The school library media manager. 2nd ed.
Blanche Woolls. Libraries Unlimited, 1999. ISBN 1-56308-702-2 Softback. US$38.50 or US$46 outside North America

Amongst the additions to this revised edition are the ALA Information Power guidelines that relate the principles of information literacy to other aspects of the library media program, especially the facilities, reading programme and media centre staff. The newer management concepts and techniques are discussed. It also includes a number of forms and documents important to the profession in North America. As a standard text for school library media manager the text is comprehensive - and readable.

Founding and funding family literacy programs
Carole Talan. Neal-Schuman, 1999. ISBN 1-55570-210-4. Softback. �31.95

This is the latest title in the "How-to-do-it-manuals" series for librarians and has been developed from experience in the Families for Literacy programmes organised in public libraries in California. Such programmes aim to provide: literacy improvement and enrichment for the adult; emerging literacy activities for the child, with emphasis on, but not limited to, the pre-school and primary child; interactive/intergenerational activities for the adult(s), and child(ren); parenting development and discussion opportunities. The introduction points out that libraries took on the cause of literacy in the early 1900�s in the USA, but interactive and intergenerational activities for families are somewhat newer. The text is practical and provides sample documents and bibliographies. Clearly written for the North American market, the concept could be transferred into other cultures and countries.

Average prices of British academic books January to June 1999
Library and Information Statistics Unit. LISU, Loughborough University, 1999. ISBN 1 901786 22 6. Paperback �12.50

A basic tool for acquisitions departments and those concerned with library budgets which purchase books from the UK. The average price of academic books is still above the increase in the retail price index. The lowest percentage change is for the social sciences at 6.8% and the highest for pure sciences at 11.2%

Average prices of USA academic books January to June 1999
Library and Information Statistics Unit. LISU, Loughborough University, 1999. ISBN 1 901786 23 4. Paperback �12.50

Again a basic tool for acquisitions departments and those concerned with library budgets that purchase books from the USA. The lowest percentage change is 5.1% for all applied social sciences and the highest for all technology at 17.8%.

Survey of secondary school library users
Helen Spreadbury and David Spiller. LISU, Loughborough University, 1999. ISBN 1 90786 15 3. Paperback. �17.50

This report assesses school library provision from the users� point of view based on a survey carried out in 1998 of 400 pupils aged 11-18 from four London schools. Two key school library functions were identified - use for study and to borrow books. Other facilities, including computing facilities, were less well used. Three quarters of those surveyed indicated that the library was a place to work and concentrate, with more than half describing it as being very important for helping with school work. The greatest complaint was a lack of up to date books.

LISU annual library statistics 1999 featuring trend analysis of UK public and academic libraries 1988-98
Claire Creaser and Alison Murphy. LISU, Loughborough University, 1999. ISBN 1 901786 24 2. �32

This is a basic working tool for librarians in the UK for it draws together data from a wide range of sources, and provides trend analyses from 1988 to 1998 for academic and public libraries. It also includes the most recently available statistics for further education, school, national libraries and libraries in the workplace (formerly known as special libraries). It reports a depressing picture for since 1992-3 expenditure in real terms in public libraries, after adjusting for inflation, has been falling consistently. Notably this fall includes a decline in real book spend since 1989-90. Average opening hours of public libraries have been cut year by year. In the academic libraries the expenditure on periodicals has fallen in the �old� universities. In the new universities expenditure has been cut dramatically - by 17% overall, but by 32% for books and 62% for periodicals - at the same time book issues per user have risen by 17%. In the British Library the picture is less gloomy.

Patricia Layzell Ward
Library Link Editor
Updated 1st December 1999

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