Read to Succeed (book)

Court, J. (2011). Read to Succeed: Strategies to Engage Children and Young People in Reading for Pleasure. London, UK: Facet Publishing.

 As schools and libraries lose their funding, literacy services to children and young adults must become more efficient, practical, and effective. This much-needed collection covers all aspects of promoting reading to and with young people, along with models of current practices and inspiration for future developments. It contains vital insight into how young readers think, empowering you to foster literacy while reaching even the most reluctant readers. Full of advice from experts in the field, it will appeal to librarians and students who wish to work in public or school libraries.

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Screen Time (book)

Guernsey, L. (2007). Screen Time: How Electronic Media--From Baby Videos to Educational Software--Affects your Young Child. New York: Basic Books.

Note: This is the paperback edition of Into the Minds of Babes. The only difference is the forward by Ellen  Wartella and a 20 page epilogue by the author.

As a mother, Lisa Guernsey wondered about the influence of TV on her two young daughters. As a reporter, she resolved to find out. What she first encountered was tired advice, sensationalized research claims, and a rather draconian mandate from the American Association of Pediatricians: no TV at all before the age of two. But like many parents, she wanted straight answers and realistic advice, so she kept digging: she visited infant-perception laps and child development centers around the country. She interviewed scored of parents, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and media researchers, as well as programming executives at Noggin, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, and PBS. Much of what she found flies in the face of conventional wisdom and led her to conclude that new parents will be best served by focusing on "the three C's": content, context, and the individual child.

Advocating a new approach to TV and DVDs, Guernsey focuses on infants to five-year-olds and goes beyond the headlines to explore what exactly is "educational" about educational media. She examines how play and language development are affected by background and foreground TV and how to choose videos that are age-appropriate. She explains how to avoid the hype of "brain stimulation" and focus instead on social relationships and the building blocks of language and literacy. Along the way, she highlights independent research on shows ranging from Dora The Explorer to Dragon Tales, and distills some surprising new findings in the field of child development.

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Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library (book)

Pinnell-Stephens, J. (2012). Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library: Scenarios from the Front Lines. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

There is arguably no arena more contentious in the battle over intellectual freedom (IF) than the public library. When confronted with challenges like censorship and policy disputes, public librarians and paraprofessionals need reliable how-to guidance, and Pinnell-Stephens offers exactly that in this valuable resource. Chock-full of case studies, real-life examples, and hypothetical scenarios, this book provides

• An easy and thoroughly engaging way to introduce new employees to basic IF concepts
• Incisive analysis of how IF plays out in the world of public libraries
• Practical advice on how to effectively handle intellectual freedom challenges
• Numerous sidebars, written by IF expert Deborah Caldwell-Stone, detailing copyright laws, statutes, past court cases, and sample policies

A concise summary of what’s at stake and how to react, Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library will prepare public library personnel to face the issues at hand.

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