The first edition of this breakthrough book was a huge success, so FOLUSA (Friends of Libraries USA) has collected 101+ more terrific ideas and best practices to help you and your team connect with your community. Following an introduction which sets the stage for effective library/community partnerships, you'll discover ideas for innovative programs, successful fund raising, strategic advocacy, powerful public relations, memorable membership campaigns and more. As in the first book, each idea is presented with practical instructions, graphics, and implementation tools so you can adapt these programs successfully and creatively to match your library's specific needs and opportunities.

Whether it's solving the morning crossword puzzle, working out whodunit in a best-selling thriller, or participating in the library's mystery book club, everyone loves a mystery! In ""Hosting a Library Mystery"", Elizabeth Karle capitalizes on our delight of the genre through this unique, interactive programming guide. Karle's innovative and interactive ideas will coax children on a quest to learn about pirates, college students to uncover the research tools needed for class, or new patrons to discover the riches of the library's collection. ""Hosting a Library Mystery"" contains five complete mystery scripts, each targeted to a different audience, but all original, expertly created, and thoroughly researched. These scripts serve as an excellent means to acquaint users with a wide variety of library services as well as library personnel, special collections, and research skills. In addition, this book provides: complete instructions for program planning ranging from how to write clues to organizing the investigation; hints for adapting scripts to fit particular situation; and, examples and extras to construct an entertaining event in which all kinds of patrons can engage in active learning. With a one-of-a-kind book filled with creative ways to bring the community into the library and give them an incentive to stay, the only mystery will be why ""Hosting a Library Mystery"" wasn't in your collection sooner!

Find your bearings in this rapidly evolving hybrid reference environment through proven strategies, advice, exercises and research from three experts in the field. The revised second edition of this practical how-to for all types of librarians will teach you to understand the needs of public, academic and special library users across any virtual setting - email, text messaging, social networking websites - as well as in traditional and face-to-face models of communication. Based on the latest research in communication theory, the book includes new exercises and examples to help you practice effective reference transactions and avoid common pitfalls. Guidance for helping users with special language-related needs (such as speech and hearing disabilities and English Language Learners) and social difficulties is also included, as are updated chapters on readers' advisory interviewing and policy and training procedures. An extensively revised chapter on virtual reference features new sections on live chat and instant messaging services, as well as a discussion of Web 2.0 initiatives and updated information on e-mail reference. Pooling their wealth of experience, the authors share real-life interview examples alongside constructive critiques and practical suggestions to improve interviewing methods. "Booklist"'s praise of the previous edition holds true with this new edition: 'The work is laudable for its practicality, clarity, cogency, and supportive data...In short, an essential read for all current and future reference librarians'.

Here is a practical handbook for school librarians who seek to create an active, energetic, and imaginative school environment with literacy as its focus. Creating a Culture of Literacy: Programming Ideas for Elementary School Librarians is an essential guide for elementary school librarians. Based on the author's 20 years of experience in school library programming, the book includes dozens of examples of literacy-based activities and programs that can serve as means to challenge, encourage, and validate young readers. At the same time, it suggests practical ways to create a culture of literacy by involving students and their families with a variety of reading-related activities. Developing literate students in a culture of literacy must involve all the members of the school community—students, teachers, administrators, staff, and families. The school library can lead the way with strong and imaginative programming. The wide range of ideas this book offers for creating a culture of literacy in every school will appeal to both the novice and the experienced school librarian. Grades K-6

With the new fifth edition of his ""Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations"", William Sannwald guides librarians and other members of a building design team through the stages of the design process. Planning construction of a new library facility or renovation of an existing one can be a daunting task. With the new fifth edition of his ""Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations"", veteran library administrator and construction consultant William Sannwald guides librarians and other members of a building design team through the stages of the design process. Updated materials include: a new chapter on sustainable design, including issues of site selection, air quality, and energy and water efficiency; new sections on wireless networking, information commons and media production and presentation labs; updated treatment of special collections and materials handling systems; and, a new section on disaster planning.It also contains DA Accessibility Guidelines section reorganized to match structure of the federal statute. Because construction projects are complex and sometimes unwieldy, Sannwald's checklist format provides a clear, concise way of itemizing the issues, helping your construction project run as smoothly as possible!

In his hugely successful ""Connecting Boys with Books"" (2003), Sullivan delved into the problem that reading skills of pre-adolescent boys lag behind those of girls in the same age group. In this companion book, Sullivan digs even deeper, melding his own experiences as an activist with perspectives gleaned from other industry experts to help you: learn about the books that boys love to read; uncover the signs that point to the reading gap; find creative new programming ideas to match boys' interests; and, establish a strategic blueprint for boys and reading. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience, Sullivan shows how to reinvigorate the sense of excitement that boys felt when they first heard a picture book being read aloud.

We've all heard the questions...asked with urgency and genuine need. 'Does the flu vaccine cause the flu?' 'How do I find a LASIK surgeon?' 'Will Echinacea treat my daughter's cold?' This new consumer-focused handy reference volume will give your staff a reliable, authoritative resource to suggest when patrons come to you with health questions. Each entry provides a clear, easy-to-understand explanation of medical conditions and treatment, and provides critical call-out facts to support better understanding. In addition, your patrons can use the handy '? Ask the Experts' information to find additional, authoritative information and answers to their specific questions. They'll also discover tips, checklists for questions to ask healthcare professionals, charts and other easy-access information to address their specific concerns and provide important background information as they determine the next appropriate steps for their care.When it comes to consumer-friendly, reliable health information and answers, this new reference work is...that's right...just what the doctor and the librarian ordered!

Working with and devising quality educational resources for 'Generation M' - today's group of teens and young adults born in the early 1980s through the mid 1990s - can be a challenge for librarians and instructors who may not relate well to their multitasking, technophile students. Here, editors Cvetkovic (named of one of the '2005 Library Movers and Shakers' by ""Library Journal"") and Lackie (the 2006 recipient of the ALA Kenneth Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship) answer the core questions you'll need to facilitate new and powerful learning opportunities for your Gen M audience, including: Who are the members of Gen M? What is their shared cultural experience and how does it influence learning? And how can librarians and educators best meet this cohort's educational requirements? Cvetkovic, Lackie and their contributors debunk common myths and misconceptions about this unique generation to provide a realistic understanding of their instructional needs and learning styles. You'll a comprehensive introduction and overview of Gen M, including key term definitions, background information, and a clear idea of the scope of issues facing educators charged with teaching and working with this age group. A section on the emergent digital community inherent to Gen M examines the personal, sociological, and educational implications and impact on future pedagogy. The authors cover popular online tools like Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Google, many of which play a large role in Gen M information retrieval, and also address key educational theories and provide instruction for creating lessons and learning objects that can be used in both traditional and online educational environments. Examples of current best practices are provided along with corresponding instruction for designing and implementing them in your library or classroom.

This book helps you start the story of literacy by welcoming families into your library. ""Family Literacy Storytimes"" gives you the insight and inspiration to plan literacy-rich, memorable storytimes that have the power to bring the whole family together. In a fun-filled environment, families new to the English language can begin family literacy before the child enters school. In ""Family Literacy Storytimes"" you will have all the tools you need to foster oral fluency in English while providing exposure to excellent children's literature. Each of the 25 themed storytime plans includes an outline for a 30 minute program designed to help parents and children learn together. Each theme includes an annotated list of recently published picture books selected to help you teach the American Library Association (ALA) six pre-literacy skills. Using the many extended learning activities, games, original songs, parent handouts, craft patterns and storytelling aids, you can give parents the tools they need to be their child's best teacher. Families experiencing success together in your library - what could be better than that?

For over 10 years YALSA has produced two annual lists, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, consisting of recommended reading targeted at young adults who are not avid readers. Quick and Popular Reads for Teens compiles bibliographic information about the books honored by these two selected lists.

Bricks, mortar, memories, and magic! Create children's and YA spaces that work and welcome youth into the world of knowledge. Get the "inside story" on creating those special spaces in your library that promote and encourage children's and young adult's curiosity, learning, and reading - and support their lifelong love of books and information.Nolan Lushington - expert library design consultant - covers the complete planning process from concept to "grand opening." He takes you from the technical aspects of design and construction, to the finer points of lighting, acoustics, furnishings, equipment, and multimedia areas, storywells, YA spaces, and more. Whether you're a children's or YA librarian, library director, school facilities planner or architect, you'll discover valuable, practical tips and insights to help you create that inviting environment called the library.

In this timesaving resource, Reid makes reading aloud to children and teens easy by selecting titles in high-interest topics and providing context to spotlight great passages. Make reading fun and exciting with: passages from 400 titles encompassing fiction and nonfiction; advice on how to prepare for a read-aloud; a subject index to make program planning easier; and, bibliographic information on all titles. You will find plenty to engage your audiences and reinvigorate programs!

Enriching and supplementing storytelling programs with fingerplays, flannelboards, and other props will be a cinch, thanks to this generous sampling of art and craft ideas, songs, and action rhymes. This time-saving resource includes: thematic organization to make program planning easy; recommended books for each theme; easy-to-follow craft and flannelboard patterns; and quick tips boxes that enhance the early literacy component.A unique addition to the programming shelf, this treasure trove of storytime tools is designed to help veteran librarians refresh and enliven ongoing programs, while providing novice storytime planners what they need to get started!

Incorporating outcome-based planning and evaluation is critical when developing new programs and services. In this step-by-step patron-centered guide, three experts who have conducted extensive research share their findings and proven strategies: Generate results that support funding - be it governmental or grant-based; Get buy-in and participation from young library users; Improve communications between staff and customers, and among staff; and Garner immense user benefits with minimal effort. Using this method and selecting the level of effort allow libraries to refine existing services and make program improvements incrementally, based on what their audience wants and needs.

Navigating what at she calls the ""extravagantly rich world of nonfiction,"" renowned readers' advisor (RA) Wyatt builds readers' advisory bridges from fiction to compelling and increasingly popular nonfiction to encompass the library's entire collection. She focuses on eight popular categories: history, true crime, true adventure, science, memoir, food/cooking, travel, and sports. Within each, she explains the scope, popularity, style, major authors and works, and the subject's position in readers' advisory interviews.Wyatt addresses who is reading nonfiction and why, while providing RAs with the tools and language to incorporate nonfiction into discussions that point readers to what to read next. In easy-to-follow steps, Wyatt explains the hows and whys of offering fiction and nonfiction suggestions together; illustrates ways to get up to speed fast in nonfiction; shows how to lead readers to a variety of books using her ""read-around"" and ""reading map"" strategies; and provides tools to build nonfiction subject guides for the collection.This hands-on guide includes nonfiction bibliography, key authors, benchmark books with annotations, and core collections. It is destined to become the nonfiction 'bible' for readers' advisory and collection development, helping librarians, library workers, and patrons select great reading from the entire library collection!

The Internet is not a one-way street in terms of library service as it challenges any traditional notion of its use for collecting or managing information. The information is constantly changing. It is not a static and reliable source like a book, nor is the content necessarily correct all of the time. In this resource, authors Charles McClure and Paul T. Jaeger speak to the ways in which the Internet has had more impact on public libraries than any other technology since the creation of the book. The issues presented are vital to library service, planning, evaluation, research and education - and most significantly how effectively libraries service the general public.This title helps you: learn the importance of measuring and maximizing library service through internet services; analyze new and unique Internet-enabled service roles of public libraries - expanding on the Web 2.0 environment; and, gain insight in selecting and creating Internet-enabled service roles. ""Public Libraries and Internet Service Roles"" will help ensure that public libraries remain a vibrant marketplace of ideas freely accessible to all members of the library community.

In ""Marketing Today's Academic Library"", Brian Mathews uses his vast experience to speak directly to the academic library practitioner about matching services with user needs. This book proposes new visions and ideas, challenging the traditional way of thinking and providing a framework to target users more precisely. Most library marketing intended for undergraduates promotes the collection, reference and instructional service, and occasional events such as guest speakers or exhibits. The guiding principle of ""Marketing Today's Academic Library"" is that marketing should focus on the lifestyle of the user, showcasing how the library fits within the daily life of the student. Mathews' personal and compelling presentation will assist readers in: challenging and rethinking their marketing strategies; demonstrating their value through applied relevance; and, focusing on the needs of the student and their expectations. Written in a concise and engaging manner that speaks to popular anxiety points about new marketing techniques, this book is filled with tips and strategies that academic librarians can use to communicate with students, surpassing their expectations of their library experience.

Inside, Outside, and Online provides practical advice and inspiration for building community with your library. Based on a scan of the community and technology environments that libraries operate within, related literature, and the practical experiences of hundreds of library staff actively building communities through their work, the book provides much-needed insights into the essential elements of community building through: identifying user needs and designing services to meet those needs; engaging communities with service selection, creation, and iteration; and, utilizing practical new technologies. Whatever your role, and whatever size or type of library, the principles outlined here can support anyone working to build a strong community of engaged, interested, and satisfied library users.

This book offers novice and experienced reference librarians an introduction to tried-and-true genealogy techniques and resources. With the help of four case studies, Simpson outlines a basic starting strategy for conducting genealogy research. Later chapters deal specifically with genealogical librarianship: how to conduct a reference interview, continuing and professional development, and basic resources every collection should have. Charts, screen shots, and examples of public documents are also included; while a series of appendices present the case studies in their entirety.

Genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in the United States, and is heavily researched in public libraries and historical repositories. Increasingly, major genealogy resources are available online at libraries through subscription databases or free on the internet. As a result, librarians face the overwhelming task of helping a large audience of genealogists cope with an ever growing flood of new resources.

This book offers novice and experienced reference librarians an introduction to tried-and-true genealogy techniques and resources. With the help of four case studies, Simpson outlines a basic starting strategy for conducting genealogy research. Later chapters deal specifically with genealogical librarianship: how to conduct a reference interview, continuing and professional development, and basic resources every collection should have. Charts, screen shots, and examples of public documents are also included; while a series of appendices present the case studies in their entirety.

Build your teen community with a program that's irresistible--a teen writing club. Teens have primal urges to create and to connect. Now you can tap into those urges with the help of this comprehensive, step-by-step guide to creating a teen writing club in the school or public library. Featuring creative writing activities, with detailed planning advice, coaching tips, and culminating in performance/publishing ideas, this book makes it easy for you to create a place where teen writers connect with one another through words--written, spoken, sung, or even howled. Grades 6-12

Supplying contributions from Latino librarian practitioners across the nation, this anthology provides broad coverage of the subject of Latino/Spanish speaking library service in the United States. Emphasizing public, school, and academic libraries, Pathways to Progress: Issues and Advances in Latino Librarianship taps the leading minds of the Latino library world to provide expert discourse on a wide spectrum of library services to Latino patrons in the United States. This collection of articles provides an accurate, insightful discussion of the issues and advances in Latino library service. Coverage of library service to the Latino community includes subjects such as special collections, recruitment and mentoring, leadership, collection development, reference services to gays and lesbians, children services, and special library populations. Contributors include library practitioners who are of Mexican, Chilean, Peruvian, Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican, and Cuban descent. Best practices are presented and explained in-depth with practical examples and documented citations.

Digital stories are brief multi-modal digital videos, which libraries can use to engage their staff members with one another, to market library services and collections, to attract donors, and most importantly, to engage students and faculty with the library. Fields and Diaz address the "how-tos" of creating digital stories, as well as the challenges of building a digital storytelling program and creating partnerships across campus. Of primary interest to academic librarians and instructional technology staff.

Baseball fans have long appreciated the value of keeping a scorecard, both as a record of the game and a predictor of future outcomes. What if we told you the same principle works for libraries? The "Balanced Scorecard" is a performance measurement tool first popularized by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (who also penned the foreword to this book) in a 1993 Harvard Business Review article. It involves matching a variety of measures with one or more expected values--from each of four perspectives (financial, customer, internal process, and organizational readiness)--tracking results, and analyzing any variance between them. As in baseball, organizations come away with both a snapshot of the present and a sense of where they are headed. Evaluation expert Joe Matthews has taken this basic model and, in six carefully illustrated steps, shows how any public library, regardless of size, can more effectively focus its resources, assess strategic impact, and in so doing better serve its community.

This introductory book is a basic review of reference services in public libraries. It includes tips on locating resources in both print and online formats, makes suggestions for purchases and maintenance of the reference collection, reviews the ethical aspects of providing information to all patrons, and provides information on how to join a network of reference librarians who can assist you when you cannot find an answer. A basic explanation of reference services for those with little formal LIS training working in small rural libraries or others who have been working in other areas and wish to brush up on their skills, this author provides an introduction to reference services including search strategies.

Bring authentic multicultural booktalks to your students using this well-researched, easy-to-use book of recommended titles and talks.?

- Offers a focus on contemporary multicultural fiction, history, and memoirs

- Highlights award winning, well-written fiction

- Allows the library to serve and reach underserved populations

- Recommended titles and talks written by some of the best authors around

- Inspire your NCLB subgroup students to read by booktalking these culturally responsive books

- Indexed by subject, title, and by author

Encourage secondary students to read more, read thoughtfully, and think critically. Engage all students, promote cross-cultural understanding, increase diversity, and help prevent dropouts.