Mission and Vision Statement

Abolitionist Library Association is a collective of library workers, students, and community members taking action to divest from all forms of policing in libraries and invest in our collective liberation.

We envision a world without policing or prisons. Our goal is to create libraries that are rooted in community self-determination and intellectual freedom through collective action. We will achieve this goal by:

• Establishing a network of library and information workers to support each other in doing divestment work.

• Providing a space for idea-sharing, strategy, and support for abolition in libraries

• Creating and sharing resources about ending police involvement in information spaces and everywhere to achieve real community safety rooted in transformative justice

• Pressuring stakeholders and decision-makers to divest from police

Position statements and calls to action:

• LAMC 41.18 statement

• Ivy+ statement

About this site: The AbLA site is hosted on Github, who, through their parent company Microsoft, holds a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Given that ICE enacts harmful and deeply racist acts of violence including deportation and incarceration, AbLA would like to acknowledge that our mission and values are antithetical to this partnership and to all other perpetuations of violence and erasure committed against BIPOC communities. For more information about the intersections between technology, surveillance, and incarceration, please visit this resource.