Library and Information Services Month

An American librarian. A Portuguese bookseller. A mission to change the tide of the war. 1942- With the war's outcome hanging in the balance, President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission. They are librarians and microfilm specialists trained in espionage, working with a special branch of the Office of Strategic Services and deployed to neutral cities throughout Europe. By acquiring and scouring Axis newspapers, books, technical manuals, and periodicals, the librarians can gather information about troop location, weaponry, and military plans. Maria Alves, a microfilm expert working at the New York Public Library, is dispatched to Lisbon, where she meticulously photographs publications and sends the film to London to be analyzed. Working in tandem with Tiago Soares, a Portuguese bookstore owner on a precarious mission of his own-providing Jewish refugees with forged passports and visas-Maria acquires vital information, including a directory of arms factories in Germany. But as she and Tiago grow closer, any future together is jeopardized when Maria's superiors ask her to pose as a double agent, feeding misinformation to Lars Steiger, a wealthy Swiss banker and Nazi sympathizer who launders Hitler's gold. Gaining Lars' trust will bring Maria into the very heart of the Fuhrer's inner circle. And it will provide her with a chance to help steer the course of war, if she is willing to take risks as great as the possible rewards.

No one knows Margo's real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo's subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron's death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo's mysterious past, Patricia can't resist digging deeper--even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.

While armies have seized enemy records and rare texts as booty throughout history, it was only during World War II that an unlikely band of librarians, archivists, and scholars traveled abroad to collect books and documents to aid the military cause. Galvanized by the events of war into acquiring and preserving the written word, as well as providing critical information for intelligence purposes, these American civilians set off on missions to gather foreign publications and information across Europe. They journeyed to neutral cities in search of enemy texts, followed a step behind advancing armies to capture records, and seized Nazi works from bookstores and schools. When the war ended, they found looted collections hidden in cellars and caves. Their mission was to document, exploit, preserve, and restitute these works, and even, in the case of Nazi literature, to destroy them.

This second edition of Information Services Today: An Introduction demonstrates the ever-changing landscape of information services today and the need to re-evaluate curriculum, competency training, and one's personal learning network in order to stay abreast of current trends and issues, and more significantly, remain competent to address the changing user needs of the information community. Specifically, the book - provides a thorough introduction, history, and overall state of the field, - gives a diverse and global perspective of what it means to be a library and information professional today, - addresses why information organizations and information and technological literacy are more important today than ever before, - discusses how technology has influenced the ways that information professionals provide information resources and services in today's digital environment, - highlights current issues and trends and provides expert insight into emerging challenges, innovations, and opportunities for the future, and, - identifies career management strategies and leadership opportunities in the information profession.

A quick, easy-to-read synthesis of theory, guidelines, and evidence-based research, this book offers timely, practical guidance for library and information professionals who must navigate ethical crises in information privacy and stay on top of emerging privacy trends. Emerging technologies create new concerns about information privacy within library and information organizations, and many information professionals lack guidance on how to navigate the ethical crises that emerge when information privacy and library policy clash. What should we do when a patron leaves something behind? How do we justify filtering internet access while respecting accessibility and privacy? How do we balance new technologies that provide anonymity with the library's need to prevent the illegal use of their facilities? Library Patrons' Privacy presents clear, conversational, evidence-based guidance on how to navigate these ethical questions in information privacy. Ideas from professional organizations, government entities, scholarly publications, and personal experiences are synthesized into an approachable guide for librarians at all stages of their career. This guide, designed by three experienced LIS scholars and professionals, is a quick and enjoyable read that students and professionals of all levels of technical knowledge and skill will find useful and applicable to their libraries.

In 2014, author and photographer Kyle Cassidy published a photo essay on Slate.com called "This is What A Librarian Looks Like," a montage of portraits and a tribute to librarians. Since then, Cassidy has made it his mission to remind us of how essential librarians and libraries are to our communities. His subjects are men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and personal style-from pink hair and leather jackets to button-downs and blazers. In short, not necessarily what one thinks a librarian looks like. The nearly 220 librarians photographed also share their personal thoughts on what it means to be a librarian. This is What A Librarian Looks Like also includes original essay by some of our most beloved writers, journalists, and commentators including Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Pearl, Cory Doctorow, Paula Poundstone, Amanda Palmer, Peter Sagal, Jeff VanderMeer, John Scalzi, Sara Farizan, Amy Dickinson, and others. Cassidy also profiles a handful of especially influential librarians and libraries.

Frederick Wiseman's film, Ex Libris- the New York Public Library, goes behind the scenes of one of the greatest knowledge institutions in the world and reveals it as a place of welcome, cultural exchange and learning. With 92 locations throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, the library is committed to being a resource for all the inhabitants of this diverse and cosmopolitan city, and beyond. The New York Public Library exemplifies the deeply rooted American belief in the individual's right to know and the be informed. It is one of the most democratic institutions in America-everyone is welcome. The Library strives to inspire learning, advance knowledge and strengthen communities.

When a brutal blast of cold hits Cincinnati, the public library transforms from a safe haven for the homeless into a potential war zone. Those who have no place of retreat to evade the cold stage a sit-in in the library where they are tended by members of the library's staff. Soon the police arrive and a stand-off threatens to bring tragedy to the homeless individuals and those who care about their well-being.

In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna's will cross. In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon's story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined.

On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was 'Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library--and if so, who?

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

There are secrets that bring friends together, and others that drive them apart ... Mariners Island is barely ten miles long, but when Ivy, Ariana, and Cam were teenagers, it was their whole world. Beyond the pristine beaches and iconic lighthouse lies the beautiful old library that belongs to Ivy's family. While that bound Ivy to the island as an adult, Ariana could not leave Mariners behind fast enough. The town holds too many ... memories. Not only her unrequited feelings for Cam, but the tragedy that left a scar on the community. When a young girl went missing, a teenage Cam was unthinkably the prime suspect. Ariana and Ivy knew he couldn't have hurt anyone, and they promised to protect him--even if it meant lying on his behalf. Now, twenty years later, Ariana returns to Mariners just as new evidence emerges on the case, calling into question everything the three friends thought they knew--and everyone they thought they could trust. What really happened that night? Over the course of one eventful summer, Ariana, Ivy, and Cam will learn the truth--about their pasts, their futures, and the ties that still bind them as closely as the pages of a book ...