MLA publishes standards for library services to Massachusetts children and young adults.

MLA sponsors an annual conference, as well as continuing education programs and organizational reports of interest.

The current President of MLA is Esme Green, Director of the Goodnow Library in Sudbury.

[3][4] The MLA had a committee called The Art Club that created sets of photographs for travelling art exhibits that would rotate through Massachusetts member and associate libraries as early as 1900.

[5] In 1962 MLA's Intellectual Freedom Committee gave testimony before the Massachusetts Obscene Literature Control Commission opposing the suppression of Henry Miller's book Tropic of Cancer supporting Massachusetts residents' freedom to read.