Winter 2020 Part 2 – New Titles in the Professional Collection

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: 

Community Partnerships with School Libraries: Creating Innovative Learning Experiences
Bridget Crossman
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
021.2223 CRO 2019

Providing a treasury of community partnership opportunities and resources for innovative learning experiences, this title helps Future Ready Librarians to create authentic, student-centered experiences that address American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards.  As school librarians strive to become Future Ready and meet the new AASL standards, community partnerships can help them to build innovative programs within their districts to realize their school’s mission and goals.  Placing value on the importance of preparing students for the future, this book encourages librarians to “learn, leap, and grow” and form community partnerships to create learning experiences both in and outside of school. Innovative learning experiences can have a positive impact on student engagement, empathy, knowledge, skills, and local and global awareness.  This book introduces ideas, materials, resources, and a step-by-step action plan while highlighting how learning experiences meet AASL standards. A user-friendly and invaluable resource for librarians who desire to be Future Ready, it will catapult librarians to the forefront of their practice and support them as they create innovative learning experiences for their students.

  • Provides a collection of adaptable innovative learning experiences to build through dynamic community partnerships
  • Outlines rational and clearly laid out plans for developing learning experiences in each chapter
  • Connects the AASL standards to each of the learning experiences covered
  • Helps those striving to be Future Ready Librarians by organizing highlights of the Future Ready principles in a table

Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries
Edited by Olivia Piepmeier & Stephanie Grimm
Library Juice Press, 2019
025.2774 PIE 2019

Though it is still not uncommon to hear the question “Comics? In libraries?!,” comics collections have existed in academic institutions for over fifty years. Libraries have taken a variety of approaches to address differing philosophies and needs for their collections, but discourse has typically focused on the practical concerns of management and organization, considering the best ways to collect, catalog, shelve, and share comic books and trades, graphic novels, and more.

As a growing body of practice and scholarship, critical librarianship provides essential perspectives on the power structures, systems, and social justice concerns within libraries. This edited work considers comics librarianship through the lens of critical librarianship, focusing on work done in and around the academic library. While questions like “where do we buy comics?” and “how do we house them?” seem sufficiently addressed, such questions of collection management and organization, teaching, and outreach often lack a critical perspective. How and why should comics support and challenge research collections? In what ways can comics unsettle some of our traditional considerations of teaching and outreach? Furthermore, how does our language of organization and classification serve to marginalize or canonize comics works? And what might be revealed by post-colonial, feminist, or critical race readings of our practices?

Whether a seasoned comics librarian or a comics fan with a budding interest in the field, readers will find that Comics and Critical Librarianship provides a holistic consideration of comics librarianship practices with a critical edge. Presented through case studies, original research and essays, and personal reflection, the book engages with topics from collection and cataloging to teaching and outreach, with contributors representing academic libraries and academic archival collections of varying sizes and populations across the United States and Canada.

Yoga and Meditation at the Library (Practical Guides for Librarians, No. 64)
Jenn Carson
Rowman & Littlefield, 2019
025.5223 CAR 2019

Yoga and meditation have a proven track record of lowering stress levels, helping to treat mental health issues such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, building community, and contributing to an overall sense of well-being in their practitioners. According to recent surveys, 1/4 of North American libraries have offered meditation programs and 2/3 have offered yoga classes.  Carson, a professional yoga teacher and library director, has been leading yoga and meditation programs in schools and libraries for over a decade, and she presents this guidebook to give others the tools for serving library patrons of all ages and abilities. Inside Yoga and Meditation at the Library, you will find 21 program models, including choreographed yoga sequences complete with pictures, passive program ideas, alternative collections suggestions, budget considerations, literacy tie-ins, and checklists for prep, tear-down, and follow-up, as well as advice from real-world program delivery.

Chapters include:

  • What are Mindfulness and Meditation?
  • What is Yoga?
  • Implementing Yoga and Meditation Programs in Your Library
  • Choosing Resources and Designing Spaces
  • Passive Programs and Alternative Collections
  • Policies and Procedures for Avoiding and Handling Problems
  • Yoga and Meditation for the Early Years
  • Yoga and Meditation for Elementary-Age Students
  • Yoga and Meditation for Teens and Young Adults
  • Yoga and Meditation for Adults and Seniors
  • Yoga for Every Body: Inclusive Programming through Outreach and Inreach

This book is for any programming librarian, administrator, yoga and meditation teacher, or outreach coordinator looking to boost circulation stats, program numbers, literacy rates, and foster health and wellness in their community.

Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 4th Edition
Ann Marlow Riedling & Cynthia Houston
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
025.52778 RIE 2019

Designed for courses that prepare LIS students for school librarianship, this title teaches basic reference processes, sources, services, and skills and provides authentic school library reference scenarios and exercises.  This fourth edition of Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips acknowledges the vital importance of reference skills in school libraries. It focuses on new reference skills for school librarians and includes more online materials such as Webliographies and a glossary.  Teaching reference skills and providing reference services to students and staff in schools are extremely important tasks and are required of librarians on a regular basis. Aimed at pre-service and in-service school librarians, this book covers all types of reference materials including almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and other standard information sources, giving extra emphasis to the online sources to which students increasingly turn. This edition addresses more online reference resources than previous editions and offers practical suggestions for use in K–12 student instruction.

  • Includes updated content in every chapter
  • Expands on online reference skills and resources
  • Explains how to combine online reference skills with student questioning skills
  • Offers librarians the chance to practice their skills with scenarios and exercises

Serving Teens with Mental Illness in the Library: A Practical Guide (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series)
Deborah K. Takahashi
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
027.663 TAK 2019

As a teen librarian, you are more likely than not to encounter teens with mental health issues. Will you know how to help them? This guide explains what to do and what not to do.  Mental illness among teens has risen to epidemic levels. When mental health issues come to the library, what is the librarian’s role? This book asserts that you don’t have to be a social worker or mental health professional to provide guidance to teens with mental health issues. By creating collections that contain mental health resources, working with community partners, and initiating dialogues with library patrons that de-stigmatize mental illness, you can serve a positive and proactive role in helping teens to get help.

This book provides readers with practical guidelines for building collections, programs, and services that support teens experiencing mental health challenges and explains how to create a supportive, welcoming environment in the library. In addition, it shows how to forge partnerships with other community agencies in this endeavor, how to advocate for mentally ill teens, and how to teach them to advocate for themselves. Lastly, it discusses how to evaluate these programs and services, and how to take care of your own needs while serving others.

  •  Addresses a growing need for librarians who can lead teens to mental health resources
  •  Provides a broad perspective on the many things librarians can do to help teens with mental health issues
  •  Gives practical guidelines for improving services, programs, and collections to support this population

Political Advocacy for School Librarians: Leveraging Your Influence
Ann Dutton Ewbank
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
027.8 EWB 2019

School librarians are prepared to be leaders and can use their strengths to advocate for policy that benefits school libraries. This book will teach you how to engage elected officials to effect change that extends to your library.  Education and information policy has a direct impact on school libraries and is shaped by decisions at the local, state, and federal levels. School librarians are positioned uniquely to leverage their inside knowledge of effective school library programs to make a difference in education through civic engagement; however, a thorough understanding of both the explicit and “hidden” rules of government is necessary to be an effective advocate.

This compact book serves as a guide to advocating for effective programs, filling a gap in the practitioner literature regarding the policies that affect school library programs. Drawing on research-based best practices and the author’s experience as the chairman of the ALA Legislation Committee and in political advocacy, this book explains the political process through concrete examples of both success and failure and analyzes these examples to show how librarians can move education policy in a positive direction.

  • Realize how to use your strengths as a librarian to influence issues that matters to you, even if you consider yourself apolitical
  • Discover the “hidden rules” of representative democracy
  • Learn strategies to leverage your institutional knowledge to advocate for effective school libraries at all levels of government

Intellectual Property and Information Rights for Librarians
John Schlipp
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
346.7304 SCH 2019

Including real-world scenarios and best practices, this text presents the important topics of patents, trademarks, and copyrights in relation to intellectual property creators and consumers.  Comprehending intellectual property rights is critical in today’s world in order to negotiate the challenges associated with all kinds of intellectual properties, from patents to trademarks to copyright. Created for courses but useful for a wide range of readers, Intellectual Property and Information Rights for Librarians teaches intellectual property literacy, allowing teachers and students to easily understand the range of intellectual property issues, including both creator and consumer rights.

Author John Schlipp, an intellectual property librarian and professor, guides readers through intellectual property and information rights issues for today’s professionals in information-based careers. Real-world issues are emphasized, including fair use, which is covered in reference to the First Amendment. Information rights topics examined include legal and ethical issues such as freedom of information, internet regulations, privacy, cybercrime, and security. This text serves as a comprehensive reference and a collection of best practices that addresses all types of intellectual properties in one book.

  • Includes ways to identify the basic types of intellectual property and related laws
  • Offers ways to recognize and distinguish the conceptual difference between intellectual property creators (authors, inventors, etc.) and consumers (users) in information-based situations
  • Includes examples of fair use and First Amendment rights
  • Explores legal and ethical issues involving intellectual freedom, internet regulations, privacy, cybercrime, and security
  • Showcases ways to comprehend and examine intellectual property job-related applications for multiple types of library customers, media creators, and business branding specialists

Social Justice and Cultural Competency: Essential Reading for School Librarians
Edited by Marcia A. Mardis & Dianne Oberg
Libraries Unlimited/International Association of School Librarianship, 2020
370.11 MAR 2020

Published in partnership with the International Association of School Librarianship, this work gathers together the latest and most important research on the topics of social justice and cultural competency in school libraries.  Education systems today are expected to advance national goals related to fairness, equity, and social cohesion. Comprising articles written and collected in the journal of the International Association of School Librarianship and new articles written especially for this anthology, this book documents both empirical research and promising practices to help school librarians and teachers work together to promote social justice and develop learners’ and educators’ cultural competence.

Both co-editors are experienced in working with authors from around the world and have participated in the development of standards and guidelines for school library practitioners that are effective and ethical. Brief real life case studies of school librarians and teachers in action showcase efforts to improve the lives of marginalized or under-served students. School librarians inside and outside of the United States, school library educators and policymakers, and academic librarians building school librarianship collections will find this guide valuable.

  • Includes evidence-based approaches to dealing with challenges to the educational and moral purposes of schools
  • Features fresh perspectives on shared concerns from colleagues
  • Provides access to research and promising practices

Tech-Savvy Reading Promotion: A Toolbox for Librarians and Educators
Nancy J. Keane
Libraries Unlimited, 2019
372.4028 KEA 2019

Unleash new possibilities for reading promotion and readers’ advisory with these technological tools that can help you to catch the interest of young readers and direct them toward positive reading experiences.

  • Introduces users to effective new tools for promoting reading and providing readers’ advisory services
  • Helps educators to meet learners in the online environments they frequent
  • Supports independent reading
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