Sam Helmick is the 2025–2026 president of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

. Helmick is community and access services coordinator at

Iowa City Public Library The Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) was established in 1896 to serve the people of Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Currently located in a new facility at the intersection of college and Linn Streets on the downtown pedestrian mall, ICPL serves a populatio ...

Education and career

Sam Helmick earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Human Services from

Iowa Wesleyan University Iowa Wesleyan University was a private university in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, United States. It was Iowa's first co-educational institution of higher learning and the oldest of its type west of the Mississippi River. The institution was affiliated ...

and a

Master of Library and Information Science The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) is the master's degree that combines two interdisciplinary academic disciplines. Library science is applied information science and a subfield of information science. This degree focuses on inf ...

from the

University of Illinois School of Information Sciences A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a co ...

in 2012. They served on the

Executive Board. They were also previously chair-elect of the ALA's Intellectual Freedom Round Table and

Freedom to Read Foundation The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is an American non-profit anti-censorship organization, established in 1969 by the American Library Association. The organization has been active in First Amendment-based challenges to book removals from librar ...

. They have served on committees for the

United States National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. I ...

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbo ...

Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

, and

Sophie Brody Award The Sophie Brody Award (Sophie Brody Meda) is an annual award of the American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education int ...

. Helmick was president of the Iowa Library Association in 2023 and chair of the Iowa Governor's Commission on Libraries. As president of the Iowa Library Association, they wrote to newspapers in Iowa to support a library levy. Helmick has been active in speaking against Iowa legislation limiting library funding and against

book censorship Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book. Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority". Censors typically identify as either a concerned ...

. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' highlighted Helmick's anti-censorship work in 2024. They were named ALA president-elect in 2025 after

Raymond Pun Raymond Pun () is an academic and research librarian at the Alder Graduate School of Education. He was the elected president of the American Library Association for 2025–2026. On June 14, 2024, it was announced that Pun would be unable to assum ...

stepped down.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmick, Sam Living people American Library Association people Presidents of the American Library Association Year of birth missing (living people) People from Iowa City, Iowa Iowa Wesleyan University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of Illinois School of Information Sciences alumni