Bullying can impact individuals in any environment, but it can be particularly devastating in an educational setting. Students and a school librarian in Montana decided to address the issue directly with help from an American Library Association grant.
In Dunkerton, Iowa, population 842, more than 15% of the population lives with some type of disability. Dunkerton Public Library has stepped up to serve this community, using funds it received from ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities grant to help older adults with mobility issues, people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and those who are blind or low vision to fully participate in all library services.
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, created a program to encourage Native individuals living in the region to consider running for non-Tribal elected offices themselves to help ensure that diverse perspectives are part of community conversations and policy decisions. They used resources provided by the American Library Association’s 2024 Peggy Barber Tribute Grant to facilitate the initiative.
Encouraging an appreciation for our natural surroundings is always in season, and it’s no secret that libraries often provide garden areas, flower beds, and other outdoor areas for patron and community enjoyment and use. Wright Memorial Public Library in Oakwood, Ohio, took that a step further—and was rewarded a grant from ALA as a result.
Receiving a grant from the American Library Association allowed an Iowa library to offer its community a safe space from tornadoes and other inclement weather.
In Louisville, Kentucky, an elementary school’s path to become a Spanish-immersion magnet school helped create an ALA award-winning program that raised awareness of the Hispanic/Latinx community and fostered the cultural competence and unity of all students by asking: What unites us?
In Goldthwaite, a small, but vibrant town of approximately 1,700 people in central Texas, Jennie Trent Dew Library fills many voids in a community that is missing essential nonprofit and civic organizations. This made the library an ideal candidate for ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities grant, an initiative to assist small and rural libraries in providing greater accessibility of facilities, services, and programs for patrons with disabilities.
In the latter half of the 2010s, 6th graders at Wyoming (Ohio) Middle School took a class that gave them firsthand experience in addressing food disparity in the community—one that ended up winning the school in the Cincinnati suburbs a grant from the American Library Association.
A school librarian in Texas created an award-winning interactive “Freedom Walk” to teach students and the community how censorship issues affect library access.
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