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The article focuses on a creative photography workshop led by Mars Patterson at the Madison Public Library, where children and parents are encouraged to explore their surroundings and capture everyday objects with fresh perspectives. Topics include the transformative experience of engaging in creative activities at public libraries, fostering discovery, pride, agency, and creativity among participants.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what semiotic analysis can reveal about how welcoming and inclusive a science library space is for patrons. A space was examined in terms of its messaging to patrons of various genders, abilities, races, ethnicities, nationalities, and disciplines. Findings are presented about the space's messaging regarding the disciplines it serves, inclusion of patrons from minoritized demographics, and general expectations of visitors. Recommendations for library practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the 2024 ALSC Advocacy Challenge, encouraging members to engage in advocacy efforts beyond their usual networks. Topics include strategies for reaching out to individuals outside of the library profession who share similar values, such as inclusion and equity. Efforts demonstrate how advocacy can effectively expand library outreach and community impact.

The article focuses on the importance of providing effective readers' advisory (RA) services for school-aged readers (aged 8-12) within libraries, addressing the developmental considerations and interests specific to this age group. Topics include the need for personal connections through conversation, offering multiple reading options and formats, and considering the physical, emotional, and cultural milestones of middle years children to strengthen RA recommendations.

The author tells about the genrefication of the library collection at a suburban high school in New York City. He describes the process of the renovation of the library that included a survey of teachers and teaching assistants about genrefying the library collection. He discusses the different genres he came up for the library including nonfiction, biographies and memoirs, world languages, out of this world, romance, chills, trills, historical fiction and realistic fiction.

The author tells about her initiative of compiling book challenges and bans while working as the journal's editor. She notes the importance of censorship and intellectual freedom as a bedrock of her professional philosophy and she also expresses her desire to share her compilation of book challenges and bans to readers. A bibliography of book bans and challenges in 2023 is presented.

The article focuses on the evolution of storytime in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the use of online platforms and the importance of maintaining engagement and connection with children and families. Topics include the transition to virtual storytimes, the challenges and benefits of online formats, and the need for flexibility and adaptation in delivering engaging storytime experiences.

The article discusses challenges and barriers for transgender communities related to service, outreach, and resources in public libraries. Topics include needs of transgender communities have been overlooked despite recent efforts to improve public library service to transgender people; Professional standards and values of the library profession includes language in support of all; and the first professional ethic in the American Library Association Code of Ethics (2008).

An analysis of ARL libraries' webpages of accessibility information revealed wide variation in terms of these pages' findability, length, and coverage. Overall, most of the content elements that were searched for, based on previous webpage studies and user-centered research, were not present on the majority of the webpages. There is clearly much room to expand the accessibility information most ARL libraries provide, which raises questions about whether this is primarily an issue of documentation or reflects true gaps in available resources, services, and facilities. A guide for auditing these webpages was developed to help libraries assess potential gaps in these webpages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patrons' information consumption behaviors of print materials are influenced by their content and tangible characteristics. This quantitative study incorporates several content-based factors widely adopted in collection management practices as well as two physical dimension-related factors, including book size and number of pages, and applies a series of regression analyses to evaluate the relative impact of these factors on patrons' checkout versus in-library use decisions. The results suggest that shelf time and book size exhibit consistent and significant impact on patrons' use of print materials. These findings can shed further light on collection management practices and policies in academic libraries striving to provide patrons more usercentered collections and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses, For librarians to continually demonstrate superior and high-quality service, they must meet the needs of current and potential users. One way that librarians have met the needs of users is by expanding their service offerings online via virtual reference services (VRS). This expansion is particularly critical in the current time of COVID-19.

The article focuses on the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) achieved the following milestones toward accomplishing the goals in Strategic Plan to guide ALCTS activities from 2019 to 2020, during what indeed ended up to be a transitional year. Topics include strengthen advocacy for equitable access to and preservation of resources and information for all users; and assess current divisional programs and services.

The article discusses the children's librarians are challenged to provide inclusive programming in today's public libraries. Sensory and American Sign Language (ASL) storytimes are often common offerings. It mentions that the Safety Harbor Public Library in Pinellas County (FL), librarians offered ASL classes for family members of D/HoH individuals and people wanting to learn a new language3 and their storytimes offered a place for both D/HoH and hearing parents and children to interact.

The article offers tips to library professionals on dealing with a crying child in the library children's department. Topics discussed include the significance of the child development practices adopted by public libraries to support literacy development, importance of establishing a routine for leaving the library to build the executive function of a child, and the need for library staff to reassure adults accompanying the child that crying is typical and not offensive to them.

The article informs that Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) prioritizes children's services and programming to diverse communities, and ALSC provides guidelines and tangible resources, children's librarians with not only actualizing library services that support the most vulnerable communities. It mentions that Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) serves the largest and most diverse urban population of any library in the nation.

To better understand the library's role in student success, this research used student survey data to explore students' reported library building use, library resource use, library instruction, as well as student perceptions of the library's role in their success, and how these factors may vary by academic discipline. Cumulative GPAs were also matched with respondents. Quantifying the relationship between library usage and student success is one of the six areas recommended for further research by ACRL. This study focuses on the variation and the uncertainty of the measurement of this relationship across disciplines, using Bayesian multilevel regression methods. Levels of library resource usage and percentages of respondents believing the library contributes very much to the respondents' academic success vary quite a bit by discipline. In this study, cumulative GPA is higher on average for students who use library resources more frequently, but not for students who receive library instruction. Although, for undergraduates, higher frequency of building usage predicted higher probability of believing the library contributes very much to academic success, it did not predict higher GPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This large-scale study was conducted for the purposes of determining how representative library users are compared to the whole student population, to explore how library services contribute to student success, and to position the library to be included in the institution's learning analytics landscape. To that end, data were collected as students at University of Central Florida (n = 25,336) interacted with five library service points over four semesters. Analysis revealed a positive association between students who used one or more library services and higher end-of-semester GPAs. The article emphasizes how results were disseminated and ongoing work to build an interactive learning analytics library dashboard that complements existing institutional dashboards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many public libraries receive challenges from patrons, when patrons request that certain materials be removed or relocated through a formal process. However, many other public libraries avoid this fraught situation. The differences between these libraries is not clear--why do some libraries face patron challenges while other libraries do not? To address this question, the authors sought interviews with children's and teen librarians in public libraries who had never dealt with patron challenges. Twenty-five telephone interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed with DeDoose software, which allows for iterative team web-based coding. The qualitative coding revealed three predominant themes. Librarians discussed their collections, their patrons, and their actions as librarians in their attempts to explain their lack of challenges. We analyze these interpretations and suggest future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread problems with health literacy significantly limit effective dissemination and understanding of health information, particularly among vulnerable populations. As libraries are re-envisioned as community centers and resource providers, librarians are well positioned to help patrons overcome health literacy challenges by helping them to search for and use health information. Librarians often have not had health reference training, and some are unsure of the appropriateness of their role in patrons' health. This study presents the results of a health needs assessment done in collaboration between the Teen Services Department of a major urban library and faculty from a state university. Using survey and focus group data, the research team sought to uncover the most common health-related needs among community teens as perceived by teen services librarians and staff, preparedness to respond to these needs, and interventions in addressing these needs. Findings confirm that some teens do turn to branch libraries for health information. Additional results revealed which types of health-related questions participants felt most equipped to answer (social health) and least equipped (substance abuse) and indicate staff have had altogether little formal training to address patrons' health questions. This needs assessment presents replicable tools and questions for libraries aiming to improve health literacy in their local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory study, the researchers examine the intersection of teens with autism as public library users, their perceptions of and experiences with cyberbullying, and the potential role of public librarians in providing relevant digital citizenship programming. Results from this study indicate that teens on the autism spectrum live rich digital lives and have experience with both sides of cyberbullying, or digital drama. This study suggests that teens are willing to answer questions about their digital lives and demonstrate a desire to learn more about best practices in navigating the online environment, especially when learning alongside peers. Practical implications based in inclusion are given for public librarians seeking to implement digital citizenship education for the communities they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fall of 2004, the Academic Computing Center, a division of the Information Technology Services Department (ITS) at Minnesota State University, Mankato took over responsibility for the computers in the public areas of Memorial Library. For the first time, affiliated Memorial Library users were required to authenticate using a campus username and password, a change that effectively eliminated computer access for anyone not part of the university community. This posed a dilemma for the librarians. Because of its Federal Depository status, the library had a responsibility to provide general access to both print and online government publications for the general public. Furthermore, the library had a long tradition of providing guest access to most library resources, and there was reluctance to abandon the practice. Therefore the librarians worked with ITS to retain a small group of six computers that did not require authentication and were clearly marked for community use, along with several standup, open-access computers on each floor used primarily for searching the library catalog. The additional need to provide computer access to high school students visiting the library for research and instruction led to more discussions with ITS and resulted in a means of generating temporary usernames and passwords through a Web form. These user accommodations were implemented in the library without creating a written policy governing the use of open-access computers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet has greatly changed how library users search and use library resources. Many of them prefer resources available in electronic format over traditional print materials. While many documents are now born digital, many more are only accessible in print and need to be digitized. This paper focuses on how the Colorado State University Libraries creates and optimizes text-based and digitized PDF documents for easy access, downloading, and printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-library use data is crucial for modern libraries to understand the full spectrum of patron use, including patron self-service activities, circulation, and reference statistics. Rather than using tables and charts to display use data, a geographic information system (GIS) facilitates a more visually appealing graphical display of the data in the form of a map. GISs have been used by library and information science (LIS) researchers and practitioners to create maps that display analyses of service area populations and demographics, facilities space management issues, spatial distribution of in-library use of materials, planned branch consolidations, and so on. The "seating sweeps" method allows researchers and librarians to collect in-library use data regarding where patrons are locating themselves within the library and what they are doing at those locations, such as sitting and reading, studying in a group, or socializing. This paper proposes a GIS as a tool to visually display in-library use data collected via "seating sweeps" of a library. By using a GIS to store, manage, and display the data, researchers and librarians can create visually appealing maps that show areas of heavy use and evidence of the use and value of the library for a community. Example maps are included to facilitate the reader's understanding of the possibilities afforded by using GISs in LIS research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]