Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Hirtle, Peter B., Emily Hudson, Andrew T. Kenyon. Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums.  Ithica, NY: Cornell University Library, 2009.

The development of new digital technologies has led to fundamental changes in the ways that cultural institutions fulfill their public missions of access, preservation, research, and education. Many institutions are developing publicly-accessible websites in which users can visit online exhibitions, search collection databases, access images of collection items, and in some cases create their own digital content. Digitization, however, also raises the possibility of copyright infringement. It is imperative, therefore, that staff in libraries, archives, and museums have a good understanding of fundamental copyright principles and how institutional procedures can be affected by the law. Copyright and Cultural Institutions was written to assist understanding and compliance with copyright law. It discusses the basics of copyright law and the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, the major exemptions used by cultural heritage institutions, and stresses the importance of "risk assessment" when conducting any digitization project. Two cases studies (on digitizing oral histories and student work) are also included.

A to Zoo

Thomas, Rebecca L., and Carolyn W. Lima. A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books. 9th ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-61069-353-0

Note: We also have the supplement to the 9th edition.

Publisher's Description

The beloved favorite of children’s librarians everywhere, A to Zoo provides easy subject access that helps librarians build, enhance, and organize storytime programs and reading lists, as well as to help them develop their collections and support curricular needs.

Looking for a book about anteaters for an inquisitive 6-year-old? Or perhaps a list of children’s books on weather for your book display? Or ABC books for the teacher down the hall? A to Zoo can help. This ninth edition of what has become a gold-standard guide to children’s literature indexes some 17,025 picture books for preschool–grade 2 under 1,225 subjects. Covering the full range of genres, themes, and topics, this guide makes it easy to find books to fit a variety of needs, from readers’ advisory and program planning at the public library to filling teacher requests for titles to use in curricular units.

With terminology that reflects everyday language, the book offers a user-friendly alternative to traditional Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) access, making it easy to help children, parents, and teachers find books on specific topics or themes. It also helps librarians find titles to fill gaps in their collections, and the full bibliographical details and in-depth indexing enable finding titles easily and quickly.
    

Features

• Arranges 17,025 picture books for children preschool–grade 2 under a vast range of subjects to meet librarians', teachers', and parents' needs
• Offers a user-friendly format that supports quick and easy discovery
• Provides a versatile tool that has become the primary go-to reference for children’s librarians

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Subject Headings
Subject Guide
Bibliographic Guide

Title Index
Illustrator Index

Customer-Based Collection Development (book)

Bridges, Karl. (2014). Customer-Based Collection Development: An Overview. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions. 978-0-8389-1192-1.

The traditional “top down” approach to collection development definitely has its drawbacks: even after spending a good deal of time, energy, and resources, librarians are sometimes frustrated to find that their library’s collection is not being used as they anticipated. But there’s another strategy that’s gaining momentum. This book gathers together the best practitioners in the emerging field of customer-based collection development, whose goal is to find out what library users need and want and manage collections accordingly. Speaking from firsthand experience, professionals from a variety of academic and public libraries

• Offer strategies for planning and implementing a customer-based collection program
• Summarize its potential impact on a library’s budget
• Discuss cataloging implications, and other day-to-day operational issues
• Present guidelines for evaluating and marketing 

Customer-based collection development is one way for libraries to navigate the rapid changes in what users expect of libraries, and this new anthology is an important guide to this approach.

(book description)

Experiencing America’s Story through Fiction (book)

Crew, H.S. (2014). Experiencing America's Story Through Fiction: Historical Novels for Grades 7-12. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.

Historical fiction helps young adults imagine the past through the lives and relationships of its protagonists, putting them at the center of fascinating times and places--and the new Common Core Standards allow for use of novels alongside textbooks for teaching history. Perfect for classroom use and YA readers’ advisory, Crew’s book highlights more than 150 titles of historical fiction published since 2000 that are appropriate for seventh to twelfth graders. Choosing award-winners as well as novels which have been well-reviewed in Booklist, The Horn Book, Multicultural Review, History Teach, Journal of American History, and other periodicals, this resource assists librarians and educators by

• Spotlighting novels with a multiplicity of voices from different cultures, races, and ethnicities
• Featuring both YA novels and novels written for adults that are appropriate for teens
• Offering thorough annotations, with an examination of each novel’s historical content
• Providing discussion questions and online resources for classroom use that encourage students to think critically about the book and compare ideas and events in the story to actual history

This book will help teachers of history as well as school and public librarians who work with youth to promote a more inclusive understanding of America’s story through historical fiction.

(book description)

Guide to Reference in Business and Economics

 

Sowards, Steven W. and Elisabeth Leonard (eds.). Guide to Reference in Business and Economics. ALA Editions, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1234-8

Description
This book is both a reference and collection development tool, helping librarians to identify the essential works for library collections in business and economics. The content is based on the economics and business portion of ALA's Guide to Reference database. 

Table of Contents

1.      General Works

2.      Economic Conditions and World Trade

3.      International Information

4.      Functional Areas of Business

5.      Company Information

6.      Basic Industry Information

7.      Specialized Industry Information

8.      Occupations and Careers

The Common Core Guidebook, 3-5

Linder, Rozlyn. The Common Core Guidebook, Grades 3-5: Informational Text Lessons, Guided Practice, Suggested Book Lists, and Reproducible Organizers. Atlanta, GA: The Literacy Initiative, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-9889505-3-5

From the publisher:

This book is the essential resource for anyone teaching students in grades 3-5 to navigate informational text. Based on Rozlyn’s popular Common Core workshops, this guide walks you through each informational text reading standard, aligns each standard to research-based strategies, and explicitly shows you how to introduce and model those strategies in your classroom. Filled with practical techniques, anchor charts, reproducible graphic organizers, and suggested text lists, this indispensable guide helps teachers meet the demands of the Common Core informational text standards.

The Common Core Guidebook, 6-8

Linder, Rozlyn. The Common Core Guidebook, 6-8: Informational Text Lessons, Guided Practice, Suggested Book Lists, and Reproducible Organizers. Atlanta, GA: The Literacy Initiative, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-9889505-0-4

From the publisher:

This book is the essential resource for anyone teaching students in grades 6-8 to navigate informational text. Based on Rozlyn’s popular Common Core workshops, this guide walks you through each informational text reading standard, aligns each standard to research-based strategies, and explicitly shows you how to introduce and model those strategies in your classroom. Filled with practical techniques, anchor charts, reproducible graphic organizers, and suggested text lists, this indispensable guide helps teachers meet the demands of the Common Core informational text standards.

Close Reading of Informational Texts

Cummins, Sunday. Close Reading of Informational Texts: Assessment-Driven Instruction in Grades 3-8. New York: Guilford Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-4625-0781-8

From the publisher:

This essential book provides a roadmap for instruction and assessment of close reading skills in grades 3-8. To engage deeply with informational texts—a key requirement of the Common Core standards—students need to determine what details are important, how they fit together to convey a central idea, and how to synthesize information from multiple sources. They also need to understand the unique demands of different text features and structures. Presenting effective instructional strategies that teachers can tailor to their own classrooms, the book includes lesson plans, vignettes, and examples of student work, plus a Study Guide with professional learning activities and discussion questions.

Interacting with History: Teaching with Primary Sources

Lehman, Katherine (ed.) Interacting with History: Teaching with Primary Sources. Chicago: ALA, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1205-8

From the publisher: 

With nearly 142 million items and one of the largest bodies of high-quality, digitized content available, the Library of Congress (LOC) is an enormously useful resource for librarians and teachers. Yet it remains a mystery to many. Exploring the wealth of materials freely available for free from LOC, Lehman and a stellar roundup of contributors offer an up-to-date survey of teacher resources to help teachers and librarian educators shake the dust off state-mandated history and literature curricula. Beginning with an introduction by Barbara Stripling, 2013-14 ALA President, this book:

• Presents a tour of LOC, with an overview of its primary sources, including digital resources such as maps, diaries, and songbooks
• Details LOC Teacher Page resources, which provide easy access to the most relevant primary sources from the collections
• Offers a selection of lessons from teacher-librarians across the county, with guidance on how librarians and teachers and can use the library's resources in their local communities
• Features numerous sidebars, tables, and illustrations, showing how LOC’s resources can illuminate the past while also providing a backdrop for discussing contemporary issues

This book persuasively demonstrates how the online resources of the Library of Congress can be used not only to enhance a sense of history but also to teach information literacy, online searching, and critical thinking skills to elementary, middle, and high school students.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Barbara Stripling

Chapter 1   
Welcome to the Library of Congress, Sharon Metzger-Galloway

Chapter 2   
Teaching Resources from the Library of Congress, Sara Suiter

Chapter 3
Professional Development and Support for Classroom Teachers Available through the Library of Congress, Katharine Lehman

Chapter 4   
Action Lessons: Interacting with History, Compiled by Katharine Lehman from Participants of the 2011 Library of Congress Summer Institute

Chapter 5   
Discovering Local History Resources in Your Own Backyard, Mary Alice Anderson

About the Author and Contributors
Index

School Libraries Matter: Views from the Research

Dow, Mirah J.  School Libraries Matter: Views from the Research. Santa Barbara, CA, Libraries Unlimited, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-61069-161-1

From the publisher:
As school districts across the United States increasingly question the need for trained librarians, this collection of research-based evidence helps make the case for a state-licensed librarian in every school.

While serving on the AASL legislation committee, Mirah Dow recognized the urgent need to utilize research-based evidence to prove school librarians are much more than an educational luxury. This collection is the result. It brings together school library research studies and findings from the past decade and draws connections to how they can be applied to situations and questions that occur in practice. Taken as a whole, the research underscores that state-licensed, school librarians are a necessity for 21st-century students.

Chapters center on important research studies from the past decade that examine data and locate school libraries within operational contexts. Methodologies are explained and findings summarized, while notes clarify practical applications for school librarians. Because each chapter includes a connection to broad realms of theoretical influence in the social sciences, the work will also be relevant to educators and public policymakers, arming them to better communicate research-based links between investments in school libraries and student learning outcomes.

Features
collection of research-based evidence helps make the case for a state-licensed librarian in every school.

• Utilizes evidence-based findings to explain why school libraries — and trained librarians — matter
• Illustrates the progression of ideas around current education debates
• Shares numerous examples of quantitative and qualitative research design and application
• Summarizes the importance of each study and its practical application for working school librarians

Sample Topics

• Common Core State Standards
• Information and Technology Literacy
• Interdisciplinary Theory Building
• Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (AASL)
• Student Achievement

The Centered School Library: Engaging Every Learner with Library Skills Centers

Young, Cari S. The Centered School Library: Engaging Every Learner with Library Skills Centers. Madison: UpstartBooks, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-60213-056-2

From the publisher:

Is your school library a centered school library? Many educators agree that learning centers provide an effective forum for students to explore, create and express themselves. Centers can also teach and reinforce important skills, but in a manner that empowers students by letting them control the pace.

The Centered School Library invites you to tap the power of this educational approach with 12 unique, adaptable and cost-friendly learning center ideas that will help your students on their way to becoming enthusiastic and savvy library patrons. Do you have budding book reviewers or guide word gurus in your midst? What about potential shelving experts or Name That Genre contestants? With The Centered School Library, you’ll find ways to make your library — and every learner in it — shine! Grades K–5.

Useful, Usable, Desirable: Applying User Experience Design to Your Library

Scmidt, Aaron, and Amanda Etches. Useful, Usable, Desirable: Applying User Experience Design to Your Library. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-55570-968-6

Useful, useable, desirable: like three legs of a stool, if your library is missing the mark on any one of these it’s bound to wobble. Every decision you make affects how people experience your library. In this useful primer, user experience (UX) librarians Schmidt and Etches identify 19 crucial touchpoints such as the library website, email, furniture, parking lot, events, and newsletters. They explain why each is important to your library’s members and offer guidance on how to make improvements. From library administrators to public relations and marketing staff, anyone concerned with how members experience your library will benefit from this book’s

• Coverage of the eight principles of library UX design, explaining how they can guide you to better serve your library's members
• Advice on simple, structured ways to evaluate and improve aspects such as physical space, service points, policies and customer service, signage and wayfinding, online presence, and using the library
• Scorecard system for self evaluation, which includes methods for determining how much time, effort, and skill will be involved in getting optimum performance

Easy to dip into as the need arises, this book points the way towards ensuring that your library is a welcoming space for everyone.

For a complete list of the table of contents, please visit: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=10981. 

The Comparative Guide to WordPress in Libraries

Goodman, Amanda L. The Comparative Guide to WordPress in Libraries: A LITA Guide. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014.ISBN: 978-1-55570-968-6

From the publisher:

More than just an easy-to-use blogging platform, WordPress is in fact a flexible, open source content management system. Without spending a dime or writing a line of code, it’s possible to build the library website of your dreams. But it’s important to understand the basic principles of WordPress so you can plan wisely. In this LITA guide, User Experience (UX) librarian and seasoned WordPress instructor Goodman leads you step-by-step through the basic planning process for a library website that meets your users’ needs and fits your available resources for maintaining it. Written with the questions of library administrators and technology staff in mind, this guide shows you

• How to make an informed decision about whether WordPress is the right platform for your library
• Options for hosted and self-hosted platforms
• Nearly two dozen WordPress sites, drawn from a wide range of different libraries and organizations
• How to choose the right theme for your library's content
• Succinct explanations of every element in the Administrative Dashboard with advice on library applications
• Quick tips on user experience, information architecture, and analytics
• Effective ways to use images, audio, and video

Offering a solid foundation in WordPress, this guide will help you design and launch a library website that effectively serves your library’s users.

Table of Contents:

Preface 

Acknowledgments 

Part 1: Understanding WordPress

1 An Introduction to WordPress 

2 Flavors of WordPress 

3 The Competition 

Part 2: The Basics of Developing a WordPress Website

4 Website Planning 

5 Using WordPress 

6 Themes 

7 An Introduction to Plugins and Media 

8 Administrative Tools 

Part 3: Library Implementations of WordPress

9 Academic Libraries 

10 Library Associations 

11 Digital Libraries /Archives 

12 Government and Law 

13 Public Libraries 

14 School Library Media Centers 

15 Special Libraries and Allies 

Appendixes

A The Survey
B Resources for WordPress
C Plugins  

Index

Read a sample of the book now!

Responsive Web Design for Libraries

Reidsma, Mathew. Responsive Web Design for Libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-55570-994-5

From the publisher:

Tablets, desktops, smartphones, laptops, minis: we live in a world of screens, all of different sizes. Library websites need to work on all of them, but maintaining separate sites or content management systems is resource intensive and still unlikely to address all the variations. Experienced responsive web developer Reidsma, named “a web librarian to watch” by ACRL’s TechConnect blog, shares proven methods for delivering the same content to all users using HTML and CSS. His practical guidance will enable web developers to save valuable time and resources by working with a library’s existing design to add responsive web design features. With both clarity and thoroughness, and firmly addressing the expectations of library website users, this book

• Shows why responsive web design is so important, and how its flexibility can meet the needs of both today’s users and tomorrow’s technology
• Provides in-depth coverage of implementing responsive web design on an existing site, steps for taking traditional desktop CSS and adding breakpoints for site responsiveness, and ways to use grids to achieve a visual layout that’s adaptable to different devices
• Includes valuable tips and techniques from web developers and designers, such as how to do more with fewer resources, and improving performance by designing a site that sends fewer bytes over fewer connections
• Offers advice for making vendor sites responsive
• Features an abundance of screen captures, associated code samples, and links to additional resources

This guide shows how, through responsive web design, libraries can build one site for all devices—now and in the future—with just HTML and CSS.

Table of Contents

1 A Case for Responsive Web Design 

2 Fluid Layouts 

3 Media Queries 

4 Performance 

5 Responsive Web Design and Support 

6 Going Responsive: First Steps 

7 Making Your Existing Layout Responsive 

8 Improving Your Site’s Performance 

9 Making Vendor Sites Responsive 

Index

Read a sample of the book now!

The Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know

Varnum, Kenneth J. (ed.) The Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1228-7

From the publisher:

While it's inspiring to ponder the libraries of the 22nd century, it's a lot more practical to think ahead to the next five years. That's just what Varnum and his hand-picked team of contributors have done, showing library technology staff and administrators where to invest time and money to receive the greatest benefits. Their ideas will stimulate strategic thinking and help library staff make informed decisions about meeting user expectations and delivering services. Sure conversation starters and informative for any library, chapters include:

• “Impetus to Innovate: Convergence and Library Trends,” by A.J. Million and Heather Lea Moulaison
• “Hands-Free Augmented Reality: Impacting the Library Future,” by Brigitte M. Bell and Terry Cottrell
• “Libraries and Archives Augmenting the World,” by William Denton
• “The Future of Cloud-Based Library Systems,” by Steven Bowers and Elliot Jonathan Polak
• “Library Discovery: From Ponds to Streams,” by Varnum
• “Exit As Strategy: Web Services as the New Websites for Many Libraries,” by Anson Parker, VP Nagraj, and David Moody
• “Reading and Non-Reading: Text Mining in Critical Practice,” by Devin Higgins
• “Bigger, Better, Together: Building the Digital Library of the Future,” by Jeremy York
• “The Case for Open Hardware in Libraries,” by Jason Griffey

This compendium offers an expert-level view of the library technology that’s just around the corner.

Ecology, Economy, Equity: the path to a carbon-neutral library

Henk, Mandy. Ecology, Economy, Equity: the path to a carbon-neutral library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014.  027 Henk.   ISBN-13: 978-0838912171



In the first book to seriously examine the future of libraries in a climate reality-based context, Henk convincingly argues that building a carbon-neutral future for libraries is not only essential but eminently practical. Using the “three E’s” of sustainability (ecology, economy, equity) as a foundation, she traces the development of sustainability from its origins in the 1970s to the present, laying out a path librarians can take at their own institutions to begin the process of building a carbon-neutral library. Rooted in the latest science but firmly focused on concrete action, her book:

• Makes the case for sustainable libraries, tying the values that define the profession to the necessity of rethinking library operations and services in light of climate change
• Guides readers through the first steps, with advice on starting the conversation, conducting outreach to stakeholders, and forming a sustainability committee
• Includes a Sustainability Assessment and a sample sustainability plan that libraries can tailor for use at their own institution
• Looks at the challenges of technology and corporate power in the library, addressing the power imbalance between large corporations and libraries and suggesting alternatives to the status quo
• Discusses how libraries can combine strong advocacy with powerful activism to propel the library world into a socially just, safely powered world
• Offers a bibliography of additional resources

Written by an activist who is also a working librarian, the book's balance between scientific research and step-by-step action will prove stimulating for library planners, administrators, LIS students, and anyone with an interest in climate change, sustainability, and libraries.

Letting Go of Legacy Services: Library Case Studies

Evangeliste, Mary & Katherine Furlong, eds. Letting Go of Legacy Services. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014  025.1 Letti.   ISBN-13: 978-0838912201

The last few years have proven beyond any doubt that libraries cannot afford to coast along with the status quo. Just as important as proposing and adding new services is the sometimes unpleasant process of critically examining existing realities and letting go of obsolete or less useful programs. But instead of panicking about budgetary and staffing challenges, libraries can choose a measured, proactive response. The contributors in this practical guidebook take readers step-by-step through approaches they've used at their own institutions, offering models that can be adapted to a wide variety of settings.

After reading this book library directors and administrators will have insights into:

• How planned abandonment strategies grounded in assessment-based decision making can allow libraries to focus on what they do best
• Common sense solutions to "pressure points" common across many different libraries, such as difficulties in dealing with data, communicating to internal and external populations, and the ordinary day-to-day pressures of running a library
• The first steps towards formulating a plan of action, and ways to make evaluation of services a regular part of organizational culture
• Analysis of each case study, and suggestions for further exploration

Through examination of these case studies, librarians can develop a framework that helps lead to more structured thinking about what is vitally important for their own library's future.

Using Massive Digital Libraries

Weiss, Andrew. Using Massive Digital Libraries: A LITA Guide. ALA TechSource, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1235-5

Description
Weiss takes an in-depth look at what he calls "massive digital libraries" like Google Books, HathiTrust, or Internet Archive and how they might fit into a library context. He explores their strengths and weaknesses as digital information tools, helping librarians understand how they function and what we can expect in the future.

Table of Contents

Part 1 - Background

1 A Brief History of Digital Libraries-or, How Did We Get Here?

2 Massive Digital Libraries-or, Where Are We?

3 Major Party Players and Their Characteristics-or, Who's at the Party?

4 Impact on Librarianship-or, How Do I Deal with This?

Part 2 - The Philosophical Issues

5 The Copyright Conundrum-or, How Is This Allowed?

6 Collection Development-or, How Did I Get This?

7 Collection Diversity-or, Why Is This Missing?

8 Access-or, Why Can't I Get This?

Part 3 - Practical Applications

9 Using MDLs in Libraries-or, To What End?

10 Four MDL Studies