A fascinating and informative read for librarians, library staff, and MLIS students, this book offers practical information and professional guidelines to examine current issues in censorship and libraries while also enabling readers to consider their own opinions about intellectual freedom. This book addresses contemporary issues in censorship and intellectual freedom and can serve as an invaluable resource for librarians and other library staff and as an eye-opening read for MLIS students. It covers the waterfront of intricate and thorny issues regarding intellectual freedom, including determining strategies for patron privacy, deciding how to filter public computers, handling challenges to items in a collection, and recognizing and eliminating under-the-radar self-censorship during collection development and weeding. Readers will also gain an understanding of the perils of over-reliance on community assessments and other evaluative tools and consider important concerns of public library employees, such as whether to restrict borrowing privileges of R-rated movies and M-rated video games to patrons of various ages, and the legalities that surround these questions. Each chapter blends instructive background narrative with practical advice, research findings, and relevant information about librarianship's professional guidelines, including the ALA's Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read Statement. Vignettes, "what would you do?" examples, effective nonconfrontational techniques for conflict resolution, and lists of tips and traps help readers to think critically about their own biases and rehearse possible responses to controversial situations. Librarians, library staff, and MLIS students can use this book for personal professional development, as supplemental reading for MLIS courses or professional training workshops, or as a resource for library policy-planning discussions.

Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age discusses the increasing amounts of information that are used in collection development. Case studies, interviews, and research are the basis for this book's suggestions to improve your collection methods without straining your library's budget. It will help you acquire the most useful materials while sharing information with collaborating libraries to offer patrons the latest and largest variety of resources. Discussing a topic that is scarcely addressed in collection literature, this book explores ways in which one informational medium - the Internet - impacts materials budgets, selection tools, and alternative sources of information during the selection process. Offering methods that apply to libraries of different sizes and financial capability, Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age provides you with ideas and suggestions for the improvement of collection development methods, including: examining how libraries use information to plan and budget for collection development developing a budget method that takes several factors into consideration, such as population impact, property tax revenues, circulation, reference needs, and client needs centralizing selections in order to allocate additional staff time and to choose resources patrons want without sacrificing the utility of local collections building public library collections with the assistance of vendors and the five levels of vendor participation using the conspectus method to assess and organize the collections of small libraries for easier access researching three public libraries in the United Kingdom to determine how varying levels of automation affect patron resources and services To help you integrate the appropriate electronic resources into collection development policies and procedures, Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age discusses which formats, access methods, pricing schemes, and differences in scope will best meet your selection needs. Containing proven strategies that will target your collection priorities and criteria to evaluate the use and effectiveness of electronic resources, this book will help revise your collection development methods to satisfy the informational needs of patrons.

If the heart of the library is its collection, this textbook provides the keys to the heart of your library. Alongside standards of basic principles and processes, you'll find practical guidance on everything from acquisitions to preservation. Managing collections in today's libraries is more complicated and challenging than ever. Electronic formats, new options for collaboration and sharing, and the drive to use data for evaluation purposes are just a few of the changes now driving collection management. This updated edition of a classic text addresses changes in the field and provides a thorough overview of what collection development specialists now need to know to effectively and efficiently manage processes that range from selection and assessment to sharing resources, handling challenges, weeding, and preservation. Readers will find increased coverage of technical services, intellectual freedom and censorship, and collection policy development, as well as budget development and tracking, joint purchasing, and negotiating with vendors. Updates on e-resources, user needs assessment (including data visualization), and disaster management, along with suggestions for further reading, are also included. Engagingly written and easy to understand, this is a valuable text for students preparing for careers in public, academic, school, and special libraries. It will additionally serve as a training resource and professional refresher for practitioners.

Developing Library Collections for Today’s Young Adults features policies that deal expressly with materials that respect the intellectual freedom of young library patrons. It emphasizes the importance of everything from needs assessment to collection development, encouraging librarians to consider informational, recreational, and curricular needs and interests as the library staff select material on behalf of young adults. With detailed guidelines for developing and evaluating collections of print and electronic material, Amy S. Pattee devotes chapters to materials selection, acquisition, and assessment, describing fiction and nonfiction genres, graphic forms, and multimedia and electronic materials, including networked resources, e-books, and computer games. Developing Library Collections for Today’s Young Adults may be consulted by librarians charged with the development and maintenance of public library collections for young adults and may be employed in library science courses related to young adult literature and library services and collection development.

This book will help public library administrators, managers, and board members to better plan, strategize, and understand their communities, enabling public libraries to become dynamic, proactive institutions. Research-Based Planning for Public Libraries: Increasing Relevance in the Digital Age takes readers through a logical and effective process for developing a plan and implementing it within the various functions of the library. Grounded in research and best practices, the book offers practical, easy-to-implement advice and direction for today's public library administrators, managers, and board members. Covering everything from goal-setting, policy-making, and budgeting, to collections, promotions, and access and evaluation, the book details how to better provide and promote access, convey its value to customers, and make the library a more integral part of the community. The author inspires library staff and administrators to reinvent themselves to meet—and overcome—the current challenges they face. The information is specifically tailored towards public librarians, particularly those in management or administration, as well as to LIS faculty and students of public librarianship and library management.

Carol Alabaster focuses on developing a collection with high-quality materials while saving time and money.

This important volume by one of the leading scholars in the field examines and discusses how library professionals can meet the demands of policy makers to open up the public library system without destroying its values. Based on a critical literature review, a survey of library professionals and consultations with other stakeholders, the book discusses the challenges involved in providing a service that prioritizes equity and social inclusion while at the same time attempting to promote and maintain quality, excellence and ethical standards. In assessing how those responsible for public libraries around the world go about this task the author advocates a service that is sensitive to difference and seeks to provide access to the best.