Building on the hopeful vision of The Heart of Librarianship, Michael Stephens returns with Wholehearted Librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance—a thoughtfully curated collection of essays exploring what it means to lead, teach, and serve with empathy in a time of rapid change.Drawing from years of teaching, speaking, and reflecting with library workers around the world, Stephens examines compassion, curiosity, creativity, and balance as essential skills for sustainable library practice.

Through succinct, reflective pieces, he considers topics such as professional growth, community engagement, innovation, burnout, and the evolving role of libraries as social infrastructure. With a humanist lens, he connects emerging trends to librarianship’s bedrock values—service, access, learning, and freedom—encouraging readers to bring their whole selves to their work.

Wholehearted Librarianship is both a call to action and a source of renewal—an invitation to lead with heart while shaping libraries that foster connection, creativity, and lifelong learning. “Wholehearted Librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance,”

Adaptation to change that’s based on thoughtful planning and grounded in the mission of libraries: it’s a model that respected LIS thinker and educator Michael Stephens terms “hyperlinked librarianship.” And the result, for librarians in leadership positions as well as those working on the front lines, is flexible librarianship that’s able to stay closely aligned with the needs and wants of library users.