ALA Editions/Neal-Schuman

OA literature in libraries

CHICAGO — Open Access (OA) has evolved into the most complex challenge of the scholarly publishing landscape and something libraries grapple with continuously. But although librarians hold increasingly positive perceptions about OA, including its richness of unique content and immediacy of access, many lack the understanding, training, documentation, and knowledge of best practices that would allow them to engage with it confidently.

Technical services training and development

CHICAGO — Today's next generation catalogs, changing cataloging rules, and diverse formats and delivery models demand that technical services professionals and paraprofessionals keep up with evolving best practices for the work they do. Fortunately, libraries can adopt practices such as Training Within Industry (TWI), lean management, and instructional design methodologies to develop a learning culture that continuously improves service delivery.

Ready-to-use sustainable living programs for libraries

CHICAGO — In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, library patrons of all ages are becoming ever more interested in sustainability and self-reliance topics. Libraries, in turn, are enhancing their programming to embrace these timely concerns by organizing instructional workshops, creating community gardens, building beekeeping exhibits, teaching patrons about reducing waste and sustainable food sources, and more.

Core’s guide to project management in technical services

CHICAGO — Project management, as both a skill set and a discipline, offers structure and a path forward for continual improvement and change management within libraries. Most importantly for technical services, project management creates processes that can fairly and transparently indicate how resources are allocated and guide technical services departments as they prioritize needs.

OIF's workbook of privacy best practices for libraries

CHICAGO — Privacy is a core value of librarianship, yet it often feels like an overwhelming and onerous undertaking. With the creation of ever larger datasets and methods to track users’ every movement, library workers need to have a deep understanding of privacy, confidentiality, and security.

Fostering wellness in the library workplace

CHICAGO — As part of their dedication to improving the lives of their patrons, libraries have long offered services, programs, and outreach dedicated to the health and wellness of their communities. There is a growing recognition that library workers themselves are in urgent need of such attention; low morale, and complaints of burnout and a toxic work environment, are only a few of the obvious symptoms. The good news is that by turning inward, libraries can foster wellness in their workplace and make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of their staff. Bobbi L.

ALA Editions Special Report explores Black and African American students’ experiences in libraries

CHICAGO — Librarianship is still a predominantly white profession. It is essential that current practitioners as well as those about to enter the field take an unflinching look at the profession’s legacy of racial discrimination, including the ways in which race might impact service to users such as students in school, public, and academic libraries. Given the prevalence of implicit and explicit bias against Black and African American people, Amanda L. Folk and Tracey Overbey argue that we must speak to these students directly to hear their stories and thereby understand their experiences.

ALA Editions Special Report explores cultural humility as a component of DEI efforts

CHICAGO — Cultural humility is emerging as a preferred approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within librarianship. At a time when library workers are critically examining their professional practices, cultural humility offers a potentially transformative framework of compassionate accountability; it asks us to recognize the limits to our knowledge, reckon with our ongoing fallibility, educate ourselves about the power imbalances in our organizations, and commit to making change.