OBAMA WORKERS UNITED- FORMING UNION WITH AFSCME

Employees of the Barack Obama Foundation and Presidential Center have taken the first steps toward forming their union with AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois. A letter from 68 employees was delivered to the full workforce on Wednesday announcing the union organizing effort. “We are the workers who spend our days fulfilling the vision and values of the Obama Foundation,” they wrote. “We strongly believe in the mission to ‘inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world,’ and now we’d like to change ours.” Employees are now signing union authorization cards for the purpose of seeking voluntary recognition from foundation management. The new AFSCME affiliate, once formed, would represent about 250 employees who work in all aspects of Obama Foundation operations, including at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, at the foundation’s Washington D.C. offices, and throughout the country. “These employees are the heart of the Obama Foundation. Every day they do the work that makes the new Presidential Center such a remarkable addition to our city,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch said. “Together in our union, they can ensure that the Foundation and Presidential Center are every bit as good a place to work as the Center is to visit.” Some of the workplace challenges the workers want to address include heavy workloads, inadequate benefits, insufficient support from management, and high employee turnover. “Together in our union, we can find solutions to these issues,” the workers wrote. “We can advocate for a transparent and equitable workplace for everyone at the Obama Foundation, at every level.” The letter cited President Obama’s 2016 Open Letter to America’s Hardworking Men and Women, in which he said, “If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union. If I saw a problem in my workplace, I’d organize my coworkers to do something about it.” Show your support for the AFSCME organizing effort at the Obama Foundation and Presidential Center by sending the workers a message at this link. More than 50,000 workers in libraries, museums, zoos and other cultural institutions across the country have gained a seat at the table and a voice on the job through the AFSCME Cultural Workers United campaign, the largest organizing effort of its kind in the nation.  

The Prison Libraries Act of 2026

The American Library Association praised the Prison Libraries Act, introduced January 27, 2026 by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO-5), along with co-leads Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH-11), and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC-4). The bill would establish a grant program within the Department of Justice to provide library services to incarcerated individuals to advance reintegration efforts, reduce recidivism and increase educational opportunities.   The Prison Libraries Act is here: Investing in prison library programming would reduce the economic impact of recidivism by enabling incarcerated individuals to begin the process of reintegrating into the workforce. Research shows a strong correlation between participation in correctional education programs and greater success in rehabilitation and reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals. For more information on why further investments in prison libraries are essential to reducing the social and economic impact of incarceration, view ALA’s report, Investing in Prison Libraries: A Cost-Effective Path to Safer Communities and Second Chances. Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or DetainedLibraries and Incarceration-This resource guide provides information on providing library services within correctional institutions, including ALA policies and standards, a select bibliography, directories of organizations that support library services and intellectual freedom for justice-involved individuals, along with resources for libraries to provide justice-involved individuals upon reentry into their communities.

Human Rights Day- December 10, 2025

Happy Human Rights Day! It's celebrated every December 10th for the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This year's theme is "Our Everyday Essentials" ===== Video: Our Everyday Essentials

A free and open textbook for today’s human rights challenges.

The internationally recognized human rights lawyer and advocate Philip Alston has updated his open access textbook International Human Rights. This resource is free and can be found here: https://humanrightstextbook.org/ The book addresses among other topics the normative foundations of international human rights, international and regional human rights organizations, state actors, challenges to universalism, and human rights challenges such as climate change, responding to mass violations and transitional justice. This book examines the world of contemporary human rights, including legal norms, political contexts and moral ideals. It acknowledges the regime’s strengths and weaknesses, and focuses on today’s principal challenges. These include radical inequality, resurgent racism, the rise of anti-gender ideology, the implications of new technologies for fact-finding and many other parts of the regime, the continuing marginality of economic, social and cultural rights, climate change, and the evermore central role of the private sector. The boundaries of the subject have steadily expanded as the post-World War II regime has become an indelible part of the legal, political and moral landscape. Given the breadth and complexity of the regime, the book takes an interdisciplinary and critical approach.

Human Rights Day is December 8.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, a landmark document that established a common standard for human rights around the world. Following World War II, which was characterized by terrible atrocities and extreme suffering for humanity, the UDHR emerged. The urgent need to create a global framework for protecting human dignity and preventing future violations led to its formation. Over these 75 years, the Declaration’s main goals have been to instill justice, equality, and fundamental freedoms in society. It is a cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, serving as a worldwide model for regional, national, and local laws and regulations. A variety of human rights allude to the work of libraries: Article 12 refers to the right to privacy; Article 26 marks the right to education; Article 27 states that everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community; and of course, the heart’s mission of libraries is reflected in Article 19, which refers to the right to freedom of opinion and expression. In addition to providing access to information, libraries and librarians play a vital role in promoting and protecting human rights worldwide by building awareness, empowering individuals and communities, developing diverse collections, programs, and services, promoting inclusion, and advocating for policy change. IFLA has promoted human rights through a variety of means, placing the principles of freedom of access to information and freedom of expression at the heart of its values alongside wider human rights. In 1997, IFLA’s decision to establish the Committee on Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) strengthened the Federation’s commitment to actively promote and defend human rights in relation to information access. This decision encouraged the profession to engage pro-actively with human rights, which was a radical expansion of the profession’s self-concept. Read more at: IFLA’s FAIFE Committee blog: https://blogs.ifla.org/faife/2023/12/08/75th-anniversary-of-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights-the-common-standard-of-achievement-for-all-people-and-all-nations/

Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers

Authors: Angelo Moreno, Kelly McElroy, Meredith Kahn, Emily Drabinski Speaking directly to library workers, this book demonstrates the power and fulfillment that comes from actively participating in shaping both the conditions under which they labor and the conditions that govern the library itself. Interest in unions and the real, day-to-day benefits they secure for employees is on the rise—including among library workers, who are beginning to realize that on their own they have little leverage. But with a union they have the power of numbers, and their working conditions are decided by a collectively negotiated agreement rather than by the malleable judgement of an individual administrator or library board. This handbook will equip readers with the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary for organizing and maintaining a union at their library. Peppered throughout by illuminating stories from successful library union leaders and members, this book discusses why library workers need unions and explores some of the benefits that a collective bargaining agreement can assure, such as job security, increased salaries, codification of the rules for overtime pay and time off, and protection from harassment by patrons;explains why a contract won't limit employees' autonomy;walks readers through how to launch a union drive, including the basics of talking with co-workers, combating apathy and fear, and running a campaign;offers an overview of the steps involved in building a new union, from forming an organizing committee to getting recognition and setting up a governance structure; sketches out the key issues relating to contracts, the details of bargaining and negotiation, and arbitration;lays out approaches and strategies for dealing with supervisors and administrators in the context of your union work, including effective communication between labor and management, contract enforcement, and handling bad behavior such as unfair labor practices and retaliation; gives advice on pursuing changes in your workplace in a right-to-work state; explores the constructive roles that bosses can play to support the union efforts of the workers who organize them; and provides an Action Plan at the end of each chapter with suggested readings, questions for reflection, and activities designed to help deepen your knowledge, broaden your network, and practice important skills.

Human Rights Day online panel -December 4, 2024

On Wednesday December 4, 2024, at 3 p.m. eastern, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), the Law Library of Congress, the US Copyright Office, and the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center will host a Human Rights Day online panel to discuss efforts to create legislation, regulations, and treaties that govern accessibility standards in the United States and around the world.

Panelists will be:

• NLS Director Jason Broughton
• Aslihan Bulut, the Law Librarian of Congress
• Dr. Kevin Butterfield, director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress
• Rep. Debbie Dingell, who represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives
• Elin Hofverberg, Senior Foreign Law Specialist, Law Library of Congress 
• Andrew Foglia, Deputy Director of Policy and International Affairs, US Copyright Office 

To attend the online event, register at https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_y0hH6pVtTc6Hd6yFyYOzag#/registration