This text teaches students to be a better consumer of research results, understand how the research enterprise works, and prepares them to conduct small research projects. Upon completing this text, students will be aware of what research can and cannot do, and why properly conducted research is important. Using clear, accessible language and examples from real research, this discusses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to social research, emphasizing the benefits of combining various approaches. Briefer, paperback text, adapted from Neuman's Social Research Methods, Sixth Edition.

    In The Accidental Library Manager, author Rachel Singer Gordon provides support and background for new managers, aspiring managers, and those who find themselves in unexpected management roles. Gordon fills in the gaps left by brief and overly theoretical library school coursework, showing library managers how to be more effective in their positions and how to think about their work in terms of the goals of their larger institutions. Included are insights from working library managers at different levels and in various types of libraries, addressing a wide range of management issues and situations. Not to be missed: comments from library staff about the qualities they appreciate-- and the styles and attitudes they find counterproductive-- in their own bosses.

    Students of library and information studies, as well as all working public librarians, will find this the essential source for learning about the successful management and functioning of public libraries throughout the U.S. today. Kathleen McCook, one of the country's leading library educators, compares our library system to those of other nations, details the history of public libraries and information movements, and explains both differing state funding models and state library standards. Dr. McCook discusses the practical functioning of various library programs - information and referral services, discussion groups, genealogy services, and children's, youth, and seniors' programming. Issues of library administration and operation, especially in light of new technology, are explored. State and federal laws, political and educational outreach, and relations with associations and foundations are all discussed in detail.

    In defiance of doomsayers, Johnson finds librarians more vital and necessary than ever, as they fuse the tools of the digital age with love for the written word and the enduring values of truth, service to all, and free speech. This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals who organize our messy world and offer old-fashioned human help through the maze.

    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.

    (No doubt seminars were organized by the Alexandria Librarians Association on the future of the scroll and what to do about the rising barbarian tide.) At no time in our memory, though, have these discussions and conversations been so profound and critical. Here one of today's leading thinkers and speakers about the future of libraries brings together 30 leaders from all types of libraries and from outside librarianship to describe their vision of what the library will be in 2020. Contributors including Stephen Abram, Susan Hildreth, Marie Radford, Clifford Lynch, and Library Journal's The Annoyed Librarian were asked to describe the "library of 2020," in whatever terms they wanted, either a specific library or situation or libraries in general. They were told: "be bold, be inspirational, be hopeful, be true, be provocative, be realistic, be depressing, be light-hearted, be thoughtful, be fun...be yourself, and for heaven's sake, don't be boring." Not that they could be. Broadly representative of important perspectives and aspects within the profession as well as featuring important voices beyond the professional realm, Library 2020 presents thought-provoking and illuminating visions from many points of view. It is both required reading for library leaders and trustees as well as an ideal supplemental text for LIS classes looking at the future of the profession.

    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.

    Library and information science students and professionals will find the background and concepts they need to meet today's - and tomorrow's - challenges. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. The Information Infrastructure: Libraries in Context; 2. Information Science: A Service Perspective; 3. Redefining the Library: The Impacts and Implications of Technological Change; 4. Information Policy: Stakeholders and Agendas; 5. Information Policy as Library Policy: Intellectual Freedom; 6. Information Organization: Issues and Techniques; 7. From Past to Present: The Library s Mission and Its Values; 8. Ethics and Standards: Professional Practices in Library and Information Science; 9. The Library as Institution: An Organizational View, and 10. Librarianship: An Evolving Profession.

    Eberhart (Senior Editor of "American Libraries" magazine for the American Library Association) provides a complete understanding of library functions, orders, procedures, and perspectives focused on people, materials, guidelines, technology, operations, funding, staff development, issues, diversity, the internet, and librarians.

    From emerging search tools Ask.com and Windows Live to standbys Google and Yahoo!, the major search engines and their myriad of services are thoroughly discussed. Recent additions to the Internet realm—RSS feeds, podcasts, alert services, wikis, and blogs—are explained, as well as tried-and-true search tools, including web directories, newsgroups, and image resources. For those with little to moderate searching experience, friendly, easy-to-follow guidelines to the world of Web research are provided, while experienced searchers will discover new perspectives on content and techniques.

    

    The book begins with a historical overview of libraries and their transformation as information and technology hubs within their communities. It also covers the various specializations within the field emphasizing the exciting yet complex roles and opportunities for information professionals. With that foundation in place, it presents how libraries serve different kinds of communities, highlighting the unique needs of users across all ages and how libraries fulfill those needs through a variety of services, and addresses key issues facing information organizations as they meet user needs in the Digital Age. The book then concludes with career management strategies to guide library and information science professionals in building not only vibrant careers but vibrant information organizations for the future as well.

    But for fifty years our country's libraries—including the Library of Congress—have been doing just the opposite, destroying hundreds of thousands of historic newspapers and replacing them with microfilm copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age.With meticulous detective work and Baker's well-known explanatory power, Double Fold reveals a secret history of microfilm lobbyists, former CIA agents, and warehouses where priceless archives are destroyed with a machine called a guillotine. Baker argues passionately for preservation, even cashing in his own retirement account to save one important archive—all twenty tons of it. Written the brilliant narrative style that Nicholson Baker fans have come to expect, Double Fold is a persuasive and often devastating book that may turn out to be The Jungle of the American library system.

    The only reference text to identify the top resources in major subject areas and genres, it shows students how to approach the reference query by matching specific types of questions to the most appropriate format (when answering questions that require handy facts, for example, go first to ready reference sources; for questions about current events and issues, start with indexes). The book begins with the essentials -- interviewing patrons, determining the information need, and developing a basic search strategy. It then gives a thorough overview of the materials, print and electronic, most frequently used to answer questions -- from government information to bibliographic resources, dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical information sources, atlases, and more. A section on special topics in reference includes chapters on when and how to use the Internet as a reference tool, suggestions on user instruction at the reference desk, and reader's advisory work, as well as a chapter on service to children and youth authored by acclaimed expert Mary K. Chelton. Finally, the book addresses reference management basics: selection and evaluation of material, management of the reference department, assessing and improving reference services, and future trends. Guided by an advisory board and a focus group, the authors have achieved an ideal balance between practical elements and guiding principles. This landmark text is sure to be of interest to LIS educators, students, and both novice and experienced reference professionals.

    The Artist's Library offers the idea that an artist is any person who uses creative tools to make new things, and the guidance and resources to make libraries of all sizes and shapes come alive as spaces for art-making and cultural engagement. Case studies included in the book range from the crafty (pop-up books) to the community-minded (library galleries) to documentary (photo projects) to the technically complex ("listening" to libraries via Dewey decimal frequencies).The Library as Incubator Project was created by Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Endres. It highlights the ways that libraries and artists can work together, and works to strengthen these partnerships. By calling attention to one of the many reasons libraries are important to our communities and our culture, it provides a dynamic online forum for sharing ideas.Erinn Batykefer is a librarian, a writer, and a lifelong do-it-yourselfer. She earned an MFA in writing and a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first poetry collection, Allegheny, Monongahela, won the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Prize.Laura Damon-Moore is a librarian, blogger, and avid art-maker in her spare time. Laura received her master's degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012.Jessica Pigza is the assistant curator in the New York Public Library's Rare Book Division. She also writes on handmade material culture, DIY, and handicrafts at Hand-Made Librarian.