January 2023 MBR The Library Science Shelf

The Library Science Shelf

Creating a School Library with Impact
Caroline Roche, Barbara Band, Nick Cavender, Lucy Chambers, Annie Everall, Ellen Krajewski, and Sarah Pavey
Facet Publishing
https://www.facetpublishing.co.uk
9781783305537 $40.94 pbk / $30.49 Kindle

Synopsis: School libraries are facing numerous challenges in the 21st century. The number of professionally qualified staff working in schools has fallen in recent years and, increasingly, new appointments to library positions are sorely lacking the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in their roles. While there are a number of resources available detailing how to improve your school library once it is up and running there is a dearth of books that deal with the absolute basics in a practical manner, looking at the role from the first day.

Creating a School Library with Impact: A Beginners Guide is an introductory manual for anyone entering or looking to enter the exciting world of school librarianship in primary or secondary school settings. It provides readers with everything they need to know and understand from day one from author visits, social media, reading schemes, information literacy, evaluating your library, the physical layout of your room and much more, providing an invaluable guide to those first few years in the role.

Critique: Featuring contributions from a wide array of expert authors, Creating a School Library with Impact is an excellent reference and resource especially for professional librarians and educators in primary and secondary schools. Individual chapters discuss "Creating a Reading Rich Environment", "Information Literacy and Digital Literacy", "Using Technology to Enhance the Library Experience", "Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the School Library", and much more. Creating a School Library with Impact is highly recommended as a practical-minded, "must-have" for school librarians and Library Science collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that Creating a School Library with Impact is also available in a Kindle edition ($30.49).

Academic Librarian Faculty Status: CLIPP #47
Edgar Bailey, compiler
Melissa Becher, compiler
Association of College & Research Libraries
c/o American Library Association
225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601-7616
https://www.ala.org
9780838936641, $52.00, PB, 172pp

https://www.amazon.com/Academic-Librarian-Faculty-Status-Information/dp/0838936644

Synopsis: The College Library Information on Policy and Practice (CLIPP) publishing program, under the auspices of the College Libraries Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, provides college and small university libraries analysis and examples of library practices and procedures.

Collaboratively compiled by Edgar Bailey and Melissa Becher, "Academic Librarian Faculty Status: CLIPP #47" contains a thorough literature review and bibliography, analysis and discussion of survey results, and sample criteria, policies, and guidelines for appointment, promotion, and tenure for librarians with and without faculty status.

No other group of employees in higher education has occupied quite the same ambivalent status on campus as librarians. The debate over granting librarians the same rights and responsibilities as faculty has generated a substantial body of literature over the years. Most of this research has tended to focus on either a mix of institutional sizes or on large universities, with a surprising dearth of studies of smaller institutions. The results of the survey reported in CLIPP #47 fills this gap, as well as offering practical information and sample tenure and promotion documents and policies.

Critique: Exceptionally well organized and impressively presented, "Academic Librarian Faculty Status: CLIPP #47" (which is Volume 47 of the College Library Information on Policy and Practice series) is unreservedly recommended as an essential, core addition to the Library Science collections of college and university libraries, library systems, as well as an important resource for Library Science curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: Edgar Bailey (https://alastore.ala.org/content/edgar-bailey) has a 35 year career that includes five years at Eastern Connecticut State University and thirty years at Providence College where he served as reference and instruction librarian and, for ten years, as library director. He also served on the committee that established the Center for Teaching and Learning. He has published on a variety of library and non-library topics including help-seeking behavior, library anxiety, government publications, library school curricula, and Ursula K. LeGuin. He currently teaches a course in academic librarianship at the University of Rhode Island library school.

Editorial Note #2: The Associate Director of Research, Teaching and Learning at American University Library, Melissa Becher's job responsibilities include management and supervision, as well as administering platforms that support research assistance such as LibGuides, the Library's FAQ, and a 24/7 chat service. Over the years she has conducted user testing for the Library, other campus offices, the local consortium, and a professional association. Melissa's research agenda focuses on how the academic library intersects with broader trends in higher education. She has published on instruction coordinators' use of higher education accreditation documentation, the library's visibility on college and university websites, and the experiences of full-time nontenured library faculty. She maintains a WordPress site on librarian status. Melissa is also a member of ALA's Reference & User Services Association and recently chaired the RUSA Emerging Technologies Section.

The Data Literacy Cookbook
Kelly Getz, editor
Meryl Brodsky, editor
ACRL Books Association of College & Research Libraries
c/o American Library Association
225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601-7616
https://www.ala.org
9780838939253, $82.00, PB, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Data-Literacy-Cookbook-Kelly-Getz/dp/0838939252

Synopsis: Today's students and library patrons create and are confronted with many kinds of data in multiple formats. Data literacy enables students and researchers to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle, and ethically use data.

Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Kelly Getz and Meryl Brodsky, "The Data Literacy Cookbook" includes a variety of approaches to and lesson plans for teaching data literacy, from simple activities to self-paced learning modules to for-credit and discipline-specific courses.

Sixty-five recipes are organized into nine sections based on learning outcomes: Interpreting Polls and Surveys; Finding and Evaluating Data; Data Manipulation and Transformation; Data Visualization; Data Management and Sharing; Geospatial Data; Data in the Disciplines; Data Literacy Outreach and Engagement; Data Literacy Programs and Curricula.

Many sections have overlapping learning outcomes, so you can combine recipes from multiple sections to whip up a scaffolded curriculum. "The Data Literacy Cookbook" provides librarians with lesson plans, strategies, and activities to help guide students as both consumers and producers in the data life cycle.

Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "The Data Literacy Cookbook" is an ideal and highly recommended textbook for in-service and/or academic library science curriculum training programs -- as well as a core and essential addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Library Management/Information Science collections.

Editorial Note #1: Kelly Getz (https://guides.emich.edu/prf.php?account_id=111877) is an Associate Professor and S.T.E.M. Librarian at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Michigan State University, and both a Master of Science of Information and a Master of Science in Bioinformatics from the University of Michigan. Prior to becoming an academic librarian in 2013, she was a high school chemistry and environmental science teacher. Her teaching philosophy, in brief, is: do things to foster curiosity and no things to harm it. Kelly's research interests include information and data literacy in secondary and post-secondary education, inclusive design in libraries, and many other sciencey rabbit holes.

Editorial Note #2: Meryl Brodsky (https://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/directory/meryl-brodsky) is the liaison librarian for the School of Information and the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas - Austin. She has a Master of Library Science from Southern Connecticut State University and an MBA from Cornell University. Her research interests include data literacy, data management, and data curation. She has spent half her career working as a corporate librarian and half as an academic librarian. It was her work in the corporate sector that sparked her interest in data literacy. She witnessed her co-workers doing terrible things to data and returned to the academic sector to become involved in data literacy education.

Designing Libraries for the 21st Century
H. Thomas Hickerson, editor
Joan K. Lippincott, editor
Leonora Crema, editor
ACRL Books Association of College & Research Libraries
c/o American Library Association
225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601-7616
https://www.ala.org
9780838939222, $150.00, PB, 462pp

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Libraries-Century-Thomas-Hickerson/dp/0838939228

Synopsis: The 21st century has seen a transformational shift in the design of college and research libraries, one focused more on user experience and engagement than on collections. Dramatic changes in library design have been driven by changes in the core functions of universities and colleges: the reliance on digital tools and content, integration of technologies into pedagogy and research, and emphasis on the active and social aspects of learning, inclusion, and community engagement. Planning for these vibrant spaces needs to incorporate new program and staffing strategies, robust technical infrastructure, human-centered design, and flexibility to enable ongoing change.

The collaborative work of co-editors H. Thomas Hickerson, Joan K. Lippincott, and Leonora Crema, "Designing Libraries for the 21st Century" explores these trends and identifies promising strategies for new or renovated library space. This outstanding volume features an impressive array of contributions by authors drawn largely from the conference of the same name, providing guidance, principles, and a wealth of creative ideas for spaces, technology, programs, and partnerships.

Twenty-nine chapters packed with full color images and illustrations explore the themes of: 21st-Century Academic Libraries in an Evolving Environment; Aligning with the Institutional Vision; Working with Architects, Designers, and Planners; Key Issues in Planning; Collaborations and Convergence; Leadership, Organizational Change, and New Staff Roles; Programming for Research, Learning, and Community; and Looking Ahead.

Often major building projects focus primarily on the physical facility, but "Designing Libraries for the 21st Century" makes the case for designing libraries in a much more holistic fashion. Today all types of libraries are engaged in reimagining their roles and the spatial design through which this new vision will be realized.

Critique: Exceptional in organization and presentation that is inspirational, asperationaly, and yet 'real world' practical, "Designing Libraries for the 21st Century" is essential reading for librarians, architects, planners, academic leaders, and anyone interested in the future of libraries. Unreservedly recommended as a textbook for Library Science curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "Designing Libraries for the 21st Century" is also available as an open access edition at https://bit.ly/DesigningLibraries

Editorial Note #1: H. Thomas Hickerson (https://alastore.ala.org/content/h-thomas-hickerson) guided the Cornell University Library's archives and rare book programs, serving as President of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and on the International Council on Archives Executive Board. In 2006, Tom became Vice Provost at the University of Calgary with a mandate to lead the design of a new model for university libraries. The $205M project to build the Taylor Family Digital Library led to broad recognition and to his founding role in the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century Conference series. His professional leadership includes serving on the Board of the Association of Research Libraries and as President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. He is also a Cornell University Librarian Emeritus whose recognitions include being named an SAA Fellow and Computerworld Honors Program Laureate for "the use of information technologies for the benefit of society".

Editorial Note #2: Joan K. Lippincott (https://www.cni.org/about-cni/staff/joan-k-lippincott) is Associate Executive Director Emerita of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), a joint program of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE. At CNI, Joan provided leadership for programs in learning spaces, teaching and learning, digital scholarship, ETDs, and assessment. She also served on the boards of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), the New Media Consortium (NMC) and on the advisory board for the Horizon Report and served as a member of the ACRL task force that produced the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Joan has consulted with many academic libraries on their space renovation projects and has been on the planning committee for the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century conference since its inception.

Editorial Note #3: Leonora Crema (BA, MA, MLS) is a Librarian Emerita at the University of British Columbia. She has exercised a leading role in the design of two new buildings on the UBC campus, the Walter C. Koerner Library and Library PARC, as well as numerous space renovations. Leonora's roles at UBC have included serving as Associate University Librarian for Client Services, AUL for Planning and Community Relations, and Director of External Relations for the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Active in professional associations, including as a past President of the British Columbia Library Association, she speaks regularly on topics such as service innovation and library space design. Her career recognitions include a national award for innovation from the Canadian Association of University Business Officers, and a Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries award for outstanding contributions to the consortium. (https://scholcomm.ubc.ca/professional-profile-leonora-crema)

The Academic Library in the United States: Historical Perspectives
Mark L. McCallon, editor
John Mark Tucker, editor
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9780786495870, $75.00, PB, 294pp

https://www.amazon.com/Academic-Library-United-States-Perspectives/dp/0786495871

Synopsis: Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Mark L. McCallon and John Mark Tucker, the articles comprising "The Academic Library in the United States: Historical Perspectives" collectively advance the belief that the library (more than any other cultural institution) collects, curates and distributes the results of human thought.

This collection of essays broaden the debate about academic libraries beyond only professional circles, promoting the library as a vital resource for the whole of higher education. Topics range from library histories to explorations of changing media. Essayists connect modern libraries to the remarkable dream of Alexandria's ancient library -- facilitating groundbreaking research in every imaginable field of human interest, past, present and future.

Academic librarians who are most familiar with historical traditions are best qualified to promote the library as an important aspect of teaching and learning, as well as to develop resources that will enlighten future generations of readers. The intellectual tools for compelling, constructive conversation come from the narrative of the library in its many iterations, from the largest research university to the smallest liberal arts or community college.

Critique: An impressively informative compendium of an Introduction followed by fifteen erudite and thought-provoking essays, "The Academic Library in the United States: Historical Perspectives" is unreservedly recommended for the personal, professional, college, and university Library Science & History collections. Exceptional in organization and presentation, it should be noted that "The Academic Library in the United States: Historical Perspectives" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $33.99).

Editorial Note #1: Mark L. McCallon (https://acu.edu/faculty/mark-mccallon) is a professor and associate dean for library information services at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. His interests include electronic resources management, the history and biography of reading and librarianship.

Editorial Note #2: John Mark Tucker (https://prabook.com/web/john_mark.tucker/49998) is Professor Emeritus from Purdue University, served as Humanities, Social Science, and Education Librarian at Purdue and, later, as dean of library and information resources at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas.

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