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An incisive critique of the corporatized university, tracing the entanglement of academic missions with economic, political, and cultural systems.

Advocates of higher education have long contended that universities should operate above the crude material negotiations of economics and politics. Such arguments, ignore the historical reality that the American university system emerged through, and in service to, a capitalist political economy that unevenly combines corporate, state, and civil interests.

As the corporatization of U.S. universities becomes nearly impossible to deny, the common response from many academics has been a superior stand against the contamination of the professional ideal by tainted corporate interests. Inside the Teaching Machine proposes a correction to this view through the lens of historical materialism.

Chaput argues that the U.S. public research university has always been a vital component of the capitalist political economy. While conventional narratives of public higher education emphasize civic preparation and upward mobility, Chaput demonstrates that supposedly egalitarian policies like the Morrill Land-Grant Act and the G.I. Bill served the changing interests of capitalism much as education, creating a professional class that supports the capitalist political economy. Chaput also focuses on the relationship between American universities and globalization, showing how the trend toward professionalization contributes to the production of surplus value, and the ways that the American university model circulates outside the United States. Chaput concludes by advocating rhetorical strategies for the professional who opposes the capitalist logic of the global university system, proposing concrete options for engaging and redirecting globalization within the university system.

Winner of the 2026 Outstanding Book Award in the Monograph category from the Conference on College Composition and Communication 

Insiders, Outliers invites readers into the lives of adult HBCU students for whom college is one meaningful activity among many. Although adults over the age of twenty-four comprise a quarter of all undergraduates, they are institutionally segregated and only partially served by a US higher education system that remains organized around traditional-aged learners. Even as such students are regarded as a market for postsecondary institutions, they are routinely marginalized by institutional barriers. Students’ stories of their personal, professional, community, and academic writing experiences illuminate a critical need for more age-inclusive practices across academia. Their cases also offer new conceptual models of writing as an ethical and emotional practice that fuels changes for individuals and the people and institutions that they care about—including higher education. What adult students reveal about writing across their life domains has powerful implications for conceptualizing writing as a complex form of agency and for teaching writing across the curriculum.
 

• programs and activities related to such topics as good health and well-being, ending poverty, peace and justice, responsible consumption and production, decent work, and clean water and sanitation;
• ideas perfect for multi-age audiences (families), tweens, and teens that can be tailored for different group sizes, programming spaces, budgets, and time frames;
• a plethora of flexible, cost-effective passive programs that patrons can engage in at any time;
• guidance on outreach opportunities for fostering partnerships with local experts and guest speakers; and
• pointers on additional and supporting resources including books, videos, and websites.

Institutional Repositories manage and preserve an institution’s own content. Since their introduction over 25 years ago, Institutional Repositories have been established in universities and institutions around the world. Yet many people, even within the scholarly world, are unaware of the work that repositories carry out, and the essential role they play. Institutional Repositories is a much-needed guide to repositories, past and present. Written by a repository manager and trainer, this fully peer-reviewed book assumes no prior knowledge, and guides the reader through all the activities carried out by the repository team, including (but not limited to) ensuring green Open Access, and ensuring maximum impact for the institution’s research output, as well as providing a collective memory for the organization, often capturing content that would otherwise be lost.

• Wide-ranging, from staffing and managing the repository, to accessibility, preservation, and metadata
• Includes practical guidance for the daily tasks carried out by repository staff
• Compares national repository strategies
• With glossary of repository-related terms

Cromwell achieves something rare: a book that is comprehensive, detailed, readable, and useful all at once. He understands the benefits and untapped potential of the global network of open-access repositories, and offers practical advice for taking full advantage of this community-led infrastructure. Recommended for all institutions hosting or planning to host a repository.

Peter Suber, Director of the Harvard Open Access Project

Tracing the evolution of the library as a modern institution from the late eighteenth century to the digital era, this book explores the diverse practices by which Americans have shared reading matter for instruction, edification, and pleasure. Writing from a rich variety of perspectives, the contributors raise important questions about the material forms and social shapes of American culture. What is a library? How have libraries fostered communities of readers and influenced the practice of reading in particular communities? How did the development of modern libraries alter the boundaries of individual and social experience, and define new kinds of public culture? To what extent have libraries served as commercial enterprises, as centers of power, and as places of empowerment for African Americans, women, and immigrants? Institutions of Reading offers at once a social history of literacy and leisure, an intellectual history of institutional and technological innovations that facilitated the mass distribution and consumption of printed books and periodicals, and a cultural history of the symbolic meanings and practical uses of reading in American life. In addition to the editors, contributors include Elizabeth Amann, Michael Baenen, James Green, Elizabeth McHenry, Barbara Mitchell, Christine Pawley, Janice Radway, James Raven, Karin Roffman, and Roy Rosenzweig.

• Foundational Knowledge
• Analysis
• Design
• Development
• Implementation
• Evaluation 

• Transforming Ourselves
• Transforming Our Programs, Institutions, and Profession
• Transforming Student Learning, Information Seeking, and Experiences 

• Transforming Ourselves
• Transforming Our Programs, Institutions, and Profession
• Transforming Student Learning, Information Seeking, and Experiences 

• Transforming Ourselves
• Transforming Our Programs, Institutions, and Profession
• Transforming Student Learning, Information Seeking, and Experiences 

University and college mergers are increasingly common, and merging institutions have consequences for and demand new skills from their academic libraries. How do you turn an independent organization steeped in its own procedures and mission into a merged library that is effective, cohesive, and student-centered? 

Integrating Academic Libraries When Institutions Merge can help library workers experiencing a merger understand the process and prepare for some of the challenges. In three sections, authors who have undergone a merger provide strategies for integrating collections, systems, and teams while maintaining critical library operations.

• Preparing to Merge
• The New Integrated Culture
• Managing Change

The key to every merger is almost always the same: People and culture working together to get the job done and, in the process, creating a new culture. Integrating Academic Libraries When Institutions Merge can help you confront the past, adapt to the present, and strategize for a sustainable future.

The newest edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual is more than simply an update of a foundational text that has served as a crucial resource for more than four decades. It is a living document that serves as the authoritative reference for day-to-day guidance on maintaining free and equal access to information for all people. Whether you’re developing or revising policies, on-boarding new staff or trustees, responding to challenges and controversies, or studying librarianship, you’ll find this an indispensable resource, with features such as

• ALA policy statements, approved by committees and Council, articulating core intellectual freedom principles and best practices;
• 8 new interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, which address urgent issues like internet filtering, public performances, political activity, religion, and equity, diversity, and inclusion;
• “Issues at a Glance” sidebars which present key concepts, points of law, tips, and questions for reflection;
• expanded content about developing library policies that support intellectual freedom;
• updated information on censorship of library programs, displays, and databases;
• “Advocacy and Assistance,” a section offering concrete guidance when you’re called on to talk to the media or meet with legislators;
• Deeper Look essays which examine the laws related to library operations;
• advice on when to call the police, when not to, and how to handle personally identifiable information when they arrive; and
• an expanded glossary.

When someone faces a difficult intellectual freedom (IF) issue, they usually don’t have time to wade through dense text to find the answers they need. Designed as a real-world reference, OIF’s Intellectual Freedom Manual provides trusted, comprehensive guidance for every library worker, from the volunteer to the director, in plain language. Whether you’re developing or reviewing policies, on-boarding new staff or trustees, responding to challenges and controversies, or studying librarianship, you’ll find this a vital tool, with features such as

• contributions that center the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQIA+ people, who are often targeted by censorship efforts;
• chapters that begin with an overview explaining the big ideas and offering reflection questions;
• an introduction to IF and why it matters, drawing on ALA's core IF documents and supported with adaptable policy worksheets;
• information and best practice guidance on key topics such as access, children and youth, censorship and internet filtering, collection development and management, copyright, meeting rooms and exhibit spaces, library programming, politics and religion, privacy, and visits and requests from law enforcement;
• stories from real people whose lives have been impacted by IF, showing how library policies shape culture, protect staff and users, and affect real people;
• concise breakdowns of IF issues from legal experts, helping you understand the laws and how they apply in real situations;
• practical advice on advocating for IF, getting help when challenges arise, lobbying, and working with your elected officials;
• a thorough index to help you quickly find the information you need; and
• a helpful glossary and selected bibliography of additional resources.

Intellectual freedom is a complex concept that democracies and free societies around the world define in different ways but always strive to uphold. And ALA has long recognized the crucial role that libraries play in protecting this right. But what does it mean in practice? How do library workers handle the ethical conundrums that often accompany the commitment to defending it? Rather than merely laying out abstract policies and best practices, this important new collection gathers real-world stories of intellectual freedom in action to illuminate the difficulties, triumphs, and occasional setbacks of advocating for free and equal access to information for all people in a shifting landscape. Offering insight to LIS students and current practitioners on how we can advance the profession of librarianship while fighting censorship and other challenges, these personal narratives explore such formidable situations as

• presenting drag queen story times in rural America;
• a Black Lives Matter “die-in” at the undergraduate library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
• combating censorship at a prison library;
• hosting a moderated talk about threats to modern democracy that included a neo-Nazi spokesman;
• a provocative exhibition that triggered intimidating phone calls, emails, and a threat to burn down an art library;  
• calls to eliminate non-Indigenous children’s literature from the collection of a tribal college library; and
• preserving patrons’ right to privacy in the face of an FBI subpoena.

Nikki Usher brings together a comprehensive portrait of nothing less than a new journalistic identity. Usher provides a history of the impact of digital technology on reporting, photojournalism, graphics, and other disciplines that define interactive journalism. Her eyewitness study of the field's evolution and accomplishments ranges from the interactive creation of Al Jazeera English to the celebrated data desk at the Guardian to the New York Times' Pulitzer-endowed efforts in the new field. What emerges is an illuminating, richly reported profile of the people coding a revolution that may reverse the decline and fall of traditional journalism.

• Building Relationships for Interim Leaders
• Leading with Confidence
• Making Long-Term Decisions as an Interim Leader
• Leading Through Contraction: When No One Can Be Hired
• Moving On: When the Dust Settles 

This fully illustrated text offers a unique approach to using American Sign Language (ASL) and English in a bilingual setting. Each of the 25 lessons involve sign language conversation using colloquialisms that are prevalent in informal conversations. Each lesson includes equivalent expressions in English, plus:

• Glossed Vocabulary Review
• Translation Exercises from ASL to English to ASL
• Grammatical Notes
• Substitution Drills
• Suggested Activities

       The text also includes practice tests, a bibliography, and a glossed alphabetical index.