By: Briá Woods
August and September are the two months across-the-country during which we prepare for Back-to-School. What does Back-to-School mean for librarians? Specifically, our librarians in training headed back to graduate school. One of the messages we pride ourselves with here at Ingram Library Services is that we understand, “The Library Life Changes, Our Commitment Does Not.”  We chatted with Wendy, Becky, and Debbie, some of (Y)Our MLS- Degreed Librarians, to dive deep into the mind of librarians. Grab your index cards, red pens, and highlighters to take some notes on what they wished they had learned in library school. Read More  

By Ann Cox, MLS, Collection Development Librarian, and Debbie Davenport, MLS, Collection Development Librarian Read More  

By Wendy Rancier, MLS, Collection Development Librarian
Creating diverse and inclusive collections is a goal of every public librarian. Recently, many library professionals have viewed or attended informational sessions or seminars to help make our content more representative of the communities we serve. A recent study by The Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education exposes a thought-provoking and discouraging statistic in the publishing world: Even after years of work in the areas of diversity and inclusiveness, just 10% of Children’s titles published in 2018 featured characters who were African or African American, 7% Asian Pacific, 5% Latinx, and only 1% Native American. Most characters in children’s literature are white/Caucasian (50%) and nonhuman/animals (27%).  Although there is still much work to do, demand for titles with diverse casts is on the rise. Read More  

By Eric Johnson, Advanced Publishing LLC 
As a publisher, of all the different hats you wear, which is the most important? Sometimes the answer is dictated by circumstances. Any given day may bring technical, logistical, personnel, or client-relation challenges that demand your attention. In these situations, the most important one is the Problem Solver hat. Regardless the size of your publishing operation, this hat—aka the Buck Stops Here hat—will always have your name on it. It reveals your ability to identify what needs immediate attention, prioritize actions to deal with problems, and handle multiple challenges simultaneously. Read More  

By: Briá Woods 
School supplies are at the cash wraps, vacationing is winding down, and weekday routines are slowly repositioning. While summer is still here, schools will be back in session soon and summer Fridays at work are ending. After their regular life of extracurricular activities, late-night meetings, and binge-watching of Netflix, how do we keep literacy at the forefront?   Read More