Taking a management position in a new library or being promoted to a higher position in your library means a new approach to interpersonal relations. How to make this transition can be a challenge. This book provides the information you need to learn so you can become an effective leader and to recognize and circumvent the legal pitfalls that you may find in your path. Written in reader-friendly language, two seasoned veterans share their experiences and the experiences of others in this introduction to managing people. Managing a small library requires skills in working with personnel, the library board, patrons, and the key people in the community. Understanding these requirements will help the person with no formal education to be a more effective administrator in this setting.

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.

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.

Libraries are public places—open to anyone and everyone. This book contains invaluable, practical tips for library staff who sometimes must deal with difficult or even dangerous individuals and situations. Every library experiences difficult patrons. Thorough preparation is the best defense: it's always much better to be proactive than reactive. The authors of Crash Course in Dealing with Difficult Library Customers realized that these kinds of situations are more universal than unique, despite the great variations in library environments and customer bases, and pooled their more than 100 years of experience to offer practical advice that will help library staff prepare for the many kinds of "worst case scenarios"—before they arise. The book identifies the basic types of problem-causing individuals, thoroughly overviews effective strategies for offsetting their actions, and explains how to successfully manage the stressful, emotionally charged situations that can arise. Drawing on their extensive real-world experience, the authors provide instructions for "last resort" options when dealing with illegal activities, acknowledge the rights of employees in difficult situations, and present strategies that will minimize staff members' stress levels when dealing with patrons. While this book will be extremely valuable to public library staff, it addresses common situations that can happen in public service at any type of library. Administrators who need to develop policies to protect their staff and their users will also find this unique work essential reading.

What do you do when you are offered any number of gifts including but not limited to artifacts, letters, historical documents, collections of pictures, postcards, arrowheads? This book helps you reject such offers (keeping the prospective donor happy) or add and maintain these in your collection so that they are useful and used. Since archival materials are not considered as the usual circulation materials, how and when to loan them is another question answered. You may also be able to get volunteers to help you at every step along the way when you are acquiring and restoring gifts. Many librarians are recipients of a variety of gifts from members of the community. How to accept or reject these donations is a continuing problem for persons who work in public libraries and will be even more of a question when the librarian has little formal training in archival or preservation work.

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 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.

This unique annotated bibliography is a complete, up-to-date guide to sources of information on library science, covering recent books, monographs, periodicals and websites, and selected works of historical importance. In addition to compiling an invaluable list of sources, Bemis digs deeper, examining the strengths and weaknesses of key works. A boon to researchers and practitioners alike, this bibliography Includes coverage of subjects as diverse and vital as the history of librarianship, its development as a profession, the ethics of information science, cataloging, reference work, and library architecture Encompasses encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, photographic surveys, statistical publications, and numerous electronic sources, all categorized by subject Offers appendixes detailing leading professional organizations and publishers of library and information science literature This comprehensive bibliography of English-language resources on librarianship, the only one of its kind, will prove invaluable to scholars, students, and anyone working in the field.

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.

Concise, informative, and well-indexed, this book helps readers get the "big picture" as well as the considerable number of details involved in managing the finances for a library. For all libraries, money is critical to decision-making about technology, staffing, and collections. As a result, informed budgeting is critically important for any library to succeed. This book explains library finance in a practical, engaging way, using examples of real situations in different types of libraries to teach key points. Written by authors with years of experience in budgeting and financial planning within a variety of library settings and in teaching library management or fundraising at the university level, Crash Course in Library Budgeting and Finance makes it painless to learn how to properly manage money in any library environment. The book addresses the entire process of financial planning, from a general, conceptual overview of library budgeting to the details of generating and spending income, and describes best practices for implementing financial controls. Subjects covered include building construction and capital projects, fund raising, capital campaigns, moving to fee-based services, extending and developing earned income, financial best practices, and assessment and evaluation. The authors also make recommendations regarding when and how to share relevant financial information throughout the organization and with constituents throughout the book.