Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

Designed to help novices get started in providing basic-level services to patrons of their library, this book separates professional tasks from others, indicating when expertise is needed above and beyond the use of common sense and natural organization skills. The author's A-to-Z approach covers the entire realm of a librarian's responsibilities, offering simple and straightforward advice on topics that range from shelf arrangement, classification systems, and reference services to collection development, staff management, and self-evaluation. With a multitude of ideas, tips, and guidelines and an annotated bibliography of professional reading, a glossary, a list of library abbreviations, job descriptions, evaluation forms, and a list of professional associations, the book is a treasury of information for beginners.

For the first-time dad, useful and practical information about pregnancy, childbirth, and baby care, including: what to say -- and what not to say--when you hear the news; taking care of moms-to-be; what childbirth feels like; crying, diapers, and bathtime; and baby-proofing the home.

If you're new to running a library or looking for a refresher, this book can serve as your first reference source for school library operation, providing overview information on a wealth of topics, lists of resources for more in-depth information, and coverage of current topics such as Web 2.0, fundraising, digital booktalks, and cybersafety. With the extreme budget cuts most school libraries are facing, professional development resources for library support staff that improve library management efficiency are in great demand. This popular handbook provides an overview of many topics related to school libraries, collecting a vast amount of information together in one volume with an extensive index and selected additional resources. Written in an accessible style, it provides a quick reference and overview information for the operation of school libraries that both experienced and new library staff will find useful. Designed to be read both cover-to-cover and utilized as a ready reference, the second edition of Where Do I Start?: A School Library Handbook has updated subject material that includes coverage of Web 2.0 applications, library web pages, reading books to students, digital storytelling, future trends in library automation, and more.

The Definitive Guide to Using, Programming, and Administering MySQL 5.0 and 5.1 MySQL is an open source relational database management system that has experienced a phenomenal growth in popularity and use. Known for its speed and ease of use, MySQL has proven itself to be particularly well-suited for developing database-backed websites and applications. In MySQL, Paul DuBois provides a comprehensive guide to using and administering MySQL effectively and productively. He describes everything from the basics of getting information into a database and formulating queries, to using MySQL with PHP or Perl to generate dynamic web pages, to writing your own programs that access MySQL databases, to administering MySQL servers. The fourth edition of this bestselling book has been meticulously revised and updated to thoroughly cover the latest features and capabilities of MySQL 5.0, as well as to add new coverage of features introduced with MySQL 5.1. “One of the best technical books I have read on any subject.” –Gregory Haley, C Vu, The Association of C & C++ Users “A top-notch user’s guide and reference manual, and in my opinion, the only book you’ll need for the daily operation and maintenance of MySQL databases.” –Eugene Kim, Web Techniques Introduction 1 Part I: General MySQL Use Chapter 1: Getting Started with MySQL 13 Chapter 2: Using SQL to Manage Data 101 Chapter 3: Data Types 201 Chapter 4: Stored Programs 289 Chapter 5: Query Optimization 303 Part II: Using MySQL Programming Interfaces Chapter 6: Introduction to MySQL Programming 341 Chapter 7: Writing MySQL Programs Using C 359 Chapter 8: Writing MySQL Programs Using Perl DBI 435 Chapter 9: Writing MySQL Programs Using PHP 527 Part III: MySQL Administration Chapter 10: Introduction to MySQL Administration 579 Chapter 11: The MySQL Data Directory 585 Chapter 12: General MySQL Administration 609 Chapter 13: Access Control and Security 699 Chapter 14: Database Maintenance, Backups, and Replication 737 Part IV: Appendixes Appendix A: Obtaining and Installing Software 777 Appendix B: Data Type Reference 797 Appendix C: Operator and Function Reference 813 Appendix D: System, Status, and User Variable Reference 889 Appendix E: SQL Syntax Reference 937 Appendix F: MySQL Program Reference 1037 Note: Appendixes G, H, and I are located online and are accessible either by registering this book at informit.com/register or by visiting www.kitebird.com/mysql-book. Appendix G: C API Reference 1121 Appendix H: Perl DBI API Reference 1177 Appendix I: PHP API Reference 1207 Index 1225

Librarians must know how to provide essential programs and services that make a difference for the people they serve if libraries are going to survive. It is no longer realistic for librarians to rely on the idea that “people love libraries, so they will fund them” in this economic climate. Librarians must be able to prove that their programs and services are making a difference if they want to compete for funding in their municipalities, schools, corporations, colleges, institutions and organizations. Meeting Community Needs: A Practical Guide for Librarians presents a process that librarians of all kinds can use to provide effective programs and services. This requires being in close touch with your community, whether it is a city, town, or village; college or university; public or private school; or corporation, hospital, or business. Understanding what information people need, how they access it, how they use it, how it benefits them, and how they share it is paramount. The process in this book covers community assessment, designing programs and services to meet needs, implementing and evaluating programs and services, and funding options. Providing library programs and services for your entire population - not just library users - is more important than ever. Librarians working in libraries of all types must provide programs and services that meet community needs if libraries are to stay relevant and survive in the long run. Librarians must be able to measure their success and demonstrate the library’s worth with verifiable proof if they are going to be competitive for available funds in the future. Meeting Community Needs will make you take a serious look at how well your library programs and services are meeting your community’s needs, and it will show you the way to success.

Master professional-level coding in Rust. For developers who’ve mastered the basics, this book is the next step on your way to professional-level programming in Rust. It covers everything you need to build and maintain larger code bases, write powerful and flexible applications and libraries, and confidently expand the scope and complexity of your projects. Author Jon Gjengset takes you deep into the Rust programming language, dissecting core topics like ownership, traits, concurrency, and unsafe code. You’ll explore key concepts like type layout and trait coherence, delve into the inner workings of concurrent programming and asynchrony with async/await, and take a tour of the world of no_std programming. Gjengset also provides expert guidance on API design, testing strategies, and error handling, and will help develop your understanding of foreign function interfaces, object safety, procedural macros, and much more. You'll Learn: How to design reliable, idiomatic, and ergonomic Rust programs based on best principles Effective use of declarative and procedural macros, and the difference between them How asynchrony works in Rust – all the way from the Pin and Waker types used in manual implementations of Futures, to how async/await saves you from thinking about most of those words What it means for code to be unsafe, and best practices for writing and interacting with unsafe functions and traits How to organize and configure more complex Rust projects so that they integrate nicely with the rest of the ecosystem How to write Rust code that can interoperate with non-Rust libraries and systems, or run in constrained and embedded environments Brimming with practical, pragmatic insights that you can immediately apply, Rust for Rustaceans helps you do more with Rust, while also teaching you its underlying mechanisms.