Reinventing The People S Library

"Reinventing the People's Library" traces the history the Arlington Hills Public Library, one of the branches of the Saint Paul Public Library built by Andrew Carnegie, and its reinvention as the East Side Freedom Library, an institution dedicated to telling the stories of the East Side, including the Dakota who first lived here, the European immigrants who settled the area, the African Americans and Mexicans who came between the wars, and the more recent Southeast Asian, Central American, and East African immigrants who are revitalizing the area.

A top library consultant offers specific recommendations for helping libraries adapt to their changing role in the community. What is the future of the public library? How can libraries embrace the forces of change and provide the resources—and the resource-gathering environment—today's patrons want? The Customer-Focused Library: Re-Inventing the Library From the Outside-In answers these questions by proposing a transformative alternative, a reimagined library in which the collections, the services—even the building itself—are designed and built from the customer's perspective. Written by one of the country's foremost library consultants, The Customer-Focused Library shows how perceived threats to the traditional library model are in fact exciting opportunities for change. The book lays out the steps by which professionals and patrons together can help invent a new generation of libraries, with discussions of hiring guidelines, merchandizing, the library website, even the building plan itself. It is a proactive, consumer-based approach aimed at helping librarians focus on underexamined ideas, underexploited trends, underused assets, and the as-yet unvoiced needs of library consumers.

The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year "A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."—The Washington Post The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

This collection takes a critical look at the overarching trends that affect current library policy and practice regarding the process of delivering information services, and how factors such as public policy, economics, and popular culture will continue to affect those trends in the future

Intended to be an accessible guide to transformational information work, the book collects approximately thirty brief case studies of information related organizations, initiatives, and/or projects that focus on social justice related activities. Each case is a short narrative account of its particular subject's history, objectives, accomplishments, and challenges faced. It also describes the material realities involved in the subjects' day-to-day operation. Furthermore, cases include pertinent excerpts from interviews conducted with individuals directly involved with the information organization and will conclude with three-to-five bulleted takeaway points for information workers to consider when developing their own praxis Present useful guidance on transformative library and information science Gathers real-world case studies of library and information practice relating to social justice Gives takeaway points for readers to quickly apply in their own situation Provides inspiration for the development of progressive library and information practice Considers radical library and information science at a high level, offering recommendations for the future

This book helps readers explore how public librarians have reinvented the ways they bring people and information together to meet 21st-century challenges. Public Libraries in the 21st Century provides an up-to-date picture of what the public library is today, what the public librarian needs to know, and how to apply that knowledge. The book offers a thought-provoking exploration of the social, political, economic, cultural, and technological influences that determine the role of the public library in our society. It also looks at ways in which that role continues to change to meet new challenges, while always keeping true to the mission of bringing people and information together. Beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, the library reinvented and repositioned itself to be a force for people and their interaction with information. To illuminate that process, the book outlines the history and purpose of the public library. Issues of leadership, planning, decision making, organizing, and staffing are discussed, as is the impact of technology on how the library is managed and how it serves the community.

"Reinventing Discovery argues that we are in the early days of the most dramatic change in how science is done in more than 300 years. This change is being driven by new online tools, which are transforming and radically accelerating scientific discovery"--

This volume on the challenges public libraries may face in the 21st century covers such strategic and technological issues as fund-raising, pursuit of a community-based mission, and the combination of new and old media. Lists of additional readings and questions for discussion are included.