Statement on the firing of Carla Hayden and HLA's Concerns about Hawaiʻi's Shifting Landscape5/15/2025 by The HLA Board HLA is concerned about the firing of Dr. Carla Hayden by the current Administration. Dr. Hayden was the first African American Librarian of Congress, who was hired in 2016. She was targeted by a conservative group for circulating what they called “radical” perspectives. But Hayden connected her purpose at the Library of Congress as an opportunity to represent broader views of history and knowledge, as a descendant of African Americans. Moreover, Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights, was also dismissed. Her office played a vital role in guiding the nation’s understanding of artificial intelligence and intellectual property. These acts resonate with the firing of Dr. Colleen Shogan, the National Archivist of the U.S., earlier this year. HLA is concerned about the firing of qualified information professionals from the highest library and archival institutions in the U.S. These professions require a high degree of professional ethics and neutrality in their practice in order to protect intellectual freedom and public trust in government.
Meanwhile, we are seeing efforts to dismantle the Institute for Library and Museum Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities. These actions are already impacting us at the state level. Next Steps What can you do now? By May 16, we encourage you to write or call our Congressional Delegation to press for 2026 federal funding for public and school libraries. This resource, the Dear Appropriator Letter to fund libraries for FY 2026, will help you speak up for 2026 funding for the Library Services and Technology Act and the Innovative Approaches to Libraries grants. Share how your library is an invaluable resource for our community. Next, if you want to know what is being done locally, join the online HLA Spring Meeting on Saturday May 31, 2025 from 11-3pm. This will be an opportunity to discuss these issues with our community. By sharing our experiences from different vantage points, we can find the hope in one another to move forward as a profession. ʻAʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia. No task is too big when done together by all. Hawaiʻi's Shifting Landscape We also witness the local impacts of the shifts in current federal priorities and want to highlight how Hawaiʻi librarians and supporters are responding.
-Hawaiʻi Library Association Board
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by Kelly Campbell March 21, 2025
Hawaiʻi Library Association P.O. Box 4441 Honolulu, HI 96812-4441 Aloha e Senators Schatz and Hirono and Representatives Case and Tokuda, On behalf of the Hawaiʻi Library Association, we are writing to urge you to strongly oppose any efforts to dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). On Friday night, March 14, President Trump issued an Executive Order intended to dismantle the IMLS. For Hawaiʻi, the resulting loss of programs supported by IMLS would have a direct adverse impact on communities throughout the state, disproportionately harming children, seniors, job seekers, and students who rely on an array of free library services. Libraries are vital hubs for lifelong learning, workforce development, and community programming. The grants provided by the IMLS help libraries expand their digital resources, support early childhood literacy programs, and offer job training initiatives that empower individuals seeking employment. Each year, states receive critical funding through the Library Services and Technology Act – Grants to States. Hawaiʻi receives about $1.5M each year. Hawaiʻi’s public libraries use these funds to ensure access to the internet, technology, collections, and digital and physical resources that support reading and learning. This includes ebooks, audiobooks, and databases for research and learning. In Hawaiʻi, public libraries are a vital resource for many of our rural communities, especially on the neighbor islands. Rural and underserved communities will lose access to critical resources. IMLS also supports Hawaiʻi’s archives and museums. Archives and museums serve as stewards of our history and culture, fostering understanding and appreciation of the past while inspiring future generations. Without the support of IMLS, our cultural institutions will be at risk of losing our unique and diverse history. We strongly urge you to publicly oppose the proposed cuts and to actively support legislation that protects IMLS services and funding. Thank you for your time and your service. We appreciate your leadership and respectfully ask that you do everything in your power to protect the IMLS and the vital work it enables. Mahalo nui loa, Kelly Ann Campbell President Hawaiʻi Library Association by The HLA Board Aloha kākou,
In recent months, library professionals across the nation – including the Hawaiʻi Library Association (HLA) Executive Board – have observed efforts to weaken the American Library Association (ALA) and the principles on which it stands by lobbying library organizations to withdraw their membership. In July 2023, the Montana State Library Commission withdrew its membership from ALA. Similar efforts exist in Illinois, Idaho, and other states. Much of the ire that is currently aimed at ALA is in reaction to the organization’s steadfast support for intellectual freedom, diversity and inclusion, and LGBTQ+ rights, which stand in direct opposition to coordinated censorship and book banning attempts. Locally, Hawaiʻi’s librarians are seeing a concerning increase in book challenges in both school and public libraries. In anticipation of escalation, the theme of HLA’s Spring Meeting was ʻAʻali‘i, inspired by the ʻaʻali‘i tree, which resists the most adverse environmental conditions to remain standing. In ideal conditions, the ʻAʻaliʻi tree can grow tall and shelter other plants and life forms, fostering the rebirth and diverse ecology of Hawaiʻi’s land. At this meeting, Jon Martin and Joyce McIntosh of ALA, as well as Hawaiʻi House Representative Jenna Takenouchi and US Congresswoman Jill Tokuda, discussed organized efforts to challenge the freedom to read. These efforts include actions to control school boards and ban books – all rooted from a place of fear. Headlines about the harassment of library workers and book banning efforts across the nation continue to increase. Just as ALA is supporting library workers, authors, and publishers as book challenges grow in number and contentiousness, it is important for us to stand in solidarity with ALA and the Library Bill of Rights in which we believe. HLA has been affiliated with ALA for over 100 years and, as we move forward, the HLA Executive Board shares with all of you our resolve to stand with ALA – and its leaders – in support of intellectual freedom. This effort manifests in our individual actions and in our organizational activities. Please review the attachment from ALA to understand the full scope of the support that ALA provides to those in our field and to our state’s libraries. We deeply feel that our association – and, more widely, librarianship in Hawaiʻi – would be much less effective without the support of the American Library Association. Hence, let us gather and be as one, neʻepapa, as we stand for the freedom to read. It is our kūleana to mālama pono this right for our beloved community. It is our kūleana to stand with our sister ALA chapters and the national ALA to mālama this right for all. Together, we are as strong as the ʻaʻali‘i tree, prepared to weather any storm to fight for and shelter the diverse rights and interests of our communities. With respect and aloha, The Board of the Hawaiʻi Library Association Aloha HLA friends and colleagues,
The HLA Board expresses its deep concern for the recent devastation and loss of life inflicted by the wildfires on Maui and Hawaiʻi Island. Our thoughts are with all who have been affected by this tragedy. We would like to offer support to our library ʻohana in its efforts to rebuild and recover, and we stand by to assist once those efforts commence. If there are ways for the HLA community to contribute to those efforts, we will provide that information at a later date once the full scope of damage has been assessed. In the coming days and weeks, please keep those in our library ʻohana who have been impacted by these wildfires in your thoughts. The HLA Board sends our aloha. For information about how you can support those on Maui, please click on the button below. The Hawaii Library Association grieves with the families and friends of all those victimized by gun violence. The number of mass shootings, including the rise of such incidents at schools at the primary, secondary, and higher educational levels,* directly impact our library communities and lifelong learners that we support.
The American Library Association has recognized the need to pass a number of resolutions related to gun violence through the years. HLA takes a moment to recognize this and also to stand against such violence, especially in the wake of the recent racist shooting in Buffalo, NY and the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Words cannot express how important it is, more than ever, to come together and support one another in the face of these tragic events. We encourage our colleagues and friends to learn more about safety and gun policies, as well as to continue to foster conversations around this issue in our communities and workplaces.** *More research on gun violence incidents in schools, here. **Further Pew Research here. |
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