Briefly Noted

Archives Alive: Expanding Engagement with Public Library Archives and Special Collections, Diantha Dow Schull. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2015. 352 pages. $65.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-1335-2)

Diantha Dow Schull shines light on the exciting developments in public library archives and special collections in Archives Alive: Expanding Engagement with Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Over a period of eighteen months, the author interviewed seventy-seven directors, archivists, librarians, and specialists to collect the material for this work—104 program and 13 institutional profiles—organized into ten topical chapters, including coverage of art and archives, community and educational initiatives, exhibitions and programs, and oral history projects. Schull’s profiles reveal the changing nature of these collections as they become more open, visible, and welcoming to the public in our increasingly networked society. Archives Alive includes profiles of public library programs from every region of the continental United States and should serve as an important source of ideas and inspiration for archivists, special collections librarians, and program planners in college, university, and public libraries. (FR)

Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs, ed. Daniel A. Santamaria. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2015. 248 pages. $75.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-1257-7)

In Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs, Dan Santamaria, director of the Digital Collections and Archives at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, provides a method for reducing processing backlogs that currently obscure so much material in library archives and special collections. Extensible processing begins with basic online descriptions of all contents and objects to make them accessible. Then, based on patron demand and research significance, descriptions are augmented over time. Santamaria thoroughly covers basic principles, processing procedures, treatment of backlogs and new materials, descriptive standards, and supervisory considerations. Well-written and organized, Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections includes copious tables, figures, and cited references, as well as nine appendices and an index. With so much important and interesting archival material hidden from view, Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections is essential for libraries trying to increase the research value of their organizations. (FR)

Maximizing the One-Shot: Connecting Library Instruction with the Curriculum, Jill Markgraf, Kate Hinnant, Eric Jennings, and Hans Kishel. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015. 188 pages. $55.00 paperback (ISBN 978-1-4422-3866-4)

Four librarians at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Jill Markgraf, Kate Hinnant, Eric Jennings, and Hans Kishel, offer ways to increase collaboration and deepen the impact of one-shot library instruction sessions, based on their firsthand experiences designing, assessing, and refining one-shots in the areas of first-year composition and nursing. A unique opportunity presented itself for intensive focus on the one-shot through the efforts of the campus’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), whose mission is to support teaching, learning, and assessment. The center began to promote the lesson study method, in which a group of teachers meet to discuss learning goals, plan a lesson, observe how their ideas work in a classroom, and then report on the results. Because this method concentrates on designing, implementing, and assessing a single instructional session, it is ideally suited for the one-shot. Collaborating with faculty and the CETL, Markgraf, Hinnant, Jennings, and Kishel developed methods and protocols for optimizing the value of one-shot instruction sessions. This book synthesizes the lessons learned by the four authors. (FR)

New Routes to Library Success: 100+ Ideas from Outside the Stacks, Elisabeth Doucett. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2015. 256 pages. $55.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-1313-0)

In New Routes to Library Success: 100+ Ideas from Outside the Stacks, Elisabeth Doucett, director of the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine, looks beyond the library for ways to improve performance and patron satisfaction. She worries that the library world is not moving quickly enough or creatively enough to meet the demands of our rapidly changing economy and society. Having previously worked in the business world, Doucett returns to identify and interview leaders whose innovative ventures might help transform the service and operational environments of libraries. Profiling the ideas of leaders from companies such as Kickstarter...