Search

Libraries seeking to grow or enhance community outreach will welcome Building Community Engagement and Outreach in Libraries to assist them in planning and executing engagement programs. Eight chapters offer a variety of methods and strategies that library managers can employ to broaden and enhance their libraries'community engagement activities.The volume includes both theoretical frameworks and strategic case studies.Readers will learn how to plan and execute successful community engagement programs with tips on providing leadership for working with staff, fostering relationships with community partners and using assessment to plan for future programming. Specific applications of community engagement practices include using data to inform stakeholders, providing health literacy workshops, staff training for community programs, outreach to engage the community with archives, working with underserved communities and diversity training. This is an important addition to the literature on how libraries can work with their communities to provide critical services and resources. Providing valuable insights about the diverse ways that outreach can be accomplished within and through our communities, this volume serves as a significant resource for both library managers, their staff and their partners.

This latest volume of the Advances in Librarianship series presents original research exploring the modern state of democracies and social institutions, the contributions of libraries to the health and progress of democracies, and the political problems currently facing libraries as institutions. It details the best practices of library programs that provide political literacy education and promote civic engagement within communities. These practices include ways in which libraries can help diffuse political polarization, address significant policy issues of our day, promote political information literacy, support civic engagement, and facilitate participation in democratic processes. Libraries and the Global Retreat of Democracy: Confronting Polarization, Misinformation, and Suppression is structured in three sections - questions of personal and state democracy, investigations of how the information infrastructure shapes these democracies, and explorations of the ways that libraries can and do contribute to democracy. Situating libraries within political conversations, highlighting their centrality to these discussions, Libraries and the Global Retreat of Democracy focuses on how libraries coordinate their work in political and information literacy and how these efforts can be improved, he recommendations and examples within which will serve as inspiration and motivation to its readers.

Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop: Learning Beyond the Stacks offers fresh perspectives of youth videogaming in public libraries. Abrams and Gerber delve into research-based accounts to explore feedback mechanisms that support important reflective and iterative practices. Highlighting how videogame library programs can evolve to meet contemporary needs of youth patrons, the authors equip readers to re-envision library programming that specifically features youth videogame play.

There are 50 million people globally living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and tens of millions further who are their caregivers. As a public service, it is important that library and information professionals learn to serve and assist those with dementia. Designed for seasoned professionals and library science students alike, this book first presents a complete overview of the spectrum disease known as Alzheimer's dementia, as well as a basic understanding of the information needs of dementia caregivers. It then explores best practices, guidelines, and concrete ideas for serving those with dementia and their caregivers, including: Customer service and communication, with evidence-based suggestions for working with this population; Information resources to best meet the reference needs of the community, as grounded in LIS user studies and health informatics; Collection development for ongoing and appropriate mental and social stimulation of those experiencing cognitive decline; and Programming ideas for both communities, with a wide variety of focus and content. Lifelong learning, mental stimulation, and social connections are central to libraries'core mission. Readers, both from library and information science and in related social services and social sciences disciplines, will gain a comprehensive toolkit for service both to those in cognitive decline and their caregivers, meeting the needs of both communities with thoughtful and innovative practices.

Libraries are supposed to serve all people in the community, but some still struggle to provide support for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In an age of increasing social consciousness and awareness of diversity, individuals with IDD deserve the greatest attention and support to achieve equality, yet how to do so remains a legitimate question as most library services are not yet prepared to offer the help needed. In Libraries and Reading, expert authors Matthew Conner and Leah Plocharczyk examine the modern history of libraries and diversity, the recent legislative history of those with IDD such as No Child Left Behind and mainstreaming policies; learning theories such as social constructivism, cognitivism, preliteracy, and Universal Design for Learning; and case studies of library outreach around the globe. Including real-world examples, they show how we can make big changes through small steps. In a climate of tightened budgets and severe demands on public literacy resources, the moral imperative of helping those with IDD runs up against practical barriers. Conner and Plocharczyk go to the foundations of social justice in Cultural Studies to show how the means of integrating those with disabilities into libraries and communities can be found in our everyday practices.

Rural and small public libraries provide invaluable services to their communities. These information institutions operate in areas that, when compared to national averages, have poor broadband accessibility and weaker connection speeds, low home internet adoption rates, higher unemployment rates, and less per capita access to doctors and other healthcare providers. Public libraries help to bridge these divides and help to mitigate the impact of these geographic and socioeconomic disadvantages. However, librarians are only able to do so much when they are funded by limited, primarily local revenues and are not able to achieve economies of scale that come with larger service population bases. Thus, this volume begins by defining the challenges that rural and small libraries face before shifting to an analysis of ways that these obstacles can be overcome or mitigated. Building off of this foundation, the authors explore ideas for enhancing community partnerships and outreach, using rural and small public libraries as centers for local cultural heritage activities, and training rural public librarians to better serve their publics. The authors of this volume bridge the gap between academic research and practical application, creating a volume that will allow rural librarians, trustees, and their allies to argue for greater support and enact change to benefit their service communities.

Librarianship may be said to be facing an identity crisis. It may also be said that librarianship has been facing an identity crisis since it was proposed as a profession. With the advent of technology that lowers barriers to the access of information, the mission of a library has become indistinct. This volume will explore the current purpose of librarianship and libraries, how we become “Masters of our Domains”, develop expertise in various elements of the profession, and how we extend outward into our communities.

Award-winning information theorists and practitioners Pearlstein and Matarazzo have assembled a group of top international authors with experience in public, academic, government, and special library settings, including experienced independent information professionals, to address the critical issues facing Information Management (IM) today. This new handbook provides a context for approaching the world in which information professionals work; a tool, the Balanced Scorecard, to help demonstrate contribution and value; and a review of opportunities for new areas of employment and career development, ripe for applying the Information Services skill set. Through combinations of topical chapters with common themes, the professor and student will find a multi-perspective approach to the IM landscape. Used as a ready-reference, the IM practitioner will find both theoretical and pragmatic approaches to inform their decision making on traditional as well as new challenges. For information and IM professionals, librarians, and students, this must-have handbook provides invaluable insights from the leading names in the field, enabling you to make the best decision no matter what challenges you face.