New Materials

• To the Contrary: A Discussion of Issues from Diverse Perspectives (Public Libraries & Online Medical Resources) - DVD
• Developing Better Readers and Writers Using Caldecott Books by Kathryn I. Matthew
• The Storytime Sourcebook II: A Compendium of 3500+ New Ideas and Resources for Storytellers by Carolyn N. Cullum

New Book

• Field Guide to Emergency Response

FYI: Contains DVD and forms.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

Both Stephen Abram's Stephen's Lighthouse and Michael Stephens' Tame the Web have recent postings about the Pew Internet & American Life Project with a quiz (scroll down past the vast empty space) that you can take that will show where you fall in the Pew Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. The results are very interesting and indicate that Web 2.0 is pretty far along. I would expect that many in our field would fall into the Pew category of Omnivore (more empty space) despite the median age of 28 for that group. I am an Omnivore. What are you?

New Books

• The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities by Shannon Mattern
• Measuring Library Performance Principals and Techniques by Peter Brophy

New Book

• 101+ Great Ideas for Teen Library Web Sites by Miranda Doyle

New Book

• The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Teens by Nancy J. Keane

FYI: The lists cover many different subjects and genres, are annotated and include page count.

New Book

• Managing Facilities for Results: Optimizing Space for Services by Cheryl Bryan

A Name to Know

I was starting to prepare for serials add/drop when I noticed that one of the editors of the Progressive Librarian is Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Dr. McCook, the Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida, Department of Library & Information Science was just awarded the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award at FLA. She was also the Director of the USF library school while many of us earned our degrees there. Her specialties are adult services and disenfranchised populations. The March issue of American Libraries chose her blogs for inclusion in the article, "Mattering in the Blogosphere (available through WilsonWeb)." She is one of the most cited librarians and one of the most prolific. One of Dr. McCook's greatest strengths is needs assessment and community enrichment.

I studied Library Administration and Adult Services with her and in one of the classes, we discussed the evaluation of neighborhoods and how to ensure that the needs of patrons are met. She said to look at the number of check cashing, furniture rental, used appliance, and used tire stores that are in an area and that will tell you more than some of the expensive demographic studies. More of those stores have cropped up in the 12 years since she made that comment in my class. In line with her community focus, perhaps her most important book is A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building. She details how and why libraries and librarians form the central core of a community and should help shape the community by building partnerships and alliances at all levels. She says that libraries as "information nerve centers can serve as both access points and as interpretive points." Even though this book is already 7 years old, it seems to be more and more true. We have several of Dr. McCook's books:

• Adult Services: An Enduring Focus for Public Libraries
• A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building
• Developing Readers' Advisory Services: Concepts and Commitments
• Introduction to Community Building
• Libraries: Global Reach, Local Touch
• Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage (Regional Juv. Ref.)
• On Account of Sex: An Annotated Bibliography on the Status of Women in Librarianship, 1982-1986