With the wish to heighten their profile, modernize their environment and increase use, libraries in the UK have refurbished and, where necessary and possible, extended their existing buildings. Although much has been achieved in this regard across the UK, more continues and needs to be accomplished. The case-studies in this book provide librarians, architects and others with examples of what has been undertaken and highlight the policies, processes, design issues - and the problems that have been overcome - leading to successful library refurbishments. While the case studies are mainly drawn from the UK and cover a variety of library types, the book has wider international appeal and includes case studies drawn from Ireland, Sweden and the USA.

With a writing style alive with the rhythms and riffs of jazz, Jeffries deftly examines the questions of identity, race and family in a provocative, moving and often hilarious memoir. Too light to be black, too dark to be white, finding a place in race-conscious American society as the son of a black father and Jewish mother was a challenging journey for the author. Following a different path to his more wayward siblings, he discovers conflicts within himself that have as much to do with Kafka as with Ellison. The truth he learns - you must create yourself.

Our rivers are in crisis and the need for river restoration has never been more urgent. Water security and biodiversity indices for all of the world’s major rivers have declined due to pollution, diversions, impoundments, fragmented flows, introduced and invasive species, and many other abuses. Developing successful restoration responses are essential. Renewing Our Rivers addresses this need head on with examples of how to design and implement stream-corridor restoration projects. Based on the experiences of seasoned professionals, Renewing Our Rivers provides stream restoration practitioners the main steps to develop successful and viable stream restoration projects that last. Ecologists, geomorphologists, and hydrologists from dryland regions of Australia, Mexico, and the United States share case studies and key lessons learned for successful restoration and renewal of our most vital resource. The aim of this guidebook is to offer essential restoration guidance that allows a start-to-finish overview of what it takes to bring back a damaged stream corridor. Chapters cover planning, such emerging themes as climate change and environmental flow, the nuances of implementing restoration tactics, and monitoring restoration results. Renewing Our Rivers provides community members, educators, students, natural resource practitioners, experts, and scientists broader perspectives on how to move the science of restoration to practical success.

Unplanned careers affect everything and everyone. They can lead to frustration, negativity, and apathy at a time when we need to be focused, energized and motivated. Though your library career might have started "accidentally," you can overcome organizational restructuring, changing job titles, and shifting responsibilities by cultivating a mindful existence in the library workplace. Building on the simple and fun approach that have made her previous books bestsellers, Hakala-Ausperk offers up a DIY-style program for revisiting personal values, understanding your options, identifying skill gaps, and creating plans for growth. Whether you're a library veteran who's feeling burned out, a new LIS grad just starting out, or somewhere in mid-career, this book will introduce methods to help you examine your individual interests, desires, and goals; show you how to understand your workplace's priorities and culture, and offer tips for identifying where there's either a match or a gap; demonstrate how you can improve your current position; prepare you to move forward through the creation of a personalized strategic professional plan that addresses professional development, gaining additional experience, and other options for growth; include tips for effective self-marketing, networking through colleagues and friends, and acing an interview; present ways to stay happy and engaged in a new role or position; and offer guidance for sharing your skills and experience through mentorship, and retiring with grace. Ideal for both self-paced study and team-based staff development, this six-step plan will help readers renew themselves, their careers, and their organizations.

“Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own coming-of-age story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human curiosity, passion, and perseverance.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams WINNER OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA AWARD FOR SCIENCE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Times (UK) • Library Journal “Lovely . . . Johnson’s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multihued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars.”—Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

Illustrations and brief text present all kinds of libraries, from bookmobiles and home libraries to the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

We all relish a good scandal - the larger the figure (governor, judge) and more shocking the particulars (nappies, cigars) - the better. But why do people feel compelled to act out their tangled psychodramas on the national stage, and why do we so enjoy watching them, hurling our condemnations while savouring every lurid detail?With 'pointed daggers of prose' (The New Yorker), Laura Kipnis examines contemporary downfall sagas to lay bare the American psyche: what we desire, what we punish, and what we disavow. She delivers virtuoso analyses of four paradigmatic cases: a lovelorn astronaut, an unhinged judge, a venomous whistleblower, and an over-imaginative memoirist. The motifs are classic - revenge, betrayal, ambition, madness - though the pitfalls are ones we all negotiate daily. After all, every one of us is a potential scandal in the making: failed self-knowledge and colossal self-deception - the necessary ingredients - are our collective plight. In How to Cause a Scandal, bad behaviour is the entry point for a brilliant cultural romp as well as an anti-civics lesson. 'Shove your rules', says scandal, and no doubt every upright citizen, deep within, cheers the transgression-as long as it's someone else's head on the block.

Far from heralding their demise, digital technologies have lead to a dramatic transformation of the public library. Around the world, libraries have reinvented themselves as networked hubs, community centres, innovation labs, and makerspaces. Coupling striking architectural design with attention to ambience and comfort, libraries have signaled their desire to be seen as both engines of innovation and creative production, and hearts of community life. This book argues that the library’s transformation is deeply connected to a broader project of urban redevelopment and the transition to a knowledge economy. In particular, libraries have become entangled in visions of the smart city, where densely networked, ubiquitous connectivity promises urban prosperity built on efficiency, innovation, and new avenues for civic participation. Drawing on theoretical analysis and interviews with library professionals, policymakers, and users, this book examines the inevitable tensions emerging when a public institution dedicated to universal access to knowledge and a shared public culture intersects with the technology-driven, entrepreneurialist ideals of the smart city.

Public libraries are keystone public institutions for any thriving community, and as such can be leaders in making cities better places to work, play, and live. Here, Dudley shows how public libraries can contribute to 'placemaking', or the creation and nurturing of vital and unique communities for their residents.

"Getting it right means understanding our roles as adults and professionals. Getting it right requires a genuine commitment to youth participation. Getting it right is about shifting our perspective from the library to the community in which it is located. Getting it right makes it imperative that we give teens a place of their own in our libraries."—From the Preface Libraries have opportunities to make a positive difference in the lives of teenage customers and become a primary support for teens in the communities they serve. Truly excellent library services for young adults (YA) need the collaborative efforts of both teens and librarians. To build this partnership, the authors share an inspiring narrative of YA history, and also offer a plethora of new voices and stories that advocate the power of technology and teen spaces. These story lines are then melded to highlight practical tools to involve teens at the library and make a bright future possible. As the authors explore what has been done well—and what hasn't —in the world of young adult librarianship, they identify key issues from the plethora of new voices: How librarians can work with not for young adult customers Why the power of place means actual square footage designed for teens Ways to incorporate technology to achieve developmental outcomes Listening to teen voices to better serve their needs How evaluation and being accountable will close the loop on effective advocacy The authors guide both librarians and administrators to make promises for the future and present a strategy for keeping those promises so that young adult audiences can become active library and community participants. From building partnerships to implementing successful programs to incorporating technology that helps teens assume leadership and responsibility, this is an inspiring yet practical take on what it means to "get it right" for teens in the library.