Participants at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Philadelphia last week sampled the profession’s digital technologies as well as hands-on innovations available in library spaces. From breakout meeting rooms to the Library Marketplace, which this year included a spacious Amazon Library exhibit and a TikTok booth, attendees talked about resources and conducted on-the-fly cost-benefit analyses.
The exponential growth of AI was a focus of the show, discussed by speakers including Brandie Nonnecke of Americans for Responsible Innovation. In a session on “AI Ethics and the Library,” Tess Wilson of the Library Freedom Project reminded the audience, “What we value as libraries is not always the same as what businesses value.” She and her fellow panelists urged listeners to consider—and to disrupt—the environmental impacts of AI, the biases that AI amplifies, and the uses of AI in policing and the military. Matthew Noe, of Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library, warned of the “political weaponization of AI” and recommended The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.
During a presentation on “Top Tech Trends,” Library Technology Guides creator Marshall Breeding spoke about how “AI is changing the churn of the internet itself,” with “agentic AI automating tasks in a way that’s more efficient” but also with aggressive bots that attempt to micromanage search results and execute unwanted applications.
Brian Pichman, director of strategic innovation at the Evolve Project, perceived AI as a tool to which we might become accustomed. “When Wikipedia first came out, how many of us were super mad about it?” Pichman asked. Yet he expressed concern that “most information is behind paywalls,” creating “private and public versions of information” where premium content is licensed and lack of access exacerbates social inequities. He recommended AI for the Rest of Us, by Phaedra Boinodiris, Beth Rudden, and Peter Scott, on responsible AI practice.
Amanda Lautigar Reichert, director of content strategy for the University of Virginia Library, selected QR codes as her top tech trend. “The QR code future is here,” Reichert said, but information literacy is not up to speed. “There’s an equity issue inherent in the use of QR codes,” she said, because many would-be users lack devices to instantly decode the omnipresent digital icons.
E-book licensing and lending models also consumed ALA-goers’ attention. At an e-book interest group meeting, Vicky Varga, executive director of collections, marketing, and technology at the Edmonton Public Library, spoke about the Canadian Urban Libraries Council’s annual One eRead Canada program, a bilingual digital book club started in 2018. Every April, CULC offers audio and ebook versions of one independently published title, with no holds or waitlists, as a way to support authors and small publishers; for one month, Varga said, “licensing and high costs don’t impede access.” In 2025, the selection was Chris Bergeron’s Valid (House of Anansi), with 630 libraries participating and about 7,500 checkouts.
Conference attendees eagerly discussed strategies for getting digital content into their libraries and out to patrons. In a session on “Libraries, Publishers, and the Future of Ebook Licensing,” Michael Maziekien, project specialist at the New Jersey State Library, said that “libraries are strapped” as they work to build diverse collections for their communities. “Librarians are looking to provide more at a better value, and we can see the demand that’s out there,” Maziekien said. “There’s no desire to work less with you [publishers],” but more flexible licensing models are sought. “There are opportunities right now to improve relationships with publishers and improve our general collections,” he said. Copanelists and audience members debated the potential for “tapered” licensing, with pricing that mirrors demand, or pilot projects allowing more simultaneous borrowers for high-demand bestsellers.
High and low tech
On the exhibition floor, vendors rolled out their shiny yet practical objects for library use. Bibliotheca showed off Romi, an interactive robot that helps patrons find and check out books and recharges on a traditional power outlet. Romi, which stands at child height and features remarkably expressive eyes, is in use in Japan and Korea, said Bibliotheca technical sales engineer Dan Magnusson. ALA provided an opportunity to introduce it to a U.S. audience.
International Library Services touted their AutoLend Library kiosks, which proved particularly resilient during the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. The Altadena Library District’s lending and return kiosks served patrons in L.A. neighborhoods damaged by the devastating Eaton fire in January.
Elsewhere at the show, a DIY aesthetic ruled. Chefs whipped up dishes at the What’s Cooking stage, librarians read and created tiny books at the Zine Pavilion, and gamers tested TTRPGs, or tabletop role-playing games.
Installation artist Sheryl Oring (Secretary to the People, Intellect Books, Fall 2026) set up her sculpture Writer’s Block close to the ALA registration area. In boxes constructed from rusty, welded rebar, Oring stacked broken manual typewriters from the 1920s and ’30s, as a statement against silencing the written word; Writer’s Block debuted in 1999 on Berlin’s Bebelplatz, the site of a 1933 book burning, and recently was displayed at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Oring hopes to take the show on the road to combat censorship nationwide.
Megan Lotts, author of The Playful Library and art librarian at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., set up a “Lil’ Zine Vending Machine” in the ALA Connect area. For four quarters, visitors got a surprise zine or, for the extra lucky, a “golden ticket” entitling them to a prize. Lotts brought quarters to exchange for cash: “It’s not my first rodeo,” she said. ALA’s Zine Pavilion is a destination for do-it-yourselfers.
Library Futures handed out inexpensive zines as well, including a Know Your Rights information kit and Controlled Chaos, a collection of writing compiled by incarcerated workers at San Quentin Prison Library. LF director Jennie Rose Halperin also had plenty to say about e-books, and announced that LF has received a $2.5 million grant from the Arcadia Foundation that will enable them to hire a staff attorney, specializing in contracts and ethical collection development. “We will be your lawyers, and we will negotiate the contracts on your behalf,” said Halperin, adding that “it’s a really cool project” set to take place over four years.
Reichert, of the University of Virginia Library and the tech trends session, said that in addition to QR code proliferation, she’s seen an uptick in zines from resources such as Zine Bakery. “The heart of zine culture is collaboration and community, things we long for,” plus “a resistance to traditional power system,” Reichert said. Because zines are “usually passed physically hand to hand,” she added, they represent an “inherent human connection,” plus “privacy and anonymity” disconnected from digital technology.
