Emerging technologies can intimidate with their cost and uncertainty—this book provides flexible options for adopting the most popular ones. Introducing new technologies to your library can be a daunting process; they can be costly, they may be unfamiliar to many staff members, and their success is far from assured. To address these concerns, Best Technologies for Public Libraries accommodates budgets large and small, providing options for both the ambitious and the cost-conscious. Authors Christopher DeCristofaro, James Hutter, and Nick Tanzi provide a resource for staff looking to incorporate a number of emerging technologies into their library and makerspaces. Each chapter explores a new technology, including 3D printing, drones, augmented reality, and virtual reality, covering how the technologies work, the selection process, training, sample programming, best practices, and relevant policy. By describing a variety of program and service ideas across age groups, the book gives readers the ability to first evaluate them within the context of their own organization before incorporating ideas à la carte. This approach helps readers to adopt these new technologies and create policies with uses already in mind.

Emerging Library Technologies, is written for librarians/information professionals, teachers, administrators, researchers, undergraduate/graduate students, and others who are interested in learning about some of the most popular emerging technologies in the media today such as artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, driverless vehicles, big data, virtual/augmented reality, 3D printing, and wearable technologies. This valuable resource shows how they can be used in libraries and resource centers, and how to get stakeholder buy in for implementing these technologies. - Covers innovative insights on how these emerging technologies can be used in all types libraries and resource centers. - Discusses how to get key stakeholders on board before implementing emerging technologies including a checklist to complete before presenting your technology proposal to senior management. - Brings unique perspective for assisting people who will be displaced by these emerging technologies. - Includes resources at the end of every chapter on keeping abreast and building expertise on the emerging technology topic. - Contains tips on how professionals can forge strategic relationships to collaborate on emerging technology projects such as preparing students for STEM and STEAM careers. - Poses engaging questions for further discussion after each chapter. - Includes comprehensive glossary at the end of each chapter.

This work skeptically explores the notion that the internet will soon obviate any need for traditional print-based academic libraries. It makes a case for the library's staying power in the face of technological advancements (television, microfilm, and CD-ROM's were all once predicted as the contemporary library's heir-apparent), and devotes individual chapters to the pitfalls and prevarications of popular search engines, e-books, and the mass digitization of traditional print material.

"For many patrons, digital resources are not easy to use. Consider this: a recent study of a metropolitan public library showed that requests to access eBooks comprised nearly all of their helpdesk traffic. Use this book to train your staff on how to support patrons with using their devices to access library collections and services"--

Emerging technologies can intimidate with their cost and uncertainty—this book provides flexible options for adopting the most popular ones. Introducing new technologies to your library can be a daunting process; they can be costly, they may be unfamiliar to many staff members, and their success is far from assured. To address these concerns, Best Technologies for Public Libraries accommodates budgets large and small, providing options for both the ambitious and the cost-conscious. Authors Christopher DeCristofaro, James Hutter, and Nick Tanzi provide a resource for staff looking to incorporate a number of emerging technologies into their library and makerspaces. Each chapter explores a new technology, including 3D printing, drones, augmented reality, and virtual reality, covering how the technologies work, the selection process, training, sample programming, best practices, and relevant policy. By describing a variety of program and service ideas across age groups, the book gives readers the ability to first evaluate them within the context of their own organization before incorporating ideas à la carte. This approach helps readers to adopt these new technologies and create policies with uses already in mind.

Just as Andrew Carnegie’s support changed the landscape of public libraries in America, Apple’s launch of the iPhone on June 29, 2007 forever altered how people expected to interact with services. Libraries, like every other kind of organization, must now make their services—not just their catalogs—available on an array of mobile devices. Mobile Library Servicesprovides 11 proven ways to reach out to mobile users and increase your library’s relevance to their day-to-day lives. Librarians detail how they created mobile apps to how they went mobile on a shoestring budget. Written by public, academic, and special librarians, these 11 best practices offer models for libraries of every type and size.