The ALA executive board this week announced that it has reopened its search for a new executive director after failing to land a candidate in its first try this year.

“This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead,” said ALA president Cindy Hohl in a November 14 release. announcing the second search. “We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face. We also will look for people who are expertly qualified to lead our strategic agenda as we head into our 150th anniversary in 2026, which will celebrate libraries and library workers, and their important place in communities throughout the country.”

ALA reps did not put a timeline on the search, saying only that the association “will hire as soon as the right candidate emerges.” Sources have told PW that the ALA’s previous national search, which began on January 31, 2024, did yield at least two finalists.

The news of the reopened search comes on the one-year anniversary of Leslie Burger taking the helm as interim executive director,November 15, 2023, and more than a year after executive director Tracie D. Hall abruptly resigned from her position on October 6, 2023.

In June, during her opening remarks at the 2024 American Library Association Annual Conference in San Diego, Burger told members that the association was on track to have a permanent executive director in place by this fall.

Hall's four-year tenure came during one of the most challenging periods in ALA's history. The first female African-American executive director in the association’s long history, it was revealed that the association was facing a serious financial shortfall just days after she began work, in January 2020. Just weeks later, the Covid-19 pandemic forced libraries to shutter, and forced ALA to cancel its in-person conferences for nearly three years, during which time libraries, librarians, and in some states the ALA itself, became targets in a right-wing political movement to ban books.

No question, the next ALA executive director will face significant challenges, including political uncertainty after this year's elections. But ALA has also made progress, with its finances and membership numbers said to be stabilizing, and its annual conferences, while still posting attendance figures below pre-pandemic numbers, showing signs of a rebound.