Library management and book selection journal.

"Readers follow along on a day in the life of a librarian as a young girl pretends that the family den is a public library. Includes a glossary of library terms and a library scavenger hunt activity"--Provided by publisher.

Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us--neither the experts nor the hopelessly baffled--can get along without human help. And not just any help--we need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they save us from being buried by the digital age? This book is a romp through the ranks of information professionals and a revelation for readers burned out on the clichés and stereotyping of librarians. Here are bloggers, radicals and visionaries who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.--From publisher description.

A monthly professional magazine for library staff working with information technology in all types of library settings. Covers news and current issues in the field, emphasizing the practical application of technology. Includes discussions of the impact of emerging technologies on library systems and services, and on the library community itself.

"Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible-by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal. "-- "We live in a world of complex and seemingly infinite information. The ways in which people of all ages use and obtain that information has changed drastically in recent years: e-book readership has increased, Wikipedia has largely supplanted encyclopedias and reference books, and many people now consume news and media through their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. With digital culture ascendant, it seems counterintuitive to argue that libraries, of all things, are more important than ever. But that is exactly what library expert John Palfrey does in BiblioTech, a stirring call to arms that explains how libraries can become bulwarks against the creeping problems of our times: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. Yet the fate of the local library is by no means secure; these institutions are struggling to adapt to our rapidly modernizing world, and often rely on dwindling funding from state and local governments to do so. In order to survive, libraries will need to dramatically shift their focus from maintaining and building up their collections to serving their communities. Print and analog formats will never disappear, Palfrey assures us, but libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible--by digitizing print material, ensuring that born-digital material (from data sets to blog posts to sound recordings) is accessible to researchers, and making all of this digital information publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement and the process of digitizing collections and training librarians will be complicated and costly. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal"--

"A riveting investigation of a beloved library caught in the crosshairs of real estate, power, and the people's interests--by the reporter who broke the story. In a series of cover stories for The Nation magazine, journalist Scott Sherman uncovered the ways in which Wall Street logic almost took down one of New York City's most beloved and iconic institutions: the New York Public Library. In the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis, the library's leaders forged an audacious plan to sell off multiple branch libraries, mutilate a historic building, and send millions of books to a storage facility in New Jersey. Scholars, researchers, and readers would be out of luck, but real estate developers and New York's Mayor Bloomberg would get what they wanted. But when the story broke, the people fought back, as famous writers, professors, and citizens' groups came together to defend a national treasure. Rich with revealing interviews with key figures, Patience and Fortitude is at once a hugely readable history of the library's secret plans, and a stirring account of a rare triumph against the forces of money and power"--

In a 13 part series Carl Sagan discusses the relationship between man and the universe. Part 1: Aboard the spaceship of imagination, through special effects, witness quasars, exploding galaxies, star clusters, super novas, and pulsars. Returning to the Solar System, enter an astonishing re-creation of the Alexandrian Library, seat of learning on Earth 2000 years ago.