Are libraries extinct? In these times of economic downturn and digital availability, what could provide libraries with a reason for being? In order to provide a vital presence on Facebook and Google+, you must provide a true sense of connection with the library's friends.

This book is for those moving their library beyond places to find information. Written by practicing public librarians and an academic librarian with an interest in public libraries, the book focuses on how public libraries can become more community centered and, by doing so, how they can transform both themselves and their communities. The authors argue that focusing on building community through innovative and responsive services and programs will be the best way for the public library to reposition itself in the years to come.

Transforming Health Sciences Library Spaces presents first-hand case studies and practical advice on transforming health sciences library spaces in the 21st century. Collected here are the experiences and thoughts of librarians on the transformation of health sciences library spaces. They provide insights into planning, budgeting, collecting, and integrating user feedback, collaborating with leadership and architects and thriving in the good times and the tight times. The book has three main sections: The Realities of Making Virtual Work Library Spaces that Work for Users Library Spaces Working with What They’ve Got These tackle crucial issues including: Identifying and overhauling dated spaces that lack flexibility Gathering information on usage behavior and user feedback in relation to our spaces. Working with feedback to increase satisfaction, and use of the library space with little funds. Removing a large percentage of the physical collection and deciding what to replace it with. Maximizing relationships with stakeholders such as leadership and external departments to transform the library space. Understanding what going 100% virtual means in practice. Managing usage of materials not traditionally well suited to online access.

When early Christians began to study the Bible, and to write their own history and that of the Jews whom they claimed to supersede, they used scholarly methods invented by the librarians and literary critics of Hellenistic Alexandria. But Origen and Eusebius, two scholars of late Roman Caesarea, did far more. Both produced new kinds of books, in which parallel columns made possible critical comparisons previously unenvisioned, whether between biblical texts or between national histories. Eusebius went even farther, creating new research tools, new forms of history and polemic, and a new kind of library to support both research and book production. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book combines broad-gauged synthesis and close textual analysis to reconstruct the kinds of books and the ways of organizing scholarly inquiry and collaboration among the Christians of Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Palestine. The book explores the dialectical relationship between intellectual history and the history of the book, even as it expands our understanding of early Christian scholarship. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book attends to the social, religious, intellectual, and institutional contexts within which Origen and Eusebius worked, as well as the details of their scholarly practices--practices that, the authors argue, continued to define major sectors of Christian learning for almost two millennia and are, in many ways, still with us today.,

The Information Commons (IC) strives to unite all the facts and figures of the world into a resource available to everyone. This work presents the how-to information necessary for institutions considering the development of an information commons. Offering advice on what works, it includes case studies from small and large academic libraries.

The services provided by the twenty-first century medical library are evolving, from circulating print materials, interlibrary loan, and traditional reference desk services to services like in depth literature searches, systematic reviews, and research impact studies. To support these changing services, the medical library must re-evaluate, reassess and redeploy its staff, providing them with new opportunities to grow and develop in new areas to support the evolving needs of the library. However, staff cannot be expected to embrace new roles without buy in, training and without developing a plan for assessing whether or not they are successful in their new roles. Transforming Medical Library Staff for the Twenty-First Century focuses on how the medical library can redeploy its staff to support these new services through actively engaging and empowering them in the process. This book shares best practices in developing and motivating staff to accept and welcome the changing priorities of medical libraries.

Study of 50 people who have had a near-death experience, describing their reactions to it, the resultant changes in their attitudes to death, religion and life direction, and psychic phenomena. The author, who herself had a near-death experience, teaches sociology at the University of New South Wales.