The necessity for library leaders to demonstrate that libraries are innovative, collaborative, and can provide eye-catching, transformational services and programs to their communities cannot be understated. But libraries do not suffer from a lack of big ideas. What library workers really need is a roadmap for making those impactful ideas become reality. Based in part on her extensive experience coordinating large-scale initiatives, this guide from ASCLA Leadership and Professional Achievement Award-winning consultant Horton will walk you through formulating and shaping your ideas into sellable, actionable projects. You’ll learn 

• techniques drawn from project management experts and researchers from many fields;
• why Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) are worth your time and effort;
• guidance on upscaling your idea into a project or service that can be launched at a statewide, community wide, or library consortium level;
• several case studies of large-scale library projects, with analysis of why they were successful;
• how to successfully combine foundational principles of innovation with practical methods for collaboration;
• methods for extending your reach beyond your usual sphere to partner with other libraries and organizations;
• how to sharpen your skills of persuasion;  
• no-nonsense advice on leading teams of disparate individuals; and
• evaluative tips for affirming the project is on the right track and then correcting course as needed.

Futurists predict that in the next ten years the profession of “lawyer” will splinter into job titles like “legal process analyst” or “legal knowledge engineer.” And some in the field are already taking a proactive approach ⁠— in fact, more than two dozen law schools have developed innovation centers to explore artificial intelligence (AI) and the law. In a competitive marketplace, both firms and individuals need to familiarize themselves with the dazzling array of new products and enhanced features capable of improving efficiency. Written by leading practitioners and visionaries like Robert Ambrogi, this groundbreaking survey of current practices and future trends offers an incisive examination of the evolving roles for law librarians. Readers will learn how AI technology is changing law school curricula, lawyer practice, marketing, and other key aspects of the field through coverage of such topics as

• the benefits of AI to law librarianship, including areas like legal research, contract review, compliance, and administration, and their associated risks;
• four professional ethics rules that apply to the use or (non-use) of AI;
• how lawyers and staff work side by side with AI, utilizing intelligence like RAVN ACE or FastCase to attack the drudgery of due diligence and document review;
• surprising machine-learning insights from tokenizing, stemming, and lemmatizing the text of Shakespeare’s plays;
• the potential for chatbots and new natural language processing products to improve access to justice; and
• ways to develop sought-after skills through new technology departments, practice management groups, and legal innovation labs.

Reading this collection will give you a firm grasp of the innovations, tools, benefits, and risks of AI in law librarianship.

Today's emphasis on metrics and personalization make evidence-based instruction an imperative. In this practice-based handbook, the authors draw on the research of the humanistic psychologist and educator Carl Rogers to present an empathetic approach to information literacy sessions, reference service, and outreach.  With an eye on everyday library work, they offer concrete, empirically-based strategies to connect with learners at all levels. Offering plentiful examples of pedagogy in action, this book covers:

• 6 cognitive principles for organizing information literacy instruction, with sample worksheets and organization tools for instruction planning;
• how to establish rapport and kindle learners' motivation;
• tactics for transcending "cite 5 sources" and other uninspiring research assignments;
• educational evidence debunking the mythical perception that because students are skilled at computers and mobile technology, they already know how to do research;
• questions to keep in mind for inspiring autonomous learning;
• the power of story, as described by Joan Didion, Brené Brown's Ted Talk, and educational psychology research;
• the science behind information overload; and
• a balanced framework for evaluating specific educational technology tools.

Fusing theory with practice, this handbook is a valuable resource to help every practitioner connect with learners more effectively.

This book offers

• Step-by-step directions for both the educator and learner and all necessary handouts, including directions and worksheets. The reader can use the book to quickly and easily set up centers. Some centers require only photocopies and basic materials to get started.
• Guidance on how to create cross-curricular centers that target the AASL Standards and other content-area standards. A table is provided to enable educators to create centers that address specific standards or content areas. Centers for distance learning are also identified.
• Suggested modifications for both struggling and advanced learners, plus ideas for collaborating with other educators. These features broaden the potential audience beyond elementary school learners. 

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 

Foreword by Kirby McCurtis

As the weekly lists of best-sellers demonstrate, many people want to engage with racial issues. But when it comes to talking about race, they often don’t know how or are hesitant to take the first steps. This includes children's librarians, who are taking seriously our profession’s calls for diversity, equity, and inclusion. They already know that popular storytimes can be an effective way to increase community representation and belonging at the library. Incorporating race into storytimes is an ideal way to foster inclusion by normalizing conversations about these issues. This book will help public and school librarians face their own biases, showing them how to have honest discussions with children, their caregivers, and storytime attendees, as well as their colleagues. In this book, you will discover

• several ready-to-use library storytimes that incorporate racial themes, complete with sample activities and booklists;
• an anti-oppression framework, based on the author’s own real-world practice, that is customizable for different settings and situations;
• concrete suggestions for overcoming fears and awkwardness when it comes to talking about race, with advice on practicing new language, making space to connect around appropriate cultural books for read alouds, and evaluating books for storytime;
• interactive self-reflecting worksheets which explore planning picture book introductions and songs for inclusive storytimes, providing age-appropriate glimpses into history, and suggested affirmations in describing skin tone, hair, and language;
• advocacy talking points centered on social justice that will encourage discussion with co-workers and other library staff; and
• guidance on community engagement, relationship building, and intentionally trying to diversify your world in order to truly become an anti-bias practitioner.

• a discussion of why sustainability matters to libraries and their user communities;
• real-life examples of sustainability programming, transformative community partnerships, collective responses for climate resilience, and green building practices;
• lessons learned and recommendations from library workers who have been active in putting sustainability into practice;
• the intersection of sustainability with the work of equity, diversity, and inclusion;
• suggestions regarding the revision of library and information science curriculum in light of the practical need to build community resilience;
• an examination of how libraries’ efforts to support Doughnut Economics can bolster the United Nations' work on the Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to address the global impacts of climate change; and
• potential collaborators for future sustainability-related initiatives.

The opioid epidemic, and other behavioral health issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, directly impact every community across the nation; and, by extension, public libraries’ daily work. Because libraries are not only trusted guardians of information but also vital community centers, people struggling with addictive behaviors as well as their family members and friends often turn to the library for help. But many library workers feel overwhelmed, finding themselves unprepared for serving these patrons in an effective and empathetic way. This book encourages readers to turn their fears and uncertainty into strengths and empowerment, offering to-the-point guidance on welcoming people with substance use disorders and their loved ones through policy, materials, outreach, collaboration, programs, and services. Written by a frontline librarian whose personal experiences inform the book, this resource

• explores the library’s role in the fight against addiction and how to become part of the solution by combating stigma;
• provides background on understanding how substance abuse and related behaviors affect different age groups and populations;
• explains how to be proactive regarding library safety and security by carefully crafting library policies and effectively communicating them to staff;
• offers real world guidance on training library staff, including pointers on recognizing observable signs of drug abuse and responding appropriately and safely to uncomfortable or potentially dangerous situations;   
• discusses safeguards such as a needle disposal unit, defibrillator, and Naloxone;
• gives tips on marketing, outreach, and programming, from putting together displays of materials and resources to partnering with local organizations; and
• recommends useful websites, documentaries, and additional resources for further learning.

With textbook readers and digital downloads proliferating, it is easy to imagine a time when printed books will vanish. Such forecasts miss the mark, argue Jeffrey Schnapp and Matthew Battles. Future bookshelves will not be wholly virtual, and libraries will thrive—although in a variety of new social, cultural, and architectural forms. Schnapp and Battles combine deep study of the library’s history with a record of institutional and technical innovation at metaLAB, a research group at the forefront of the digital humanities. They gather these currents in The Library Beyond the Book, exploring what libraries have been in the past to speculate on what they will become: hybrid places that intermingle books and ebooks, analog and digital formats, paper and pixels.

Libraries have always been mix-and-match spaces, and remix is their most plausible future scenario. Speculative and provocative, The Library Beyond the Book explains book culture for a world where the physical and the virtual blend with ever increasing intimacy.

Library liaisons often have primary jobs that do not involve collection development, but their familiarity with collection practices makes all the difference in faculty relations. And time pressures mean that on-boarding needs to be as streamlined as possible. This concise, field-tested training manual will put your liaison on solid footing. Plus, end of the chapter prompts make it easy to tailor your approach to local practices. With the help of this resource, your new liaison will get up to speed on such topics as

• tracking budget balances in assigned departments;
• differentiating between the needs of an individual faculty member and their department;
• how to say no to monograph requests;
• benchmarking titles with peer institutions or coordinating within a consortium;
• 17 questions to ask when evaluating a database;
• considerations when making weeding decisions;
• four key conversations to have annually between liaisons and collection development librarians; and
• gathering data for program accreditation reports.

Just because a set of responsibilities isn’t formally called management doesn’t mean that it isn’t management. And this vital text speaks to a reality that all current professionals already know: that is, everyone studying to enter the profession needs an introduction to the topic of management. Because no matter what one’s role in an academic or public library context, it will involve decision-making, planning, and organization skills. Newly revised and updated, this book pulls together management best practices from library management experts teaching in LIS programs across the U.S. and Canada. Among the many topics discussed are

• classic and contemporary theories of management, and how they apply to the library;
• human resource planning;
• marketing and public relations;
• negotiations, mediation, and financial management of the library;
• facilities management;
• information technology management and future trends;
• change management, organizational culture; and
• ethics and confidentiality.

Effectively marketing libraries by persuasively communicating their relevance is key to ensuring their future. Speaking directly to those in senior leadership positions, Anderson lays out the structural and organizational changes needed to help libraries answer the relevance question and maximize their marketing and communications efforts. Focusing on big-picture strategies, she shares lessons learned from her 20+ year career in library marketing and communications. No matter what type or size of library you help to lead, by reading this book you will

• gain insight into why libraries need to tell their stories more effectively than they are today;
• be able to craft a strategic roadmap for marketing your library and communicating its value in a variety of ways that resonate with key audiences;
• see why improvements to the structure of your marketing and communications team can lead to better results;
• learn practical methods for incorporating audience research into your planning;
• know how to remove customer barriers and discontinue practices that are thwarting your marketing efforts;
• receive guidance on preparing for potential crises;
• understand how to be more community-focused by forming and sustaining partnerships; and
• feel confident in engaging with stakeholders so that they become your library’s best ambassadors.

After a career of more than 40 years, Murray-Rust, former Dean of Libraries at Georgia Tech and a self-proclaimed library disrupter, sees our profession’s central challenge as simply this: how to turn the library outward in order to make a difference in the lives of individuals and the community. In this book she encourages readers to look an uncertain library future square in the eye. She shares stories from her transformational years at Georgia Tech Libraries which present both inspiration and practical advice on how to stand up for values while changing the ways we act upon them. Organized around seven action steps for change, this book offers takeaways and activities you can adapt to your work style and organizational culture. You will learn from such stories and lessons as

• the three different kinds of information you need for measuring impact;
• using new frameworks, outside fragmented, risk-adverse library structures, to get the work done;
• the limitations of trying to manage your way through major cultural change;
• embedding in the community to develop visions and strategies for improvement;
• painful and challenging times that set Murray-Rust on a path of self-learning;
• how an uncomfortable assignment led to a sought-after seat at the table for a university-wide capital construction project;
• the bold promise that got the library onto the high-priority list for renovation;
• visiting a Toyota plant to learn how to encourage employee engagement and creativity; and
• learning to listen with the "turning outward" philosophy of Harwood Institute.

Since the first edition of this landmark guide was published, there has been increased interest in services for library patrons on the autism spectrum; indeed, more people of all ages now self-identify as autistic. Those who understand the unique characteristics of autistic young people know that ordinary library programming guides are not up to the task of effectively serving these library users. Well qualified to speak to this need, Anderson is an educator, library researcher, and former public librarian who has helped to develop two IMLS funded initiatives that train library workers to better understand and serve autistic patrons. Here, she offers librarians who work with children and teens in both public library and K-12 educational settings an updated, comprehensive resource that includes

• an updated introduction to the basics of autism, including language, symbolism, and best practices in the library rooted in the principles of Universal Design;
• step-by-step programs from librarians across the country, adaptable for both public and school library settings, that are cost-effective and easy to replicate;
• contributions from autistic self-advocates throughout the text, demonstrating that the program ideas included are truly designed with their preferences in mind;
• suggestions for securing funding and establishing partnerships with community organizations; and
• many helpful appendices, with handy resources for training and education, building a collection, storytimes, sensory integration activities, and a “Tips for a Successful Library Visit” template.

As part of our mission to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all library patrons, our profession needs to come to terms with the consequences of mass incarceration, which have saturated the everyday lives of people in the United States and heavily impacts Black, Indigenous, and people of color; LGBTQ people; and people who are in poverty. Jeanie Austin, a librarian with San Francisco Public Library's Jail and Reentry Services program, helms this important contribution to the discourse, providing tools applicable in a variety of settings. This text covers practical information about services in public and academic libraries, and libraries in juvenile detention centers, jails, and prisons, while contextualizing these services for LIS classrooms and interdisciplinary scholars. It powerfully advocates for rethinking the intersections between librarianship and carceral systems, pointing the way towards different possibilities. This clear-eyed text

• begins with an overview of the convergence of library and information science and carceral systems within the United States, summarizing histories of information access and control such as book banning, and the ongoing work of incarcerated people and community members to gain more access to materials;
• examines the range of carceral institutions and their forms, including juvenile detention, jails, immigration detention centers, adult prisons, and forms of electronic monitoring;
• draws from research into the information practices of incarcerated people as well as individual accounts to examine the importance of information access while incarcerated;
• shares valuable case studies of various library systems that are currently providing both direct and indirect services, including programming, book clubs, library spaces, roving book carts, and remote reference;
• provides guidance on collection development tools and processes;
• discusses methods for providing reentry support through library materials and programming, from customized signage and displays to raising public awareness of the realities of policing and incarceration;
• gives advice on supporting community groups and providing outreach to transitional housing;
• includes tips for building organizational support and getting started, with advice on approaching library management, creating procedures for challenges, ensuring patron privacy, and how to approach partners who are involved with overseeing the functioning of the carceral facility; and
• concludes with a set of next steps, recommended reading, and points of reflection.

Libraries are community connectors, places where people come together, think together, and learn together. Libraries support and nurture strong, resilient communities. Day in and day out, the library workers at these institutions are doing much more than ensuring equal and equitable access to information; and their impact stretches far beyond the books, programs, and services they facilitate. Featuring contributions from such library leaders as Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, the late Nicolette Sosulski, and Erica Freudenberger, this collection of inspiring first-hand stories from across libraryland spotlights the countless ways in which library staff are making a difference for their communities. A sharing of the hearts, minds, and spirits of library staff from across the country, the uplifting personal narratives in this book include

• when a routine reference query inspired a librarian to reach out to a senior patron;
• how a public library’s annual Diwali celebration has strengthened the social fabric of the surrounding community;
• the story of a library that burned down, was hit by a hurricane, got sued twice, and yet still reemerged stronger than ever;
• how the team at the Fayetteville Free Library (FFL) of New York has strategically nurtured a culture of innovation by integrating Syracuse University students into the staff, holding technology “open houses,” and developing other initiatives; and
• the intervention of a public library staff member that helped a mother keep her son enrolled in school and receive his diploma.

Library workers change and save lives every day, and this book is a powerful and nourishing reminder of exactly why libraries are essential.