submitted by Colin Post
Join ALA Round Tables for a day of virtual programs about critical environmental, social, and political issues impacting libraries (it’ll be fun, we swear!)
Friday, October 16, 2026
10 am – 4:30 pm CT
The round tables of the American Library Association (GameRT, FMRT, MAGIRT, IFRT, and IRRT) will be hosting a day of interactive sessions about how libraries are surviving – and addressing – existential threats. We will discuss climate change, depictions of end-times in fiction, the precarity of digital media, and gaming out the apocalypse.
Schedule
Round Table Round Table (10:00a – 11:00a Central)
Join members of GameRT, FMRT, MAGIRT, IRRT, and IFRT for a discussion on libraries in the context of existential threats. We’ll explore collections of apocalypse media, how climate change is impacting libraries, and innovative services and approaches to deal with serious issues.
IRRT & MAGIRT – PROTECT-GLAM: A National Categorical Climate Risk Assessment (11:15a – 12:30p Central)
IRRT & MAGIRT will host a presentation from Dr. Edward Benoit III, Dr. Jill Trepanier, and Reilly Corkran on the PROTECT-GLAM (Providing Risk of The Environment’s Changing Climate Threats for Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums) project.
FMRT & IFRT – Saving Democracy, One Public Record at a Time (12:45p – 2:00p Central)
FRMT and IFRT are bringing together the Internet Archive’s Democracy Library and ATLAS (Access To Local And State government information) programs. Speakers Kelly Doyle Kim, Project Coordinator for ATLAS, and Merrilee Proffitt, Director of Democracy’s Library, US, will share about their programs’ vital work in preserving and providing access to archived public records which document how the government works.
GameRT – Apocalypse World: Burned Over (2:15p – 4:30p Central)
GameRT will play a one-shot session of the Platinum Play winning TTRPG Apocalypse World, led by one of the game’s designers Meguey Baker. This session will use the recently revamped third edition of the game, Apocalypse World: Burned Over, set 50 years after everything burned: “the furnace roared and the world’s psychic maelstrom howled.” Watch our rag-tag group as we navigate the aftermath!
View live on GameRT’s YouTube and Twitch channels:
https://youtube.com/@ALAGameRT
https://www.twitch.tv/ALAGameRT