The article examines some of the non-routine challenges that an academic library director can expect to deal with during his or her career. Each challenge is discussed in a paragraph or two, beginning by characterizing the challenge as an animal that serves as a metaphor for unusual but nonetheless important conditions that can, sooner or later,…

Holocaust denial literature has been treated inconsistently in library collections. At one time Holocaust denial literature was classed and subject headings assigned with Holocaust literature. After specific Library of Congress classification numbers and subject headings for Holocaust denial and Holocaust denial literature became available in the…

Developing collection-level surveys to expose hidden collections in special collections and archives departments within ARL libraries has received a great deal of scholarly attention in the recent years. Numerous standards have been explored, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. This paper summarizes some of the major initiatives in…

The library at George C. Marshall High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, needed an update to better meet the needs of 21st century students. A major renovation was in the works, but head librarian Graboyes wanted to do something to make the library useful and appealing for current students. With careful budgeting and donations of time and money,…

This month, the "Journal of Web Librarianship" is exploring the idea of data curation and its uses in libraries. The word "data" is as universal now as the word "cloud" was last year, and it is no accident that libraries are exploring how best to support data curation services. Data curation involves library activities in just about every way,…

Introduction: The percentage of foreign-born residents in Spain has multiplied almost fourfold over the last decade. Immigration has changed our society, both from a demographic and economic perspective, and from a cultural and political prospective. The Spanish public library network, a democratic institution that provides services, initially, of…

Students feel strongly about the controversial topics elevated by recent and historic Supreme Court cases. Supreme Court cases provide materials for teaching about contested public issues in relevant and meaningful ways that help students develop critical decision-making skills, gain civic content knowledge, improve communication skills, and…

Many librarians struggle with how to balance scalable instructional offerings with more personalized instruction for online students--scale tends to come at the cost of personalization and vice versa. This paper will discuss three methods for connecting with online students that range from one-to-one personalization to widely scalable instruction:…

As campuses become more culturally diverse, instruction librarians must work toward developing cultural competence. While the library science literature has discussed cultural competence, no scholars have directly connected it to instruction librarians' teaching. This article discusses literature, models, and best practices from related…

The purpose of this article is to provide strategies that address three areas (creating a classroom library, incorporating environmental print, establishing writing activities) for beginning teachers for creating literacy-rich environments to support the academic and functional needs of young students with significant developmental disabilities…

In 2018, the Great School Libraries Campaign was launched with the aim of bringing school libraries and librarians to every school in the UK, and to gather data on the quality and quantity of school libraries that already exist. Previous research has clearly highlighted the importance of school libraries, not just for children and young people's…

In this article St. Vrain Valley (CO) School District (SVVSD) librarian, Holli Buchter describes what took place in the school libraries in the district when the newest elementary school, Red Hawk, opened its doors. Red Hawk asked and answered the question: "Is the Dewey Decimal Classification system still the best way for students to locate…

Introduction: Our paper describes three examples of how public libraries in at-risk-neighbourhoods have worked with social innovations in order to develop and strengthen their services for minority groups. The libraries were chosen because they are frontrunners in the field of cultural diversity and social inclusion in Denmark. Method: The…

Demands for school technology innovations, implementation of 1:1 device models, and increased interest in digital media highlight complicated issues such as funding, equity, and decision making for e-book collection development and programming in school libraries. School librarians considering purchase of e-books for school libraries still cannot…

In the early drafts of the "Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education," metaliteracy and metacognition contributed several guiding principles in recognition of the fact that information literacy concepts need to reflect students' roles as creators and participants in research and scholarship. The authors contend that diminution…