Results by title

• Data at all Levels
• Data Services and Instruction
• Data Outreach
• Data Communities
• Data Partnerships 

We live in a data-driven world, much of it processed and served up by increasingly complex algorithms, and evaluating its quality requires its own skillset. As a component of information literacy, it's crucial that students learn how to think critically about statistics, data, and related visualizations. Here, Bauder and her fellow contributors show how librarians are helping students to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle, and ethically use data. Offering readers a roadmap for effectively teaching data literacy at the undergraduate level, this volume explores such topics as

• the potential for large-scale library/faculty partnerships to incorporate data literacy instruction across the undergraduate curriculum;
• how the principles of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education can help to situate data literacy within a broader information literacy context;
• a report on the expectations of classroom faculty concerning their students’ data literacy skills;
• various ways that librarians can partner with faculty;
• case studies of two initiatives spearheaded by Purdue University Libraries and University of Houston Libraries that support faculty as they integrate more work with data into their courses;
• Barnard College’s Empirical Reasoning Center, which provides workshops and walk-in consultations to more than a thousand students annually;
• how a one-shot session using the PolicyMap data mapping tool can be used to teach students from many different disciplines;
• diving into quantitative data to determine the truth or falsity of potential “fake news” claims; and
• a for-credit, librarian-taught course on information dissemination and the ethical use of information.

The design of information literacy instruction and the building of it are two distinct skillsets and processes; yet all too often everything gets mashed together, creating needless confusion and stress. In this book Turnbow, an instructional designer, and Roth, an instructional technologist, suggest a better way to organize the work. They shed light on the people, processes, and resources required to create a sustainable portfolio of online instruction. With the goal of fostering conversations in your library about the most streamlined and effective ways to get the work done, they provide guidance on such topics as

• design and development processes, complete with “I.D. in Action” examples and sample design documents;
• thumbnail descriptions of ADDIE, SAM, and design thinking methods;
• creating learning objects;
• types of software tools and how to evaluate them;
• crafting the best documentation of your work for efficient maintenance and reuse;
• adapting assessment to your learning outcomes and purpose;
• when to design for performance support, an underutilized method in libraries; and
• starting points for those interested in developing instructional design and development skills.

Demystifying the instructional design and development process used to create online learning objects, this book will help you understand how instructional design principles and approaches can benefit your learners.

• a history of archives, including the roles of historical societies and local history collections in libraries;
• new sections on community archives, diversity, and inclusion;
• conducting a survey and starting an archival program;
• selection, appraisal, acquisition, accessioning, and deaccessioning;
• important points of copyright, privacy, and ethics;
• arrangement of archival collections, with a discussion of new theories;
• description, including DACS, EAD, and tools such as ArchivesSpace;
• access, reference, and outreach, with a look at how recent innovations in finding aids can help researchers;
• preservation, including guidance on how to handle rare books, maps, architectural records, and artifacts;
• digital records, addressing new and popular methods of storage and preservation of email, social media, image files, webpages, Word documents, spreadsheets, databases, and media files;
• disaster planning, security, and theft prevention;
• metrics, assessment, establishing employee procedures and policies, working with interns and volunteers, and other managerial duties;
• public relations and marketing, from social media and the Web to advocacy; and
• professional guidelines and codes, such as the newly developed SAA Statement of Core Values of Archivists.

Winner of the 2026 SUNYLA Excellence in Scholarship Award

A complicated topic encompassing many disparate facets, digital accessibility in libraries is in constant flux as new technologies emerge and design standards continue to evolve. This makes it challenging for library workers to ensure that their libraries meet legal requirements while also fostering inclusion for all their community members. Incorporating advice from a range of outside accessibility experts and practitioners, this guide is here to help. It delves into practical steps you can take to ensure that your library’s online presence is welcoming to everyone and that all your digital offerings avoid barriers that can exclude users with disabilities. No matter your level of experience or type of library, from this book you will

• come to understand what is meant by disability and why libraries have obligations to support disabled users;
• learn about a wide range of software and hardware for creating inclusive spaces and services regardless of your budget limitations or staffing levels;
• get comfortable with the overarching principles of online accessibility and how they specifically apply to library websites, digital media and files, digital communications, and emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence (AI);
• discover how libraries can verify the accessibility of the tools they develop or subscribe to, including best practices for working with vendors to optimize the accessibility of their library products;
• be invited to reflect upon the future of digital accessibility, particularly concerning education and hiring to ensure that accessibility remains central to the work done at all libraries.

Both Spina and Oling have worked within SUNY - The State University of New York to hone skills and thinking in this area, resulting in the Library Procurement Accessibility Toolkit, an ongoing project. They currently co-chair a subcommittee reviewing the SUNY libraries' implementation of the Electronic Information Accessibility Policy.

As an in-depth explanation of the entire digital curation lifecycle, from creation to appraisal to preservation to organization/access to transformation, the first edition of this text set a benchmark for both thoroughness and clarity. Boasting the expert guidance of international authorities Oliver and Harvey, this revamped and expanded edition widens the scope to address continuing developments in the strategies, technological approaches, and activities that are part of this rapidly changing field. In addition to current practitioners, those pursuing a career as librarian, archivist, or records manager will find this definitive survey invaluable. Filled with up-to-date best practices, it covers such important topics as

• the scope and incentives of digital curation, detailing Digital Curation Centre's (DCC) lifecycle model as well as the Data Curation Continuum;   
• key requirements for digital curation, from description and representation to planning and collaboration;
• the value and utility of metadata;
• considering the needs of producers and consumers when creating an appraisal and selection policy for digital objects;
• the paradigm shift by institutions towards cloud computing and its impact on costs, storage, and other key aspects of digital curation;
• the quality and security of data;
• new and emerging data curation resources, including innovative digital repository software and digital forensics tools;
• mechanisms for sharing and reusing data, with expanded sections on open access, open data, and open standards initiatives; and
• processes to ensure that data are preserved and remain usable over time.

Useful as both a teaching text and day-to-day working guide, this book outlines the essential concepts and techniques that are crucial to preserving the longevity of digital resources.

• delve into the concept of digital literacy, the ways in which it empowers individuals in digital systems of information, and how it fits in with other kinds of literacy;
• find ideas for effective digital literacy technical support, programming, services, spaces, collection development, outreach, and more;
• learn how to measure the impact of digital literacy initiatives, identify gaps within the community where the library can make an impact, and overcome challenges;
• discover guidance on building partnerships, both internal and external, and finding additional sources of funding to expand digital literacy opportunities within the scope of what is already available;
• receive practical advice from the "Ask the Expert" sidebars throughout the book, where practitioners share their knowledge and experience; and
• get adaptable tools such as sample language, an expenditure budget, an individual needs assessment, a digital literacy readiness checklist, survey instruments, and a lesson plan template that can be used for digital literacy programming.

The school-to-prison pipeline impacts communities across the country; often, this system and families impacted by it remain invisible. But librarians, educators, and others who work with youth know first-hand that libraries and reading can be life-altering for youth impacted by incarceration. Written by public librarians who have supported youth before, during, and after incarceration, this book draws from their own experiences while showcasing insights from other library workers, researchers, educators, people who work in the juvenile justice fields, and mental health professionals. Designed to empower libraries and their staff to provide children and teens with information, visibility, knowledge and skills, recreation, and role models, it shares practical strategies for helping youth avoid the school-to-prison pipeline or contend with it. Readers will discover

• a concise explanation of the school-to-prison pipeline, including statistics on how and why it disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disabled youth;
• concrete, proven strategies for disrupting youth incarceration pathways by giving young people the tools and support they need to avoid incarceration;
• steps for bolstering youth engagement during out of school time;
• guidance on how to align disciplinary approaches with trauma-informed practices when dealing with rowdy youth and other disruptive behavior;
• an overview of what libraries are doing to provide programs and services inside a youth facility, including literacy support, high school equivalency/GED programs, and televisiting;
• strategies for combatting the isolation of children of incarcerated parents by creating inclusive and welcoming library environments;
• information about the complex and difficult process of reentry for incarcerated youth, with adaptable ideas and lessons from the work being done in libraries for reentering adults; and
• an inspiring vision, extrapolating from work in adjacent fields, of what libraries can do to overcome barriers to bringing more youth into the library.

All too often, in a hurried attempt to “catch up,” diversity training can create division among staff or place undue burdens on a handful of employees. Instead, academic libraries need approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that position these priorities as ongoing institutional and professional goals. This book’s model programs will help academic libraries do exactly that, sharing a variety of initiatives that possess clear goals, demonstrable outcomes, and reproducible strategies. Librarians, administrators, and directors will all benefit from the programs detailed inside, which include such topics as

• a university library’s community of practice for interactions and learning around DEI;
• cultural competency training to create more welcoming instruction spaces;
• student workshops on literature searches that mitigate bias;
• overcoming the historic tendency to marginalize LGBTQ+ representation in archives;
• a curriculum and design workshop that moved from discussing social values to embedding them in actions;
• the founding of a library-led LGBT club for students at a rural community college;
• a liberal arts college’s retention-boosting program for first-generation students;
• tailoring a collection and library services to the unique needs of student veterans; and
• a framework for moving from diversity to equity and inclusion, toward a goal of social justice.