Gamification: A Practical Guide for Librarians

McMunn-Tetangco, Elizabeth. Gamification: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. ISBN: 9-781-4422-7913-1.

From the publisher:

Games can seem to do the impossible: reach patrons and drive traffic to projects and services. But how can libraries use gamification and game elements to improve instruction and outreach, or to encourage the use of particular areas and services? In this guide, readers will learn about how to structure game activities in order to best reach their patrons. Chapters devoted to topics such as personalization, goal setting, working with partners, games in instruction, and assessment illustrate some of the many ways games can have an impact in libraries. Everything in this book is presented from a practical point of view – email templates, real-life examples, and scenarios are included. Games have a lot of potential for use in many different library services, and this book will help you decide how they might work best for you. From the first seeds of a project’s beginning to its eventual maturation, this book will help you develop, implement, and evaluate game-style projects at your library.

Teaching Google Scholar: A Practical Guide for Librarians

Alfonzo, Paige. Teaching Google Scholar: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-4358-3.

From the publisher: 

Teaching Google Scholar in your library instructional sessions can increase students’ information and digital literacy skills. Students’ familiarity with Google Scholar’s interface works to the instructor’s advantage and allows more time to address students’ information needs and teach foundational information literacy skills and less time teaching a new database with a less-intuitive database interface.

Teaching Google Scholar: A Practical Guide for Librarians will illustrate instructional methods and incorporate step-by-step guides and examples for teaching Google Scholar. It begins with providing you with essential background:

• What Google Scholar is
• How to set up Google Scholar using OpenURL
• How to design Google Scholar instructional sessions
• How to incorporate active learning activities using Google Scholar

After reading it, you will be ready to teach students critical skills including how to:

• Use specific Google Scholar search operators
• Incorporate search logic
• Extract citation data, generate citations, and save citations to Google's My Library and/or a citation management program
• Use Google Scholar tools- including “cited by,” “alerts,” “library links,” and “library search”

Google Scholar is a powerful research tool and will only become more popular in the coming years. Learning how to properly teach students how to utilize this search engine in their research will greatly benefit them in their college career and help promote life-long learning. Google Scholar instruction is a must in today’s modern information literacy classroom.

Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians

de Farber, Bess G. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-6327-7

A collaborative approach to grant seeking can stimulate and reshape the culture of your library organization. The exciting and rewarding activities of developing a successful grants program can yield enormous dividends for the benefit of your staff, patrons, and community. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians will share new insights for those who want to access grant funding without reinventing the wheel. Based on years of practical grant writing and collaboration development experience, this resource provides a complete guide for setting up a library grant-seeking program, and for combining forces with community partners to increase grant funding to libraries. Venturing into the grants world can be scary and unpredictable. This book offers detailed strategies and practical steps to establish a supportive and collaborative environment that creates the capacity to consistently develop fundable proposals, and gives readers the confidence needed to make grant-seeking activities commonplace within libraries.
Collaborative Grant-Seeking will share featured topics unavailable in other grant writing publications, such as:

• interpreting sponsor guidelines
• identifying appropriate funding programs
• determining the feasibility of project ideas
• asset-based (vs. need-based) proposal development strategies
• actual examples of successful and unusual library projects
• initiating and sustaining collaborative relationships

Public Library Core Collection Nonfiction

Miller, Eve-Marie, et al., editors. Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction. 16th ed., Grey House Publishing, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-68217-071-7

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

Publisher's Description
Wilson's Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction (16th Edition, 2017) is designed for acquisitions librarians, reference librarians and catalogers. Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction is a reliable guide to building and maintaining a well-rounded collection of the most highly recommended reference and nonfiction books for adults.

The Core Collection is intended to serve the needs of public and undergraduate libraries and stand as a basic or “opening day” collection. The newer titles help in identifying areas that can be updated or strengthened. Retention of useful material from the previous edition enables the librarian to make informed decisions about weeding a collection.

Easy-to-use Arrangement

Arranged for ease-of-use by Dewey Decimal Classification, this helpful guide provides immediate access to over 12,000 highly recommended nonfiction titles. All areas of reference and non-fiction are covered. Plus, starred entries highlight the “most highly recommended” title within a particular subject area.

1. Science, Technology & Computer Science
2. Health & Medicine
3. Religion & Philosophy
4. Political Science, Economics & Law
5. Literature & Language
6. History, Travel & Biography
7. Arts & Architecture and so much more

Created for Librarians, by Librarians

Books included in this edition were selected by experienced librarians representing public library systems and academic libraries across the United States. With their helpful guidance, librarians nationwide rely on Core Collections for:

1. Collection Development
2. Weeding their collection
3. Curriculum Support
4. General Reference
5. Title Selection & Purchasing
6. Readers’ Advisory
7. Librarian Instruction

Information-packed Entries

In these pages, librarians can collect much-needed data on over 12,000 recommended titles. Entries include:

1. Complete Bibliographic & Cataloging Information
2. Price, ISBN & Publisher to aid in purchasing
3. Subject Headings and Dewey Classification
4. Content Descriptions and Excerpts from Reviews provide helpful information when evaluating books for selection and in determining which of several books on the same subject is best suited for the individual reader
5. Additional notes highlight sequels and companion volumes, editions available, awards, and publication history, plus information on electronic editions
6. “Most Highly Recommended” titles within subject areas are easily identified with a starred listing

In-depth Indexing

A highly-detailed Author, Title, and Subject Index provides easy navigation through the hundreds of subject areas and thousands of authors and titles in this informative resource. The Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction is an essential resource for library and media specialists looking to enhance and enrich their collection with the most important and highly recommended titles currently available.

Sample pages

The Discovery Tool Cookbook

The Discovery Tool Cookbook: Recipes for Successful Lesson Plans, edited by Nancy Fawley and Nikki Krysak. ACRL, 2016. 978-0-8389-8891-6.

Publisher's Description

The Discovery Tool Cookbook: Recipes for Successful Lesson Plans, edited by Nancy Fawley and Nikki Krysak, showcases tested lessons by librarians and practitioners for teaching information literacy using a discovery tool. The third volume in the successful ACRL Cookbook series features “recipes” sorted by lesson type and level of student preparedness, including all the information needed to replicate (or customize) each dish at your own institution. The IL Framework is infused in each of the 49 lessons, which suit a mix of abilities, learning outcomes, and patron types, including K-12 and ELL students, with options for flipping instruction to maximize learning outside of the classroom.

The Discovery Tool Cookbook is essential for all academic and school librarians wanting to create fun lesson plans that incorporate a discovery layer.

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

The Makerspace Librarian's Sourcebook

Kroski, E. (2017). The Makerspace Librarian's Sourcebook. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.978-0-8389-1504-2.

Note from Katie: This books is a good resource for anyone who does technology programming (STEAM), even if they do not have a dedicated makerspace. It provides background information on Legos, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and more so is relevant for all ages and types of libraries.

Publisher's description:

Library makerspaces continue to thrive, drawing new patrons in and engaging them as never before. This hands-on sourcebook edited by technology expert Kroski includes everything libraries need to know about the major topics, tools, and technologies relevant to makerspaces today. Packed with cutting edge instruction and advice from the field's most tech-savvy innovators, this collection

• leads librarians through how to start their own makerspace from the ground up, covering strategic planning, funding sources, starter equipment lists, space design, and safety guidelines;
• discusses the transformative teaching and learning opportunities that makerspaces offer, with tips on how to empower and encourage a diverse maker culture within the library;
• delves into 11 of the most essential technologies and tools most commonly found in makerspaces, ranging from 3D printers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and wearable electronics to CNC, Legos, drones, and circuitry kits; and
• includes an assortment of project ideas that are ready to implement.

As useful for those just entering the “what if” stage as it is for those with makerspaces already up and running, this book will help libraries engage the community in their makerspaces.

Sex, Brains, & Video Games

Pierce, J. B. (2017). Sex, Brains, & Video Games: Information and Inspiration for Youth Services Librarians (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: ALA Editions. 978-0-8389-1548-6.

Publisher's description:

How do we break through and truly reach our young adult patrons? It begins with understanding them. Librarians who work with teens need information and a big-picture perspective on adolescence that reflects the latest knowledge of cognate fields and the contemporary realities of young people’s lives. In this greatly revised and updated edition of her popular guide Burek Pierce provides exactly that, selecting and synthesizing emerging information from multiple fields of research to effectively support librarians’ work with teens. Far-reaching but pragmatic, this book

• discusses such important topics as identity and community, sex and sexualities, what experts can tell us about the adolescent brain, and how teens use technology to mediate the world;
• replaces outdated developmental theories that have been discarded in their home fields but are still sometimes used in the LIS world;
• looks at how to blend what research tells us about teens with day-to-day work in libraries;
• reflects new norms of professional practice, such as the increased importance of community
• engagement and partnerships, offering librarians a path towards cooperation and collaboration with peers outside the library world; and
• includes a bibliography of essential reading for YA librarians.

Educators and practitioners, as well as students preparing to enter the field, will all benefit from this compact overview of contemporary research on adolescence.

Creating Literacy-Based Programs for Children

Baker, R. L. (2017). Creating Literacy-Based Programs for Children: Lesson Plans and Printable Resources for K-5. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions. 978-0-8389-1500-4.

Publisher's description:

The all-in-one resource you’ve been clamoring for, this book presents a comprehensive package of literacy-based public library programming ideas designed for children in kindergarten through the early tweens. Chock full of strategies and best practices for promoting literacy and reading skill development, it also features numerous planning templates and other materials ready to print and adapt as needed. With specific guidance for improving and streamlining each step of program planning and implementation, this book

• defines literacy and reading skills by grade levels, in addition to information on other developmental stages;
• explains multiliteracies and connects them to programming practices;
• provides step-by-step program planning guides, arranged by grade level, which include book-based programs, clubs, makerspaces, afterschool/study programs, author/guest visits, family/all age programs, impromptu programming, and many others;
• offers STEAM-based programs which connect to science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics;
• gives advice on collaborating effectively with school librarians and teachers to plan school field trips;
• addresses large event and summer reading program planning;
• shows how to program for children with special needs; and
• shares tips and suggestions for getting the word out through advocacy and marketing.

Helping public libraries build outstanding programs from the ground up, this resource will prove valuable a tool for children’s librarians and other programming staff.

Check out this book’s Web Extra now!