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.

Using Social Media to Build Library Communities: A LITA Guide is a community-building action manual for practitioners across the profession. By bringing together an array of perspectives to explore community building through social media, this book serves as the go-to resource for professionals who want to take social media beyond marketing and promotion to build an inclusive and engaged community of library users. Each chapter contains clear explanations of important topics for building communities through social media, and readers will come away with cohesive approaches for their own libraries. Using Social Media to Build Library Communities demonstrates that an energetic and committed community exists to help and guide fellow community builders.

A practical atlas of how librarians around the world are serving the dynamic academics that are today's graduate students. In four sections--One Size Does Not Fit All: Services by Discipline, Degree, and Delivery Method; Librarian Functions and Spaces Transformed to Meet Graduate Students' Needs; More Than Just Information Literacy: Workshops and Data Services; and Partnerships--readers will discover a plethora of programs and ideas gleaned directly from experienced librarians working at some of the top academic institutions, and explore the power of leveraging their library initiatives through partnerships with other university units. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, graduate students have comprised between 14 and 15 percent of all students enrolled in higher education since 2000, and are expected to exceed 3,300,000 students in 2020. While the traditional graduate student starting their fifth consecutive year of study still populates university campuses, graduate students also include seasoned professionals seeking an advanced degree to further career goals, career changers, international students, and online-only students. Each grad student comes with their own levels of expertise, challenging librarians to provide targeted help aligned with the expectations of their specific program of study. Transforming Libraries to Serve Graduate Students incorporates the experiences of librarians from across the United States, Canada, and Europe into thirty-four chapters packed with programs, best practices, and ideas readers can implement in their own libraries.

Foreword by Tracie D. Hall Community engagement isn’t simply an important component of a successful library—it’s the foundation upon which every service, offering, and initiative rests. Working collaboratively with community members—be they library customers, residents, faculty, students or partner organizations— ensures that the library works, period. This important resource from ALA’s Public Programs Office (PPO) provides targeted guidance on how libraries can effectively engage with the public to address a range of issues for the betterment of their community, whether it is a city, neighborhood, campus, or something else. Featuring contributions by leaders active in library-led community engagement, it’s designed to be equally useful as a teaching text for LIS students and a go-to handbook for current programming, adult services, and outreach library staff. Balancing practical tools with case studies and stories from field, this collection explores such key topics as why libraries belong in the community engagement realm; getting the support of board and staff; how to understand your community; the ethics and challenges of engaging often unreached segments of the community; identifying and building engaged partnerships; collections and community engagement; engaged programming; and outcome measurement.

This book focuses on difficulties and opportunities in revitalization of old, derelict or abandoned buildings into a library and investigates the transformation of buildings which originally had a different purpose. The publication shows worldwide best practice examples from different types of libraries in historic environments, both urban and rural, while maintaining a focus on sustainability concerning the architecture and interior design.

Drawing on two decades of original research conducted by the authors, as well as existing research about the intersection of public policy, political discourse, and public libraries, this book seeks to understand the origins and implications of the current standing of public libraries in public policy and political discourse. It both explains the complex current circumstances and offers strategies for effectively creating a better future for public libraries. The main message is that there is a pressing need for public librarians and other supporters of public libraries to be: Aware of the political process and its implications for libraries; Attuned to the interrelationships between policy and politics; and Engaged in the policy process to articulate the need for policies that support public libraries. The style is both scholarly and accessible to general readers, with the goal of being useful to students, educators, researchers, practitioners, and friends of public libraries in library and information science. It will also be usefull for those engaged in areas of public policy, government, economics, and political science who are interested in the relationships between public libraries, public policy, and political processes. Building upon the discussion of the key issues, the book offers proposals for professional, policy-making, and political strategies that can strengthen the public library and its ability to meet the needs of individuals and communities. The discussion and analysis in the book draw upon data and real world examples from the many studies that the authors have conducted on related topics, including libraries’ outreach to increasingly diverse service populations and efforts to meet community needs through innovative partnerships. As the intersection of politics, policy, and libraries has grown in importance and complexity in recent years, the need for a book on their interrelationships is long overdue.