Library Services for Adults in the 21st Century

ISBN-13: 9781591587057

242 pages • 6⅛ x 9¼ 
Year Published: 2013

"Lifelong learning" isn't just a pleasant catch phrase used in community college advertisements; it's a reality that we all need to continue our education and acquire new skills well past our formative years. For the economically disadvantaged members of our communities, the public library is often the only avenue to the technology and information they need.

Develop the competencies needed to provide effective adult services in modern public libraries with this comprehensive guidebook.

Public librarians are directly responsible for providing a large proportion of the American population with access to the Internet and guidance in obtaining important government information. Effectively servicing today's adult library users is already a pressing need, and will only become a larger priority as the nation's population ages.

Library Services for Adults in the 21st Century is for library science students interested in working with adults in public libraries. As the first text dedicated to adult library services to be published since 1991, this title has been sorely needed and much anticipated. This book will provide a model for training public librarians for the specific challenges of providing adult services. Part I provides a survey of the history and development of Adult services. Part II addresses planning and tools for service development. Part III examines the different types of services for adults and best practices, while Part IV presents training methods.

Features

• 12 separate bibliographies—one following each chapter
• An index enables direct reference to information by topic
• Resources for additional information, Internet resources referenced in the book, and best practices

Reviewed by Jesse Roberts, Thunder Bay PL

Part history lesson and part guidebook for moving ahead, Library Services for Adults in the 21st Century is a useful resource for any public library. Despite its focus on American libraries, much of the information and context can be applied to a Canadian setting and provide useful assistance. While the historical overview of library services to adults is not required, it is an extremely refreshing feature of this book and provides many interesting or amusing anecdotes (such as the referral to readers' advisory staff as a "library hostess"). This book is ideal as a casual reference source for library staff involved in the development of services to adults in a public library setting. Chapters cover everything from planning and assessing the need for adult services to the most common means of addressing the needs of business and other professional communities, as well as how to target library services to those with accessibility or other uniquely identifiable needs.

The text provides statistics (all American) which, while interesting, are not overly useful in the Canadian context. This book is recommended for public libraries that are looking to expand their services, programs, and resources to the adult/senior population.