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This paper aims to describe the use of collaborative co‐design activities to advance strategic planning assessment efforts by staff members of the merged (city‐university) Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Library in California's Silicon Valley.

The activities use action research approaches rather than traditional approaches which rely on gathering library‐centric data to assess organizational effectiveness. The paper also reports on staff members' application of Learning 2.0 competencies to co‐create physical places and virtual spaces which enable learning for and with users.

This conversation based approach encourages co‐defining “success” with user constituencies through sustained dialogue that, over time, builds relationships.

In the process, library staff invite, interpret, and apply user generated evidence and insights to co‐create sustainable relationships and concurrently advance systems thinking and workplace information literacy. This “research in practice” initiative extends action research on “thought leadership”.

In development since 2003, this inclusive co‐design approach reflects theoretical and applied insights from researchers in Europe, Australia, and North America, who have worked with US library practitioners to develop user‐centric processes for improving organizational effectiveness and enhancing user efficacy.

Whereas most societal commentators continue to review the historical patterns of men’s leadership in search of models for 21st-century success, few have begun to recognize, let alone appreciate, the equivalent patterns of women’s leadership and the future contributions that women could potentially make as leaders. What could and are women bringing to society as global leaders? Why at this moment in history is there such a marked increase in the number of women leaders? Are we entering an era in which both male and female leaders will shape history, both symbolically and in reality? And if so, will we discover that women, on average, lead in different ways than men, or will we learn that role (global leader) explains more than gender? This chapter reveals the accelerating trends of women joining men in senior leadership positions, establishes the relationship of women leaders to our overall understanding of global leadership, and sets forth an agenda to accomplish much needed research and understanding.

College is a time of transition and growth for students and their families. Often, college serves as the first foray into adulthood for young adults who leave home and make decisions on their own for the first time. As part of this process, many students encounter new experiences that can either challenge or strengthen their spiritual and other beliefs. Faced with such events, some students turn to churches near their colleges and universities for guidance in this area.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model as an instructional framework for enacting culturally relevant literacy pedagogy in K-8 classrooms.

Approach – First, the authors frame a discussion on culturally relevant pedagogy via three central tenets and its significance for promoting equity and access in literacy education. Next, culturally relevant pedagogy is linked with the GRR model. Finally, authentic literacy practices that help bridge culturally relevant learning throughout the segments of the GRR model are delineated.

Findings – The authors believe that GRR models infused with culturally relevant pedagogical practices make literacy learning more equitable and accessible to students of Color. Toward that end, the authors provide multiple research-based instructional strategies that illustrate how the GRR model can incorporate culturally relevant pedagogical practices. These practical examples serve as models for the ways in which teachers can connect with students’ cultural backgrounds and understandings while expanding their literacy learning.

Practical implications – By demonstrating how K-8 teachers scaffold and promote literacy learning in ways that leverage diverse students’ cultural experiences, the authors aim to help teachers sustain students’ cultural identities and nurture their socio-critical consciousness.

Regional minimum income (RMI) schemes have been a fundamental tool for fighting poverty in Spain at a regional level. However, the redistributive power of these schemes has not been as effective as was expected in reducing inequality during the last decades. On the other hand, the introduction of the new ‘Minimum Vital Income’ (MVI) by the Spanish Central Government represents a novel measure for fighting poverty, by guaranteeing minimum incomes from a national perspective as a policy response to the asymmetric impact of the COVID-19 crisis upon income distribution. Using EUROMOD,¹ this paper simulates both the distributional effects of the introduction of the MVI and what the effects on inequality and poverty in each Spanish region would be if the national scheme were to substitute the current regional schemes. The results referring to MVI introduction indicate that inequality and poverty would decrease in all dimensions: incidence, intensity, and inequality among the poor (Foster–Greer–Thorbecke poverty measures). Additionally, the negative effects of RMI elimination would be offset by the positive effects of MVI introduction for most regions, leading us to consider that the simulated scenario entails better redistributive results, as well as additional savings for Spanish Public Accounts, in a context of growing debt. Our findings can provide public policy-makers with useful information about the convenience of fighting poverty at a national level as regards distribution and revenue.

Libraries required to accommodate new services within existing facilities can benefit from an inclusive planning approach which produces a design concept and project phases for repurposing space. In the process, organizational decision making can move from print‐centered to program‐driven through intention use of information to learn. This paper seeks to explore this issue.

Participatory action research (PAR) offers an action‐oriented and learning‐centered approach to (re)design of library facilities through an iterative plan‐act‐observe‐reflect cycle. Auraria Library's culminating charette illustrates the efficacy of PAR principles and practices for repurposing library facilities in response to changing user demands.

Over an 18‐month period, participatory action research activities fostered data collection and interpretation activities, preparatory to a two‐day design charette conducted with and for members of campus constituencies. In addition to clarifying design elements for project phases with estimated budgets, the inclusive inquiry processes initiated campus relationships essential to successful project implementation.

This research study reports the latest findings in a series of North American implementation projects begun in 2003. The most ambitious to date, it involves library staff and campus stakeholders in inclusive library redesign processes.

Amidst dynamically changing internal and external circumstances, libraries can employ participatory action research principles and practices to use information to learn. The Auraria Library example illustrates the transferability of using inclusive information‐centered and learning‐focused approaches for organizational direction setting.

The purpose of the action‐oriented and learning‐focused approach is to engage participants in using information to learn. Participatory action research is therefore intrinsically emancipatory.

A paucity of professional literature on participatory action research exists in the library and information science field. Therefore, this contribution both offers a promising approach for collaborative decision making and fills a gap in the professional knowledge base.

Information commons were introduced into libraries in the early 1990s. Now universities are building library learning commons and campus learning spaces. This paper sets out to present a participatory library (re)design approach for collaborative planning “for and with” faculty teachers, student learners, and campus stakeholders.

Collaborative design (co‐design) employs user‐centric investigations to produce products, applications, and environments aimed at advancing learning, sustaining communication, and building relationships. Examples from California Polytechnic State University and San José State University in California, USA, suggest the efficacy of this inclusive, learner‐centered (re)design approach for library facilities, services, and systems.

Inviting and enabling user input from the start offers a fruitful planning approach in which campus librarians, stakeholders, and beneficiaries “learn their way” to appropriate library (re)design decisions. Also, user involvement in information gathering and interpretation activities initiates the interactive relationships necessary for continuous improvement.

Collaborative design (co‐design) yields sustained interaction with user beneficiaries and campus stakeholders. It changes how library staff members think and what they think about, concurrent with enhancing libraries' appeal and value.

In development since 2002, the highly participatory design approach reflects theoretical and applied insights from researchers in Europe, Australia, and North America who have worked with US library practitioners to develop user‐centric processes for advancing organizational learning and enhancing user efficacy. Its practical application to planning for library learning commons and learning spaces contributes to the small but important literature on user‐centered library (re)design.

Soft systems methodology processes fortified by collaborative evidence‐based librarianship (EBL) principles can guide end‐user involvement in digital library project design and development. This paper aims to reveal the efficacy of this inclusive human‐focused approach for building systems through user‐generated research examples.

From 2003 to 2006, user‐centered interaction design guided increasingly complex human‐computer interaction projects at California Polytechnic State University. Toward that end, project planners invite polytechnic students, supervised by computer science professors, to assess peers' information seeking needs. This student‐generated evidence informs creation of paper prototypes and implementation of usability tests. Sustained relationships between planners and beneficiaries permit iterative evaluation and continuous improvement of design concepts and product functionalities.

Purposeful conversations aimed at learning from user‐generated evidence enrich the planning process for digital library projects. Reflective of the “learn by doing” educational values of the organization, this approach advances learning among both users and planners throughout user‐centered (re)design experiences.

Collaborative design assumes that enabling interfaces, systems, and environments are best designed and developed inclusively, with and for beneficiaries. Toward that end, practical guidelines are offered to enable replication of this approach, which depends on user produced and interpreted evidence, in other organizational settings.

A paucity of literature exists on the relevance of EBL in the digital age. Similarly, too little applied research has adopted a human‐centered focus for design and development of information systems. Finally, too few digital library projects recognize the value of initiating positive user experiences at project inception.

Households are exposed to a wide array of risks, characterized by a known or unknown probability distribution of events. Disasters are one of these risks at the extreme end. Understanding the nature of these risks is critical to recommending appropriate mitigation measures. A household’s resilience in resisting the negative outcomes of these risky events is indicative of its level of vulnerability. Vulnerability has emerged as the most critical concept in disaster studies, with several attempts at defining, measuring, indexing and modeling it. The paper presents the concept and meanings of risk and vulnerability as they have evolved in different disciplines. Building on these basic concepts, the paper suggests that assets are the key to reducing risk and vulnerability. Households resist and cope with adverse consequences of disasters and other risks through the assets that they can mobilize in face of shocks. Asustainable strategy for disaster reduction must therefore focus on asset‐building. There could be different types of assets, and their selection and application for disaster risk management is necessarily a contextual exercise. The mix of asset‐building strategies could vary from one community to another, depending upon households’ asset profile. The paper addresses the dynamics of assets‐risk interaction, thus focusing on the role of assets in risk management.