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Librarians and Library Staff
The AFT represents public library workers across the country, in separate municipal library bargaining units and as part of school and university bargaining units. The AFT also represents librarians in state libraries—including the Illinois State Library and the Connecticut State Library—and in other state agencies, with corrections, education, mental health and developmental disability units, to name a few. Library staff are organizing with the AFT to protect their work, their professions and the people they serve.
A strong majority of staff at Delaware County District Library (DCDL) voted to form their union, Delaware County United Library Staff (DCULS), according to secret ballot election results released today by Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The results showed that 82% of valid ballots voted in favor of the union.
“Library workers joined together across all of our branches because we knew it was the only way to have a voice in the policies that affect us and our libraries,” said Megan Shoemaker, an Adult Services Librarian at the Liberty Branch Library.
Libraries are essential infrastructure in our communities, providing information, entertainment, and public services. In order to meet the needs of our patrons and to set standards that allow us to recruit and retain highly skilled staff, librarians and library workers need a voice. Library workers also need and deserve fair treatment and job security. That’s why library workers in Ohio — across multiple library systems — are coming together to build their unions and have a voice at work.
Jenna Young Knows the True Value of Libraries
Jenna Young, a Massachusetts Library Staff Association member and union treasurer, describes how libraries offer a vast range of services and serve as a tool for civic education. While libraries work hard to serve the community, the vital role of libraries is being threatened by budget cutbacks and increasing attacks on the freedom of information and free expression.
Massachusetts Library Staff Association
The Massachusetts Library Staff Association represents more than 500 public librarians in 34 municipalities across the state of Massachusetts.
The librarians and library staff at the Claremont Colleges Services overwhelmingly chose the California Federation of Teachers in a union representational election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
Other News
State & National News
Are Libraries the New ‘Third Places’ We’re Looking For?
‘We are what a union looks like’
How One Library Is Filling the Gaps in Homeless Services
UC and UC-AFT reach agreement for Professional Librarians contract
Idaho libraries must move materials deemed harmful to children, or face lawsuits, under new law
Texas libraries work to bridge state’s mental health services gap
Council members in Huntington Beach California vote to privatize library management
Overwhelming Majority of Upper Arlington Public Library Workers Call for Union Recognition
Illinois passes bill to prohibit libraries from banning books
NYSUT educators are keeping books in schools, celebrating diverse and inclusive stories
Book bans
Anne Arundel County Public Library becomes first book sanctuary in Maryland
More states are passing book banning rules. Here’s what they say.
Book about book bans banned by Florida school board
Book bans continue to surge in public schools
Plaintiffs seek permanent injunction of Arkansas’s blocked library obscenity law
Groups ramp up efforts in the fight to stop book bans
Forget banning books—a rural WA county may close its library
Public libraries are the latest front in culture war battle over books