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Library Services for Adults in the 21st Century
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.
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.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2012
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7 people want to read
About the author
Elsie A. Rogers Halliday Okobi, MLS, MSIS, EdD, is associate professor of library and information science at the Department of Information and Library Sciences, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven in the USA.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 11, 2015
This is the worst-written, worst-edited textbook I have ever seen.
It is full of verifiably false statements re. subjects I know about (the stock market crashed in 1929, not 1919, and the Cultural Revolution occurred in China, not "in China and other foreign countries") so I don't trust it to be accurate about what I'm supposed to be learning. Entire sections have no apparent structure; they are simply lists of potentially related bits of information that may or may not be accurate, usually drawn from somebody else's work. It is written in the most appalling pseudointellectual jargon that aims to hide its lack of content in big words and bloated sentence structures.
Finally, it is rife with simple typos (i.e. "milleniala" instead of "millenials", which a spell check would have picked up; or the subtitle that says libraries offer "Simulation" instead of "stimulation") and grammar errors. Perhaps my favorite of these is on page 9, where the author manages to state that over half of all preschool children were in the workforce by the 1980s. What she meant is of course that those children's mothers were in the workforce, but by sloppy writing and editing, that's not what the book actually says.
It's so bad that I'm actually offended at having to read it.
It is full of verifiably false statements re. subjects I know about (the stock market crashed in 1929, not 1919, and the Cultural Revolution occurred in China, not "in China and other foreign countries") so I don't trust it to be accurate about what I'm supposed to be learning. Entire sections have no apparent structure; they are simply lists of potentially related bits of information that may or may not be accurate, usually drawn from somebody else's work. It is written in the most appalling pseudointellectual jargon that aims to hide its lack of content in big words and bloated sentence structures.
Finally, it is rife with simple typos (i.e. "milleniala" instead of "millenials", which a spell check would have picked up; or the subtitle that says libraries offer "Simulation" instead of "stimulation") and grammar errors. Perhaps my favorite of these is on page 9, where the author manages to state that over half of all preschool children were in the workforce by the 1980s. What she meant is of course that those children's mothers were in the workforce, but by sloppy writing and editing, that's not what the book actually says.
It's so bad that I'm actually offended at having to read it.
July 19, 2019
I read this textbook for one of my MLIS classes, and even seeing the reviews while searching for a copy, I was still...frustrated with this book. It definitely needs better editing. There are plenty of mistakes and typos, mixing up homophones, etc. I also just found the writing to be very dry. The content is very well researched and it is an area I am interested in, but most chapters felt like a point-by-point reiteration of the author's research, with very little filling in the gaps between facts and dates. Much is repeated and when I would be reading, I would have to frequently double-check that I wasn't just rereading the same passages repeatedly because that's definitely what it felt like.
One thing I did like, however, was that the author does not attempt to be politically neutral on certain topics, which has annoyed me about other texts and articles on library sciences. I very much appreciated that.
One thing I did like, however, was that the author does not attempt to be politically neutral on certain topics, which has annoyed me about other texts and articles on library sciences. I very much appreciated that.
June 3, 2017
Huge amounts of typos, grammatical errors and the wrong word being used in a sentence. Even if some of the info is useful, the amount of mistakes (every page, really), makes it almost impossible to read coherently. I found myself re-reading sentences over and over just to make sense of them.
October 31, 2018
A good index of resources.
May 4, 2021
Read for class. Some editing and updated needs to happen. Some things felt repetitive at times.
Logging it because I can; sorry for not leaving a meatier review. It's a class textbook, after all. (Dates are approximate, but close enough if not exact).
Logging it because I can; sorry for not leaving a meatier review. It's a class textbook, after all. (Dates are approximate, but close enough if not exact).
October 2, 2023
Helpful alternate text for 734 course and lectures.
February 11, 2024
For a scholarly book the reading was very easy and to the point.
May 6, 2024
A textbook which covers the history, development and rationale of contemporary library services for adults. Okobi's goal appears to be educating on the broader background of adult services more than on providing ideas or instructions for creating programs. For the most part, the reader learns about the philosophy of analyzing a library's adult population's needs and interests, evaluating the success of services, and targeting services to specific population segments. In this, Okobi is successful, which makes this a book better suited for students than for practicing librarians looking for ideas.
July 25, 2015
Aahhh....the joys of professional development.....
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews