Beginning in the early 1980s, readers' advisory services were a widely discussed topic in North American public libraries. By 2005, almost every public library in the United States and Canada offered some form of readers' advisory service. The services offered have changed significantly, in ways perhaps disadvantageous to adult North American library patrons. This book provides a critical history of readers' advisory philosophy and offers a new perspective on the evolution of the service. The book analyzes the debate that shaped readers' advisory and discusses how the service has assumed its present form. The study follows readers' advisory through its three prominent stages of development, beginning with the period 1870 to 1916, when the service was still a subject of much crucial debate about its meaning and purpose. During the second phase (1917 to 1962), readers' advisory systematically committed itself to meaningful adult education through serious and purposeful reading. The book argues, however, that during the most recent phase of readers' advisory, from 1963 until the present, contemporary public libraries have turned their backs on the rich heritage of readers' advisory services by valorizing the reading of entertainment-oriented and commodified genre titles and bestsellers. Historical analysis, case studies and statistical charts augment the book's central argument.

A detailed reference work that documents every aspect of the American public library experience through topical entries, statistics, biographies, and profiles. The American Public Library Handbook is the first reference work to focus on all aspects of the American public library experience, providing a topical perspective through comprehensive essays and biographical information on important public librarians. Based upon the author's own notes and extensive experience, as well as library periodicals, library reference books, monographs, textbooks, Internet sources, and correspondence with individual libraries, this book comprises nearly 1,000 entries addressing all aspects of public library service. Each topical essay considers terminology of the area covered, its historical context, and current concerns and issues. Biographies highlight the philosophical perspective of the individuals covered, while entries on specific libraries present timely data and interesting facts about each facility. This unique handbook also offers up-to-date statistics, historical highlights, and information about programs and events of individual libraries.

One of the key services librarians provide is helping readers find books they'll enjoy. This "crash course" will furnish you with the basic, practical information you need to excel at readers' advisory (RA) for adults and teens. The question "can you recommend a good book?" can be one of the most daunting you face, notwithstanding the fact that recommender tools are ubiquitous. Often, uncertainty arises because, although librarians are called on to perform such services daily, readers' advisory is a skill set in which most have no formal training. This guide will remedy that. It is built around understanding books, reading, and readers and will quickly show you how to identify reading preferences and advise patrons effectively. You'll learn about multiple RA approaches, such as genre, appeal features, and reading interests and about essential tools that can help with RA. Plus, you'll discover tips to help you keep up with this ever-changing field. There is no other professional book that covers the full spectrum of skills needed to perform the RA service that is in such great demand in libraries of all kinds. Helping readers find what they want is a sure way to serve patrons and build your library's brand. You will come away from this easy-to-understand crash course with the solid background you need to do both.

Presenting perspectives from Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S., this volume brings together a collection of essays from library and information science (LIS) educators from around the world who delve into difficult, unpopular, and uncommonly discussed topics.

Drawing on scholarly research findings, this book presents a cogent case that librarians can use to work towards prioritization of reading in libraries and in schools. Reading is more important than it has ever been—recent research on reading, such as PEW reports and Scholastic's "Kids and Family Reading Report," proves that fact. This new edition of Reading Matters provides powerful evidence that can be used to justify the establishment, maintenance, and growth of pleasure reading collections, both fiction and nonfiction, and of readers' advisory services. The authors assert that reading should be woven into the majority of library activities: reference, collection building, provision of leisure materials, readers' advisory services, storytelling and story time programs, adult literacy programs, and more. This edition also addresses emergent areas of interest, such as e-reading, e-writing, and e-publishing; multiple literacies; visual texts; the ascendancy of young adult fiction; and fan fiction. A new chapter addresses special communities of YA readers. The book will help library administrators and personnel convey the importance of reading to grant-funding agencies, stakeholders, and the public at large. LIS faculty who wish to establish and maintain courses in readers' advisory will find it of particular interest.

The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, comprising of seven volumes, now in its fourth edition, compiles the contributions of major researchers and practitioners and explores the cultural institutions of more than 30 countries. This major reference presents over 550 entries extensively reviewed for accuracy in seven print volumes or online. The new fourth edition, which includes 55 new entires and 60 revised entries, continues to reflect the growing convergence among the disciplines that influence information and the cultural record, with coverage of the latest topics as well as classic articles of historical and theoretical importance.

Put simply, there is no text about public librarianship more rigorous or comprehensive than McCook's survey. Now, the REFORMA Lifetime Achievement Award-winning author has teamed up with noted public library scholar and advocate Bossaller to update and expand her work to incorporate the field's renewed emphasis on outcomes and transformation. This "essential tool" (Library Journal) remains the definitive handbook on this branch of the profession. It covers every aspect of the public library, from its earliest history through its current incarnation on the cutting edge of the information environment, including statistics, standards, planning, evaluations, and results;legal issues, funding, and politics;organization, administration, and staffing;all aspects of library technology, from structure and infrastructure to websites and makerspaces;adult services, youth services, and children's services;associations, state library agencies, and other professional organizations;global perspectives on public libraries; andadvocacy, outreach, and human rights. Exhaustively researched and expansive in its scope, this benchmark text continues to serve both LIS students and working professionals.

Based on the latest research in communication theory but tailored specifically for real-world application, this updated manual speaks equally to the needs of students preparing to enter the profession and those who are already fielding reference inquiries. The authors, working in consultation with a stellar advisory board of scholars and practitioners, present a convenient and comprehensive resource that will teach you how to understand the needs of public, academic, and special library users across any virtual setting—including email, text messaging, and social media—as well as in traditional and face-to-face models of communication. Packed with exercises and examples to help you practice effective reference transactions and avoid common pitfalls, this book tackles the fundamentals of the reference interview, from why it’s important in the first place to methods for setting the stage for a successful interview and techniques for finding out what the library user really wants to know; covers the ins and outs of the readers’ advisory interview; examines a wide range of contexts, such as children, young adults, parents, seniors, adults from diverse communities, and those with disabilities; presents case studies of innovative reference and user encounters at a variety of libraries; offers updated coverage of virtual reference, including new research, virtual reality transcripts, and a look at crowd-sourcing reference via social media; features new content on common microaggressions, with guidance on how to use awareness of emotion as a factor in reference interactions to ensure better outcomes; discusses topics such as respecting/protecting privacy, overcoming assumptions, implicit judgment, the importance of context, determining the real information need, and many other lessons learned from challenging reference encounters; and thoroughly addresses policy and training procedures, as well as the unique challenges faced by paraprofessionals and non-degreed staff. Find your bearings in the continually evolving hybrid reference environment through proven strategies, advice, exercises, and research from three experts in the field.

The United States has more public libraries than it has McDonald’s restaurants. By any measure, the American public library is a heavily used and ubiquitous institution. Popular thinking identifies the public library as a neutral agency that protects democratic ideals by guarding against censorship as it makes information available to people from all walks of life. Among librarians this idea is known as the “library faith.” But is the American public library as democratic as it appears to be? In Main Street Public Library, eminent library historian Wayne Wiegand studies four emblematic small-town libraries in the Midwest from the late nineteenth century through the federal Library Service Act of 1956, and shows that these institutions served a much different purpose than is so often perceived. Rather than acting as neutral institutions that are vital to democracy, the libraries of Sauk Centre, Minnesota; Osage, Iowa; Rhinelander, Wisconsin; and Lexington, Michigan, were actually mediating community literary values and providing a public space for the construction of social harmony. These libraries, and the librarians who ran them, were often just as susceptible to the political and social pressures of their time as any other public institution. By analyzing the collections of all four libraries and revealing what was being read and why certain acquisitions were passed over, Wiegand challenges both traditional perceptions and professional rhetoric about the role of libraries in our small-town communities. While the American public library has become essential to its local community, it is for reasons significantly different than those articulated by the “library faith.”

The core of the book revolves around the shifting nature of Ontario’s political landscape. In many ways this is a story of successive governments, ambitious politicians, diligent bureaucrats, and endless library reports straddling the decades. Their aim appears to have been making even better a system that, despite weaknesses, was clearly the best in Canada. Three distinctive trends emerged in Ontario librarianship after the 1930s: first, a growing sense of professionalism in librarianship; second, an enhanced sense of belonging to a pan-Canadian library movement that in 1946 would result in the formation of the Canadian Library Association; and third, a heightened awareness of the competing demands of high culture and popular culture. Public libraries became an important vehicle for promoting community, albeit with competing visions of “space and place,” as Canada generally and Ontario specifically experienced post-World War II immigration and the baby boom. As libraries approached the 21st century, the concerns of digital formats and the all-encompassing Internet intertwined to alter the book-centric "bricks and mortar" world of libraries. Nonetheless, public libraries were well placed to survive this new threat, just as they had with the challenges of radio, television, and telecommunication challenges in the 20th century.