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.

    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.

    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.

    

    In fact, staff at public libraries interact with almost as many homeless individuals as staff at shelters do. Empathy and understanding, along with specific actionable advice that's drawn from experience, makes all the difference in working with this group.In this book Dowd, executive director of a homeless shelter, spotlights best practices drawn from his own shelter's policies and training materials. Filled with to-the-point guidance that will help front line public library staff and managers understand and serve this population better, this resource:• includes facts about homelessness every librarian should know;• debunks widespread myths about these individuals, explaining how they see themselves, what issues they struggle with, and how libraries can shift towards supporting them;• shares de-escalation techniques like showing respect, ways to avoid making things personal, and using proper body language;• walks readers through dealing with common issues like a sleeping patron, questionable hygiene, offensive behavior, and asking a patron to leave; and• advises on how to provide backup to a colleague and when to call the police.Filled with real life stories that illustrate the effectiveness of Dowd's approach, this one-of-a-kind guide will empower library staff to treat homeless individuals with dignity.

    Drawing heavily upon the women's studies literature where the concept first appears, Accardi defines and describes recurring themes for feminist teachers: envisioning the classroom as a collaborative, democratic, transformative site; consciousness raising about sexism and oppression; ethics of care in the classroom; and the value of personal testimony and lived experience as valid ways of knowing. Framing these concepts in the context of the limits of library instruction--so often a 50 minute one-shot bound by ACRL-approved cognitive learning outcomes--Accardi invites a critical examination of the potential for feminist liberatory teaching methods in the library instruction classroom. This book is Number 3 in the Litwin Books Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies, Emily Drabinski, Series Editor.

    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.

    A host of specialists have contributed to the collection. This new edition includes more detailed discussion of a wider range of reference-related services including interlibrary loan, document delivery, and readers' advisory services. There is also increased attention to ethical issues and a stronger focus on user-centered services, both face-to-face and mediated by technology. In addition, the authors discuss Web sites of significant value to reference services and the impact of the Internet and World Wide Web on reference services. This carefully designed and readable text explains the essential theory and provides the practical knowledge necessary for an initial reference course. Its broad scope and organizational clarity will benefit students and practitioners.

    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.

    Written and designed to reflect the way people read today, this book is structured to quickly impart simple and cost-effective ideas on marketing your library.

    Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis.The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

    Based on the latest research in communication theory, the book includes new exercises and examples to help you practice effective reference transactions and avoid common pitfalls. Guidance for helping users with special language-related needs (such as speech and hearing disabilities and English language learners) and social difficulties is also included, as are updated chapters on readers' advisory interviewing and policy and training procedures. An extensively revised chapter on virtual reference features new sections on live chat and instant messaging services as well as a discussion of Web 2.0 initiatives and updated information on email reference.

    This foundation to the profession covers the competencies needed by professional librarians and can serve as both introduction to the new student and an update to the veteran.Typically, interested laypeople and students are introduced to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of professional librarians piecemeal or through introductory or core courses. Unlike other fields (e.g., business administration, management), there is no published broad overview of the profession. Almost peculiarly, the basic foundation course in LIS education is about information in context, or libraries and their mission, but not about the competencies of professional librarians as a foundation for future courses.This book fills that gap, whether as an introduction to the profession or as a response to the question What does a librarian do?Here, experts in several fields of library and information science provide introductions to their areas of expertise, covering the competencies needed by professional librarians. Accessible and comprehensive, The Portable MLIS can serve as both an introduction for the new student and an update for the veteran.

    In straightforward language, the author Shows how to easily set clear expectations for visitors' behavior Presents guidelines for when and how to intervene when someone violates the code of conduct, including tips for approaching an unruly patron Offers instruction on keeping persistent troublemakers under control or permanently barred from the library Gives library staff tools for communicating effectively with its security professionals, including examples of basic documentation The Black Belt Librarian arms librarians with the confidence and know-how they need to maintain a comfortable, productive, and safe environment for everyone in the library.

    It has been expanded and improved with: - Easy ways to create "read alike" lists, identifying what else is "like" a favorite book- Practical guidelines for conducting the advisory interview so it's a comfortable exchange- Confidence-boosting tactics for drawing on reviews to make recommendations- Methods for incorporating nonfiction into the discussion- More resources and online tools