160 international members from 44 countries.

As the show began, ALA released an announcement that Daniel J. Montgomery, currently serving his third three-year term as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, will become the association’s executive director as of November 10, when his IFT presidency concludes. He takes over for interim ALA executive director Leslie Burger. A labor activist and former high school English teacher, Montgomery appeared onstage during the June 27 opening general session to tell the crowd, “I can’t wait to get to work for you.”

ALA president Cindy Hohl, a member of the Santee Sioux Nation, delivered a formal welcome at the opening session as well. She spoke of completing signature projects during her presidential term, notably an All Nations LibGuide focused on Indigenous librarianship, and she acknowledged the grave challenges to the profession in 2025. “The most pressing issue facing our library community today is the administration’s order to dismantle the IMLS,” Hohl said to the crowd of thousands—and then stood silent, letting a long pause reinforce her words. “When the word came that the federal funding was being targeted, ALA jumped into action,” she said.

Looking to the year ahead, and ALA’s 150th anniversary conference in Chicago in 2026, Hohl touted a new strategic plan that would ensure “an association that’s more agile and financially sustainable.” She announced that OverDrive CEO Steve Potash and his spouse will match up to $500,000 in donations ahead of the 2026 show, the “Steve and Loree Potash 150th Challenge.” Hohl also welcomed to the stage James W. Lewis, a Merrill Lynch executive whose bequest of $25,000,000 to ALA will educate coming generations of library workers. Lewis told the audience that he “wanted to provide financial aid through need-based scholarships for professional librarians.”

Eastern Pennsylvania warmly greeted everybody too. The opening general session included Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker; Folasade Olanipekun-Lewis, chair of the board of trustees at the Free Library of Philadelphia; FLP president and director Kelly Richards; and Pennsylvania Library Association president Carla Trout.

Mayor Parker expressed delight at “15,000 attendees in 35 hotels—you all know the economic impact was on my mind.” She powerfully endorsed the “access to equality in public education” that librarians represent. FLP president Richards, mindful of the political moment, assured the thousands in the room, “We are winners, and we’re going to win.” He added, “Stay on task—it’s our time.”

Big Gretch

At the opening session, keynote speaker and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer participated in a Q&A with ALA’s Emma McNamara, who chairs the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Whitmer’s 2024 memoir for general audiences now is available in a YA adaptation, True Gretch: Lessons for Anyone Who Wants to Make a Difference (Atheneum), with back matter that includes interviews with her two daughters, now ages 23 and 21.

“It took me over 25 years to find my voice,” Whitmer said, and she views her book as “a tool of empowerment” for “a generation of young people who have lived through tough times.” The book provides candid information on abuse, sexual violence, and gun violence, from the point of view of one who survived sexual assault and who was the target of a right-wing kidnap-and-murder plot.

Whitmer spoke about bipartisanship in Michigan, which she considers a purple state, and with legislators “across the aisle who don’t share a lot of my values but who were also elected into office.” She described the importance of having a sense of humor—even her family’s “gallows humor”—in her line of work. Whitmer recalled a Republican colleague who was overheard calling her “batshit crazy” along with other choice words. When he didn’t apologize, she stewed, but she makes it her policy not to respond in anger until 24 hours have gone by. “I found out his birthday was coming up, so I sent him a cake with a bat on it,” she said; then the two “got back to the table” and negotiated on essential legislation, the incident somewhat defused.

“Humor is a good way to disarm a bully,” Whitmer said. “Take their weapon, and make it your shield.”

Dr. Hayden welcomed

Hayden, initially scheduled only for a limited-seating fireside chat on June 27, was added to the main stage program shortly ahead of the show—a decision that broke down accessibility barriers in the spirit of librarianship. When she stepped onstage with Alexander, audience members leaped to their feet and cheered in an extraordinary display of support. The heartfelt reception persisted throughout the conversation, and Hayden and Alexander shook hands with and hugged friends in the crowd after the talk.

During her amiable conversation with Alexander, whose career she helped launch when she led the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Hayden spoke about her dismissal from her top position at the Library of Congress. The May 8 firing took place via a curt email from a White House personnel director.

Alexander asked her how she was doing, acknowledging “this very terrible thing that happened not only to the public but to you as a human being." Hayden said her first thoughts upon realizing she had lost her job were “to make sure the library was protected. You have to separate this position, which is executive controlled, from the institution” that is the LoC. She thanked the library community for sending their cards and messages of concern, and she asked for “a special hand for Robert Newlen,” who stepped into the vacancy left by her removal and was seated among the audience members, along with other LoC staffers. She also called for Congress to reassert its command of the LoC and to include the librarianship under its protection.

Hayden and Alexander’s amiable discussion ranged from political matters to the ongoing work of resistance to reminiscing about their mutual friend, the late poet Nikki Giovanni, who advocated for libraries in the picture book A Library (Versify), illustrated by Erin K. Robinson. Composed and firm in her convictions, Hayden signaled that she’s undaunted in her library mission.

“There’s so much we can do together, and I’m looking forward to being part of that,” Hayden said. With a wink to the crowd, she would only say, “We’re organizing.”

Freedom fighters

Intellectual freedom has been central to the show, with sessions on current litigation in the U.S., strategies to combat book bans, and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in a hostile political climate. Attendees expressed concern that conservative state lawmakers and so-called parents’ rights groups are proposing “18 and up” rooms in libraries, cordoning off the material they deem unfit for minors, while conservative school boards are attempting to rewrite library book selection policies to help superintendents control curation.

Sarah Lamden, deputy director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, encouraged conference goers to attend a breakfast conversation on “Law for Librarians.” Helen Christian of the Alameda County Library in Fremont, Calif., helped the Intellectual Freedom Committee promote the Merritt Fund, a humanitarian resource for librarians who face discrimination and need financial assistance. And Lisa Varga, the ALA’s new associate executive director of Public Policy and Advocacy, thanked the pro bono attorneys who help the organization defend the right to read and protect library funding.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, said that the undermining of library workers’ expertise and the ultra-conservative efforts to deprive Americans of the freedom to read are “an existential threat to the very basis of public librarianship in the United States…. This is an authoritarian movement we’re being swept up in.”

Expressions of resistance were manifold and loud, rejecting a rightward political shift. ALA screened the anti-censorship documentary The Librarians to an exuberant crowd on June 26, with most of the film’s participants sitting in the theater’s front row and emotionally greeting friends. FTRF president Sophia Sottileo introduced the event, saying ALA attendees would experience the film “as it was meant to be seen: in community, in conversation, and in celebration of us.”

During the 90-minute screening, the audience responded with applause for bons mots and acts of bravery, with occasional hisses or displeased muttering during footage from tense school board meetings. Following the screening, Snyder and her stars took seats onstage to talk about the making of the film and answer audience questions.

Film director Kim Snyder told the crowd that The Librarians depicts brave individuals “standing up to bullies.” She said it’s “about integrity, about doing the right thing,” and that the goal of the film is “to create a human chain, [to] grow a movement.” Cast member Becky Calzada, who in November 2021 cofounded Texas FReadom Fighters with a viral Twitter takeover, added, “It isn’t lost on me [that the film] showcases how grassroots efforts can make a difference” and that storytelling is “a force for action and resistance.”