Steve chats with Elena Lopez, Bharat Mehra, and Maggie Caspe, editors of A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning, about how they first got involved with libraries, the benefits of family engagement, and adapting in times of crisis.

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M. Elena Lopez is an independent researcher whose work focuses on the ecology of learning, which includes the home, school, and community. She has published extensively on family and community engagement in learning and has served on the Mountain View (CA) Library Board.

Bharat Mehra is a professor and EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. Among his many research interests are diversity and inclusion advocacy, intercultural communication and action, social justice in library and information science, community-engaged scholarship, and critical and cross-cultural studies.

Margaret Caspe is a senior research consultant with NAFSCE who focuses on how families, early childhood programs, schools, and communities support children’s learning. Her work has appeared in Public Library Quarterly, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, School Community Journal, Young Children, and Childhood Education.

SPONSORS:

Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThingSyndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was recently awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards. To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit their “News” tab to check out the Unbound-Blog.html">Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of 2020’s most popular titles in public and academic libraries.

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