Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard metaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new afterword elucidates how knowledge is preserved amid the creative destruction of twenty-first-century technology.

    And the books they remember resonate as influential reading choices for families. EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A CHILDREN'S BOOK--with its full color excerpts of beloved children's books, is a treasury and a guide: a collection of fascinating essays and THE gift book of the year for families.

    This volume aims to help readers respond proactively and help to lead the way to collaborative learning in schools.

    As a parent, it's important that you help your baby acquire the foundation they need to speak earlier, read on their own sooner, and benefit from an increased vocabulary and attention span.Baby Read-Aloud Basics shows you how to establish an effective daily read-aloud routine to take charge of your baby's future understanding and success. Organized around the six stages of early language development from birth to age two, the book provides simple but effective techniques to help you:- Make reading aloud an interactive experience--from intonation and speech patterns to gesture.- Select what to read aloud by looking at how much the text of the book repeats, whether it rhymes, and the types of interactive elements it incorporates.- Know when to read and how often in order to create a reading routine that's both enjoyable and effective.- Ensure your baby gets the right amount of language from a nanny or a caretaker.- Effectively incorporate reading in a bilingual home.Filled with step-by-step instructions, scripted demonstrations, and a list of recommended titles, Baby Read-Aloud Basics gives you all the guidance and information you need to instill a lifelong love of reading and learning, and start your baby along on the road to success."

    Throughout these pages, she catalogs her encounters with local eccentrics as well as the questions that plague her, such as, "What is the standard length of eyebrow hairs?" Whether she's helping someone scan his face onto an online dating site or explaining why the library doesn't have any dragon autobiographies, Sheridan's bizarre tales prove that she's truly seen it all.Stacked high with hundreds of strange-but-true stories, I Work at a Public Library celebrates librarians and the unforgettable patrons that roam the stacks every day.

    Offering children gems of advice such as "Strive to learn" and "Be not a dunce," it was no fun at all. So how did we get from there to "Let the wild rumpus start"? And now that we're living in a golden age of children's literature, what can adults get out of reading Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, or Charlotte's Web and Little House on the Prairie?In Wild Things, Bruce Handy revisits the classics of every American childhood, from fairy tales to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and explores the back stories of their creators, using context and biography to understand how some of the most insightful, creative, and witty authors and illustrators of their times created their often deeply personal masterpieces. Along the way, Handy learns what The Cat in the Hat says about anarchy and absentee parenting, which themes link The Runaway Bunny and Portnoy's Complaint, and why Ramona Quimby is as true an American icon as Tom Sawyer or Jay Gatsby.It's a profound, eye-opening experience to reencounter books that you once treasured after decades apart. A clear-eyed love letter to the greatest children's books and authors, from Louisa May Alcott and L. Frank Baum to Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, Mildred D. Taylor, and E.B. White, Wild Things will bring back fond memories for readers of all ages, along with a few surprises.

    While some fourth-to-ninth-graders come to see books as a lifeline for understanding a changing world, too many experience “the fourth-grade slump”—a marked decline in interest and achievement in reading. Without help, many become middle and high school students who have stopped reading for pleasure, and only slog through what is assigned.Teri draws on her extensive experience as a teacher and consultant to examine ways that educators can help interest kids in books and keep them reading during this crucial period. She looks at:developmental attributes of tweens;emerging interests for tweens;themes and plots tweens find most engaging;annotations for scores of children's and YA literature most appropriate for tweens;practical classroom activities for sparking tween engagement in reading.As in her previous book, Making the Match, Naked Reading is loaded with specific titles to help you connect kids with books that will interest them the most.

    Two of three Americans frequent a public library at least once a year, and nearly that many are registered borrowers. Although library authorities have argued that the public library functions primarily as a civic institution necessary for maintaining democracy, generations of library patrons tell a different story.In Part of Our Lives, Wayne A. Wiegand delves into the heart of why Americans love their libraries. The book traces the history of the public library, featuring records and testimonies from as early as 1850. Rather than analyzing the words of library founders and managers, Wiegand listens to the voices of everyday patrons who cherished libraries. Drawing on newspaper articles, memoirs, and biographies, Part of Our Lives paints a clear and engaging picture of Americans who value libraries not only as civic institutions, but also as social spaces for promoting and maintaining community.Whether as a public space, a place for accessing information, or a home for reading material that helps patrons make sense of the world around them, the public library has a rich history of meaning for millions of Americans. From colonial times through the recent technological revolution, libraries have continuously adapted to better serve the needs of their communities. Wiegand goes on to demonstrate that, although cultural authorities (including some librarians) have often disparaged reading books considered not "serious" the commonplace reading materials users obtained from public libraries have had a transformative effect for many, including people like Ronald Reagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Oprah Winfrey.A bold challenge to conventional thinking about the American public library, Part of Our Lives is an insightful look into one of America's most beloved cultural institutions

    Since then, Cassidy has made it his mission to remind us of how essential librarians and libraries are to our communities. His subjects are men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and personal style-from pink hair and leather jackets to button-downs and blazers. In short, not necessarily what one thinks a librarian looks like. The nearly 220 librarians photographed also share their personal thoughts on what it means to be a librarian. This is What A Librarian Looks Like also includes original essay by some of our most beloved writers, journalists, and commentators including Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Pearl, Cory Doctorow, Paula Poundstone, Amanda Palmer, Peter Sagal, Jeff VanderMeer, John Scalzi, Sara Farizan, Amy Dickinson, and others. Cassidy also profiles a handful of especially influential librarians and libraries.

    Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium.Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including:Will children learn to incorporate the full range of "deep reading" processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain?Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves?With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know?Will all these influences, in turn, change the formation in children and the use in adults of "slower" cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives?Will the chain of digital influences ultimately influence the use of the critical analytical and empathic capacities necessary for a democratic society?How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain?Who are the "good readers" of every epoch?Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become, inevitably, increasingly dependent on screens.Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, technology, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.

    Genres and reading trends are demystified as more than 5,000 titles are classified, with two new chapters on Christian fiction and emerging genres. You'll also find essays by genre experts and the foremost proponents of readers' advisory today.For the past 150 years, America's public libraries have supplied billions of books to billions of people, and most of those books have been (and continue to be) popular fiction. The new edition of Genreflecting explains not only what library patrons are reading, but why. In the process, it casts reading in a new light, demonstrating the way in which it functions as an essential information service that creates communities in culturally democratic ways.Focusing on what today's readers read, this classic guide introduces current genre fiction and popular reading tastes. By defining genres, describing their features and characteristics, and grouping titles by genre, subgenre, and theme, the book helps those who work with readers understand distinct patterns in reading habits and book selection. It thus helps users identify read-alikes and other titles their patrons will enjoy.Genreflecting has become a standard reference and readers' advisory tool for library practitioners, and an insightful text for students of library and information science. Building upon previous editions, this new volume features informative essays on the essence, history, and latest trends of various genres, contributed by top scholars and genre experts, edited by Dr. Wayne Wiegand. New chapters on Christian fiction and emerging genres (women's fiction and chick lit) have been added. In addition, more than 5,000 titles, approximately one-third new to this edition, are classified, focusing on titles published since the last edition along with perennial classics and benchmark titles. The popular feature D's Picks identifies new and noteworthy titles in each genre. Other features new to this edition include lists of selected classic authors and titles in each genre, sections on genreblends in those areas where they occur (e.g., horror/humor, mystery/romance), and three new essays. The Social Nature of Reading by Dr. Wiegand, The Readers' Advisory Interview by Dr. Catherine Ross, and A Brief History of Readers' Advisory by Melanie A. Kimball offer further insight into the nature and importance of this field. A standard professional tool for readers' advisors, and an invaluable collection development guide and text, this is a must-purchase for all libraries. Young adult and adult or Grades 10 and up.

    It is the latest in the best-selling 1001 series, and its informative reviews are the key to differentiating the "must-read" books from all the rest in the realm of children’s books. Whether you are a parent seeking to instill a love of reading in your child, an educator or counselor looking for inspiration, or a young reader with a voracious appetite, this guide to the best writing for children and young adults covers the spectrum of children’s literature. It is organized by age group—from board books to YA novels and all the gradiations in between. Each entry features evaluations by a team of international critics complete with beautifully reproduced artwork from the featured title. The beloved classics are here, but the guide also takes a global perspective and includes the increasingly diverse contributions from African American and Latino authors and illustrators—not to mention important books from around the world.

    The focus has moved from the library as a confined place to one with fluid boundaries that is layered by diverse needs and influenced by an interactive global community. Guiding principles for school library media programs must focus on building a flexible learning environment with the goal of producing successful learners skilled in multiple literacies. Defining the future direction of school library media programs is the purpose of the newest set of guidelines from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), entitled Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs

    R. David Lankes, author of The Atlas of New Librarianship, reminds librarians of their mission: to improve society by facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. In this book, he provides tools, arguments, resources, and ideas for fulfilling this mission. Librarians will be prepared to become radical positive change agents in their communities, and other readers will learn to understand libraries in a new way.The librarians of Ferguson, Missouri, famously became positive change agents in August 2014 when they opened library doors when schools were closed because of civil unrest after the shooting of an unarmed teen by police. Working with other local organizations, they provided children and their parents a space for learning, lunch, and peace. But other libraries serve other communities--students, faculty, scholars, law firms--in other ways. All libraries are about community, writes Lankes; that is just librarianship.In concise chapters, Lankes addresses the mission of libraries and explains what constitutes a library. He offers practical advice for librarian training; provides teaching notes for each chapter; and answers "Frequently Argued Questions" about the new librarianship.

    By providing a road map to research findings on reading, reader-response, audiences, genres, the value of popular culture, the social nature of reading, and the role of libraries in promoting literacy and reading, this guide offers a clear rationale for making pleasure reading a priority in the library and in schools.The authors assert that reading for pleasure is as vital as ever; and that it is, and should be, woven into the majority of activities librarians consider fundamental: reference, collection building, provision of leisure materials, readers' advisory services, storytelling programs, adult literacy programs, and the like. Reading Matters covers myths about reading, the boy problem, reading and identity, how readers select books, and reading as a social activity. An essential resource for library administrators and personnel, the book will help them convey a message about the importance of reading to grant-funding agencies and others. It contains powerful proof that can be used to justify the establishment, maintenance, and growth of fiction (and other pleasure reading) collections, and of readers' advisory services. It is also of interest to LIS faculty who wish to establish/maintain courses in readers' advisory, and can be used as supplemental reading in these classes. Finally, it is a great model and aide for additional research on this topic.