RUSA’s newest guidelines document, “Resource-Sharing Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters,” made its official appearance in the Winter 2010 Reference & User Services Quarterly (v.50, no.2, p.197). It is also posted as a PDF on the RUSA Web pages under “RUSA Guidelines.” The STARS Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee produced this title and kept it on track along the path to approval.
Expected soon are new guidelines from the History Section’s Instruction and Research Services Committee. These are guidelines for providing research and information resources to undergraduate students of history. Reports indicate good progress with the committee’s work. On the revision front, members of the RSS Management of Reference Committee have been working hard to review the “Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers.” We expect that a draft will soon go out for public comment.
A potential project would be collaborative. The “Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements” is an ALCTS product—not recently revised—with obvious appeal to CODES members.
The Standards and Guidelines Committee has some challenges. For example, two guidelines linger without proper revision. “Guidelines for Information Services” and “Guidelines for Medical, Legal and Business Responses at General Reference Desks” are the two aging guidelines. We hope that solutions will be found for the problems encountered during the attempts to get them on the right path.
For more information, please contact Larayne Dallas (Ldallas@austin.utexas.edu), Chair of the RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee.