Renew Yourself

Hakala-Ausperk, Catherine. Renew Youself: a six-step plan for more meaningful work. Chicago: Ala, 2017. ISBN 978-0-8389-1499-1   650.1 Hakal


Unplanned careers affect everything and everyone. They can lead to frustration, negativity, and apathy at a time when we need to be focused, energized and motivated. Though your library career might have started "accidentally," you can overcome organizational restructuring, changing job titles, and shifting responsibilities by cultivating a mindful existence in the library workplace. Building on the simple and fun approach that have made her previous books bestsellers, Hakala-Ausperk offers up a workbook-style program for revisiting personal values, understanding your options, identifying skill gaps, and creating plans for growth. Whether you're a library veteran who's feeling burned out, a new LIS grad just starting out, or somewhere in mid-career, this book will

• introduce methods to help you examine your individual interests, desires, and goals;
• show you how to understand your workplace's priorities and culture, and offer tips for identifying where there's either a match or a gap;
• demonstrate how you can improve your current position;
• prepare you to move forward through the creation of a personalized strategic professional plan that addresses professional development, gaining additional experience, and other options for growth;
• include tips for effective self-marketing, networking through colleagues and friends, and acing an interview;
• present ways to stay happy and engaged in a new role or position; and
• offer guidance for sharing your skills and experience through mentorship, and retiring with grace. 

Ideal for both self-paced study and team-based staff development, this six-step plan will help readers renew themselves, their careers, and their organizations.

Developing Digital Scholarship: Emerging Practices in Academic Libraries

Mackenzie, Alison and Lindsey Martin (eds.) Developing Digital Scholarship: Emerging Practices in Academic Libraries. Neal-Schuman, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1555-4

Description
These essays are written by librarians who are meeting the challenge of digital scholarship, utilizing the latest technologies and creating new knowledge in partnership with researchers, scholars, colleagues, and students. Spanning a wide range of contrasting perspectives, contexts, insights, and case studies, this edited collection explores the relationships between digital scholarship, contemporary academic libraries, and professional practice.

Table of Contents

THEME 1: A REVIEW OF THE LANDSCAPE

1. The university library and digital scholarship: a review of the literature – Lindsey Martin

2. Digital scholarship: scanning library services and spaces - Alison Mackenzie

THEME 2: THE AGILE LIBRARIAN

3. Librarian as partner: in and out of the library - Roz Howard and Megan Fitzgibbons

4. Novice to Expert: developing digitally capable librarians - Dr Charles Inskip

5. Lean in the Library: building capacity by realigning staff and resources - Jennifer Bremner

THEME 3: DIGITAL SPACES AND SERVICES

6. Digital Scholarship Centres: converging space and expertise - Tracy Bergstrom

7. Building scalable and sustainable services for researchers - David Clay

THEME 4: COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

8. Social networking with the scholarly community: a literature review - Suzanne Parfitt

9. Developing Digital Scholars: from the Ivory Tower to the Twittersphere - Alison Hicks

10. Reflections on digital scholarship: so many reasons to be cheerful - Alison Mackenzie and Lindsey Martin

Managing the Successful School Library

Farmer, Lesley S. J. Managing the Successful School Library: Strategic Planning and Reflective Practice. ALA Neal-Schuman, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1494-6

Program Description

To ensure their libraries survive and thrive, school library managers need to be both responsive and proactive. Looking past the day-to-day operations of a school library, Farmer’s book serves as a reality check: school libraries must align with school mission statements and policies, while simultaneously negotiating for proper budgets and resources alongside other departments. It’s a daunting prospect, but Farmer demonstrates how it can be done with the proper attention and systematic planning. Taking a deeper, more professional look at management that applies theories and principles to real-world situations, this book

• introduces the concept of school library programs and provides an overview of school library program management;
• examines professional and legislated standards for school libraries, and discusses the part a manager plays in meeting them;
• links management with leadership, differentiating the two, and showing how the school librarian can carry out both roles;
• helps readers assess their own skills, knowledge, and dispositions in order to set short-term and long-term goals;
• explains how to manage resources and learning environments to meet the needs of teachers, administrators, parents, and other stakeholders;
• offers guidance for developing and working with budgets, obtaining additional funding, and using collaboration to support the school library program;
• provides concrete advice on hiring, training, supervising, assessment, and recognizing library workers and other library team members; and
• includes tools for communicating effectively and getting the message across.

More than just a compendium of management theories, this book provides much food for thought that will help readers gain important insights into their own roles as school library managers and leaders.

Table of contents

Creating the High-Functioning Library Space

Deyrup, Marta Mestrovic, editor. Creating the High-Functioning Library Space: Expert Advice from Librarians, Architects, and Designers. Libraries Unlimited, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4408-4058-6 

Publisher's Description

This book provides practical information and insights to library administrators and building plan team members at academic and public libraries who are considering or starting a library expansion or reconfiguration of existing space. 

Building a new library or expanding or renovating an existing building brings up a host of questions and concerns, not the least of which involves the future of the library. This book addresses those issues in light of an overarching positive vision of libraries and their evolving purposes and roles in the 21st century. 

This guide identifies and addresses all of the steps in the building process, including preparing the request for proposal (RFP), selecting the right architect for the job, developing a financial contingency plan, and managing stakeholders' expectations. The book presents both the perspectives and experience of library administrators and management personnel as well as the insights of accomplished library architects and designers. It provides thorough, practical, and current guidance in a process that library administrators often find daunting and "risk immersive." Reading this book is like sitting down with a knowledgeable, impartial consultant before beginning a major renovation project—a tremendous asset for library administrators as well as architectural firms.

Features

• Covers all of the steps in the building process, from preparing the RFP and selecting an architect to developing a financial contingency plan and managing community and staff expectations
• Includes contributions from some of the most accomplished library architects and designers from across the nation
• Presents information of great relevance and interest to library administrators as well as to architectural firms that work with libraries

Fiction Core Collection

Spires, Kendal, et al., editors. Fiction Core Collection. 18th ed., Grey House Publishing, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-61925-736-8

Note: The State Library has all print editions of the Core Collection series.  

Publisher's Description
H.W. Wilson’s Fiction Core Collection (18th Edition, 2016) provides the busy librarian with expert collection development advice on the most highly recommended works of classic and contemporary fiction. Over 8,500 titles are included—all are popular works deemed to have lasting value to readers as well as new literary and genre titles that have been recognized as significant achievements in their respected areas of literature.

Fiction Core Collection is designed to help librarians make the best of their fiction collection.

• Title Selection & Purchasing
• Readers’ Advisory Support
• Cataloging Support
• Collection Development & Maintenance

Easy-to-use Arrangement
Entries are arranged by last name of the author. This arrangement allows librarians to literally walk their shelves with Fiction Core Collection in-hand. This makes easy work of noting titles that should be added to their collection, or to pull titles that are candidates for weeding.

Immediate access to 8,500 recommended titles
Each of the 8,500+ entries includes a full bibliographical description, with detailed information about publisher, date of publication, paging, price, ISBN, and Library of Congress control number, plus notes regarding sequels and publication history. Entries include a helpful and informative descriptive abstract, and excerpts from review sources including Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly.

Starred Entries
“Most Highly Recommended” titles within subject areas are easily identified with a starred listing. This makes it easy to find the best of the best within a particular subject area.

In-depth Indexing

• Title & Subject Index. Works are indexed by title, followed by the name of the author. Plus, this index also organizes titles by subject, genre, form, and literary technique. Whether you’re looking for Adventure, Allegories, or Ambition, the thousands of subject and genre headings simplifies locating specific titles. This access is one of the Collection’s most important features and is especially valued by readers’ advisors.
• Name Index. Works are listed by author name and pseudonyms. This list is included as a separate index for ease of reference, readers’ advisory, and display creation.

It has been two years since the last edition, so this new update is a must-have source for collection development for fiction collections of all sizes. Thousands of titles have been added to this new edition—any library owning the previous edition will want to update to get access to these new titles.
Given the high demand for new fiction titles in libraries, this volume helps filter through the thousands of titles published each year, so that librarians can be assured that they are selecting the best for their patrons. The Fiction Core Collection is an essential resource for library and media specialists, and an excellent, handy tool for collection development, and readers’ advisory services. No library should be without the helpful guidance that Core Collections can provide.

Sample pages from the 18th edition

How to Launch an Author Awards Program

Stam, Julianne, and Elizabeth Clemmons, editors. How to Launch an Author Awards Program at Your Library: Curating Self-Published Books, Reaching Out to the Community. Libraries Unlimited, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4408-4164-4

Publisher's Description
Establishing an awards program for self-published authors offers libraries new ways to bolster their relevance and expand upon their roles as curators and "keepers of story." This guide shows you how.

For many reasons, up until now librarians have ignored the nearly half-million self-published books available for purchase. This book details how to find and promote librarian-curated, self-published books, covering every step in the process—from assembling a committee and recruiting judges to soliciting submissions, handling the nominated authors, judging the entries, and promoting the contest and contest winner.

Written by the founding members of the Soon-to-be-Famous Illinois Author Project, the first librarian-curated award for self-published works, this book shows you how to use the process outlined by these library marketing professionals to run a successful author awards program. You can also apply their proven methods and tools to evaluate self-published books written by local authors that you are considering adding to your collections.

Features

• Offers practical, step-by-step guidelin
• Inspires librarians to explore a new area of service and maintain their libraries' relevance
• Describes how to position librarians in a new leadership role with curation, eBooks, and self publishing to better engage their communities

Crash Course in eBooks

McGraw, Michele and Gail Mueller Schultz. Crash Course in eBooks. Libraries Unlimited, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-61069-862-7

Description
This book covers the many issues surrounding eBooks in circulating libraries including technology, acquisition, and training. You'll learn how to launch a program, what to buy, how to let your public know you've added eBooks to your collection, and how to circulate the materials. The guide will also help you with decisions like vendor selection, how many eBooks to purchase, which delivery platforms to employ, how best to offer access, and licensing agreements.

Table of Contents 

1. Why should you offer ebooks? 
2. How did we get here?
3. How do libraries get ebooks?
4. Implementing a vendor-based ebook collection
5. Connecting patrons to your ebooks collection
6. Evaluating the success of your new collection
7. Increasing and expanding your ebook collection
8. Other considerations
9. Conclusion

Maker Literacy

Pawloski, Lynn, and Cindy Wall. Maker Literacy: A New Approach to Literacy Programming for Libraries. Libraries Unlimited, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4408-4380-8

Publisher's Description
This book takes the creativity and inventiveness of the maker movement and applies that energy in a new way to help children learn across all subject areas as well as broaden their world view.

Traditional library literacy programs have helped many children foster a love of reading, but to prepare this next generation of learners, this programming needs to be modified to include technology. The inherent creativity and inventiveness of the Maker Movement, embracing both classic and innovative technological activities, provides the perfect bridge to invigorate, expand, and update these programs. This alternative to conventional library literacy programming will help children learn throughout all subject areas, see additional possibilities, and make connections in the world around them.

With this guide, readers can discover how to apply maker literacy to introduce connections that help children better understand that their experiences in life are interrelated—that art can be made on a 3D printer and that science and technology are an essential part of design. This holistic approach provides a myriad of creative opportunities for both teaching staff and the children they serve. A great resource for youth services librarians in public libraries, this guide to infusing library programs with technology and maker activities to motivate learning will also appeal to preschool and elementary librarians, educators, and parents.

Features

• Addresses the avid interests of youth in technology
• Provides librarians with a practical resource for incorporating tech literacy into storytime and other youth programs
• Gives librarians a programming tool to use with makerspaces that can be used to integrate them with all areas of learning

Graphic Novels Core Collection

Spires, Kendal, et al., editors. Graphic Novels Core Collection. 1st ed., Grey House Publishing, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-68217-070-0

Note: The State Library has all print editions of the Core Collection series. 

Publisher's Description

In the past ten years, the popularity of graphic novels has grown exponentially. In many libraries, graphic novels have become one of the most widely circulated genres. Plus, graphic novels can energize reluctant readers and have been shown to be a productive educational tool, especially with ESL readers.

Due to the growing popularity of graphic novels at all age levels, and the overwhelming influx of new titles on the market, librarians need more guidance than ever to select the best graphic novels for their collection.

H.W. Wilson’s new Graphic Novels Core Collection (1st Edition, 2016) provides expert recommendations, developed by H.W. Wilson’s team of library and media specialists. Whether for collection development, collection maintenance, readers’ advisory, or curriculum support, Graphic Novels Core Collection provides the sound guidance that librarians need so they can rest assured that they are selecting materials that will best serve their collection and their patrons.

Graphic Novels Core Collection highlights 3,500 recommended fiction and nonfiction graphic novels, including content descriptions and quotes from selected reviews. The graphic novels in this collection cover a wide variety of genres including adventure, biography, fantasy, superhero, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and more.

All books listed are published in the United States, or published in Canada or the United Kingdom and distributed in the United States. The Core Collection excludes non-English-language materials, with the exception of bilingual materials. It does include English-language translations of international material, including Japanese manga, Korean manhwa, Franco-Belgian comics and others.

Arranged by Age Group
In order to best facilitate collection development for age-appropriate content, Graphic Novels Core Collection is arranged into groupings by grade level. Standards for rating materials by age appropriateness are strictly applied. Listings also offer notes on specific grade level indicators.

• Over 1,100 titles for PreK through grade 5
• More than 1,680 titles for grades 6-8
• Over 2,600 titles for grades 9-12
• Nearly 2,200 titles for Adults

Detailed entries in Graphic Novels Core Collection include:

• Complete Bibliographic and Cataloging Data
• Content Description & Annotations from Select Reviews to help facilitate title selection and readers’ advisory
• Subject Headings, Price, ISBN, Grade Level Classification
• “Most Highly Recommended” titles within subject areas are easily identified with a starred listing
• Many titles include Cover Art

Three Informative Indexes

Three indexes are provided, Author Index, Title Index and a highly-detailed Subject Index that allows users to select titles based on hundreds of different subject areas.

The Graphic Novels Core Collection takes the guesswork out of selecting in this ever-expanding genre. It is an essential resource for library and media specialists looking to energize, enhance and enrich their collection with the most important and highly recommended graphic novels available.

Sample pages of the 1st edition

Yes! on Demand: How to Create Winning, Customized Library Service

Middleton, Kathy L. Yes! on Demand: How to Create Winning, Customized Library Service. Libraries Unlimited, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4408-4853-7

Description

The book shows how techniques borrowed from successful retail models can be applied to every part of library service—from reference, circulation, and technology services to children's and adult services. 

Table of Contents 

1. Heroes on the front line
2. Shift in thinking required
3. Yes! on demand 
4. Business yes! models
5. Eliminate no
6. Personalize service
7. Break and fix rules

Developing Librarian Competencies for the Digital Age

Coghill, Jeffrey G. and Roger G. Russell. Developing Librarian Competencies for the Digital Age. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4422-6444-1

Description
What kinds of library skills are needed for the librarian of today to grow and thrive, now and into the future?  This collection of essays explores this question from the context of medical librarianship, but provides a broad perspective that is applicable across all fields of librarianship.

Table of Contents 

1. Foundations and history of the profession / Jeffrey G. Coghill and Roger G. Russell
2. Information resources and collections / Joseph Thomas and Yunting Fu 
3. Organization of knowledge and information / Sarah W. Sutton and Mira E. Greene
4. Communication skills, marketing, IT skills, and teamwork / Carenado Davis, Michael Tucker, Jeffrey G. Coghill, and Roger Russell
5. Reference and user services / Meghan Hupe, Susan Bridgers, and Lisa Blackwell
6. Research skills and competencies necessary for librarians in the digital age / Kerry Dhakal, Karen Stanley Grigg, Irene Machowa Lubker, and Kristen L. Young
7. Current and future trends for supporting online and distance education / Amy Blevins, Katy Kavanagh Webb, Christine Andresen, and Megan B. Inman
8. Strategic and innovative: health sciences library leadership, management, and administration / Jean Shipman and M.J. Tooey
9. Core competencies across the profession / Beverly Murphy and Shannon D. Jones
10. The library and the future: patrons' view of the library / Anna Ercoli Schnitzer and Merle Rosenzweig.

The Good, the Great, and the Unfriendly:A Librarian's Guide to Working with Friends Groups

Reed, Sally Gardener. The Good, the Great, and the Unfriendly: A Librarian's Guide to working with Friends Groups. Chicago: ALA, 2017. 021.70973 Reed     ISBN978-0-8389-1498-4

Executive Director of United for Libraries and former Executive Director of Friends of Libraries U.S.A., Reed has decades of experience liaising between Friends groups and the libraries that they support, serve, and (sometimes) exasperate. Her new book cuts to chase of building and maintaining these important relationships, showing not only how to effectively harness Friends' goodwill and enthusiasm but also sharing tactful techniques for steering an ineffective or unfriendly group down the right path. Her pragmatic approach will resonate with public and academic library directors, volunteer coordinators, and other library staff who work with Friends. Written with knowing humor and focused on getting positive results, this book:

• provides guidance for developing a Friends group for public and academic libraries;
• explains how to merge a Friends group with a foundation;
• gives pointers on encouraging Friends to attract new and active members, working with the Friends board to develop leadership skills, and other crucial partnership strategies;
• addresses the sticky situation of "unfriendly" Friends, with sage advice on handling Friends who seem unmotivated when it comes to fundraising or advocacy, are uncommunicative, overstep their bounds, and other difficult issues; and  
• shares fundraising, advocacy, programs, and membership development best practices from Friends groups across the country.

Tailored specifically to librarians' point of view, this book will inform and empower libraries to work effectively with Friends groups for greater fundraising, engagement, and advocacy outcomes.

Capturing Our Stories: An Oral History of Librarianship in Transition

Smith, A. Arro. Capturing Our Stories: An Oral History of Librarianship in Transition. Neal-Schuman, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1461-8

Description

This oral history draws from the professional life stories of dozens of librarians to chronicle the transitional period of the second half of the 20th century, which brought monumental upheaval to librarianship. Providing memories for the contributors’ peers and valuable background and context to those just entering the field, this book also offers a primer of oral history theory and methodology for those studying the form.

Table of Contents 

Part I    Our Stories
Introduction
Chapter One    Becoming a Librarian

• The Decision to Become a Librarian
• Library School Memories

Chapter Two    Cliché and Stereotype

• Use of Cliché
• Stereotype and Cliché
• Discussing the Stereotype
• Stereotypes within the Profession
• Stereotypes outside the Profession

Chapter Three    Technology Memories

• Precomputer Technology
• Early Computer Technology
• OPACs
• OCLC
• Online Database Searching
• Some Lessons Learned Regarding New Technologies
• Technology Regrets
• Technology Redemption

Chapter Four    Regrets

• Promotion Regrets
• Funding and Compensation
• Sexism

Chapter Five    Helping People
Chapter Six    The Collective Memory of Librarianship 

Part II     How to Capture Stories
Chapter Seven    A Primer on Oral History Theory and Methodology

• An Introduction to the Methodology: Oral History
• History of the Method
• Criticism of Oral History
• An Introduction to Memory Studies as Theory
• Collective Memory
• Individual Memory and Criticism
• Regret and Nostalgia
• Cliché and Stereotype
• Combining the Theory with the Method
• Librarians at the Intersection of Memory Studies Theory and Oral History
• The “So What?” Question

Chapter Eight    Practical Oral History Advice

• A Story about Human Relationships
• A Second Story about Human Relationships
• Starting a Project
• A Final Meditation on Oral History

Bibliography
Index