Donham’s New Revision Shows Media Specialists How To Be Instructional Leaders

New York, NY (June 16, 2008) School library media educators seeking a text that incorporates AASL’s new Standards for the 21st Century Learner need look no further than new, Enhancing Teaching and Learning: A Leadership Guide for School Library Media Specialists, Second Edition, Revised to be published July 25, 2008 by Neal-Schuman. Author Jean Donham was motivated by both the American Association of School Librarians new standards as well as important new guidelines from the International Society for Technology in Education. Her new book is the only text available to incorporate these landmark new standards.

Drawing from her extensive background and experience as a library educator and district-level media and technology coordinator, Donham offers a step-by-step guide for becoming an effective leader and collaborator. Part One covers all aspects of the school environment: students, curriculum and instruction, principals, school district administrators, and the community. Part Two shows you how to use interaction and collaboration to make the school library media program integral to all of these communities. New to this edition are discussions of special education, high school-to-college transitions, shared school-public libraries, and more.

Stressing the continued importance of literature and reading at the school library media center, Donham covers reading instruction, nonfiction reading collections, book discussion groups and literature circles, and accelerated reader programs. Recent developments in elementary school requirements are also addressed, including standards and benchmarks, assessment, data collection and analysis, policy-making, the No Child Left Behind Act, and standards for school principals. ” e statistics and data have all been updated as have sections on the Web, media, motivation models, technologies and technological equipment, electronic resources, block scheduling, and more.

In addition to writing this groundbreaking text, Jean Donham has also recently been appointed co-editor of AASL’s journal School Library Media Research.

Praise for previous editions:
“Practical strategies tied to recommended practice and background information”
— Teacher-Librarian

“A good choice for novice school librarians and mid-career practitioners whose original fervor may have dimmed over the years.”
— Booklist

“This well-documented handbook illustrates ways to achieve…leadership balance in every area.”
— School Library Journal

Enhancing Teaching and Learning: A Leadership Guide for School Library Media Specialists, Second Edition Revised
ISBN 978- 1-55570-647-0.
2008. 6 x 9. 335 pp. $65.00.

About The Author
Jean Donham directs the library at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where she also holds an appointment as Professor of Education. Previously she directed the library at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. Prior to her appointment there, she was a tenured member of the faculty in the School of Library and Information Science at The University of Iowa. She served as district coordinator for library media and technology in the Iowa City Community School District for 13 years. Author of numerous professional articles, Dr. Donham has been a presenter at national, regional, and state conferences. Active in the Iowa Association of School Librarian, she was the first recipient of that organization’s Media Professional of the Year. In addition, she served as a member of the board for the American Association of School Librarians. She holds a master’s degree in library and information studies from the University of Maryland and a PhD in educational administration from The University of Iowa.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers
Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. Neal-Schuman is a leading publisher of textbooks in all areas of library and information studies, from library science to archival and records management, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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Cutting edge book helps libraries review, revise, and develop proactive policies for smooth operations and avoidance of legal pitfalls

New York, NY (June 16, 2008) – Library policy experts Jeanette Larson and Herman Totten return with a new and updated guide that addresses all of today’s hot-button issues related to operations and policies.

The Public Library Policy Writer: A Guidebook with Model Policies on CD-ROM tackles potentially volatile or problematic topics including the PATRIOT Act, fair labor standards, disaster planning, CIPA, virtual reference services, and wireless networks. Plus it covers all of the other important and timeless operational subjects that might require an informed and conscientious official response.

Library directors and managers need a streamlined, ongoing system and process for reviewing and updating policies – and for keeping the library’s governing authorities continuously and completely informed. Otherwise libraries run the risk of inviting disastrous legal, political and public relations fallout. Unfortunately, legislation often lags behind technology, creating an even greater urgency for localized library policy review. Access to private electronic records, wiretapping, and remote surveillance, for example, are typically available long before laws are passed to govern their use.

This single invaluable resource empowers readers to create library policies quickly and easily–with strong ethical foundations and effective, proactive guidance. In addition to explaining the importance of policies and the fundamentals of their creation, Larson and Totten also carefully analyze them and off er model policies as templates for over 65 crucial areas, including:

• Personnel and employment practices
• Collection development
• Staff and patron conduct
• Reference and information services
• Access to library materials, services, and facilities

A convenient and comprehensive companion CD-ROM reproduces all of the policies, for easy replication or adaptation to any library. The book and CD can be used to create the foundation for your library’s own policies, customize them to fit your local needs, and prioritize them while making them easier to review and revise.

The Public Library Policy Writer: A Guidebook with Model Policies on CD-ROM ISBN 978-1-55570-603-6.
2008. 8.5 x 11. 250 pp. $75.00.

About the Author
Jeanette Larson is a freelance trainer and consultant with more than 30 years experience working with public libraries, serves as an adjunct professor with Texas Woman’s University, and is a presenter for the Texas State Library’s Small Library Management Training program. She is a certified trainer for the Public Library Association, the immediate past-chair of the Public Library Division of the Texas Library Association, and has served on numerous committees for the American Library Association and the Texas Library Association.

Herman L. Totten, PhD, is Dean of the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences. He has received numerous awards including the Association for Library and Information Science Education Award for Professional Contribution to Library and Information Science Education and the Texas Library Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He serves on the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, a federal agency that advises the President and Congress on information and learning needs of the American people.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers
Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. Neal-Schuman is a leading publisher of textbooks in all areas of library and information studies, from library science to archival and records management, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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New book offers research, best practices, and tips

New York, NY (June 6, 2008)—For Marge Kars, Health Sciences Library Manager for Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan, health literacy was literally a matter of life and death. After resolving her personal crisis, she brings special knowledge to her work to help her patrons and others like them across the country, to efficiently locate and accurately decipher medical information.

According to an article in The New York Times, medical experts validate Kars’ experience: studies show individuals with higher literacy levels have lower mortality rates than their less-literate counterparts (“Consequences: Reading Skills Are Tied
to a Longer, Healthier Life,” Eric Nagourney, New York Times, July 31, 2007).

Kars and fellow editors Lynda M. Baker and Feleta Wilson, in conjunction with the Medical Library Association, have produced The Medical Library Association Guide to Health Literacy. To be published by Neal-Schuman Publishers on July 15, 2008, this comprehensive resource will help medical, hospital, public, and health library personnel to serve the health needs of their clientele better.

For example, the book states that persons with low literacy skills often have difficulty interpreting prescription information or medical appointment details.

“These same individuals have a higher incidence of disease, risk higher use of the emergency room, have longer hospital stays with higher hospital admission rates, and suffer medication errors because they cannot read or understand a prescription label,” says Kars.

With contributions from professionals spanning all library environments, as well as academic researchers, the Guide to Health Literacy covers in detail each of four major health literacy areas: essential issues surrounding health literacy; implications of the influence of culture, ethnicity, special needs, and age in health; best practices for public and hospital library consumer health programs and services; and proven ways libraries can initiate their own and partner with other organizations’ health
literacy programs.

Kars includes a review of existing health literacy literature, including characteristics of low health literacy, reasons for concern, and proposed solutions. With special sections focused on the disabled, the elderly, and teens, the Guide to Health Literacy offers a multitude of tips for answering the needs of various demographic groups.

Librarians will also find step-by-step instructions for conducting and following up on health reference interviews, along with sections addressing the special needs of local public libraries and in-hospital library services. The guide concludes by offering ways to become involved in the health literacy movement, including how to form and fund literacy collaborations.

Readers will find case studies that illustrate ways to partner with health care providers and other organizations to create and fund health literacy programming in their community.

“After reading this guide, librarians should be better able to understand the issues that comprise health literacy, learning how to help others become health literate and how to become change agents within their organizations,” says Kars.

The Medical Library Association Guide to Health Literacy
ISBN 978-1-55570-625-8.
2008. 6 x 9. 250 pp. $75.00.

About the Editors
Marge Kars, MSLS, is manager of the Health Sciences Library and Bronson HealthAnswers, a consumer health information center at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She chairs Bronson’s health literacy initiative, working with other hospital departments to train staff on health literacy issues as well as rewriting patient information in an easy to read format. She is a literacy volunteer in Kalamazoo, co-chairing Ready to Read, an emergent literacy collaboration, and literacy programs at the Kalamazoo Juvenile Home.

Lynda M. Baker, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University in Detroit and teaches courses on health sciences librarianship, consumer health, advanced reference, and research methods. She was the principal author of the book Consumer Health Information for Public Librarians and has published a number of articles on readability of consumer health materials. Her main research focus concerns health information needs and seeking-behaviors.

Feleta L. Wilson, PhD., RN, is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing at Wayne State University. Over the past 16 years, Dr. Wilson has developed a program of research on patient education and patient health literacy. She has published numerous articles and serves as Principal Investigator on several research grants from institutions including the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute for NursingResearch.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers and the Medical Library Association
Neal-Schuman Publishers is the leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources, and is the Medical Library Association’s co-publisher. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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Chapters cover common inquiries of health info searchers, valuable go-to resources, plus strategies for handling challenging librarian-patron interactions.

New York, NY (June 16, 2008) – When people call the reference desk for information they are often apprehensive, scared, frustrated, panicky, or angry as a result of a debilitating illness or upsetting diagnosis. Thanks to author and consumer health reference expert Michele Spatz, librarians now have a comprehensive go-to resource that covers all aspects of their challenging and fulfilling responsibility.

Her new book, Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians, a new book to be released by Neal-Schuman publishers on July 3, 2008, enables librarians to assist patrons with professional responses and quick and accurate information. Sample librarian-patron interactions in every chapter give useful strategies and scripts. Dozens of templates, forms, and tips help create a welcoming, empowering atmosphere in any library.

“Patrons seeking medical information are often trying to gain control following an upsetting diagnosis,” acknowledges Spatz. “Working with them can be rewarding and difficult. Librarians today must couple appropriate information-retrieval skills
with knowledge of human behavior in order to meet people’s health information needs.”

The eight-chapter book systematically addresses these issues in a user-friendly, accessible, practical way. Medical jargon is excluded and terms are explained in uncomplicated layperson’s language. Plus the author gives a thorough understanding of the psychology of those seeking medical information and the skills necessary to respond effectively and appropriately.

The beginning of the book delves into common concerns and emotions of information seekers and offers guidelines and strategies including verbal and non-verbal communication techniques and interview, e-mail, and telephone reference tips. An entire chapter is dedicated to ethics and confidentiality, and another section covers legal liability issues regarding health information delivery. Readers learn tips for serving the needs of diverse individuals such as children, people with disabilities, patrons suffering from mental disorders, minorities, and persons from the GLBT community. A four-step approach is outlined to help librarians confronted by difficult patrons, and the last chapter of the book addresses the need for self-care for librarians themselves who may be affected by the stress of the health information provider role.

“Perhaps in no other reference situation must the librarian so carefully consider the personal and emotional impact knowledge can have on the patron,” says Spatz. “By responding appropriately, knowledgeably, and compassionately, librarians bridge the practical and the emotional.”

Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians
ISBN 978-1-55570-632-6
2008. 6 x 9. 150 pp. $65.00.

About the Author
Michele Spatz, a writer, teacher and consultant, is past president of the Oregon Health Sciences Libraries Association and former chair of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association. She has taught MLA CE consumer health information courses and as branch library director at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, Michele was the campus’s first librarian to earn tenure. In 1991 she established the Planetree Health Resource Center, a community-based consumer health library, for Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon. She continues to serve as its director.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers and the Medical Library Association
Neal-Schuman Publishers is the leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources, and is the Medical Library Association’s co-publisher. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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