Library Services to Homeschoolers: A Guide will help librarians understand and serve their homeschooling community. Chapter 1 covers the early history of homeschooling and how compulsory education changed how our children were schooled. Chapter 2 explores the homeschool revolution, when parents began to take back the education of their children. Chapter 3 looks at homeschooling today and the way laws, advocacy groups, and COVID-19 all contributed to a surge in homeschooling families. Chapter 4 examines the various methods parents use to educate their children at home. From an at home classrooms to travelschooling, parents are creative in teaching their children. Chapter 5 is the how-to-do-it for libraries. Learn how public libraries can help parents and caregivers teach their children by providing a place, materials, programs, and more. Chapter 6, explores various ways of reaching the homeschooling community we want to serve. Chapter 7 looks at the growing diversity in home education. Finally, Chapter 8 peers into the future of homeschooling, helping us prepare for the needs of future homeschooling families.

As families are looking for better ways to educate their children, more and more of them are becoming interested and engaged in alternative ways of schooling that are different, separate, or opposite of the traditional classroom. Homeschooling has become ever more creative and varied as families create custom-tailored curricula, assignments, goals, and strategies that are best for each unique child. This presents a multitude of challenges and opportunities for information institutions, including public, academic, school, and special libraries. The need for librarians to help homeschool families become information and media literate is more important than ever. This collection of essays provides a range of approaches and strategies suggested by skilled professionals as well as veteran homeschool parents on how to best serve the diverse needs and learning experiences of homeschooled youth. It includes information on needs assessments for special needs students, gifted students, and African American students; advice on how to provide support for the families of homeschoolers; case studies; and information on new technologies that could benefit libraries and the homeschooler populations that they serve.

A call to action for libraries serving children. Honouring the accomplishments of children's services pioneers of the past, Virginia Walter evaluates the current situation and envisions futures where children, technology and libraries intersect.

Today more than a million students are being educated at home; and that figure increases at a rate of 7-14% annually. Homeschooling is a growing trend in our society, and public librarians are being called upon with increasing frequency to serve the needs of homeschooled students. So, just what are the needs of the homeschooled teen, and how can you and your library meet those needs? A former young adult librarian and a homeschool parent have joined forces to create this insightful guide and answer that question. After reviewing the developmental and social needs of teens, the authors demonstrate how those needs may be met in the public library setting. You'll find a wealth of ideas for adapting every facet of your library service for this growing population—from developing a homeschool collection to expanding services and creating special programs. You'll also find suggestions on how to market what your library has to offer to homeschoolers. You may even discover some new ways to employ the talents and time of these students and their families. Extensive resource lists conclude the volume, they will help you better serve home-educated teens and their parents.

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.

In this book, nine librarians from across the country describe their libraries’ best practices in this key area. Their contributions range from all-encompassing customer service policies and models any library can both adapt and be proud of to micro-approaches that emphasize offering excellent user-focused technology planning, picture book arrangement with patrons in mind, Web 2.0 tools to connect users with the library, establishing good service delivery chains, and making your library fantastic for homeschoolers. As past Public Library Association President Audra Caplan writes in her introduction to this book, “There is nothing magical about providing excellent customer service; it just takes the right people, the right philosophy and the passion to make it a reality.” If you’ve got all that, here are the best practices to make stellar customer service a reality for your library’s users.

This revised and updated sixth edition of Reference and Information Services continues the book's rich tradition, covering all phases of reference and information services with less emphasis on print and more emphasis on strategies and scenarios. Reference and Information Services is the go-to textbook for MSLIS and i-School courses on reference services and related topics. It is also a helpful handbook for practitioners. Authors include LIS faculty and professionals who have relevant degrees in their areas and who have published extensively on their topics. The first half of the book provides an overview of reference services and techniques for service provision, including the reference interview, ethics, instruction, reader's advisory, and services to diverse populations including children. This part of the book establishes a foundation of knowledge on reference service and frames each topic with ethical and social justice perspectives. The second part of the book offers an overview of the information life cycle and dissemination of information, followed by an in-depth examination of information sources by type—including dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, and abstracts—as well as by broad subject areas including government, statistics and data, health, and legal information. This second section introduces the tools and resources that reference professionals use to provide the services described in the first half of the text.

For a comprehensive guide to home-based education, that does not promote any particular curriculum or religious view, this is one book parents should buy! Parents will appreciate practical advice on getting started, adjusting to new roles, designing curriculum that is both child-centered and fun, and planning for social and emotional growth. Parents will turn to their favorite chapters again and again. Features interviews and tips from many homeschool parents as well as long lists of resources. -Reasons to home-school -How gifted children learn -Positive changes for the family -"Big Ideas" thematic approach -Traditional and classical approaches -Curriculum resources -Record keeping -College planning -How to get started -Interviews with parents

Online Instruction: A Practical Guide for Librarians provides an overview of online instruction, teaching, and programming in all types of libraries. It features actionable steps for starting and improving online programs. Starting with the history of online instruction and moving into creating a personal pedagogy, establishing organizational policies and procedures, and tips for general programming, author Emily Mroczek features specific examples from librarians to help readers find their way in the digital world. Public librarians, school librarians, and special librarians are featured with experiences and tips that can be modified and applied to any library setting. Ideas exist to help librarians learn from successes and mistakes and establish an engaged and productive online learning community. Mroczek identifies the pros and cons of different options available for online instructions, tips and tricks for engaging various audiences and strategies for hybrid learning. Technical tips include pros and cons of various online platforms and streaming services, an in-depth look at Zoom and a guide to evaluate and recommend specific digital resources in categories from content curation to games to calendars and scheduling. Guidelines for navigating copyright law and staying up-to-date with accessibility standards serve as an educational starting point for librarians, managers, and program designers. As technology, online instruction, and librarianship continue to evolve, this book will help librarians navigate the ever-changing functions and offer better instruction for their communities.