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Rarely does a resource speak as candidly and frankly about the experience in the field as Sustaining and Enhancing the Scholarly Communications Department . This volume communicates with the reader like a trusted colleague, anticipating potential questions and interweaving a generosity of wisdom. It also fearlessly leans into forthright conversations on management, a topic less frequently explored and developed in the literature of the discipline.

In recent years, academic publishing has seen an explosion of works for librarians on information literacy instruction, yet surprisingly few book-length works have emerged presenting instructional design principles from within the field of library and information science (LIS). Melissa A. Wong, an adjunct instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has sought to fill that gap with a well-organized and informative book presenting both the theoretical context and practical applications of learning theory to the design of library and information science courses. The book is targeted at librarians and information science professionals teaching graduate courses in library and information science; it is thus an important acquisition for those involved in LIS education. In addition, the explanations and descriptions of theories, best practices, and common challenges of teaching more generally, alongside numerous practical examples and helpful reading suggestions, make this book extremely valuable as an instructional design textbook or reference resource for graduate students or early-career instruction librarians. What is more, Instructional Design for LIS Professionals gives equal attention to the design of online and in-person instruction, which makes the text an important addition to the extant instructional design literature geared toward librarians, which has tended to focus more heavily on in-person modalities.

Copyright law is a complex and powerful set of regulations that establishes rights of creators and outlines the ways in which others may or may not exploit these products. For librarians, informed decision making related to copyright is essential to their institutional missions and their daily work. Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World contextualizes copyright for academic librarians, offers advice on how to interpret and navigate the law, educate others, and establish leadership and authority within their communities. Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, there is a clear focus on United States law with some essays included to offer Canadian and other international perspectives for American readers. It is important to remain current and up to date regarding the effects of copyright law on the work of the academic library. Regardless of one’s role in the library, this is a valuable text to have available for consultation.

Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries looks at comics librarianship in the context of critical librarianship. Piepmeier and Grimm describe critical librarianship as something that “comes from an intentional engagement with the political and social dimensions of libraries and librarianship, including ideas of neutrality, authorship and authority, and the histories of censorship and affirming cultural divides within our own professions” (4). The chapters held in this important book identify conversations in comics librarianship that are lacking when it comes to collection management and organization, outreach, instruction, how language and classification can affect how comics are seen in academia, and more. The authors contribute needed information to the conversation. This book is a timely and essential addition to academic library literature. The book is split into five distinct sections: the basics, collecting, organizing, teaching, and reaching.

In Republics of Knowledge : Nations of the Future in Latin America , Nicola Miller, Professor of Latin American history at the University College London, offers a two-part book addressing the history of knowledge in Spanish America from independence in 1810 to 1910, when governments understood the importance of access to public knowledge as a key feature of modern nations. From a multipractice perspective, Miller addresses the contribution to knowledge by different people, institutions, societal manifestations, public debates, policy-making, and collective identities. The author relies on three case studies involving Chile, Argentina, and Peru and the transnational connections that are made during the nineteenth century with other countries in Spanish America. Miller’s academic narrative style, set to Arno, and Old-style serif typeface in the classic Venetian tradition, is supported by citations and tables, taking the reader on a 10-chapter journey back in history covering topics including national and public libraries, literacy, infrastructure, land and territory, and the purpose of education.

Literary archives are unruly things. They are often expensive, labor-intensive to prepare for public use, and scattered across multiple institutions. Yet they are crucial to literary and cultural scholarship, influencing which authors can be researched, how they’re written about, and what works can be discovered.

In The Academic Teaching Librarian’s Handbook , Claire McGuinness, faculty in the School of Information and Communication Studies at the University College Dublin, offers comprehensive insights into different topics that are relevant to instruction librarians. These topics include the changing context of information literacy, social media and the rise of “fake news,” digital learning, and professional identity. The author also discusses the value of an articulated personal teaching philosophy, the importance of self-analysis and self-reflection, developing a teaching role as a new instruction librarian, and leadership and advocacy skills. McGuinness’ academic narrative style, set to small black font, is supported by a wide array of citations and data from reports and surveys. In addition, each topic offers “personal reflection points” along with figures and tables that highlight important details. The chapters conclude with exercises inviting readers to reflect on the content covered through different hypothetical scenarios.

Among texts that examine Black embodiment—that examine our existence beyond and transcendence from the horrific bounds of State-sanctioned supremacies— Black Utopias stands out. Beautifully layered, Jayna Brown connects the lived experiences and artistries of Black American preachers, speculative fiction authors, and jazz musicians, charting expansive understandings of what utopia means within dialects of Black radical thought. This is by no means an introductory text; it demands study. Neon highlights and copious scribbled-in-the-margins notes. Regardless, this book moves; unsettles while restructuring current understandings of Blackness at large.

Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education by Yingyi Ma challenges the monolithic image of Chinese international students at US colleges. Ma, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University, attained her bachelor’s degree in China and came to the United States as a fully funded graduate student. She contrasts her background with the new generation of Chinese students in the United States who are mostly self-funded and are more likely to be undergraduate students.

We are presented with statistical claims in the news, on social media, and in the workplace. How can we determine if these claims are trustworthy? University of Cambridge professor David Spiegelhalter describes how real-life problems are solved with statistical analysis as a way of introducing concepts necessary for data literacy. He defines data literacy as “the ability to not only carry out statistical analysis on real-world problems, but also to understand and critique any conclusions drawn by others on the basis of statistics.” This book will help readers acquire these abilities.

Published as part of the University of Massachusetts Press series on Studies in Print Culture and History of the Book, Placing Papers: The American Literary Archives Market is a well-written and fascinating history of how various stakeholders—and their differing motivations—shaped the literary archives trade in the United States of America. Amy Hildreth Chen, who holds a PhD in English from Emory University, previously was an academic librarian at the University of Iowa and now is an independent scholar. She traces the largely overlooked history of the trade in literary papers from its post-World War II origins through to the mid-2010s. The book comprises an introduction, conclusion, and six chapters. After a brief first chapter on the various values implicated in archives (financial, scholarly, and public), Placing Papers examines the literary archives market from the perspective of several key stakeholder groups: authors and their families (chapter 2), agents and dealers (chapter 3), directors and curators (chapter 4), archivists and digital archivists (chapter 5), and, finally, scholars and members of the public (chapter 6).

The Information Literacy Framework: Case Studies of Successful Implementation provides librarians with examples of how others have implemented and used ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy in a variety of settings. The book is split into three sections: Preparing to Use the Framework , Case Studies of Instruction Using the Framework , and Educating for the Framework . Given the amount of uncertainty that librarians have expressed since ACRL introduced the Framework , this text should be useful to many. While the learning environments will differ, librarians should be inspired by the case studies to adapt the ideas to their own environments. Case studies come from a range of institutions including a private boarding (high) school, large state universities, community colleges, and large and small private universities. While the editors are current faculty at schools of Information or Information Science, practitioners author most of the chapters, with several Information Science faculty contributing to the section on educating for the Framework .