It’s a new week, and a new round of important library updates. We have updates from the fight against the Trump Administration, censorship news, and an official update from the Public Library Association about the 2026 PLA Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Minneapolis in April. Let’s jump in.

Trump vs. Publishing & Libraries

• One year of the Trump administration.
• ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has started a new blog series dedicated to debunking false claims about libraries and library workers. They’ve also reorganized and joined forces with ALA’s Public Policy & Advocacy Office.
• Trump’s return chills the embattled LGBTQ book industry.
• The IMLS grant portal is open (a welcome sign after the last year), although their official notice says, “IMLS funding opportunities play a crucial role in furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to heritage preservation, workforce development, and civic education.” The IMLS propaganda machine chugs along.
• The Trump administration continues to threaten IMLS.

Censorship Updates

• The Alabama Republican chair once again clashes with Fairhope over the library’s funding and collections.
• The Mississippi assistant principal who was fired in 2022 for reading the book I Need a New Butt! to students has won his job back, by order of the courts. I can’t believe this whole situation happened in the first place, and I certainly can’t believe it had to travel this far through the court system.
• These are the Tennessee libraries that have been ordered to review their book collections.
• (Paywalled): Books about slavery and the Holocaust have been pulled from Rutherford County (TN) public libraries.
• Summer Boismier, the high school English teacher in Oklahoma who lost her teaching license after sharing a QR code with her students that linked to the Books Unbanned project, is fighting to return to the classroom.
• A former middle school dean in the Elizabeth School District (CO) has filed a lawsuit against the district, saying she was fired after she objected to the removal of 19 books from the school libraries last year. However, the school district has also dismissed its own appeal of the court order, saying the district had to reinstate the 19 banned titles, so we’ll see how this latest lawsuit turns out.

PLA Conference 2026 Update

On January 30th, the PLA finally issued a statement about their 2026 conference, which is scheduled to take place in Minneapolis this year. The tl;dr version is that the conference is still moving ahead as planned, despite ICE making its best efforts to turn Minnesota into a war zone. The longer version (if you read the statement) is downright dystopian. PLA includes a list of safety tips for conference attendees, which includes:

• Familiarize yourself with Know Your Rights resources
• Carry a REAL ID and/or passport with you at all times (aka keep your papers handy)
• Share your itinerary with someone at home and check in regularly

I cannot overstate how surreal it is to consider how to protect yourself against the federal government’s secret police force when registering for a library conference. If you have already registered for PLA this year (and are having second thoughts), please know that the cancellation deadline for conference registration is February 20th.