Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library’s Future in an Uncertain World

Aldrich, Rebekkah Smith. Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library’s Future in an Uncertain World. ALA Editions, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1688-9

Description
Thinking about how to make your library strong and relevant in the future? Aldrich shows that the first step towards a sustainable library is sustainable thinking: a determined yet realistic attitude that will help your library spot opportunities for institutional advancement, advocate for and safeguard operating funds, and generate intense loyalty from the communities you serve.

Table of Contents
Part I    Situation Report

• 1    Disruption: Inside, Outside, and All Around
• 2    Beyond Our Walls
• 3    Back to Basics
• 4    Survive the Earth
• 5    The Most Important Thing

Part II    The Strategy

• 6    Being Strategic
• 7    The Why Behind the What
• 8    WHY: Core Values of Librarianship
• 9    HOW: The Three Es of Sustainable Libraries
• 10    WHAT: Local Supports Local
• 11    Sustainable Thinking Defined
• 12    Interpreting Sustainability Using the Triple Bottom Line
• 13    Whole Systems Thinking
• 14    Beyond Sustainability
• 15    Beyond Resiliency

Part III    The Tactics

• 16    From the Inside Out
• 17    Change Leadership
• 18    How We Get There
• 19    Benchmarks for Sustainable Libraries
• 20    Sustainable Libraries Certification Program
• 21    Top Level Infusion
• 22    Sustainable Organizational Culture
• 23    Increasing Ecological Intelligence
• 24    Construction and Renovation: Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunities
• 25    Catalyst and Convener

Part IV    Resources

• American Library Association’s Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries
• New York Library Association’s Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries
• Case Study: Kingston (New York) Library Climate Smart Pledge
• Climate Smart Community Library Pledge
• American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
• Long-Range Plan Example: West Vancouver (British Columbia) Memorial Library

Library Assessment Cookbook

Dobbs, A. W. (Ed.). (2017). The Library Assessment Cookbook. Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries. ISBN: 9780838988664.

Publisher's Description

Assessment examines how library services and resources impact and are perceived by users, and guides strategic planning discussions and development of future acquisitions and services. Assessment is fundamental to positioning your library within your organization and effectively demonstrating how it furthers your institution’s goals. And it can be more of an art than a science, using the qualitative and quantitative data available to you to show your library’s alignment with the needs and mission of your organization. 

The Library Assessment Cookbook features 80 practical, easy-to-implement recipes divided into nine sections: 

• Data Preparation for Assessments
• Traditional and Online Collections Assessments
• Instruction Programs Assessments
• Outreach and Programming Assessment
• Assessments Assessment
• Strategic Planning Assessment
• Service Points and Services Assessment
• Equipment, Building, and Space Assessment
• Website and Web Services Assessment

This Cookbook will help librarians of all levels of experience measure and demonstrate their institutional value.

Table of Contents.

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

Leading Libraries: How to Create a Service Culture

vanDuinkerken, Wyoma and Wendi Arant Kaspar. Leading Libraries: How to Create a Service Culture. ALA Editions, 2015. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1312-3

Description

Drawing from case studies as well as the literature of business and social sciences, the authors provide guidance on how to apply the values of service leadership to both public and academic libraries. Through the use of examples, exercises, and tools for development, this book walks readers through the steps needed to create a sustainable, service-oriented model.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Leadership Theories: Traditional and Transformational

Chapter 2: Service Leadership and Its Paradigm in Libraries

Chapter 3: Conscientiousness as the Foundation

Chapter 4: Building Rapport

Chapter 5: Balancing Encouragement and Accountability

Chapter 6: Innovation and Evolving Service

Chapter 7: Strategic Planning: The Practice of Innovation and Strategic Thinking

Chapter 8: Sustaining Service as a Value

Chapter 9: Formalizing Service Leadership in Libraries: Embedding Processes and Policies

Chapter 10: Service Leadership in Libraries

Planning Our Future Libraries: Blueprints for 2025

Leeder, Kim and Eric Frierson, eds. Planning Our Future Libraries: Blueprints for 2025. Chicago: ALA, 2014. 022.3 Plann  ISBN978-0-8389-12072

In an information environment where the only constant is change, many wonder where libraries are headed. This edited collection brings together library leaders with some of the brightest new minds in the profession to envision the future of libraries. Drawing from their personal experiences, they bring their barrier-breaking perspectives to the task of reinventing the library in all its forms. From redesigning library services for the evolving needs of users, to functioning as a meaningful space in a digital age, implementing new infrastructure, and imagining the international future of school libraries, the contributors ask and answer questions such as:

•    How do lessons from the past point the way forward?
•   What should libraries look like in the future?
•   Which safeguards will protect intellectual freedom, such as equitable access to information and anti-censorship policies, now and in years to come?
• How can we overcome obstacles such as feasibility, costs, and competing interests to realize the library of the future?

This thought-provoking collection will challenge librarians at every kind of institution to start planning today for the library of tomorrow.

Transforming Our Image, Building Our Brand

Gross, Valerie J. Transforming Our Image, Building Our Brand: The Education Advantage. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-59884-770-3

Publisher's Description
Those in the library profession have the power to permanently dispel all misperceptions about libraries, and be fully valued for what they do. How? By simply adopting a new approach that applies carefully selected words to enhance their perceived value, and to position libraries as the provider of what the world values most: education.

Transforming Our Image, Building Our Brand: The Education Advantage examines how the "Three Pillars" approach harnesses the power of language to enhance respect, generate increased perceived value, and garner funding. The power stems from positioning all that library professionals do under three, easy-to-remember "pillars," and replacing typical library terms and phrases with bold, value-enhanced terminology that commands value—language that people outside of the field can immediately understand. This book is essential reading for public library staff members at all levels of the organization, especially those in leadership roles; and its root concepts are applicable for all other library types as well.

Highlights
• Demonstrates how to heighten any library's visibility and stature
• Redefines libraries in a new, innovative way that conveys their true worth
• Aligns the library with what the community values most: education
• Teaches how to incorporate value-enhancing words into everyday lexicon
• Presents marketing strategies that can immediately be integrated into your work
• Provides guidance on introducing the “Three Pillars” philosophy and strategic vocabulary concepts to your staff, board, elected officials, and community
 
Sample Topics
Advocacy
Branding
Community Education
Curriculum
Leadership
Management/Administration
Marketing
Public Relations
Strategic Planning
Vision/Mission