I Found It on the Internet

January 1, 2011

The major difference between the first edition, published in 2005, and this one is the attention given to social media/social networking, such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, etc. The book covers the changing role of the library in the Web 2.0 world and in turn how that affects library patrons, specifically teens. The text is clearly written and well organized, with headings and subheadings in each chapter. This is not light reading by any means, but the author's passion for what she does comes through. She switches between dense, but understandable definitions and anecdotal incidents. Harris is definitely an expert in her field, and her suggestions and observations are extremely insightful as she lives and breathes the content of the book. She suggests simple things, such as changing the way you address teenagers to make them feel more welcome or modeling appropriate use of media with your students/patrons. The book is clearly written for library media specialists dealing with teen and young adult patrons, but the suggestions could easily be adapted to younger children, who are almost equally exposed to digital media. For new librarians, the book is very approachable, keeping issues like filtering, appropriate content, and cyberbullying fresh in their minds. This is a highly useful book because it puts all of this valuable information about media, teen patrons, and the changing face of libraries in one volume.-Melyssa Kenney, Parkville High School, Baltimore, MD

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