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.

    This is not an encyclopedic reference book of the past--but rather a cutting edge resource for teachers who want to connect with their techno-savvy 21st century students and in turn connect them to the literature of today. Using themes of exploration and connecting to literature--the authors emphasize actual reading of books, rather than reading about them. The authors also encourage using the Internet to expand our knowledge and interest of literature. Finally, the text contains the most current materials that will get adolescents reading-horror, humor, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels and comic books.

    You didn’t choose it and you can’t get out of it. After a lifelong quest to find “the one” a British writer living in L.A. finds herself single again in her mid-thirties and admits defeat. But instead of blaming the string of past ex-boyfriends, she turns the spotlight on herself. Taking a year off dating men, she tries to date herself in a search for some answers. A fun “honeymoon period” concludes with a shocking discovery. She starts to dig deeper, seeking the source of her problems, but the truth is a bitter pill to swallow. The Girl Who Dated Herself begins as an entertaining “rom com for one” but evolves into an engaging and thought-provoking journey that ultimately questions our preconceptions about love and the foundations of self worth. A book for women and men of all ages, this creative memoir is endlessly amusing and endearing. It touches on subjects painfully familiar to some and uncomfortably shocking to others. A journey of self-discovery, it is also a beautiful love letter to Los Angeles, taking the reader to the real world behind the glitz and gloss of Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

    Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Public Library, was summarily dismissed from her job after thirty years of exemplary service, ostensibly because she had circulated subversive materials. In truth, however, Brown was fired because she had become active in promoting racial equality and had helped form a group affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality.Louise S. Robbins tells the story of the political, social, economic, and cultural threads that became interwoven in a particular time and place, creating a strong web of opposition. This combination of forces ensnared Ruth Brown and her colleagues-for the most part women and African Americans-who championed the cause of racial equality.This episode in a small Oklahoma town almost a half-century ago is more than a disturbing local event. It exemplifies the McCarthy era, foregrounding those who labored for racial justice, sometimes at great cost, before the civil rights movement. In addition, it reveals a masking of concerns that led even Brown’s allies to obscure the cause of racial integration for which she fought. Relevant today, Ruth Brown’s story helps us understand the matrix of personal, community, state, and national forces that can lead to censorship, intolerance, and the suppression of individual rights.

    I hated working for him and I hated being around him. I hated it when he walked through the front door at home. And we feared him from the moment he pulled up in front of the house in his car.” So writes conservative firebrand and popular radio host Larry Elder. For ten years Elder and his father did not talk to each other. When they finally did, the conversation went on for eight hours—eight hours that took Elder on his father’s journey from the Jim Crow South, to service in the Marine Corps, to starting a business in Southern California. Elder emerged not just reconciled with his dad, but admiring him, and realizing that he had never fully known him or understood him.  Heartfelt, beautifully written, compulsively readable, A Lot Like Me—originally published as Dear Father, Dear Son—is both a powerfully affecting memoir and a personal, provocative slice of American history.

    But as any working librarian will tell you, that's not the half of it. A long-time library administrator, Doucett gives new librarians a full dose of practical advice and wisdom that remains between the lines of most library curricula, while also teaching seasoned professionals a thing or two. With advice gleaned from years of hard-won experience, this book: *Covers a variety of library topics that are truly relevant to the day-to-day job, such as management, administration, and marketing *Shows how librarians can use practical business and organizational skills to do a better job and further their careers *Presents information in a grab-and-go format that's ready to apply in the real worldFor MLS graduates just entering the job market, as well as individuals interested in switching gears through promotion or advancement, Doucett offers the inside scoop on what a librarian really wants to know.

    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.

    Heather Hedden one of today s leading writers, instructors, and consultants on indexing and taxonomy topics walks readers through the process, displaying her trademark ability to present highly technical information in straightforward, comprehensible English. Drawing on numerous real-world examples, Hedden explains how to create terms and relationships, select taxonomy management software, design taxonomies for human versus automated indexing, manage enterprise taxonomy projects, and adapt taxonomies to various user interfaces. The result is a practical and essential guide for information professionals who need to effectively create or manage taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and thesauri.

    What is librarianship when it is unmoored from cataloging, books, buildings, and committees? In The Atlas of New Librarianship, R. David Lankes offers a guide to this new landscape for practitioners. He describes a new librarianship based not on books and artifacts but on knowledge and learning; and he suggests a new mission for librarians: to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. The vision for a new librarianship must go beyond finding library-related uses for information technology and the Internet; it must provide a durable foundation for the field. Lankes recasts librarianship and library practice using the fundamental concept that knowledge is created though conversation. New librarians approach their work as facilitators of conversation; they seek to enrich, capture, store, and disseminate the conversations of their communities. To help librarians navigate this new terrain, Lankes offers a map, a visual representation of the field that can guide explorations of it; more than 140 Agreements, statements about librarianship that range from relevant theories to examples of practice; and Threads, arrangements of Agreements to explain key ideas, covering such topics as conceptual foundations and skills and values. Agreement Supplements at the end of the book offer expanded discussions. Although it touches on theory as well as practice, the Atlas is meant to be a tool: textbook, conversation guide, platform for social networking, and call to action.Copublished with the Association of College & Research Libraries.

    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

    

    Whether you are a student, taking your first steps in librarianship, a mid-careerist planning your next best professional move, or a seasoned information professional looking for new directions and growth; this practical guide can help you sort through the options. Leading you through a process of planning the information career of your choice, it shows you how to determine what type of work would be most fulfilling to you, explores what types of work are available to those with an LIS-based skill set, and helps you create an action plan for accomplishing your career goals and reaching your full professional potential.The author discusses the entire spectrum of information work, revealing a wealth of possibilities you may have never considered. These range from work within traditional, facilities-based librarianship, working in library-related but not necessarily library-based jobs, and working in non-library related positions that utilize the traditional skill sets of the LIS degree, such as research, information organization, training and development, business development, non-profit work, and so on.Designed as a text, this book can also be used as a self-directed guide. The author takes readers step-by-step through a fascinating process of career exploration and action. Taking into account the inevitable shifting priorities that occur throughout one's career, she emphasizes tools for lifelong career resiliency, rather than a rigid commitment to a single career goal. Thus, this is a book you will turn to again and again throughout your career. With numerous tables, worksheets, lists, and extensive bibliographies of recommended resources for further study, both print and on the web, you have everything you need to begin this exciting journey.

    More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible -- by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal.

    Like Henry Petroski's The Pencil, Scrolling Forward takes a common, everyday object, the document, and illuminates what it reveals about us--our work, our values, our relationships--both in the past and as we move into the digital age.

    Nothing like it has been made before and—to its millions of fans—nothing as good will ever be made again. It is a show that prompts endless debate, and the debates continue here. Is Omar Little the coolest criminal since Robin Hood? Which series has the best theme tune? Will Bubbles survive Baltimore? Avon or Stringer? How does McNulty have so much success with women? With the show now over, these and hundreds of other questions are discussed in this brilliant collection of features and comments from the Guardian's Wire Re-up blog. Together with interviews with the show's creators and stars, running totals per episode (murders, Bunk drunk, Herc screw-ups, and much more), and a quiz created by the stars themselves, this book will guarantee fans that one last fix they've been craving.