Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The New Instruction Librarian


The New Instruction Librarian: A Workbook for Trainers and Librarians, by Candice Benjes-Small and Rebecca K. Miller. ALA Editions, 2017. 978-0-8389-1456-4.

Publisher's Description
The sheer amount of resources on the subject of information literacy is staggering. Yet a comprehensive but concise roadmap specifically for librarians who are new to instruction, or who are charged with training someone who is, has remained elusive. Until now. This book cuts through the jargon and rhetoric to ease the transition into library instruction, offering support to all those involved, including library supervisors, colleagues, and trainees.  Grounded in research on teaching and learning from numerous disciplines, not just library literature, this book:
  • shows how to set up new instruction librarians for success, with advice on completing an environmental scan, strategies for recruiting efficiently, and a training checklist;
  • walks readers step by step through training a new hire or someone new to instruction, complete with hands-on activities and examples;
  • explores the different roles an instruction librarian is usually expected to play, such as educator, project manager, instructional designer, and teaching partner;
  • demonstrates the importance of performance evaluation and management, including assessment and continuing education, both formal and informal; and
  • provides guided reading lists for further in-depth study of a topic.
A starter kit for librarians new to instruction, this resource will be useful for training coordinators as well as for self-training.

Check out this book’s Web Extra now!

More Information
See the publisher's website for Table of Contents and information about the authors.

Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries


Gilton, Donna L. Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Tools and Tips for Practitioners. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-6952-1 

Description
This book describes basic steps that librarians can execute in order to get started with lifelong learning programming, using ideas from informal and nonformal education in museums, community organizations and agencies. Chapters include on planning for instruction, using teaching methodologies, teaching with and about technology, and bringing information literacy standards together with more traditional public library services, programming, and activities, such as reference and Readers’ Advisory services, bibliotherapy, and cultural and literacy programming.


Table of Contents
1.What Creating and promoting lifelong learning in public libraries is all about.
  • Planning modes and instructional models
  • Scope and organization
  • Notes
2. Planning for formal instruction.
  • Decision points
  • ILI planning for the whole library
  • Preparing to teach
  • Notes
3. Teaching methodologies.
  • Lectures
  • Active learning in the classroom
  • Games and gaming
  • Applying active learning to real life
  • Universal design of learning, instruction, and information literacy
  • Toward evaluation
  • Notes
4. Implementing instruction with technology.
  • Web 1.0
  • Web 2.0
  • Combining Web 1.0 and 2.0
  • Notes
5. Connecting information literacy to other lifelong learning in public libraries.
  • Lifelong learning, adult education, and independent learning reference encounters and research consultations, off- and online
  • Readers' advisory services
  • Bibliotherapy
  • Cultural and literacy programming
  • Lifelong learning and public libraries : tying it all together
  • Notes
Conclusion: ILI futures.
  • More technologies, more complex technologies
  • Changes in standards
  • Other literacies
  • Implication, application, and remaining questions
  • Notes

Monday, December 12, 2016

Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Cultural Competence in Action! An Asset-Based Approach

 

Montiel-Overall, Patricia, Annabella Villaescusa Nunez and Veronica Reyes-Escudero.  Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Cultural Competence in Action! An Asset-Based Approach. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-5850-1

Description
Covering the areas of academic, school, public libraries, health sciences, archives, and special collections, the authors show the importance of understanding how cultural competence effects the day-to-day communication, relationship building, and information provision with Latinos.

Table of Contents

  1. Cultural competence
  2. School libraries
  3. Public libraries
  4. Academic libraries
  5. Health information services
  6. Archives and special collections
  7. Museums
  8. Looking ahead

Friday, December 9, 2016

Effective Difficult Conversations

Soehner, C. B., & Darling, A. (2017). Effective Difficult Conversations: A Step-by-Step Guide. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.

In an information landscape where change is the status quo, difficult conversations come with the territory. Being a library leader means knowing how to confidently steer these conversations so that they lead to productive results instead of hurt feelings, resentment, or worse.  Employees in a library will also encounter conflict, especially during times of change. Using a step-by-step process, this book walks readers through learning the skills to have effective difficult conversations that hold themselves and others accountable. Practice activities throughout the book will help readers feel prepared beforehand. After reading this book, library directors, managers, administrators, and team leaders will feel empowered to
  • proactively identify situations that require an intervention in order to avoid unnecessary complications or confrontations down the line;
  • prepare for and initiate a difficult conversation, balancing a clear message with compassion to successfully manage change or handle personnel issues;
  • diffuse volatile emotions by maintaining a calm, measured approach;  and
  • follow up a difficult conversation in writing, keeping the lines of communication open to ensure a way forward.
Illustrated with real-world examples of both successful and unsuccessful difficult conversations, this book will serve as an important leadership tool for handling change and conflicts in the library workplace.

(Book description)

Describing Music Materials


Smiraglia, Richard P. with Jihee Beak. Describing Music Materials: A Manual for Resource Description of Printed and Recorded Music and Music Videos. Fourth Edition. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4422-7628-4.

Description
This edition is rewritten to a large extent to conform to the new instructions and paradigms represented in Resource Description and Access (RDA). RDA instructions for printed music, recorded music and music video are accompanied by advice, examples, illustrations and complete catalog records, including versions in MARC21 format.

Table of Contents

1. Description of Printed Material

2. Description of Sound Recordings

3. Description of Music Video Recordings

4. Authorized Access Points


Glossary

Appendix: OCLC MARC21 Examples

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Online Searching

Markey, Karen. Online Searching: A Guide to Finding Quality Information Efficiently and Effectively. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4422-3885-5

Publisher's Description
Online Searching puts the aspiring librarian on the fast track to becoming an expert searcher who unites library users with trusted sources of information to answer their questions.

To accomplish this, it ushers you through online searching as a seven-step process:
(1) determining what the user really wants in the reference interview,
(2) identifying sources that are likely to produce relevant information for the user’s query,
(3) dividing the query into big ideas and combining them logically,
(4) hypothesizing whether a known item or a subject will satisfy the query,
(5) representing the query as input to the search system,
(6) conducting the search and responding strategically, and
(7) displaying retrievals, assessing them, and responding tactically.

For key concepts, Online Searching enlists multimedia, representing visually what is difficult to convey via words alone. When you analyze Online Searching’s real search topics, search online, and compare your results with its suggested answers, you’ll experience the seven-step online searching process first-hand. Included are specific recommendations about what you should teach end users about online searching and a method for quickly and efficiently familiarizing yourself with a new database and search system.

Including short video demonstrations, Online Searching is your go-to guidebook for ramping yourself up from novice to expert searcher.


Table of contents

Information and Digital Literacies



Farmer, Lesley S. J. Information and Digital Literacies A Curricular Guide for Middle and High School Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4422-3981-4

Publisher's Description
Information and Digital Literacies: A Curricular Guide for Middle and High School Librarians is a practical guide to help school librarians design and deliver effective instruction that addresses the knowledge, skills and dispositions of information and digital literacies.

This curricular guide from one of America’s foremost experts in this area will help librarians prepare students for college and careers. It provides systematic instruction about conducting research and using integration as stated in the Common Core, complying with state and federal mandates for digital safety/competence curriculum, and recognizing the instructional role of school librarians. It should be noted that “canned” programs, particularly for digital safety exist, but they are not aligned with other school standards, and they do not reflect the unique communities of learners, let alone address the need to collaboration and articulation.

The ready-to-implement curricular guide features:
  • instructional design strategies,
  • model middle and high school curriculum, including a scope-and-sequence, stand-alone courses, units of instruction, and sample learning activities, and
  • ties to new AASL and ACRL information literacy standards, ISTE technology standards, 21st Century Partnership framework, and Common Core State Standards.
Table of contents

School Libraries 3.0

Butler, Rebecca P. School Libraries 3.0: Principles and Practices for the Digital Age. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
IBSN: 978-0-8108-8580-6

Publisher's Description
This textbook, for school library administration courses, is written by a professor who has taught this course at least once a year for the past twenty years. Technology is interwoven throughout the book and not listed as a separate chapter or book section. This is because the school librarian of today—and certainly the school librarian of tomorrow—is working in an environment of web resources, multimedia, mixed methods, and varying programs and services. Major chapters cover the various roles of the school librarian, curricular standards and guidelines, policies and procedures, budgeting, facilities, personnel, services, programming, ethics, advocacy, and evaluation. Sample policies, procedures, and plans make this book valuable to both new and experienced school librarians.



The New Librarianship Field Guide

Lankes, R. David. The New Librarianship Field Guide. MIT Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780262529082

Publisher's Description
This book offers a guide for librarians who see their profession as a chance to make a positive difference in their communities—librarians who recognize that it is no longer enough to stand behind a desk waiting to serve. R. David Lankes, author of The Atlas of New Librarianship, reminds librarians of their mission: to improve society by facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. In this book, he provides tools, arguments, resources, and ideas for fulfilling this mission. Librarians will be prepared to become radical positive change agents in their communities, and other readers will learn to understand libraries in a new way.

The librarians of Ferguson, Missouri, famously became positive change agents in August 2014 when they opened library doors when schools were closed because of civil unrest after the shooting of an unarmed teen by police. Working with other local organizations, they provided children and their parents a space for learning, lunch, and peace. But other libraries serve other communities—students, faculty, scholars, law firms—in other ways. All libraries are about community, writes Lankes; that is just librarianship.

In concise chapters, Lankes addresses the mission of libraries and explains what constitutes a library. He offers practical advice for librarian training; provides teaching notes for each chapter; and answers “Frequently Argued Questions” about the new librarianship.

Go Get That Grant! A Practical Guide for Libraries and Nonprofit Organizations


Staines, Gail M. Go Get That Grant! A Practical Guide for Libraries and Nonprofit Organizations. 2nd edition. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-7027-5

Description
This book is a practical, how-to guide for those interested in writing, procuring, and implementing grants. The second edition has also been expanded to include a new chapter on how to become a grant writer. From gathering basic information about an organization through accepting and implementing the grant award, expert advice is provided then illustrated through step-by-step guides along with numerous examples.

Table of Contents
  • Creating your toolkit 
  • Identifying a project
  • Types of grants
  • Funding sources
  • Select a grant and start writing
  • Submitting your grant
  • Making the grant successful
  • If you want to become a grant writer
  • Some advice and final words

Friday, December 2, 2016

Winning Grants: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians


MacKellar, Pamela H. and Stephanie K. Gerding. Winning Grants :  A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians (2nd ed.). Chicago: ALA Neal Schuman, 2017. ISBN 978-0-8389-1473-1  025.11 MacKeW2

Publisher's Description
Newly revised and refreshed, this invaluable how-to manual will teach you the skills and strategies crucial for finding, applying for, and winning grants. Whether you’re starting from scratch and don’t know where to begin, or you’re an experienced grant writer looking to tap into new funding sources, this resource offers a proven, easy-to-understand process for grant success. Loaded with a wide variety of forms, worksheets, and checklists to help you stay organized, this book:
  • summarizes the grant process cycle and outlines a clear path to success;
  • shares inspiring grant success stories in action from diverse libraries;
  • offers guidance on gathering knowledge and conducting research, with updated resource lists and links to the various types of funders;
  • covers every stage of planning, including how to cultivate community involvement, methods for needs assessment, advice on organizing the grant team, and exercises to help you write realistic goals and objectives;
  • gives tips on writing the proposal, such as where to find the best statistics and census data to support your statement of needs;
  • advises how to announce a successful grant to the community, and other first steps of implementation, including the basic principles of project management;
  • provides guidance on what to do when you’re turned down and how to conduct an effective review session that keeps the process moving forward;
  • highlights ways to stay current through online discussion groups, blogs, networking groups, and more; and
  • features sample RFPs, budget templates, grant partnership documents, and many other helpful tools.
Written by two librarians who are experts in grantsmanship, this all-in-one toolkit for winning grants is a must-have for library directors, grant writers, board members, consultants, and anyone else involved in planning library programs and services.

Web extras