New Books in Library Science

Beyond the Facts: Tacit Knowledge and the Hidden Infrastructure of Our Informed Times (Bloomsbury, 2025) describes tacit knowledge, what it is, how it used
and its role in our current data driven world. Author James Cortada
argues that fuzzy, hard-to describe information is greater and more, important than just hard
facts. What is tacit knowledge? It is what we might consider knowledge
that is unable to be fully communicated; knowledge that we understand
implicitly, but it is a bit hard to explain. For example, it is the kind
of knowledge one needs to ride a bicycle, but that cannot be described
precisely on paper in the way one might be able to explain how to cook a
dish. Tacit knowledge is the least understood type of information and
one of the most difficult to communicate. Yet there is more tacit
knowledge in our lives than the specific facts one can find in a book,
on the Internet or in the simple form of a fact. This book is designed
to introduce the reader to the concept of tacit knowledge and how to
recognize and use it. This book offers definitions of tacit knowledge
and compares the topic to explicit knowledge, then describes how the
former is used today. The author argues that both types are used today
and explains how one can use both types of knowledge in their lives.
This book is essential primer to understanding tacit knowledge and learning how to use it to your advantage.

Guest: James
(Jim) Cortada is a senior research fellow at the University of
Minnesota. He is a leading authority on the role of modern information.
He holds a PhD in modern history but worked at IBM Corporation for
nearly 40 years in sales and consulting. He has written
several books on the business history of the computer industry and just
over a dozen on the history and use of information over the past two
centuries. So, he straddles the subject between historical evolution and
its current uses.

Host: Dr. Michael LaMagna
is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator
and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.
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In the mid-1930s a group of New York Yiddishist intellectuals established the Central Jewish Library and Press Archive, whose collections became the nucleus of the YIVO Library when the Institute relocated from Vilna to New York in 1940. Over the succeeding decades, the Library grew by leaps and bounds, thanks to the dedication of its librarians and supporters. It emerged as a “collection of collections,” absorbing the extensive personal libraries of prominent Yiddish writers, scholars, and book collectors. Crucially, after 1945 the Library also recovered large portions of the Vilna YIVO’s prewar holdings along with thousands of rabbinic works from Vilna’s Strashun Library. Throughout its history, the YIVO Library has been a beehive of scholarship and bibliography, which has been fostered by such outstanding figures as Mendl Elkin and Dina Abramowicz.

In this presentation, Zachary M. Baker will offer some personal reflections on the legacy that the YIVO Library’s founders and builders have left behind.

View the bibliography for this talk: here

This lecture originally took place on February 19, 2025.
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AI and Digital Leadership: Transforming Libraries, Archives, and Museums for the Future (Bloomsbury, 2026) explores how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) are navigating new leadership styles and organizational frameworks to help meet the challenges posed by a digital society. During this time of digital transformation, galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) are facing a generational challenge that calls on them to rethink their roles and responsibilities, re-evaluate policies and practices, and re-envision creative management and use of their collections. While AI is not new for GLAMs, the rapid development of generative AI has accelerated the pace of change along with a host of risks and benefits. For cultural heritage institutions, the stakes for implementing emerging AI technologies are high as GLAMs navigate questions relating to cultural relevance, limited resources and expanding backlogs of digital collections. GLAMs must also contend with the major intellectual and social implications for supporting entirely new approaches to learning, scholarship and public engagement. As GLAMs strive to keep pace, this book turns to explore how cultural heritage institutions can draw on a model of digital leadership to help them meet the challenges posed by the ethical implementation and use of generative AI in the stewardship of distinctive collections. Although digital leadership has been widely written about in the fields of business management, communication and marketing and information technology, it has not yet been addressed in a book format for the GLAM sector. In addition to discussing the basic definition and concepts of digital leadership, this book explores digital leadership as a critical framework for GLAMs to advance digital stewardship programs, professional development and staff training initiatives, and institutional advocacy in the age of AI.

Guest: Angela I. Fritz is Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa. Previously, she has held leadership positions at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the University of Notre Dame, and the Office of Presidential Libraries and Museums at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Dr. Fritz has a PhD in American history and public history from Loyola University-Chicago, a master’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a master’s degree in library science with a concentration in archival administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mentioned during the episode, is an upcoming special issue of Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Practitioners guest edited by Dr. Fritz. You can learn more about this special issue on the journal’s homepage.

Host: Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.
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What if the most powerful tool in your book marketing strategy isn't social media — it's your local library? In the debut episode of The Publishing Playbook, host Sarah Russo of Page One Media sits down with publishing veteran Erin Cox to unpack one of the industry's most overlooked opportunities: libraries. With a career spanning publicity at Scribner and HarperCollins, agenting, and her current role as publisher of Publishing Perspectives and co-founder of Words and Money, Erin brings rare, 360-degree expertise to the conversation. Together, Sarah and Erin break down how libraries actually buy books, why they're a powerful (and underutilized) marketing channel for authors, and the misconceptions that are costing publishers real money. Whether you're a debut author, a seasoned writer, or publishing-curious, this episode will change how you think about getting your book into readers' hands.

Words & Money: https://www.wordsandmoney.com/

Publishing Perspectives: https://publishingperspectives.com/
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Librarians continue to work under budget constraints while still needing to increase the user experience and remove barriers to library resources. Learning to evaluate the best options for managing projects to accomplish goals while balancing with the reality of day-to-day work needs is integral to overall success.In Practical Project Management for Librarians (Bloomsbury, 2025), Kirsten Clark takes readers through the process of learning how to balance the goals of the project with the reality of working in libraries today, what key questions can help move readers effectively through the project process and choose the right tools, best practices to ensure sustainability in project plans as well as outcomes, and how to incorporate diversity, inclusion, and accessibility principles into your project management. This practice guide provides step-by-step instructions to determine what project management tools and techniques match the needs of the particular library project and person/team's skills level, while also providing these in the context of libraries' specific cultures and norms.

Guest: Kirsten Clark is the director of Library Enterprise Systems at the University of Minnesota Libraries, USA, where her department oversees systems for five system campuses as well as ensures consistent and transparent application of access policies for students, faculty, researchers, and community users. In a career that has spanned working for small liberal arts colleges to research universities, she has led projects within a variety of library areas including research and instruction, collection development, access and information services, and information technology and systems.

Host: Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.
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