Friday, March 30, 2018

The Library Staff Development Handbook: How to Maximize Your Library’s Most Important Resource

Flaherty, Mary Grace. The Library Staff Development Handbook: How to Maximize Your Library’s Most Important Resource. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4422-7036-7.

The Library Staff Development Handbook: How to Maximize Your Library’s Most Important Resource provides practical tips, suggestions for resources, and concrete examples for addressing the multiple and varied aspects of staff development.

From crafting a job description to recruitment, hiring and retention, and from progressive discipline and succession planning to continuing education, performance appraisals, and the importance of workplace fun, this handbook can serve as a companion for managers, supervisors and library staff as they negotiate the challenging range of staffing issues and the opportunities they provide in the library setting.

The LITA Guide to No- or Low-Cost Technology Tools for Libraries


Kirsch, Breanne A. The LITA Guide to No- or Low-Cost Technology Tools for Libraries. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-5381-0311-1.


The LITA Guide to No- or Low-Cost Technology Tools for Libraries provides a practical guide on
how to find and use technology tools for a variety of purposes in libraries and, more broadly, in education. Each topic showcases two technology tools in detail and discusses additional tools and provides examples of how librarians or educators are using them in libraries and schools.

Types of tools covered are: 
  • Video creation tools, such as PowToon and Animaker, can be used to create animated videos to tell patrons about a new service or teach students about search strategies.
  • Screencasts includes tools like Jing or Screencast-O-Matic, which can be used to show how to use a new library database or service.
  • Collaboration tools, including tools such as Padlet or Lino It, can be used for student collaboration or teamwork with colleagues and sharing project ideas quickly and easily.
  • Assessment tools such as Quizizz and Kahoot allow for gamified assessment of student or patron knowledge.

Library Makerspaces: The Complete Guide

Willingham, Theresa. Library Makerspaces: The Complete Guide. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4422-7740-3.

Library Makerspaces: The Complete Guide is a comprehensive road map for libraries of any size, with any budget, seeking to redesign or re-purpose space or to develop creative, hands-on maker-style programming. It features guidance on:
  • Holding stakeholder discovery sessions for community-driven space and program development
  • Evaluating existing library spaces for the most cost-effective and user-friendly facilities design and programming
  • Asset mapping for developing community partnerships
  • Best practices from different types of library makerspaces in the United States and internationally
  • Sample budgets, inventories, and space plans
  • Risk management considerations
  • Programming recommendations and resources for a range of patrons from youth to seniors and business to hobby groups
  • Funding and in-kind support
This book will help librarians develop and implement makerspaces, write grant proposals to fund such spaces, and help frontline staff and administrators learn about the technologies and processes involved. Holding stakeholder discovery sessions for community-driven space and program development:
  • Evaluating existing library spaces for the most cost-effective and user-friendly facilities design and programming
  • Asset mapping for developing community partnerships
  • Best practices from different types of library makerspaces in the United States and internationally
  • Sample budgets, inventories, and space plans
  • Risk management considerations
  • Programming recommendations and resources for a range of patrons from youth to seniors and business to hobby groups
  • Funding and in-kind support
This book will help librarians develop and implement makerspaces, write grant proposals to fund such spaces, and help frontline staff and administrators learn about the technologies and processes involved.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Crash Course in Time Management for Library Staff

Cover image for Crash Course in Time Management for Library Staff
Hough, Brenda. Crash Course in Time Management for Library Staff. Libraries Unlimited, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-4408-5067-7

Description
This book shows how to apply time management strategies such as time tracking, task management, identifying goals and priorities, beating the obstacles of procrastination and perfectionism as well as distractions and interruptions, and staying on top of time management when collaborating.

Table of Contents 
  1. Introduction to time management
  2. How do you spend your time?
  3. Goals and priorities
  4. Basic tools for time management
  5. Getting past procrastination
  6. Overcoming perfectionism : yours and others
  7. Dealing with distractions and interruptions
  8. Collaboration
  9. Helping others with time management
  10. Your personal plan.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

LGBTQAI+ Books


Door, Christina, and Liz Deskins. LGBTQAI+Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All. ALA Editions, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1649-0

Description: 
There is a rich and varied body of literature for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual/allied and intersexed young people, which can function as a mirror for LGBTQAI+ individuals and as a window for others. This resource for librarians who work with children and teens not only surveys the best in LGBTQAI+ lit but, just as importantly, offers guidance on how to share it in ways that encourage understanding and acceptance among parents, school administrators, and the wider community. Helping to fill a gap in serving this population, this guide


  • discusses the path to marriage equality, how LGBTQAI+ terms have changed, and reasons to share LGBTQAI+ literature with all children;
  • presents annotated entries for a cross-section of the best LGBTQAI+ lit and nonfiction for young children, middle year students, and teens, with discussion questions and tips;
  • offers advice on sensitive issues such as starting conversations with young people, outreach to stakeholders, and dealing with objections and censorship head on; and
  • ideas for programming and marketing.


This resource gives school librarians, children’s, and YA librarians the guidance and tools they need to confidently share these books with the patrons they support.

Table of Contents: 
Foreword: LGBTQAI+ Books Save Lives, by Jamie Campbell Naidoo
Introduction: Windows into Reality

Chapter 1    Books and Conversation for Young Readers
Chapter 2    Books and Conversation for Middle Grade Readers
Chapter 3    Books and Conversation for Teen Readers

Final Thoughts: It’s about Basic Human Rights
Appendix: Additional Resources
Glossary
About the Authors
Index