October 2022 — New Titles in the ALS Professional Collection Part 2

Arrowhead Library System (ALS) has a long-standing commitment to maintaining a collection of current publication titles of interest to librarians, library staff and library trustees.  The collection is housed at the ALS Headquarters in Mountain Iron, but all titles can be requested via the online catalog (if you have a borrower’s card from an ALS library) or via the statewide MNLINK catalog (if you have a borrower’s card from Duluth Public Library).  If you have questions about borrowing titles from the ALS Professional Collection, feel free to call ALS staff!  Here are the latest additions to the ALS collection: 

Introduction to Information Science, Second Edition
David Bawden and Lyn Robinson
ALA Neal-Schuman, 2022
020 BAW 2022

The second edition of this definitive text gives a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the subject, bringing it up-to-date with analysis of the changes in the information environment, now largely digital, and their implication for the discipline and professions. Its approach is rooted in the philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual foundations of the subject and in particular in Floridi’s ideas of the fourth revolution, hyperhistory, and onlife. The theory-practice relationship is strongly emphasized throughout, and the extensive literature coverage makes this a valuable sourcebook. This second edition is extensively revised, with largely new text, illustrations, and resources, and offers a global perspective. The main topics covered include

• foundations: philosophies, theories, concepts, ethics, and historical perspectives;
• organizing, retrieving, and analyzing information and data;
• information behavior, domain analysis, and digital literacies;
• digital technologies, information systems, and information management;
• information research methods and informetrics;
• changing modes of information communication, and information society; and
• the nature and future of the information disciplines and professions.

This book will be a standard text for students of library and information disciplines, including information science, librarianship, information and knowledge management, archives and records management, and digital humanities. It will also serve as an introduction for those beginning research in these areas, and as a resource for thoughtful and reflective practitioners.

The Special Collections Handbook, Third Edition
Alison Cullingford
Facet Publishing, 2022
025.17 CUL 2022

An essential resource for staff working with special collections in a wide range of settings, including academia, public libraries, and museums, this new edition has been revised and updated to reflect the growth and complexity of the environment in which special collections operate. Cullingford thoroughly covers the essential principles, skills, and knowledge to manage special collections in any setting, including

• preservation;
• developing and managing collections, including enriched guidance on decolonizing collections;
• understanding objects;
• emergency planning and security;
• facilities, with discussion of working towards zero-carbon buildings;
• managing remote access by staff and users;
• legal and ethical concerns, including new material on the 2018 UK Data Protection Act;
• cataloging;
• digitization and digital resources;
• the implications of the “digital shift” and the place of special collections in online and hybrid teaching and learning;
• marketing, outreach, and advocacy; and
• fundraising.

Intellectual Freedom Stories from a Shifting Landscape
Edited by Valerie Nye
ALA Editions, 2020
025.2 INT 2020

Intellectual freedom is a complex concept that democracies and free societies around the world define in different ways but always strive to uphold. And ALA has long recognized the crucial role that libraries play in protecting this right. But what does it mean in practice? How do library workers handle the ethical conundrums that often accompany the commitment to defending it? Rather than merely laying out abstract policies and best practices, this important new collection gathers real-world stories of intellectual freedom in action to illuminate the difficulties, triumphs, and occasional setbacks of advocating for free and equal access to information for all people in a shifting landscape. Offering insight to LIS students and current practitioners on how we can advance the profession of librarianship while fighting censorship and other challenges, these personal narratives explore such formidable situations as

• presenting drag queen story times in rural America;
• a Black Lives Matter “die-in” at the undergraduate library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
• combating censorship at a prison library;
• hosting a moderated talk about threats to modern democracy that included a neo-Nazi spokesman;
• a provocative exhibition that triggered intimidating phone calls, emails, and a threat to burn down an art library;
• calls to eliminate non-Indigenous children’s literature from the collection of a tribal college library; and
• preserving patrons’ right to privacy in the face of an FBI subpoena.

These stories provide a rich platform for debate and introspection by sharing real-world examples that library staff, administrators, board members, and students can consider and discuss.

Lessons Inspired by Picture Books for Primary Grades (AASL Standards-Based Learning Series)
Maureen Schlosser and Rebecca Granatini
ALA Editions, 2019
025.5 SCH 2019

Drawing on compelling picture books that can be used to directly support the AASL National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries, this ready-to-go toolkit of lessons, worksheets, anchor charts, assessments, and rubrics is specifically designed to build learner competencies while examining big ideas inspired by picture books. An invaluable timesaver, this resource provides

• 21 lesson units that cover the six Shared Foundations, each utilizing a formatted template that’s easy to follow and incorporates the four Domains (Think, Create, Share, Grow);
• a picture book synopsis for each unit, followed by lesson objectives, essential questions, materials, and duration;
• worksheets, anchor charts, and exit slips tailored for each picture book and lesson;
• “Quick Tips” that offer helpful ideas and suggestions to consider during the lesson; and
• an appendix that includes rubrics to facilitate assessment in all six foundations.

Student-Created Media: Designing Research, Learning, and Skill-Building Experiences
Scott Spicer
ALA Editions, 2022
025.5 SPI 2022

A Trauma-Informed Framework for Supporting Patrons: The PLA Workbook of Best Practices
Public Library Association Social Worker Task Force
ALA Editions, 2022
027.6 TRA 2022

Whether it’s navigating a crisis or witnessing a community member struggling with tough times, coming face to face with trauma and adversity can be uncomfortable. But in striving to learn more about challenging behaviors, and how we can better interact with library patrons and our coworkers, we can come to see that people are complex and not simply “problems.” This workbook from the PLA Social Worker Task Force (SWTF) provides a collection of powerful tools to add to your customer service toolbox. It’s filled with prompts, exercises, and best practices that shed light on how trauma can affect people, helping you build confidence in your ability to support your library’s patrons. You will

• delve into what trauma is and how it impacts library work;
• be introduced to a framework for utilizing a trauma-informed lens in your interactions;
• practice exercises to spur personal reflection on common concerns bound up with library work and the policies relating to these issues; and
• gain hand-on tools and techniques, including strategies for de-escalation and guidance on the impacts of involving law-enforcement and banning patrons.

You will also explore various scenarios which provide the opportunity to integrate what you’ve learned and practice responding through a trauma-informed lens, including

• Mental Health Challenges
• Sleeping at the Library
• Strong Personal Odor
• Personal Belongings
• Suspected Intoxication/Under the Influence
• Substance Use
• Threatening Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior
• Unsheltered Teens
• Adult Self-Neglect
• Child Abuse or Assault
• Solicitation or Panhandling
• Stealing
• Child Unattended After Closing

5 Steps of Outcome-Based Planning & Evaluation for Youth Services
Melissa Gross, Cindy Mediavilla, and Virginia A. Walter
ALA Editions, 2022
027.62 GRO 2022

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.

Ethnic Studies in Academic and Research Libraries
Edited by Raymond Pun, Melissa Cardenas-Dow, and Kenya S. Flash
Association of College and Research Libraries, 2021
027.7 ETH 2021

Supporting ethnic studies is an opportunity to uplift diverse stories and perspectives and to build and affirm such communities and their voices, experiences, and histories. Ethnic studies librarianship requires engagement, a desire to listen and engage with one’s constituents, and a focused approach to re-humanizing and emphasizing the voices of those who are being studied. Race and ethnicity, despite their abstractness, have real, concrete meaning and consequences in American society. Being able to see who speaks and who is silenced matters, and ethnic studies librarianship supports the intellectual journey of students in becoming aware of the various ways we see the world and the numerous stories we tell and come across in our lifetime.

Ethnic Studies in Academic and Research Libraries serves as a snapshot of critical work that library workers are doing to support ethnic studies, including areas focusing on ethnic and racial experiences across the disciplines. Other curriculums or programs may emphasize race, migration, and diasporic studies, and these intersecting areas are highlighted to ensure work supporting ethnic studies is not solely defined by a discipline, but by commitment to programs that uplift underserved and underrepresented ethnic communities and communities of color. Twenty chapters are broken into three thorough sections:

1. Instruction, Liaison Engagement, and Outreach
2. Collections Projects and Programs
3. Collaborations, Special Projects, and Community Partnerships

Ethnic studies programs, faculty, and students can lack visibility in librarianship, though there are many opportunities to engage with and support these interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs. Ethnic Studies in Academic and Research Libraries captures case studies, programs, and engagements within the field(s) of ethnic studies and how library workers are creating and documenting important support services and resources for these communities of learners, scholars, activists, and educators. We need to think critically about how we support ethnic studies and our faculty colleagues in these departments, especially during challenging times in fiscal crises and the systemic violence and oppression that occurs in higher education, in our institutions, in our communities, in our profession, and in our histories. What we collect, preserve, share, and uplift reflects who we are and our priorities.

Communities of Practice in the Academic Library: Strategies for Implementation
Michelle Reale
ALA Editions, 2022
027.7 REA 2022

Informed Societies: Why Information Literacy Matters for Citizenship, Participation, and Democracy
Edited by Stéphane Goldstein
Facet Publishing, 2020
028.7 INF 2020

In early 21st century societies, individuals and organizations are deluged with information, particularly online information. Much of this is useful, valuable or enriching. But a lot of it is of dubious quality and provenance, if not downright dangerous. Misinformation forms part of the mix. The ability to get the most out of the information flow, finding, interpreting and using it, and particularly developing a critical mindset towards it, requires skills, know-how, judgement and confidence – such is the premise of information literacy. This is true for many aspects of human endeavor, including education, work, health and self-enrichment. It is notably true also for acquiring an understanding of the wider world, for reaching informed views, for recognizing bias and misinformation, and thereby for playing a part as active citizens, in democratic life and society.

This ground-breaking and uniquely multi-disciplinary book explores how information literacy can contribute to fostering attitudes, habits and practices that underpin an informed citizenry. The 13 chapters each come from a particular perspective and are authored by international experts representing a range of disciplines: information literacy itself, but also political science, pedagogy, information science, psychology. This book covers

• why information literacy and informed citizens matter for healthy, democratic societies;
• information literacy’s relationship with political science;
• information literacy’s relationship with human rights;
• how information literacy can help foster citizenship, participation, empowerment and civic engagement in different contexts: school students, refugees,  older people and in wider society;
• information literacy as a means to counter misinformation and fake news; and
• the challenges of addressing information literacy as part of national public policy.

Media Literacy for Justice: Lessons for Changing the World
Belinha S. De Abreu
ALA Neal-Schuman, 2022
370.15 DEA 2022

Providing context, reflection points, and ready-to-use lesson plans, this powerful book illuminates the intersections of social justice and media literacy for educators, school and public librarians, teachers of history and civics, information literacy instructors, and community leaders.  The corrosive effects of today’s relentless tide of media are pernicious. We are conditioned in many ways by our media environments to accept and not question, making it crucial that young people master the skills necessary to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. De Abreu and her fellow contributors propose that a key solution to our society’s crisis of misinformation, misrepresentation, and misunderstanding lies in melding social justice aims with media literacy concepts and skills. Featuring reflective activities and lesson ideas that can be adapted for educational settings from higher education to the K-12 spectrum, community centers, and libraries, this resource

• spotlights the work of school library media specialists, classroom teachers, academic educators, and representatives of non-profits from around the world;
• presents ten chapters which explore such timely issues as how to deal with controversial topics in the classroom, the effects of misinformation/disinformation on civics in society, why the media underrepresents certain people in their programming, the digital divide and where libraries fit in, how injustice exacerbates public health issues, and global conceptions of social justice and media literacy examined through various world events; and
• provides information about additional resources like social action/advocacy organizations, classroom resources, and films that will assist readers as they reflect upon, teach, and discuss media literacy and social justice.

Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy (ACRL Publications in Librarianship Number 79)
Edited by Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill
Association of College and Research Libraries, 2022
378.199 INT 2022

Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy captures current open education and information literacy theory and practice and provides inspiration for the future. Chapters include practical applications, theoretical musings, literature reviews, and case studies and discuss social justice issues, collaboration, open pedagogy, training, and advocacy. The book is divided into six parts:

1. Foundations
2. Teaching Info Lit with OER
3. Librarian Support of Open Pedagogy/OER
4. Social Justice/Untold Stories
5. Student Advocacy
6. Spreading the Love: Training Future Advocates and Practitioners

Chapters cover topics including library-led OER creation; digital cultural heritage and the intersections of primary source literacy and information literacy; situated learning and open pedagogy; critical librarianship and open education; and developing student OER leaders.