Our 11th Consecutive Modern Library Award!

Winning our eleventh consecutive Platinum Award in the Modern Library Award just days after the Stranger Things series finale… a Hollywood ending.

Except it’s not an ending! It’s a continuation of our collaboration with library professionals to help their communities meet their language learning goals.

And in 2025, collaborate we did on all things language:

• English for Speakers of Other Languages

598 library professionals joined us this year to get advice from their peers about supporting English language learners, including hosting English Conversation Clubs and running US Citizenship classes.

To help our subscribing libraries better support their ELLs, we updated Transparent Language Online with:

• • English for Newcomers for speakers of the 23 languages (including 8 new languages requested by libraries!)
  • An updated 2025 version of the US Citizenship Test Prep course
  • A 5-minute English proficiency estimator

• American Sign Language

303 library professionals joined us and the experts at Signing Savvy to explore ideas for supporting Deaf patrons and promoting Deaf culture at their libraries.

And 558 folks tackled our free ASL for Librarians course so they can sign with their Deaf patrons.

To help our subscribing libraries reach more members of their Deaf communities, we added a new ASL for Babies & Children Course to Transparent Language Online.

• Indigenous Languages

In 2025, we added four new Indigenous languages, spoken in every corner of North America:

• • Chinuk Wawa (Pacific Northwest)
  • Comanche (Oklahoma)
  • Hupa (Northern California)
  • Taíno (Caribbean)

136 librarians signed up to learn more about Taíno from the course creator, Priscilla Colón. She also shared how libraries can play a role in amplifying Indigenous voices, from Indigenous book recommendations to seed library programming.

• Staff Training & Marketing

The best language learning app is the one patrons actually use. And they can’t use it if they don’t know the library provides it!

To spread the good word about all the exciting new updates in Transparent Language Online, 692 subscribing librarians joined us for more than a dozen library staff training webinars throughout the year.

So while Transparent Language Online is receiving its 11^th consecutive Platinum Award from the Modern Library Awards (!!), it wouldn’t happen without the input, time, and passion of our library subscribers. Who btw made us blush with these comments in their award evaluations:

• “This is the third language product we have tried. The experience with Transparent Language has really felt like a team effort. They work at making the product a fit for library patrons and staff alike. They go the extra mile to support their product with marketing and support.”
• “The Transparent Language team is very responsive. When we have mentioned a language need in our community, they have been able to add language lessons for that language and help provide marketing materials to ensure those resources can be found!”
• “I’m grateful that we have this resource available to help make the library an accessible and welcoming place for everyone. I’m always encouraged each time I have the opportunity to share this resource with a patron!”

Want to keep up with this year’s updates so can keep sharing with your patrons? Sign up for the monthly marketing newsletter!

There’s a lot to look forward to. In the meantime, we’re gonna celebrate our 11^th MLA Platinum award with some Eggos. IYKYK.