Coalition-building has been top of mind for the American Library Association, which is fresh from its 2025 Annual Conference with a new strategic plan and a mandate to bolster pro-library partnerships locally and worldwide.

On July 21, members of the ALA leadership addressed the importance of libraries at a global level with the panel “Imperatives for Growth: Libraries as Catalysts for Inclusive Employment, Skills, and Prosperity,” presented as part of the United Nations 2025 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The UN meeting is under way in New York from July 14–23.

The panel, held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library of the New York Public Library, was moderated by Loida Garcia-Febo, who chairs the ALA International Relations Committee’s subcommittee on UN Sustainable Development Goals. Garcia-Febo, an international library consultant, thanked the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, based in the Netherlands, for its collaboration on bringing the ALA delegation to the UN.

In opening remarks, Garcia-Febo drew connections between libraries’ inclusive educational services and UN Agenda 2030, a sustainable development plan that proceeds notwithstanding marked changes to U.S. foreign policy, including the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Garcia-Febo welcomed ALA president Sam Helmick to the stage as the panel began.

“I get to see every single day how libraries serve as catalysts for inclusive employment and lifelong learning,” Helmick said, reminding the audience that libraries provide “free access to job training and digital tools” and foster “the skills that build resilient futures.”

During the panel, Melissa Jacobs, director of library services at the New York City Department of Education, spoke about equity and accessibility for school children in the New York City metro area. Jacobs reflected on the importance of funding school libraries, many of which have closed, and recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff who not only supply books and boost literacy, but help instill the idea that “the library is core to who they [the students] are and who they want to be.”

Diana Price, central library manager of Alexandria Library in Virginia, spoke about “workforce development, public computers, Wi-Fi access, hotspots, and Chromebooks that we lend out,” plus databases “like BrainFuse JobNow, BrainFuse VetNow, and Gale courses” for job seekers and people making career transitions. “Even in our age, libraries are still one of the most trusted institutions that people can go to,” she said.

Brandy McNeil, president of the 9,000-member Public Library Association and deputy director of the New York Public Library, declared herself passionate about technology, equity, and education. “Whether it's our TechConnect program that provides digital literacy, our workforce readiness program that helps people with one-on-one job coaching, or our ESL programming that allows people to learn the English language, I get to make a difference every day,” McNeil said.

Nick Buron, chief librarian at Queens Public Library in New York, similarly referred to the ways libraries serve immigrant communities with language learning, resources for employment, and free family materials and services, in a year when international residents are under threat from the federal government. Buron noted to the UN audience that, in Queens, half of its 2.4 million residents “are from outside the U.S.” and described librarians’ desire to assist “refugees, new immigrants, our newest neighbors”: “When we help them, we help their family, we help the community, we help this city.”

Academic librarian Robin Kear, of the University of Pittsburgh, talked about four-year college programs and other forms of skill training that university and public libraries provide. “We want our students to be the best citizens that they can, we want them to be curious, and we want them to have those intangible skills of being able to communicate,” Kear said, adding that “libraries are key” to literacy, meaningful employment, and economic prosperity.

Lisa Varga, associate executive director of ALA’s Office of Public Policy and Advocacy, emphasized that the discussion’s unifying principle was “coalition-building and partnerships, because none of us can do this alone, especially in a time of chaos where every day we wake up and there's something new” politically.

Throughout the panel, ALA’s delegation spoke from the heart, connecting their professional values to UN goals and joining an international network with its eyes on 2030. “We need to connect with public and private agencies, NGOs, and civil society,” Varga said. “While it takes time to make those connections, it’s well worth it.”