Outcome-based planning and evaluation (OBPE), with its straightforward approach built on a flexible framework, is the perfect model to enable youth services professionals to deliver effective services regardless of uncertainties. An outcome-based approach can help youth services stay grounded in producing desired outcomes with and for youth through responsive programs, services, and processes that can adapt to changing conditions. Clarifying the relationship between planning, program development, and evaluation, the five simple steps outlined in this book will help youth services staff conduct solid community assessments and integrate OBPE into their work. Inside its pages you will learn a short history of OBPE and its evolution; why it is crucially important to involve youth in all stages of program development, with guidance on navigating challenges; how to think about planning as the need to react quickly, whether due to natural or human-made disasters, changing demographics, or economic swings; the five steps of OBPE, from gathering information about your community and determining the outcomes that will serve your community to crafting accurate outcome statements, developing an evaluation plan, and maximizing the results of successful outcome-based programs; how to visualize the steps needed to successfully plan, implement, and evaluate an outcome-based program, using the template included in the book; ways to share your data to let people know the library’s important role in the community; and additional useful tools to bolster your work, including environmental scan forms and ideas for creating relevant family storytimes.

Featuring plentiful examples of how to proceed through each phase of the OBPE model, this book boils down planning and evaluation into an approachable, easy to understand process for public librarians, library managers, and grant writers.

Emphasizing an inclusive approach to programming that incorporates research-based theories and frameworks, this text will be a valuable orientation tool for LIS students as well as a holistic guide for current children and youth services professionals.

Finally, a single volume that comprehensively introduces and addresses the most pressing issues and opportunities in young adult (teen) library services. Perpetually in the shadow of service to children, and historically riven by fractious relationships between public and school libraries, young adult services continue to suffer inadequacies and inequities of all kinds. Consequently, this area of specialization remains without the capacity to build the institutional, political, cultural, or professional influence needed to grow and develop beyond ritual and repetition. Young Adult Services: Challenges and Opportunities (COYAS) begins to address these inequities by preparing professionals. In COYAS, LIS youth services instructors, especially those in the United States and Canada, will find a single, broad, and diverse engagement with scholars and acknowledged experts on the most pressing issues confronting YA services today. Students at both graduate and undergraduate levels will benefit from the field-tested topics delivered through accessible treatments. Practicing YA (and youth) librarians will appreciate the support and evidence-based analysis they likely found lacking in their MLIS programs. Earnest youth advocates will value the pursuit of issues beyond cliché and perpetual “crash course” entry-level conversations. In addition, instructors and students will both value the brevity of concisely focused chapters, sectional introductions, as well as the study guide questions that conclude each chapter. Content areas include history and critical engagement with foundational concepts in YA services, current practices regarding challenges and opportunities, as well as forward leaning issues for future development of the field. COYAS will ultimately empower librarians in delivering professional-grade information services to improve the quality of young people’s experience in this important cultural institution.

Describes the CATE method for integrating outcome-based planning and evaluation into library programs and services for young patrons, and looks at how it worked at the St. Louis Public Library.

Foundations of Library Services and Programming for Children This book provides required foundational practices, both theoretical and practical. It gives students and working librarians the nuts- and- bolts foundation in providing programming and services for children. The book covers critical important elements needed for today’s librarian, thereby benefitting even the seasoned youth librarian. Chapter coverage includes: The Value of Library Services to Children Program Evaluation: Planning for Desired Results Children’s Programming Services and Resources for Children The Library as a Safe Space for All Administration of Children’s Services Looking Ahead: What’s Next in Library Services for Children? An Appendix provides practical resources such as a storytime format, programming planning outline, and program assessment tools. Special topics include issues of censorship attempts, the importance of providing library services to a diverse population, and the need to examine evaluative techniques for program offerings. Each chapter in this text includes multiple opportunities for learning and reflection as well as case-based learning that facilitates problem-solving and experiential learning opportunities.

Evaluating and Promoting Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults isn’t another bibliography that will quickly become outdated. Instead, it situates nonfiction resources within the recent emphasis on reading nonfiction as a way of enhancing critical thinking and combating susceptibility to “fake news.” Donald Latham offers strategies for evaluating nonfiction for the purposes of collection development, providing readers’ advisory, and developing programs using nonfiction for children and young adults. The book includes lists of professional resources as well as recommended nonfiction titles.