Deep in the Somerset countryside, the Combe Pomeroy village library hosts a monthly book club. Ruth the librarian fears she's too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley's Lover makes her think again. Aurora doesn't feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark's grumpiness and wonders if their son's imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best? The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold? From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve. Judy Leigh is back with her unmistakable recipe of friendship and fun, love and laughter. The perfect feel-good novel for all fans of Dawn French, Dee Macdonald and Cathy Hopkins. Readers love Judy Leigh: 'Loved this from cover to cover, pity I can only give this 5 stars as it deserves far more.' 'The story's simply wonderful, the theme of second chances will resonate whatever your age, there's something for everyone among the characters, and I do defy anyone not to have a tear in their eye at the perfect ending.' 'With brilliant characters and hilarious antics, this is definitely a cosy read you'll not want to miss.' 'A lovely read of how life doesn't just end because your getting old.' 'A great feel-good and fun story that made me laugh and root for the characters.' Praise for Judy Leigh: 'Brilliantly funny, emotional and uplifting' Miranda Dickinson 'Lovely . . . a book that assures that life is far from over at seventy' Cathy Hopkins bestselling author of The Kicking the Bucket List 'Brimming with warmth, humour and a love of life... a wonderful escapade' Fiona Gibson

How do you supervise a graduate student working in a library—and not just adequately, but well? What is a valuable and meaningful work experience? How can libraries design more equitable and ethical positions for students?Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries provides practical, how-to guidance on creating and managing impactful programs as well as meaningful personal experiences for students and library staff in academic libraries. Fourteen chapters are divided into four thorough sections: Creating Access Pathways Developing, Running, and Evolving Programs for LIS Students Working with Graduate Students without an LIS Background: Mutual Opportunities for Growth Centering the Person  Chapters cover topics including developing experiential learning opportunities for online students; cocreated cocurricular graduate learning experiences; an empathy-driven approach to crafting an internship; self-advocacy and mentorship in LIS graduate student employment; and sharing perspectives on work and identity between a graduate student and an academic library manager. Throughout the book you’ll find “Voices from the Field,� profiles that showcase the voices and reflections of the graduate students themselves, recent graduates, and managers.   Learning in Action brings together a range of topics and perspectives from authors of diverse backgrounds and institutions to offer practical inspiration and a framework for creating meaningful graduate student work experiences at your institutions.

Danger of health misinformation online, long a concern of medical and public health professionals, has come to the forefront of societal concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of their motives, creators and sharers of misinformation promote non-evidence-based health advice and treatment recommendations, and often deny health methods, measures, and approaches that are supported by the best evidence of the time. Unfortunately, many infrastructural, social, and cognitive factors make individuals vulnerable to misinformation. This book aims to assist information and health professionals and educators with all phases of information provision and support, from understanding users' information needs, to building relationships, to helping users verify and evaluate sources. The book can be used as a textbook in library and information science programs, as well as nursing, communication, journalism, psychology, and informatics programs. The book, written from the e-health literacy perspective, is unique in its nuanced approach to misinformation. It draws on psychology and information science to explain human susceptibility to misinformation and discusses ways to engage with the public deeply and meaningfully, fostering trust and raising health and information literacy. It is organized into three parts. Part I: The Ecology of Online Health Information' overviews the digital health information universe, showing that misinformation is prevalent, dangerous, and difficult to define. Part II: Susceptibility to Misinformation: Literacies as Safeguards addresses factors and competencies that affect individual vulnerability and resilience. Part III: Solutions focuses on education and community engagement initiatives that help the public locate and evaluate health information. Chapters within the three Parts discuss technological innovation and social media as posing novel risks as well as presenting novel solutions to helping the public connect with high quality information and building trusting relationships among the public and information and health professionals.

Outcome-based planning and evaluation (OBPE), with its straightforward approach built on a flexible framework, is the perfect model to enable youth services professionals to deliver effective services regardless of uncertainties. An outcome-based approach can help youth services stay grounded in producing desired outcomes with and for youth through responsive programs, services, and processes that can adapt to changing conditions. Clarifying the relationship between planning, program development, and evaluation, the five simple steps outlined in this book will help youth services staff conduct solid community assessments and integrate OBPE into their work. Inside its pages you will learn a short history of OBPE and its evolution; why it is crucially important to involve youth in all stages of program development, with guidance on navigating challenges; how to think about planning as the need to react quickly, whether due to natural or human-made disasters, changing demographics, or economic swings; the five steps of OBPE, from gathering information about your community and determining the outcomes that will serve your community to crafting accurate outcome statements, developing an evaluation plan, and maximizing the results of successful outcome-based programs; how to visualize the steps needed to successfully plan, implement, and evaluate an outcome-based program, using the template included in the book; ways to share your data to let people know the library's important role in the community; and additional useful tools to bolster your work, including environmental scan forms and ideas for creating relevant family storytimes.

Complete with illuminating case studies and worksheets that guide readers to develop a personal framework for individual learning, this toolkit is an easy-to-use handbook of the basic HR functions of a public library. Human resources is an area of leadership that requires its own specialized knowledge, but many library managers and directors assume their roles without any background knowledge of HR or adequate training. This comprehensive toolkit, which has been vetted by HR professionals as well as an attorney who specializes in employment law, is here to fill those gaps. Taking you through the lifecycle of an employee, and also providing a framework to develop skills and confidence, in this book you will learn: ways to incorporate an EDI lens into your employee processes, starting with accurately crafted job descriptions that are posted on diverse job boards; tips for hiring and onboarding new staff; advice on individual employee development and retention, from the importance of continuing education to methods for increasing staff engagement and strengthening morale; considerations for treating all employees equitably to maintain a welcoming and inclusive space for staff from marginalized populations; an overview of the essential HR laws that come into play, helping you navigate difficult situations like discipline and termination; first-hand accounts of HR successes and challenges; and how to create a personalized structure around your HR learning and put it into practice, using a variety of worksheets, questions for reflection, templates, and tools provided in the book.

Librarianship is still a predominantly white profession. It is essential that current practitioners as well as those about to enter the field take an unflinching look at the profession's legacy of racial discrimination, including the ways in which race might impact service to users such as students in school, public, and academic libraries. Given the prevalence of implicit and explicit bias against Black and African American people, authors Folk and Overbey argue that we must speak to these students directly to hear their stories and thereby understand their experiences. This Special Report shares the findings of a qualitative research study that explored the library experiences of Black and African American undergraduate students both before and during college, grounding it within an equity framework. From this Report readers will learn details about the study, which focused on the potential role of race in the students' interactions with library staff, including white staff and staff of color; gain insight into Black and African American users' perceptions of libraries and library staff, attitudes towards reading, frequency of library usage, and the importance of family; understand the implications of the study's findings for our practice and for librarianship more broadly, including our ongoing commitment to diversifying the profession; and walk away with recommendations that can be applied to every library and educational context, such as guidance for developing an antiracist organization and more equitable service provision.

Learners encounter social and emotional challenges every day. Some rise to the demands, while others struggle. Social and emotional learning (SEL) lessons can help all learners thrive. Busy school librarians and educators who appreciate the power of teaching with picture books will celebrate this all-in-one text designed to promote SEL through the school library. Social and Emotional Learning for Picture Book Readers spotlights 24 compelling picture books with ready-to-go lesson plans that support social and emotional learning (SEL) through the National School Library Standards. Each chapter focuses on one SEL theme to help learners practice targeted social-emotional skills. Learners will develop skills in solving problems, building relationships, working in teams, recognizing and managing feelings, and engaging ethically. Most lessons can be taught in a single class period and provide picture books as mentor texts supporting SEL lessons and curriculum; AASL Standards-alignments with detailed instructions, making planning a breeze; and anchor charts, discussion questions, and worksheets to help facilitate SEL activities.

With a renewed emphasis on facilitating learning, supporting multiple literacies, and advancing equity and inclusion, the thoroughly updated and revised second edition of this trusted text provides models and tools that will enable library staff who serve youth to create and maintain collections that provide equitable access to all youth. And as Hughes-Hassell demonstrates, the only way to do this is for collection managers to be learner-centered, confidently acting as information guides, change agents, and leaders. Based on the latest educational theory and research, this book: presents the argument for why collection management decisions and practices should focus on equity, exploring systemic inequities, educational paradigm shifts, developments in the information environment, and other key factors; lays out the theoretical foundation for developing and managing a library collection that facilitates learning, supports the development of multiple literacies, and provides equitable access to an increasingly diverse group of young learners; touches upon current competencies and standards by AASL, YALSA, and ALSC; uses a learner-centered and equity perspective to cover core issues and criteria such as selection and removal of materials, budgeting, and cooperation among libraries; shows how a business viewpoint can assist the learner-centered collector in articulating the central significance of the collection to learning; discusses how library staff can work collaboratively to create policy and negotiate budgets; and includes customizable tools and templates, including a Stakeholder Contact/SWOT Analysis, Decision-Making Model for Selecting Resources and Access Points that Support Learning and Advance Equity, and Collection Development Analysis Worksheet. This resource will be as useful to current school librarians and supervisors, youth librarians in public libraries, and educators as it will to LIS students.