Learn about the world of today's teens and how to communicate with this very important segment of your library's audience. Gather ideas for enlisting help from teachers and school librarians in planning programming to bring teens to the library. Examples of real life reference interviews follow a list of tools to have at the teen reference desk. The essential elements of building teen collection and reader's advisory services are presented with ideas for creating a teen friendly library. Information will be useful to librarians in smaller libraries and persons assigned to teen services as a part of their other duties.

Learn how to improve teen services in public libraries by better understanding teen development and having positive interactions with teens to provide appropriate and interesting collections and services. A library can be a tremendous resource for teens—one that helps them to learn about themselves and the world they live in. But teenagers are intrinsically different from children and from adults, and these critical developmental differences affect the ways they interact with others, both in the world at large and in the library. Serving teens effectively in the library requires a basic understanding of who teens are and the developmental tasks they face—factors that affect all aspects of library service, from the specific programs and services we offer to the ways that staff provide assistance to the teen who is seeking help at a library service desk. This book enables library workers to better understand adolescent development, which allows them to provide a positive library experience for teens. Readers will learn how to supply excellent library services with and for teens, including in the areas of collection development, readers' advisory, reference and homework help, programming, and advocacy. The book identifies the best ways to have positive interactions with teens in the library based on their mental development and details best practices for teen services. The concluding section discusses advocating for teens, with emphasis on their right to privacy and equal access to materials and services.

A comprehensive guide to creating dynamic, successful, and innovative library programs that cater to the specialized needs of older adults—an important and growing user group. Crash Course in Library Services for Seniors provides a refreshingly positive approach to working with older adults—one that focuses on the positive effects of aging on patrons, and the many opportunities that libraries can create for themselves by offering top-notch services delivered with a concierge mindset. The book offers page after page of great programming ideas specifically for reaching out to Baby Boomers and older customers—a population that is predicted to double over the next 20 years. Organized in only six chapters, this easy-to-read book provides practical suggestions for making any library a welcoming place for older adults, covering topics such as assessment, planning, programming, services, marketing, and evaluation. This title will be invaluable to public librarians interested in expanding and improving their current programming for older adults within their community, and for those looking to create entirely new programming for seniors.

Useful for newcomers to the children's library staff as well as longtime children's librarians, the second edition of this popular handbook provides easy-to-follow instructions to make innovations in children's library materials work for you. Addressing everything from the basics of reference to the complex and highly specialized duties of program development, this handbook is perfect for both librarians and support staff who are assigned to the children's department of a library. This second addition of Crash Course in Children's Services covers many of the new issues facing children's library staff, including eBooks, using apps in programming, other online reading options, book trailers, nonfiction and the Common Core curriculum. It also describes expanded programming options such as makerspaces, gaming, dog reading programs, and play at storytime. Ideal for new children's librarians as well as experienced library staff who have not worked with children recently and long-time children's librarians looking to add new skills to their tool kits, the book familiarizes readers with all the new developments of the past few years, from online reading options to the wealth of new programming aimed at youth. You'll learn about subjects such as pop-up and passive programming, offering online homework help, and outreach and services to special needs children, and then quickly implement new practices into use at your library.

This book helps libraries identify and implement new ways to serve their physically or mentally disabled patients. Authors Ann Roberts and Dr. Richard Smith work at the state level with persons with disabilities. They find that very few librarians feel comfortable with providing services addressed to the needs of the disabled, yet those who do offer services and programs other libraries can adopt and adapt. Crash Course in Library Services to People with Disabilities will help librarians get up to speed in understanding disabled persons and what they can do to make library premises and holdings more accessible to them. It provides basic information on the different types of mental and physical disabilities a librarian might encounter, then offers a range of exemplary policies, services, and programs for people with disabilities—efforts that are in place and working across the country.

This book collects the research on literacy, information regarding the importance of reading to children, sources of funding, and places to find information about literacy programs in the 50 states—all in a single volume. Family literacy programs can be remarkably effective in helping families who struggle in various areas of literacy or supporting their children's academic needs.Crash Course in Family Literacy Programs provides an introduction and an overview of this critical subject, defining what literacy, family literacy, and family literacy events are, and covering critical topics such as sources of funding, conclusions of recent research, and bilingual family literacy. The first half of the book is focused on laying out background information about family literacy, while the remainder provides practical how-to information for public and school libraries to develop their own family literacy programming. The book shows perspectives of public librarians, school principals, children's book store owners, and school personnel who have successfully implemented a family literacy program. Planning sheets and lesson templates are included, making it easy to develop a family literacy program.

For practitioners, this text provides an easy-to-understand approach to strategic planning and execution. The general recipe for achieving an intended outcome is equal parts of the following: clear vision and mission, a practical strategic plan, daily activities linked to the mission, and unified commitment to the plan. However, orchestrating the details of these necessary components is somewhat more complicated. Crash Course in Strategic Planning uses a process approach to the creation of a strategic plan, providing practitioners with no-nonsense instruction on planning. The volume is arranged to lead the reader through the stages of planning, from the beginning development stages through the execution of the plan to completing the plan and attaining the objective. A variety of recommended planning techniques are supplied for groups to use to accomplish their planning goals, and the final chapter emphasizes the importance of overall organizational commitment to execution of the plan.

Video games aren't just for kids anymore. This book will describe the "why" and "how" to start or expand a video gaming program in the library, including some specific examples of how to target adult and female gamer patrons. Gaming supplies more than just visual stimulation and empty entertainment; it can also promote socialization as well as the learning of both traditional and new literacies required to succeed in the modern world. Problem-solving, multi-tasking, complex decision-making on the fly, and "reading" the combination of words and graphics are vital skills for the 21st century—all of which are required to play video games. Crash Course in Gaming discusses the pros and cons of gaming, the types of games and game systems, circulating collections, and game programs. It explains how a library's video game program can—and should—do much more than simply draw younger users to the library, providing examples of how everyone from parents to senior citizens can benefit from a patron-oriented computer gaming program. The appendices also include specific games, programs, review sources, and sources for further information.

A basic, how-to book written primarily to prepare librarians to assist genealogy researchers, this guide can also be used by those who wish to discover and document their family histories. There has been an explosion of interest in genealogy recently, with popular series running on PBS (Faces of America), NBC (Who Do You Think You Are?) and BYU-TV (The Generations Project). Even Lisa Simpson did a genealogy project for school. Part of the popular Crash Course series, Crash Course in Genealogy will help librarians feel more comfortable as they work with the increasing number of patrons looking for assistance in researching their family trees. Beginning with library genealogical services policies, the guide moves on to cover genealogical research principles and most-used sources. It also illustrates how one can perform a search backward in time through American family history. The book includes information on researching people of color, taking research to another country, and adding DNA information to genealogical research. Examples from the author's decades-long experience as a genealogist enrich the text, while illustrations of census records and the like help readers understand the research process.

This introduction will help plan for attracting this rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population into the library and library services, a major challenge to librarians in small public libraries who have no Spanish-speaking staff. Providing services to Spanish speakers is both an honor and a challenge. Before public institutions venture into reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community, they need to become familiar with their cultural competency so that their decisions and initiatives are not at risk.