Connecting to share ideas, resources, and programs offers school and public libraries an exciting means of achieving their own goals as well as those of the community at large. In this timely guide, young adult library consultant Tasha Squires delves into the many possible avenues for partnership, from summer reading programs to book talks to…

In this article, the author describes her efforts to collect perspectives about the topic of most appropriate job title for school library administrators. The author presents the results of a pilot study (with 31 respondents) and a national study (with 213 respondents) conducted to answer two research questions: (1) "What do future school…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the reorganisation of the Andalusian Parliament's digital library to improve the electronic representation and access of its official corpus by taking advantage of a document's internal organisation. Video recordings of the parliamentary sessions have also been integrated with their…

The Notable Children's Videos, Recordings, and Great Interactive Software for Kids lists are compiled annually by committees of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). This article presents the lists for 2009 that were released in January during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in…

Girls today have never known a time of athletic inequality. That is why it is so important to build a strong collection for this particular patron base so the voices of the past can encourage the goals of present and future athletes. The young girls of today have grown up with a wide range of athletic opportunities and most do not know of the…

In an exploratory study, participants (n = 18) completed 11 usability tasks to assess ease of use of two Web sites, and then a Web site perception questionnaire for each. Participants rated both Web sites positively, but 25% and 36% could not complete all tasks; doing so required more than a minute to complete. (Contains 2 figures and 7 tables.)

When Barry Lyga finished writing his second young adult (YA) novel, he knew there'd be trouble. After all, "Boy Toy" was about a 12-year-old who has sex with a beautiful teacher twice his age, and Lyga expected it to spark letters to local papers, trigger complaints to the school board, and incite some parents to yank it off library shelves. But…

This article presents an excerpt of Library Journal's (LJ's) Movers & Shakers ideas on how to ensure a vital library for the future. Several identify a disconnect between what librarians and libraries do and what users think they do. Mending this gap, they say, would transform library recruitment and library support. While specific insights on…

One of the goals of the school library media specialist is to "Promote the library media program as an attractive, welcoming, and essential venue" (AASL 89). The media center should convey an atmosphere where students feel welcome. Creating media center memories can help library media specialists to achieve this goal. This article describes…

The apparent death of academic libraries, as measured by declining circulation of print materials, reduced use of reference services, and falling gate counts, has led to calls for a more "social" approach to academic libraries: installing cafes, expanding group study spaces, and developing "information commons." This study compares these social…

Library science students in school librarianship were surveyed to determine their information seeking and avoidance behaviors in Web-based online environments. Two coping styles were identified among students. Barriers to student online collaboration, such as individual preferences, concerns on efficiency, and lack of mutual trust, were observed.…

"Multicultural Programs for Tweens and Teens" is a one-stop resource that encourages children and young adults to explore different cultures. Dozens of flexible programming ideas allow you to: (1) Choose a program specific to your scheduling, budget, or age group requirements; (2) Create an event that reflects a specific culture; and (3) Recommend…

Illiteracy is a huge problem, socially, economically and educationally. This study of the history and current practices of American public libraries examines their role in supporting the development of human literate abilities and in helping all Americans to be critically literate in order to participate fully and successfully in our society. This…

With so many choices and so many terrific nonfiction titles in the pipeline, picking the "right" read can be daunting. This year, the author offers a variety of choices: the future of books, the life of a great American photographer, jigsaw puzzles as a metaphor for life, the negative legacy of America's positive thinking, a history of American…

School librarians currently speak about school libraries as the largest classroom in the building. If so, how can these librarians describe what they teach? This article explains the user-centered instructional role of secondary school librarians in teaching information and technology literacy skills, as well as how they can authoritatively ensure…