This informative volume focuses on the effective management of library archives, presenting perspectives and firsthand accounts from experienced and successful administrators in the field. The contributors examine the differences and similarities in the management of archives and other library/information centers, providing valuable insights into various managment styles, decisions, and planning techniques.

Despite the volumes of information they contain, few libraries know how to prepare for, endure, and survive any type of disaster. This completely updated second edition of Emergency Preparedness for Libraries provides library management with a comprehensive guide to planning and executing emergency procedures. Emergency Preparedness for Libraries provides library personnel with detailed instructions for protecting staff, patrons, and the facilities themselves, including: ·Steps to take now, before disaster strikes ·People and procedures to include in an emergency/disaster action plan ·Practical ways to turn written plans into an instinctual team response ·Safety considerations to take into account when caring for people on-site during an emergency ·Information to provide to the umbrella organization and the media after a disaster ·Key things to do the first few days after an event ·Tips for getting back to business

An anthology of library humor by the director of the mythical Molesworth Institute, Norman Stevens, this book is sure to provide librarians with many hours of amusement. This collection is full of Stevens'most memorable papers describing the odd kinds of research conducted by the Institute, such as a sophisticated study of the disappearance of umbrellas in libraries, a computer analysis of library postcards, and a "precostretrieval" scheme to accelerate the disintegration of book pages while saving the letters in them. Archives of Library Research from the Molesworth Institute is also well-stocked with unforgettable one-liners, such as the author's "plan to solve a major space problem for libraries by microfilming all Braille books."The imaginary Molesworth Institute has taken on a life of its own since its story first appeared in the ALA Bulletin in 1963. Stevens writes mostly for fun and entertainment, but also to stress the point that librarians should take a less serious view of their work. After all, as Stevens points out in this anthology, "The library world, like the real world, [is] impossible to understand on a rational basis." Now librarians can enjoy the convenience of having Stevens'most treasured papers--spanning over two decades--all in one very funny book.

Demystifying Scholarly Metrics gives librarians and faculty the confidence to navigate the maze of scholarly metrics, identify quality journals in which to publish, and measure the impact of scholarly works. Both librarians and professors can be overwhelmed by the bewildering number of scholarly metrics. This user-friendly book demystifies them, helping librarians become familiar with scholarly metrics and giving them the confidence to assist faculty at their institutions. It also equips faculty authors with the knowledge to evaluate journals and use metrics to track their scholarly impact. Several controversies exist in the scholarly metrics landscape, including a disagreement between the proponents of altmetrics and traditional bibliometrics. Even more contentious debates are breaking out over predatory journals and open access publishing. Authors Mark Vinyard and Jaimie Beth Colvin, who successfully launched a faculty publishing initiative, explain which aspects of metrics are truly essential to grasp, and they place these numbers in context. They help readers identify the metrics that are the best fit for their scholarship and give librarians and professors the tools to make smart decisions in this changing scholarly metrics landscape. Teaches librarians how to demonstrate their value by helping professors succeed as scholars Teaches faculty how to use scholarly metrics to tell their professional stories Helps readers develop methods for tracking scholarly metrics and adapt them to the needs of specific researchers Presents best practices for journal selection Helps librarians and faculty understand and navigate controversies in the academic publishing world, such as open source publishing, altmetrics, and predatory publishers

Learn how to use children's books during storytime to approach sensitive topics and increase children's social-emotional wellness-and how to create storytimes that are engaging, participative, and FUN! The emotional challenges many children experience consume the time of teachers, exhaust parents, and sometimes lead children toward behaviors that prohibit social and academic success. Storytime to the rescue! Library storytimes prepare children for kindergarten; storytimes at home and in preschools allow teachers, parents, and children to think and talk about empathy and the importance of honoring your own and others' feelings. In Bringing Heart and Mind into Storytime, Heather McNeil teaches librarians and teachers how to use books to open conversations with children to teach such concepts as patience, tenacity, kindness, and teamwork. McNeil shares research on brain development, social-emotional learning, and the importance of play, but she also emphasizes maintaining the fun of storytime. She recommends songs, action rhymes, games, and crafts that contribute to fun and healthy storytimes. Extensive lists of recommended books will help readers find the right ones for their audience. Offers tips and techniques for including social-emotional learning in storytime through books, songs, action rhymes, games, and crafts Includes recommendations for books related to social-emotional learning Suggests best practices for participative, inclusive, and culturally aware storytimes Shares comments and experiences from storytime presenters across the United States

This book evaluates how we experience and understand buildings in different ways depending upon our academic and professional background. With reference to Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Central Library, the book illustrates a range of different methods available through its application to the building. By seeing such a variety of different research methods applied to one setting, it provides the opportunity for researchers to understand how tools can highlight various aspects of a building and how those different methods can augment, or complement, each other. Unique to this book are contributions from internationally renowned academics from fields including architecture, ethnography, architectural criticism, phenomenology, sociology, environmental psychology and cognitive science, all of which are united by a single, real-world application, the Seattle Central Library. This book will be of interest to architects and students of architecture as well as disciplines such as ethnography, sociology, environmental psychology, and cognitive science that have an interest in applying research methods to the built environment.

In this important and scholarly book nearly two dozen American librarians discuss the difficulties created by AACR2 with regard to bibliographic control and management of serials in libraries.

Here is a practical volume that focuses on the major security problems for libraries, archives, and museums. Written by a respected librarian and security consultant, Protecting Your Collection provides provides a thorough review of the procedures for protecting library, art, and archival collections against losses from theft, fire, flooding, and mutilation. Author Slade Gandert includes fascinating interviews with librarians, rare book dealers, archivists, detectives, and security professionals to find out who steals from institutional collections--how they do it and why they do it. Each chapter features case studies of intriguing security leaks in the institutional system and describes their outcome. This important book is beneficial reading for library staff and administrators.

An essential resource for any library where research on aging is conducted--a guide to important and unique holdings in the field.

This book focuses on current practices in scientific and technical communication, historical aspects, and characteristics and biblio graphic control of various forms of scientific and technical literature. It integrates the inventory approach for scientific and technical communication.

The Annual Bibliography of the History of the Printed Book and Libraries aims at recording articles of scholarly value which relate to the history of the printed book, to the history of arts, crafts, techniques and equipment, and of the economic social and cultural environment, involved in its production, distribution, conversation and description.

For decades, we have been told we live in the “information age”—a time when disruptive technological advancement has reshaped the categories and social uses of knowledge and when quantitative assessment is increasingly privileged. Such methodologies and concepts of information are usually considered the provenance of the natural and social sciences, which present them as politically and philosophically neutral. Yet the humanities should and do play an important role in interpreting and critiquing the historical, cultural, and conceptual nature of information. This book is one of two companion volumes that explore theories and histories of information from a humanistic perspective. They consider information as a long-standing feature of social, cultural, and conceptual management, a matter of social practice, and a fundamental challenge for the humanities today. Information: A Reader provides an introduction to the concept of information in historical, literary, and cultural studies. It features excerpts from more than forty texts by theorists and critics—including Walter Benjamin, Umberto Eco, Lisa Gitelman, Ian Hacking, N. Katherine Hayles, Friedrich Kittler, and Norbert Wiener—who have helped establish the notion of the “information age” or expand upon it. The reader establishes a canonical framework for thinking about information in humanistic terms. Together with Information: Keywords, it sets forth a major humanistic vision of the concept of information.

Autoethnography for Librarians and Information Scientists illustrates that autoethnography is a rich qualitative research method that can enhance understanding of one's own work experiences, whilst also facilitating the design of tailored experiences for a variety of audiences. Starting with the position that librarians and information scientists require deep insight into people's experiences, needs and information behaviour in order to design appropriate services and information interventions, this book shows that using only conventional methods, such as questionnaires and focus groups, is insufficient. Arguing that autoethnography can provide unique insights into users' cultural experiences and needs, contributors to this volume introduce the reader to different types of autoethnography. Highlighting common challenges and clarifying how autoethnography can be combined with other research methods, this book will empower librarians and information scientists to conceptualise topics for autoethnographic research, whilst also ensuring that they adhere to strict ethical guidelines. Chapters within the volume also demonstrate how to produce autoethnographic writing and stress the need to analyse autoethnographies produced by others. Autoethnography for Librarians and Information Scientists is essential reading for any librarian, information scientist or student looking to deepen their understanding of their own experiences. It will be particularly useful to those engaged in the study of service provision, user studies and information behaviour.

The concept of 'natural heritage' has become increasingly significant with the threat of dwindling resources, environmental degradation and climatic change. As humanity's impact on the condition of life on earth has become more prominent, a discernible shift in the relationship between western society and the environment has taken place. This is reflective of wider historical processes which reveal a constantly changing association between humanity's definition and perception of what 'nature' constitutes or what can be defined as 'natural'. From the ornate collections of specimens which formed the basis of a distinct concept of 'nature' emerging during the Enlightenment, this definition and the wider relationship between humanity and natural history have reflected issues of identity, place and politics in the modern era. This book examines this process and focuses on the ideas, values and agendas that have defined the representation and reception of the history of the natural world, including geology and palaeontology, within contemporary society, addressing how the heritage of natural history, whether through museums, parks, tourist sites or popular culture is used to shape social, political, cultural and moral identities. It will be of interest to scholars and practitioners within heritage studies, public history, ecology, environmental studies and geography.

Access and Control in Digital Humanities explores a range of important questions about who controls data, who is permitted to reproduce or manipulate data, and what sorts of challenges digital humanists face in making their work accessible and useful. Contributors to this volume present case studies and theoretical approaches from their experience with applications for digital technology in classrooms, museums, archives, in the field and with the general public. Offering potential answers to the issues of access and control from a variety of perspectives, the volume acknowledges that access is subject to competing interests of a variety of stakeholders. Museums, universities, archives, and some communities all place claims on how data can or cannot be shared through digital initiatives and, given the collaborative nature of most digital humanities projects, those in the field need to be cognizant of the various and often competing interests and rights that shape the nature of access and how it is controlled. Access and Control in Digital Humanities will be of interest to researchers, academics and graduate students working in a variety of fields, including digital humanities, library and information science, history, museum and heritage studies, conservation, English literature, geography and legal studies.

This volume provides practical, but provocative, case studies of exemplary projects that apply digital technology or methods to the study of religion. An introduction and 16 essays are organized by the kinds of sources digital humanities scholars use - texts, images, and places - with a final section on the professional and pedagogical issues digital scholarship raises for the study of religion.

The last 46 years have witnessed a deep and continued interest in information literacy. This interest has resulted in an extensive range of research being undertaken and a burgeoning corpus of literature created by academic researchers, library practitioners and other researchers who explore information literacy through their own disciplinary lens. The Qualitative Landscape of Information Literacy Research is a landmark publication that will develop and support readers’ understanding of how information literacy research and teaching is framed, developed and produced. Written by a leading expert in the field, it introduces and describes the key approaches taken by qualitative researchers, identifying core and specialist methods, techniques and theories. In each chapter, examples will illustrate how theory, types of pedagogical frameworks, methods and tools have been used. Coverage includes: theory and key concepts of information literacy social theory framework and their application to information literacy research exploration of the pedagogical frameworks that inform information literacy a range of qualitative methods that shape information literacy research data collection techniques research design. This book will be valuable to researchers in information literacy, students who are developing or undertaking research or simply interested in identifying approaches to information literacy and practitioners who want to investigate the practice of information literacy to create an evidence base to support information literacy in their workplaces or institutions.

What can be found in the Vatican's Secret Archive? How many books did Charles Darwin's library aboard the Beagle hold? Which library is home to a colony of bats? Bursting with potted histories, quirky facts and enlightening lists, this book explores every aspect of the library, celebrating not only these remarkable institutions but also the individuals behind their awe-inspiring collections. From the ancient library at Alexandria to the Library of Congress in Washington DC, A Library Miscellany explores institutions both old and new, from the university library to that of the humble village. It opens the door to unusual collections such as herbaria, art libraries, magic libraries and even the library of smells, and charts the difficulties of cataloguing books deemed to be subversive, heretical, libellous or obscene. Packed with unusual facts and statistics, this is the perfect volume for library enthusiasts, bibliophiles and readers everywhere.