SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

March 24, 2020 by Gary Price

2020 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition Cancelled to Due COVID-19

March 24, 2020 by Gary Price

Full Text of an ALA Statement

The American Library Association’s Executive Board announced today that the 2020 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition scheduled for June 25-30 in Chicago has been canceled.

“ALA’s priority is the health and safety of the library community, including our members, staff, supporters, vendors and volunteers,” said Wanda K. Brown, ALA president. “As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, it’s become clear that in the face of an unprecedented situation, we need to make tough choices.”

2020 will mark the first time in 75 years that ALA has not held an Annual Conference. The last cancellation took place in 1945 as World War II neared its end.

“We recognize the magnitude of this decision for the association and our membership,” said Tracie D. Hall, ALA executive director. “The Annual Conference brings together tens of thousands of passionate professionals and hundreds of authors and exhibitors every year to celebrate the transformative work of libraries across the country and around the world. Our coming together not only galvanizes the library and information profession and its stakeholders, but also provides opportunities for attendees to explore and connect with our host cities. This year, we were especially looking forward to the conference taking place in ALA’s hometown of Chicago; however, the well-being of our library community, staff and fellow Chicago residents has to be the number one concern, and that drove our decision-making.”

Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., ALA president-elect, agreed: “At this unprecedented and historic time the health and safety of our members and their families are our primary concern. I want us all to focus on our collective health so we may live to advocate for libraries and library workers another day.”

Brown continued, “I am so sorry that this difficult decision had to be made, but I am certain that it is the right one. One of our greatest strengths is our ability to adapt and reinvent ourselves when needed the most. May these challenging and uncertain times find us working even closer together so that our libraries, our communities, our association and our families will all thrive.”

The association will be working with conference registrants directly over the coming weeks. As well, ALA staff, in partnership with ALA member leaders, are developing plans to carry out the important business of the association, such as council and board meetings.

“Although this is a great disappointment, ALA is far from the only organization taking a hard look at its events,” Hall said. “We are using this to fuel our planning for Midwinter conference in Indianapolis in January 2021 and look forward to Annual Conference 2021 scheduled to be held in Chicago. We want to make both of those meetings incredible experiences. We want them to serve as opportunities for the profession to regroup and recharge.”

ALA supporters EBSCO Information Services, Follett | Baker & Taylor, Gale, a Cengage Company, Harper Collins, OverDrive, Penguin Random House, ProQuest and Simon & Schuster also offered words of support:

“EBSCO appreciates the value of coming together at ALA and we will miss the opportunity to do so in June. But, we certainly understand and agree with the decision that has been made by ALA leadership to cancel the ALA Annual Conference.   Now is time to focus on our collective health and safety as the top priority. EBSCO is proud to be part of a larger community that has rallied together during these challenging times.”—Scott Bernier, senior vice president, EBSCO Information Services

“The Follett | Baker & Taylor team supports the difficult decision made by ALA to cancel this year’s Annual Conference. Each year, we look forward to the opportunity to connect in person with the ALA community, but the health and safety of attendees comes first. We realize that libraries are facing unique challenges during this time and applaud the work librarians are doing to continue serving their communities. As your partner, we are here to support you in any way possible.”- Kim Schneider, director, Content Marketing & Events, Follett | Baker & Taylor

“Gale applauds the ALA for making this difficult decision quickly, so we can all stay focused on prioritizing the safety and health of our teams first, while providing the essential content and services our students and communities need as they navigate rapid shifts to online learning and the closure of physical libraries. We remain a committed partner to the ALA and active advocate for the library community; and embrace this opportunity to work together to find new ways of offering continuity of curriculum and programs during this crisis and beyond.” Paul Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale, a Cengage company

“Although disappointed that we will not be able to gather for this important event that allows us to engage so fully with librarians and their work, HarperCollins fully understands and respects the difficult decision made by the American Library Association. We will work with ALA in the coming days and weeks between now and the Midwinter 2021 meeting where we will next convene on creative ways to promote other opportunities to bring our authors and librarians together to serve America’s library patrons.”– Virginia Stanley, director, library marketing, HarperCollins Publishers

“Penguin Random House supports ALA’s decision to cancel their annual conference this year. We value our partnership with ALA and will continue to work with them and their members to explore news ways we can connect libraries, readers, and communities moving forward.”–Skip Dye, SVP, Library Sales and Digital Strategy, SVP, Sales Operations, Penguin Random House

“While we know this decision is incredibly difficult for ALA, prioritizing the health and safety of ALA members, vendors and staff is the right thing to do. We value our longstanding relationships with the library community and are looking forward to connecting in person as soon as circumstances permit. ProQuest’s support of our customers and ALA is unwavering; we are here to help libraries and their users, especially in this unprecedented environment.”— Jim Holmes, ProQuest senior vice president, Global Sales and Marketing

“We support ALA’s leadership to make this decision regarding ALA Annual in the best interests of the membership.  We are confident, as we have already witnessed in the past week, that all ALA members will continue to connect with each other, exchange information and strengthen their communities in the absence of the summer conference.”—Steve Potash, CEO, OverDrive

“While we were looking forward to meeting in person with our friends in the library community, Simon & Schuster fully supports ALA in its timely and proper decision regarding this summer’s annual meeting.  Our work with libraries is a year-round endeavor, and especially in this time of crisis we will work closely with our library colleagues on programs and initiatives so that they can continue to provide their vital services to patrons in their local communities.”—Michelle Leo, vice president, director of Education & Library Marketing, Simon & Schuster

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), EBSCO, Gale, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Patrons and Users

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Library of Congress Opens New Web Archive Collection Documenting Protests Against Racism & Learn About LC's Black History...

From the Library of Congress (Full Text of Announcement): A new web archive collection from the Library of Congress documents the civil unrest sparked by the police murder of George ...

AI: arXiv Announces New Policy on ChatGPT and Similar Tools

From an arXiv Blog Post: The recent release of AI technology that generates new text has raised serious questions among the research community. For one, “Can ChatGPT be named an ...

ResearchGate and De Gruyter Announce a New Content Syndication Partnership

From a Joint Statement (via De Gruyter): ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and De Gruyter, an independent academic publisher, have today announced a content syndication partnership that will see ...

EveryLibrary Releases 2022 Annual Report; ARL: Celebrating Black History Month 2023 & More News Headlines

ARL: Celebrating Black History Month 2023 EveryLibrary Releases 2022 Annual Report ||| Full Text Report Germany: DFG Launches Cooperation with the OAPEN Foundation IFLA: Applications for Public Library of the ...

Ithaka S+R Releases "A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey" Findings

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by the Report’s Author, Makala Skinner:  On Tuesday, January 31, we published the A*CENSUS II Archives Administrators Survey findings. The Archives Administrator Survey Report is ...

“Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice" (A New White Paper From the Urban Libraries Council)

From the Urban Libraries Council (ULC): The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) announces today the release of its latest white paper, “Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice,” which addresses ...

Standards: W3C Re-Launched as a Public-Interest Non-Profit Organization; eLife’s New Model: Open for Submissions; & More News Headlines

Annual Report 2022: Highlights from the Data Curation Network arXiv Announces New Policy on ChatGPT and Similar Tools (via arXiv Blog) COPE in 2023 (via Committee on Publication Ethics) eLife’s ...

Journal Article: "A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements"

The article linked to below was today published by Insights. Title A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements Authors Alicia Wise Information Power Lorraine Estelle Information Power Source Insights 36 ...

Six Libraries Partner With GPO To Preserve Government Information

From the Government Publishing Office (GPO): Libraries at the University of Montana, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have signed Memorandum of Agreements with the U.S. ...

Michigan: Grand Rapids Public Library Finds Rare Set of 'Magic Lantern' Slides Showing Early Tuskegee Institute

From Fox 17 (Grand Rapids): The folks over at the Grand Rapids Public Library made a fascinating discovery while digging through their massive archives back in March 2021, and are ...

Journal Article: "Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships"

The article linked below was recently published by the International Journal of Communication. Title Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships Authors Valérie Bélair-Gagnon University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA Rebekah Larsen ...

State Library Looks to Install Book Vending Machines Around North Dakota; A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging...

A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging Apps (via Privacy International) De Gruyter Acquires Mercury Learning and Information Report by the French Committee for Open Science Working Group on Electronic ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.