Meeting the "Justice Initiatives" TeamBrooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Public Library's "Justice Initiatives" program provides incarcerated patrons access to virtual telecommunication, library materials, research, and correspondence tools. PEN America sat down with the team at BPL that plays a cruc...

ULC and President & CEO Brooks Rainwater are featured in an article from The Washington Post about the resurgence of public libraries as co-working spaces. ULC member libraries DC Public Library, Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, LA County Library and Boston Public Library are hig...

A new publication from the Urban Libraries Council highlights libraries’ ongoing efforts to safeguard democracy and urges all library executives to take a stand. Today, the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) published a new Leadership Brief — Libraries as Cornerstones of Democracy. This timely publicatio...

ULC's President and CEO Brooks Rainwater was quoted in a Governing article about Illinois' newest legislation to prohibit book bans. “It is heartening to see that the state of Illinois is taking legislative measures to protect the essential right of intellectual freedom,” said Brooks Rainwater, Pres...

Illinois Makes History with Signing of New Book Ban LawChicago Public Library Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law designed to discourage libraries from banning books. The first-in-the-nation law is a defense against a nationwide trend demanding that books be removed from library shelv...

Reimagining Civic Commons interviewed four thought leaders — including ULC President and CEO Brooks Rainwater — for their ideas about how to solve the nation’s downtown crisis and to illustrate the key role that public spaces could play in a downtown comeback....

A new article from School Library Journal examines how public libraries are bridging equity gaps in summer learning for children, ensuring all learners receive high-quality summer programming. The article features a quote from ULC President and CEO Brooks Rainwater: "Look at your existing [summer] ...

On June 15, 2023, the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) announced the election of Roosevelt Weeks, the Austin Public Library director and Texas Library Association’s 2023 Librarian of the Year, as the new Board of Directors Chair. Weeks was elected by a contingent of ULC’s 170 library members in the org...

Today, the Urban Libraries Council elected its 2023-2024 Board of Directors during its Annual Member Business Meeting. ULC members elected four newly named Board officers, including: Roosevelt Weeks (Director, Austin Public Library) as Chair Pilar Martinez (Chief Executive Officer, Edmonton Public L...

ULC Libraries Launch New Barbershop Books ProgramsCharlotte Mecklenburg Library, Shreve Memorial Library Over the weekend, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Shreve Memorial Library celebrated the launch of their Barbershop Books, Inc. programs, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services!...