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STARS Committee Reports

STARS Membership Committee
The 10th Anniversary Celebration at ALA Annual was a huge success! Thank you to everyone!

We will be collaborating with other committees to develop a RUSA STARs timeline archive inclusive of photos, events, webinars, etc.

Current projects also consist of improving recruitment and retention initiatives of our STARS members, as well as reaching out to other committees for information and updates. All are always welcome to join committee meetings, which are held virtually on the first Monday of every month. Contact Micquel Little, Chair of RUSA STARS Membership, at micq13@hotmail.com, for more details.

Micquel Little, Chair

ILL Discussion Group
The ILL Discussion Group hosted two panel presentations (Philadelphia Convention Center 204 A – Saturday, 1/25/14 – 10:30am-11:30am) at the 2014 Mid-Winter ALA Meetings, Philadelphia.

Over 70 people came to the presentation and exchanged lively discussions following the presentation. These included:

  • ILL Unchained!: Freeing Your Media Collection

Megan Gaffney, Coordinator, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Services, University of Delaware Library, gaffneym@udel.edu

Meghann Matwichuk, Coordinator, Film & Video Collection Department, University of Delaware Library, mtwchk@udel.edu

  • A Case for Integration of Interlibrary Loan and Reference

Hong Ta-Moore (Library of Congress)

Kathleen S. Mannino (The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY)

We also met on Saturday (6/28, 10-30am-11:30am) at LVCC N258 for 2014 ALA Annual Conference, Las Vegas. Close to 90 people actively shared their experiences in various topics related to the ILL activities in their institutions.

Finally, please join us in welcoming Hong Ta-Moore, reference/ILL Librarian at the Library of Congress, who has been appointed as Vice Chair/Chair Elect for ILL Discussion Group.

Jaeyeon Sung, Chair

STARS Legislation & Licensing Committee
The committee recently met at the ALA annual meeting. Our main topic of discussion was the charge for this committee and whether it needs to be revamped. Participation in this STARS committee has recently been low and current members decided to take a fresh look at our role. We discussed possibilities for revamping the work of the committee, mergers with other committees, and the use of surveys to ensure our continued relevance. Members decided that an outreach survey would be most helpful, so please keep an eye out for its distribution this fall and share your opinions on how this committee might best serve STARS.

In the meantime, please consider joining us, as a member or by submitting thoughts and ideas on the role of this committee and/or possible projects. I’d love to hear them! Please contact the new Chair, Sherri Michaels, at shmichae@indiana.edu.

Sherri Michaels, Chair

STARS Education and Training Committee Annual Report, 2013-2014
The STARS Education and Training Committee held its seventh annual “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about ILL” workshop at Drexel University in Philadelphia on January 24th, 2014. The workshop featured speakers Megan Gaffney, Karen Janke, Cindy Kristof, and Collette Mak and attracted 56 attendees. Feedback from participants was positive. Planning is now underway for the eighth annual workshop to be held at the University of Chicago in January 2015, following the same format.

On October 16, 2013, the committee organized a free RUSA webinar entitled “Finding Dead People: Genealogy and Local History Resources for the ILL Practitioner.” Amber Case, University of Washington, and Cherie Weible, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, presented and shared their slides and handout on the Education and Training Committee’s web page. Registration quickly filled up with 90 registrants and a waiting list. Fifty-six people ultimately logged in, though we suspect there were more viewers.

The committee also partnered with the RUSA History Section to produce a similar program at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference. The program was a success with over 150 attendees in a room with a capacity of 125. Completed surveys for the program have been submitted to RUSA for analysis.

The Education and Training Committee continued to update the ShareILL wiki (shareill.org) and was grateful to receive assistance from many other STARS committees. Work on this project is ongoing. In early 2014 outgoing STARS chair, Nora Dethloff, submitted an Emerging Leaders proposal to find someone who can help us update ShareILL. As of July 2014, we have heard that the project was accepted by RUSA. We are now waiting for ALA’s approval. If the proposal is accepted, our Emerging Leader will likely begin work in October 2014.

Karen Okamoto, Outgoing Chair

Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee
The Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee had three virtual meetings in early 2014 to begin the process of reviewing and revising the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States and its accompanying Explanatory Supplement. Ryan Litsey (Texas Tech) completed his term as Chair of the committee in June, and Brian Miller (Ohio State) became Chair in July. Work on the ILL Code is scheduled to recommence in August 2014 with completion due by 2016.

Brian Miller, Chair

ALA RUSA STARS Research and Assessment Committee Annual Report 2013-2014
The 2013-2014 year was the inception of the Research and Assessment Committee (previously named the Research and Statistics Committee). Because of this, the committee has worked diligently to streamline procedures and work with all RUSA STARS committees on survey construction, distribution, and assessment of results to help guide future RUSA STARS programming and discussions.

This year, Bethany Sewell and David Ketchum have been elected as co-chairs of the committee.

  • After a success program at ALA annual in 2013, the committee was asked to submitted a pre-conference proposal for ALA annual 2015 “ ILL Data Storm.”
  • We plan to continue to evaluate the surveys of all RUSA STARS programs, discussion groups, and Hot Topics.

Six programs and discussions were surveyed, beginning with ALA Annual in 2013. Not all discussions were implemented in this process in this first year due to the new alignment and work that would eventually steer the process for RUSA STARS. Survey responses for RUSA STARS programming and discussions sessions indicate that participants are very satisfied with the direction of these meetings.

Suggestions (condensed from all programs and discussions) for future webinars or programs are (* indicate more than six requests for this topic specifically):

  • More opportunities for sharing ideas, solutions, and problems with colleagues
  • Challenges for genealogy librarians and how to solve them
  • Land records
  • Locating digital content
  • Advanced business reference
  • Article Exchange
  • Comparison of ILLiad, OCLC or other management systems (e.g., Rapid)
  • *Copyright (e.g., fair use, CCC)
  • E-books
  • IFM
  • ILL basics (e.g., how to do ILL, best practices, stickers and adhesive labels, fill and unfilled defined, usages of multiple addresses, Article Change and ILLiad)
  • ILLiad (software tips)
  •  *Data analysis
  •  *Ins and outs of creating resource sharing/consortia agreements
  • International ILL
  • License language and negotiation
  • OCLC (software tips)
  • Students worker management and workflow
  •  Licenses and I
  • How to interpret internet sources
  • Open discussions
  • Management issues and organizational models
  • Advancement
  • Alternatives to CONTU-compliance
  • Automation methods
  • Storage
  • Trends in increases and decreases in ILL requests
  • Best practices and the future of IL
  • Lengths of loan periods
  • Progressive or cutting-edge topics. ILL-Reference merge (or not_ and Lending AV aren’t very inspirational – we’ve been having these conversations for years.

Programs and Discussion Sections Surveyed
RUSA/CODES and STARS Joint Program – Enhancing Services through Integration of Interlibrary Loan and Acquisitions – Annual 2013

Does Your Data Deliver for Decision Making? New Directions for Resource Sharing Assessment – Annual 2013

Finding Dead People – Webinar – 10/16/13

Everything you wanted to know about ILL – Midwinter – 1/25/14

Hot Topics Discussion Group – Midwinter – 1/25/14

Interlibrary Loan Discussion Group – Midwinter – 1/25/14

 

Bethany B. Sewell, Chair

RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee
The committee has continued to work on rewriting the RSSI Stars Checklist to bring it up to date and to minimize bias towards academic libraries in the USA. We are aiming towards 100 questions, arranged under the seven principles of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative Manifesto. We hope to finish the new edition by the fall of 2014 and be approved by STARS and the RRSI Steering Committee. Our current membership list includes at least one new member, Elizabeth Lane, who joined us at 2014 Annual.

Sue Kaler, chair 2014-15

RUSA-STARS Interlibrary Loan Committee Meeting Minutes
June 28, 2014 Las Vegas, NV

Committee members attended: Co-Chairs Carol Kochan and Lan Yang, Ken Peterson, Mary Radnor, Jeanne Voyles, Sarah McHane-Chase

Visitors: Amber Glass, Weldon Higgins, Ricky Wallace, Jenny Lee, Lavoda Smith, and Elizabeth Lane

Midwinter Meeting Minutes. Mary Radnor made a motion to approve the minutes, Ken Peterson seconded the motion and all were in favor.

2015 Annual Proposed Program – So far, we are not sure if our program proposal has been accepted. We should know shortly after the meeting. The first choice for RUSA-STARS board will be a ½ day pre conference program proposed by the RUSA STARS Research & Assessment Committee, the proposed program title is: “ILL Data Storm: Practical Assessment”. So we have a good chance of having our proposal being accepted.

  • Program Planning for 2015: The Committee decided to go ahead and plan the program.

Program title: Acquisitions, Collection Development, Electronic Resources and Interlibrary Loan, Oh My! Connecting Users to what they want! The ALCTS Committee is willing to Co-Sponsor. They may wish to suggest an additional Speaker.

  • STARS ILL committee proposes a lightning round session covering the following topics: 1) How demand driven acquisition of physical and electronic books affect interlibrary loan 2) What Occam’s Reader can do to allow interlibrary loan of electronic books 3) Outline the changes made by one Interlibrary Loan department to adapt to the current ILL environment 4) How patron ILL requests influence collection development
  • Current Speakers: Teresa Hazen, Associate Librarian (Delivery, Description and Acquisition’s Team), University of Arizona Libraries; Ryan Litsey, Occam’s Reader Project Manager, Assistant Librarian, Document Delivery, Texas Tech University; Library Linda Dols, Library Information Analyst (Delivery, Description and Acquisition’s Team); University of Arizona Libraries Jennifer Duncan, Head of Collections, Utah State University Library
  • We plan to have the speakers meet in advance via adobe connect to coordinate speaking and make sure the lightning rounds fit together.
  • We should have year’s worth of data for Occam’s reader.

We think this program will appeal to Resource Sharing, Collection Development and Electronic Resource Librarians and staff. Librarians and staff from academic, public and special libraries.

We need to make sure we are providing up to date information for the program and that we are balancing the Program between providing cutting edge information and practical ideas that people can bring back to home library and implement.

We plan to send out a survey to ALA Members of ALCTS, Stars and other relevant committees to learn what is working well in their libraries and what challenges they are encountering. Linda Dols can help with Survey.

Other discussions:

  • We spoke about how ILL is changing. Overall, the numbers of requests are declining (probably due to increased electronic journal packages). Current requests are more complex and libraries are seeing an increase in International Requests. How can libraries share data sets?
  • Special Libraries. Elizabeth Lane, from The Frick Collection, sought the committee’s input on how to get items from Special Libraries. In many cases, they can digitize to fill requests. Perhaps in the future 3-D printers could be an option to share art. The committee thought that having a program on requesting/lendingSpecial Items might be a good future presentation topic.
  • Best Practices for Lending, one committee member suggested that a 12-week loan be standards for all ILL departments. This is tricky. Most public libraries have much shorter loan periods.

Carol Kochan, co-chair
Lan Yang, co-chair

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President’s Note

In case you haven’t seen the RUSA election results, they are here. Congratulations to the newly elected RUSA Vice-President/President-Elect Liane Taylor and RUSA Directors-At-Large Danise G. Hoover and Stephanie Atkins Sharpe. Thank you to the Nominating Committees and everyone who stepped up to run for elected offices within RUSA and the Sections. RUSA is a member-driven organization and you are what make RUSA work!

RUSA is about a lot more than just in-person conferences, but at this time of year a lot of our focus is on the upcoming ALA Annual Conference. There are a lot of RUSA activities happening in Las Vegas from programing to discussion groups to awards and to opportunities for fun with other RUSA librarians. A lot of that is detailed in the information from the sections below in RUSA News and in the Section Reports  and on the RUSA Annual Events page, so I’ll highlight some of the events at the RUSA level.

RUSA 101: Friday, June 27, 3:00-4:00 PM. The place to start if you want to learn more about RUSA, our sections, or get help figuring out the best things to attend at a packed conference. There will raffle prizes!

RUSA President’s Program: Saturday, June 28, 4:00-5:30 PM. Our Values, Ourselves: Examining Our Values and What Others Value about Us. Are our own values and self-perceptions interfering with providing services that our patron communities both need and want? Are we on the right track or off the rails? Join us this thought-provoking session that will cover the past and the future, public and academic libraries, and feature speakers with a range of perspectives. The co-chairs of the RUSA President’s Program, Liane Taylor and Paul A. Sharpe, along with the hard-working members of the committee, Alicia Finley, Elizabeth A. Kocevar-Weidinger and Sydney Leigh McCoy, have planned a wonderful set of programs for Las Vegas.

Carnegie Award for Fiction and Non-Fiction: Saturday, June 28, 8:00-10:00 PM This is the third year for the Carnegie Award and this is always a fun event with noted authors as speakers and the announcement of the award winners. Tickets are still available.

RUSA Awards and Volunteer Recognition Party: Sunday, June 29, 5:00-6:30 PM. Our premiere networking event, meet new people and connect with old friends as we honor people and organization who have won achievement awards.

Literary Tastes: Sunday, June 29, 8:00-10:00 AM. This is another great author event which used to be ticketed but is free and open to all! This year’s authors are:

  • Daniel J. Brown , author of 2014 RUSA Notable Book The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Penguin)
  • Tessa Dare, author of Any Duchess Will Do (Avon)the top pick for The Reading List’s Romance category in 2014.
  • V. E. Schwab, author of “Vicious” (Tor Books), the top pick for The Reading List’s Fantasy category

RUSA Executive Committee and Board meetings are open if you are interested in the operational aspects of the organization. For that matter all committee meetings are open unless otherwise noted in the program as closed meetings. These are a great way to learn more about RUSA, to get involved, and meet people. Many committee appointments have been made for the next year but some committees are still seeking members. All of these meetings are listed in the ALA Conference Scheduler.

Lastly, thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President for this year. After Annual I will transition to Past-President and hand leadership over to Joe Thompson. If you don’t know Joe, look for him at conference and say “hi.” He’s a great guy and will be an amazing leader for RUSA. I’m looking forward to what the next year will bring!

Best,
Kathleen
RUSA President, 2013-14

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RUSA News

Join us at ALA Annual for some exciting events. Below are some highlights to look forward to. Use the ALA Conference Scheduler to create a personal schedule and you will be alerted to any last minute location changes.

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
Finalists: Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
The two books selected as recipients of the Medal will will be announced during the Awards ceremony on Sunday, June 29. The ceremony will be from 8:00-10:00 PM at Caesars Palace, in rooms Octavius 05-08. Tickets are available here. Cosponsored by Booklist and RUSA.

Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ)
Have you checked out the new issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) yet? There’s endless value in this issue. You can activate your digital subscription with Metapress, you can do so on the RUSA website under the “Communications” tab, at the top of the page. Questions about RUSQ, contact Andrea Hill, RUSA web manager at ahill@ala.org.
Here’s an overview of the most recent issue.

RUSA’s Annual Signature Programs

  • RUSA 101
    Friday, June 27, 3:00-4:00 PM
    Las Vegas Convention Center, Room S222

Not to Be Missed RUSA Programs
Preconferences

Conference Programs and Forums

Upcoming Webinars
In an effort to provide greater value for RUSA members, the RUSA Board approved a plan to provide a group of high quality webinars, one sponsored by each RUSA section, free to RUSA members. The Professional Development Committee, led by Jeannette E. Pierce, has been carefully reviewing proposals and we will have several new webinars for RUSA members. They will cover such topics as: genealogy and history resources, online reference resources, reference tracking and data collection, industry research and sharing resources worldwide. Stay tuned for more details!

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RUSA Committees

Just Ask Task Force
The Just Ask Task Force will be meeting at Annual to follow up on its meeting at Midwinter. We hope to revisit some of the ideas and plan for some future events and develop some long term planning. To review what was done at Annual, please see the Spring issue of RUSA Update. Guests are welcome to attend.

Meeting Time: Sunday, June 29; 1:00-2:30
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, room N211

Diana Shonrock and Elizabeth Stephan, Co-chairs

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Emerging Leader Update

Spring has been a very busy and productive time for me! I just returned from the Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) in Sheffield, England, where I gave a presentation with a colleague, Eamon Tewell. We spoke about a library orientation program we implemented at LIU Brooklyn called The Amazing Library Race, a problem-based learning activity originating from the popular TV show The Amazing Race. LILAC was my first international library conference—it was great to meet and learn from librarians hailing from a wide variety of countries and backgrounds.

I’m presently hard at work with the other four members of my Emerging Leaders (EL) team on our poster project, which we’ll present at ALA Annual—the next conference on my horizon! We’re developing a virtual meeting space for ACRL’s Science & Technology Section (STS) and are exploring numerous proprietary and open source options. It’s exciting to reflect on how I’m part of the creation of this section’s virtual collaboratory; the hope is that it will be used to foster research connections among science and technology librarians. If you’re planning on attending ALA Annual in June please do feel free to stop by our booth at the poster session and learn more about our project’s past, present, and future!

Katelyn Angell
RUSA Emerging Leader, 2014

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BRASS Notes

Carol L. Schuetz, Editor

Message from the BRASS Chair

Hello BRASS!

As shown in the committee reports below, everyone is gearing up for the ALA Annual Conference. There’s fresh snow on the mountains here in Utah, so spending ALA in Las Vegas is sounding pretty good to me right now.

Here’s a list of some of the BRASS events to look forward to:

Also at Annual we’ll officially recognize this year’s recipients of the BRASS awards and grants at the RUSA Awards Ceremony and Reception:

  • Celia Ross, Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship
  • Ilana Barnes and Tao Zhang, BRASS Emerald Research Grant
  • Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet, Business Expert Press Award for Academic Business Librarians
  • Katharine Macy, Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award

Keep an eye out on BRASS-L for the full BRASS program/event guide. I hope to see you all in Las Vegas!

Andy Spackman
BRASS Chair, 2013-2014
andy_spackman@byu.edu

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BRASS Committee Reports

BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
The Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee is getting ready to present the BRASS Academic Libraries Forum at the 2014 ALA Annual Convention. Our speakers will be Ilana Stonebraker, Mary Dugan, Tom Ottaviano, and Jason Sokoloff. The general theme of the forum is scalability of instruction and business students. Different methods and results of scalability will be discussed. Jason Sokoloff’s presentation deals more with assessing one shot instruction. A previously scheduled speaker, Lisa O’Connor, had to withdraw due to a family health emergency. The committee thanks Tom Ottaviano for agreeing to present at such short notice!

The committee encourages everyone interested in this issue to attend. The Academic Libraries Forum will take place at Las Vegas Convention Center, room N111, Sat 1:00-2:30 PM.

Charles Allan, Chair 2012-2013

BRASS Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee
Last Virtual Meeting was Friday April 4, 2014 via ALA connect.

We have added a new Briefcase article, No. 30, 2nd Quarter 2014, “Best Practices of Adult Financial Literacy in a Large Public Library System” by Melissa Jeter, Adult Services Librarian, Heatherdowns Branch; Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. Information on this article has been forwarded to Genifer Snipes and various listservs.

We appreciate BRASS Web Editor Annette Buckley setting up Google Analytics software to show the number of views the Briefcase receives as a whole, and the views which individual articles are receiving! We also appreciate Genifer Snipes’ assistance with social media.

Next Briefcase topic will be Consumer Research Tools.

Our 2015 ALA Program will be on naming rights as revenue generators for libraries.

Ed Rossman, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Program Planning Committee
BRASS 2014 Program: Mad Men: The Business of Advertising
When: Monday, June 30, 2014 8:00-10:00 AM
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, room S230

Many companies spend millions on advertising their brands and products, yet data can be hard to find. Specialized sources, available at many large libraries, focus on these statistics. The information they contain can be used by business students, researchers, or the general public. In addition media planning, a component of a company’s marketing plan, will be covered. Entrepreneurs need information on placing ads (and on how much it costs); reference librarians assisting these users will find the content of the program very useful.

The session kicks off with breakfast, 8:00-8:30 AM, sponsored by S&P Capital IQ.

Speakers:

  • Wendy Diamond, Business and Economics Librarian, California State University, Chico. Ms. Diamond has been a featured speaker at two prior BRASS annual programs (2001 and 2008) on marketing. She is the co-author of: Marketing Information: A Strategic Guide for Business and Finance Libraries (2004).
  • Dale Skarl, Search Engine Marketing Manager for MGM Resorts International

Patricia Kenly, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
The committee is preparing to review the nominations for Outstanding Business Reference Sources. We currently have twenty-seven titles for consideration. Review and voting will be done virtually, prior to ALA.

The Business Reference Source Committee (BRSC) will be meeting in person from 4:30-5:30 PM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N220 on Saturday, June 28. This is an open meeting and visitors are welcome to attend. Ed Hahn will be the incoming Committee chair, starting July 1, so wish him congratulations or condolences, as you see fit.

The BRSC is once again sponsoring the Publishers Forum at ALA. This year it will be held in the Las Vegas Hotel, Ballroom F on Sunday June 29th from 1:00-2:30 pm. The forum is titled “Hitting the Jackpot – Sources for Local and Regional Business Information” and the discussion will focus on the various types of local business information that are available through a variety of sources.

Representatives from Euromonitor (featuring their new Passport Cities product); Demographics Now (US Census data); Data Planet (United States statistical datasets); and ProQuest ABI Inform (Dateline product focusing on local and regional business journals) will be the speakers. Each has agreed to demonstrate their products specifically concerning the types of data they have for Las Vegas and Nevada in general. The last half-hour of the Forum will be a Q&A session from the audience, so come prepared with questions and issues that you have with finding local information.

Susan Hurst, Chair 2012-2013

BRASS Discussion Group Committee
The BRASS Discussion Group will host an open forum at ALA’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas on Sunday, June 29 from 8:30-10:00 AM in Caesars Palace, Octavius 05-06. We will be sending out a survey in the first week of June to determine what topics we will put on the agenda for discussion.

Friday, June 6 at 2:00 PM EST we have tentatively scheduled an online discussion. We are compiling feedback to see if people wish to take part in the discussion prior to the annual meeting. Do you have a topic idea? Please take a moment to fill out this survey

Please be on the lookout for additional information about the online discussion and the Annual conference on topics on BRASS-L. We look forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas!

Jason Dewland, Chair 2012-2013

BRASS Education Committee
The BRASS Education committee is happy to report that so far thirty-three people have registered for the 2014 RUSA BRASS preconference “How Business Librarians Support Entrepreneurs.” Our dynamic speakers will cover market sizing for a technology start-up, licensing business e-resources, and best practices in engaging entrepreneurs in public and academic libraries.

Next year we are going to try something new. Instead of a full day, we have proposed a half day preconference, “Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyright.”The topic is still tentative, and we’ll be thrilled to hear any ideas or suggestions of interest to our members.

We are exploring new LibGuide functionality to enhance BRASS Business Guides, generously provided to us by Springshare. Peter McKay is spearheading this effort. In the meanwhile, committee members are busy working on updating and consolidating existing guides. We are still on target to complete the transition to topical guides by June 20th, 2014.

Natasha Arguello, Chair 2012-2013
University of Texas at San Antonio
http://connect.ala.org/node/65121
http://brass.libguides.com/

BRASS Membership Committee
The BRASS Membership Reception will be Friday June 27 from 6:00-8:00 PM, location TBA on BRASS-L and Facebook. Come network with colleagues while enjoying food and beverages. Plan your flights so you can join us on the Vegas Strip for a fun time!

Membership committee meeting at ALA Annual will be June 29, 3:00-4:00 PM. at Las Vegas Convention Center, room N217.

Kelly Janousek, Chair 2012-2013

BRASS Vendor Relations Committee
Vendor Relations spent the past two months talking to several vendors who expressed interest in getting more involved with BRASS. Ultimately for different reasons, they have withdrawn their interest at this time. We will continue to explore new opportunities. Vendor Relations is also working on a preconference half-day workshop with another vendor for the 2015 conference in San Francisco. More information will be forthcoming when the details are more fleshed out.

Vendor Relations has also been coordinating with Membership for the Member’s Reception in Las Vegas on June 27, and with the Program Committee to see that our sponsorship from S&P Capital IQ runs smoothly.

Chris LeBeau, Chair 2013-2015

BRASS Publications and Communications Committee
The Publications and Communications Committee is working on the BRASS at ALA Annual Events and Program guide. We met in March to discuss various activities of the committee, including the BRASS website, our social media presence, and topics of discussion for our in-person annual meeting in June. We are looking forward to getting together at ALA Annual in Las Vegas. We’ll be meeting on Saturday, June 26 from 4:30-5:30 PM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N202.

Chad Boeninger, Chair 2013-2015

BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Excellence in Business Librarianship Award Committee
Award-winning author and Associate Librarian, Celia Ross, of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business was selected for her dedication and commitment to the field of business librarianship and its practitioners.

Mark Andersen, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Gale Cenage Learning Student Travel Award Committee
Katharine Macy, MLIS candidate at the University of Washington was selected because of her extensive background and education in business.

Matthew Brower, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Business Expert Press Award Committee
Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet, at the Carrier Library of James Madison University was selected for her outstanding efforts in collaboration with business faculty; students and community partners; library instruction; and business reference research at the university.

Kaiping Zhang, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Emerald Research Award Committee
Ilana Barnes, Business Information Specialist and Tao Zhang, Digital User Experience Specialist of Purdue University Libraries are the project heads of “Assessment of Business Undergraduate Student Engagement and Behavior in a Crowd-Sourced Library Help System: Best Practices and Emerging Technology Opportunities.”

Elizabeth Stephan, Chair 2013-2014

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award Committee
No award was presented this year.

Karen Chapman, Chair 2013-2014

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CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

Message from the Chair
Like many other sections, CODES is gearing up for ALA Annual. We are looking forward to successful programs. This year’s Literary Tastes event will be held on Sunday, June 29 from 8:00-10:00 AM at the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N258 and will feature Daniel J. Brown, Tessa Dare, and V.E. Schwab. Vice Chair Deb Abston is a busy filling committee appointment openings. Anyone interested in serving on a CODES committee should visit the CODES Committee Roster page to learn more about individual committees. CODES board members met last month to discuss possible program submissions for the 2015 Annual conference. We had two wonderful programs and hope that we can see both of them in San Francisco.

Asia Gross
CODES chair

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CODES Committee Reports

CODES Hot Topics Discussion Group Meeting
The CODES Hot Topics Discussion Group will meet at Annual Conference on Saturday, June 28 from 10:30-11:30 AM at the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N219. The discussion topic will be “A Sentimental Education: Training Collection Development Librarians.” Rapid changes in how libraries select, collect, and maintain resources obviously affect how collection development librarians are trained. Increasing emphasis on electronic resources, consortial agreements, and patron-driven acquisitions coupled with budgetary restrictions and growing user expectations are challenges we all face. While there have been ongoing concerns that graduate coursework in this area has not been especially effective, it is equally obvious that collection development responsibilities and activities vary widely from library to library. The bottom line: on-the-job training must provide the depth and breadth that graduate programs cannot. How are libraries addressing this important issue? Are selectors getting the training they need to succeed? What does successful training involve? What needs to change? Please join us for a lively discussion on this complex topic. This is open to all registered conference attendees and we hope you can join us.

Louis Shores Award Committee
The Louis Shores Award Committee announced Francine Graf, now-retired managing editor at Choice, as the 2014 recipient of the Louis Shores Award. There have been multiple press releases about the award, including a release in the ACRL Insider. Graf will be presented with the Louis Shores award at the RUSA Achievement Awards and Volunteer Reception at ALA Annual.

CODES Collection Development Planning, Education, and Assessment Committee
The CODES Collection Development Planning and Assessment Committee and the CODES Collection Development Education Committee have been merged to create the CODES Collection Development Planning, Education, and Assessment Committee. The new committee’s charge can be found here. The committee met at Midwinter in Philadelphia and discussed plans for a program for Annual 2015 in San Francisco called “Whacking the Weeds in the Library: Deaccessioning Print and Digital Materials in the 21st Century and Beyond.” The program was submitted by CODES as one of two program proposals for Annual 2015.

The Committee will be meeting at Annual on Sunday, June 29 from 1:00-2:30 PM in Caesars Palace, room Livorno.

Sophie Brody Medal Committee
The Sophie Brody Medal Committee will meet at Annual on Friday June 27 from 1:00-3:00 PM at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Conference Room 04 (this is a closed meeting) to discuss the submissions that we have received so far. We will also present the medal to this year’s winner, Yossi Klein Halevi. Unfortunately, Mr. Halevi will not be at the conference, so someone will accept the award on his behalf.

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History

Laura Hibbler, Editor

Genealogy Preconference
RUSA will again host a free Genealogy Preconference at Las Vegas on June 27. This all-day event will be held in the Milano V Room at Caesars Palace Hotel. Thanks to our generous sponsor, ProQuest, our noon luncheon will also be free. Doors open at 8:30 AM and our first panel “Getting More Than You Pay For: Free Access to Genealogical Resources,” kicks off at 9:15 AM. This was so popular at Philadelphia Midwinter, that it is back by acclamation, this time featuring Kim Harrison and Amy Crow from Ancestry.com , Michael Hall from FamilySearch.org, and Curt Witcher from the Allen County Public Library. At 11:00 AM we’ll hear from Katherine Rankin from the University of Nevada, on “Using Maps in Genealogy.” Following lunch, William Forsyth from ProQuest will present new innovations. At 1:30 PM, D. Joshua Taylor from FindMyPast.com will moderate a current affairs roundtable discussion on popular genealogical topics. At 2:30 PM special guest speaker Nicole Miller from University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. will present “Making the Financial Case for Genealogical Librarianship: Fast and Affordable Methods for Training Genealogy Staff.” Join us for an engaging look at a mainstay of library patrons’ interests. Sign up through SurveyMonkey here.

History Librarians’ Discussion Group
The History Librarians’ Discussion Group will be holding a joint discussion session with the ACRL Digital Humanities Group on at Annual Saturday, June 28, from 1:00-2:30 PM. The session will provide additional examples about the roles of humanities liaison librarians in Digital Humanities projects. More information will be shared online soon.

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MARS: Update from the Emerging Technologies in Reference Section

Cathy Larson, Editor
Join the discussion at http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/mars-l

Message From the Chair
Annual Conference time is almost here, and I hope to see many of you in Las Vegas! The Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) has two programs and three discussion forums planned as well as several committee meetings, so mark your calendars and we hope to see you often. If you haven’t tried out the ALA Scheduler, I recommend it. ALA will keep this service up-to-date to reflect last minute room changes, and they monitor the site and may add seats to events where they see high advance demand.

Friday, start out with RUSA 101: Network, Get Oriented, Get Involved. This is a fun orientation and get-together. It will be on Friday, June 27, 2014 from 3:00-4:00 P.M. at Las Vegas Convention Center, room S222.

Saturday morning, June 28, from 8:30-10:00 AM, the All Committee Meeting will be in Bally’s, Skyview 4. If you’re on a committee already, this is your primary meeting time. If you’re a member who can volunteer to help with the work of the section, this is a chance to stop by, talk with the committee chairs and members in one location, and find a committee that fits your interests.

Next up on Saturday, our Management of Electronic Resources Committee is sponsoring “Libraries in the Course Management System: Best Practices and New Directions,” held in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N263C from 10:30-11:30 A.M. for what is sure to be a lively conversation.

Saturday afternoon from 1:00-2:30 PM will be the MARS Chair’s Program at the Las Vegas Convention Center N263C. We will begin by honoring Anne Houston, this year’s recipient of the MARS Achievement Recognition Award (My Favorite Martian). Then we have two great speakers lined up, Angela Zoss, Data Visualization Coordinator, Duke University and Josh Boyer, Head, User Experience, North Carolina State University. They will present their perspectives and experiences with data visualization in a session called “New Directions for Data Visualization in Library Public Services.”

Capping off Saturday, from 3:00-4:00 PM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room S228 will be “Discovering Open Access Articles: Maximum Access, Maximum Visibility!,” co-sponsored with ALCTS and ACRL.

On Sunday, June 29, join us for our Planning Committee meeting from 8:30-10:00 AM at the Las Vegas Hotel in the Boardroom. If you are interested in observing the work and possibly volunteering for a committee for the coming year, please join us.

Sunday from 10:30-11:30 A.M. in the Paris Chablis room will be the Virtual Reference Discussion Group of Houston Libraries. Sunday from 1:00-2:30 P.M., at the Convention Center, Exhibit Hall, Meeting Room C, the Hot Topics Discussion Group will host a forum.

And the last event of Sunday evening will be the RUSA Awards Reception and Volunteer Appreciation Party from 5:00-6:30 P.M. at Caesars Palace, Florentine II-IV.

On Monday, June 30, if you’re still in town, plan to stop by our MARS Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30-10:00 A.M. at the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N202. The meeting is where MARS Committee and Discussion Forum chairs, as well as MARS representatives to RUSA level committees share their activities of the last six months and their upcoming plans. We are meeting jointly with the RSS Executive Committee for the last hour (this meeting will be in N102) to coordinate activities of our two sections.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to volunteer, please go to http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer, or contact Stephanie Graves, Vice Chair, Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) at stephaniegraves@library.tamu.edu.

For those of you who have already volunteered, thanks for all your contributions to MARS and MARS members this year. You are making a difference. It’s been an affirming experience to be Chair this year and have the opportunity to work with such an outstanding group of Librarians.

Best,

Sam Stormont
srstormont@widener.edu
Chair, Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) 2013-2014

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MARS Committee Reports

RUSA MARS Hot Topics in Electronic Reference Discussion Group
What: RUSA MARS Hot Topics Discussion Forum – Libraries & Makerspaces: What’s the connection?
When: Sunday, June 29, 1:00-2:30 PM
Where: Convention Center Exhibit Hall, Meeting Room C

Have you heard about makerspaces but still have questions about how they fit into the work of libraries? Are you interested in makerspaces, but unsure how to get started? Well this discussion forum is for you! Come learn what you need to take your library to the next level.

Join RUSA MARS Hot Topics as they welcome two speakers to discuss the link between makerspaces and libraries and how you can get started with a makerspace in your library.

The session will start with a discussion by Rudy Leon (the University of Nevada, Reno) on the connection between makerspace and libraries and how your current space may already have elements of a makerspace. Rosemary Arneson (University of Mary Washington, Fredricksburg, Virginia) will discuss how a storage space in the library was converted to create ThinkLab. She will share how the space has been incorporated into courses such as Makerbots and Mashups and also discuss the technologies currently in the space.

This ninety-minute session will include a discussion and Q&A, so be sure to bring your questions! By the end of the program, you’ll feel confident understanding the role of makerspaces in libraries and take away some ideas on how to start your own.

More about our speakers:

  • Rudy Leon joined the University of Nevada Knowledge Center in March of 2012. Her liaison areas are Communication Studies, Political Science, and Gender, Race & Identity. She is also the coordinator of Burning Inquiry (a celebration of researchers at UNR investigating aspects of the Burning Man Festival), and the advisor to the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center Undergraduate Student Committee.
  • Rosemary Arneson is the University Librarian at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. She launched the UMW ThinkLab makerspace in September 2012, and she works closely with the Freshman Seminar, Makerbots and Mashups, that meets in the space. She continues to develop her own maker skills, particularly in the area of e-textiles and wearable technologies.

Chanitra Bishop, Chair 2013-2014
chbishop@indiana.edu

RUSA MARS Best Free Reference Websites
The RUSA MARS Best Free Reference Websites committee conducts virtual communication among members. Although on year-round lookout for outstanding sites, our busy times take place in February, March, and April as the committee participants focus on posting, evaluating, and voting on the many websites each member has chosen as favorites. After closely examining and evaluating the forty-eight websites initially submitted, the committee members voted for those we considered to be the best. The list for 2014 contains fourteen websites that have received this distinction.

Janice Wilson, Chair 2013-2014
wilsonj@easternct.edu

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RSS Review

RSS logo
Amy Rustic, Editor

Message from the Chair
I’m hoping that spring has finally sprung here in the Mid-Atlantic. This is the first time in ten years that I’ve seen the tulips last until May.

Our Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Qiana Johnson (q-johnson@northwestern.edu), has been hard at work appointing people to committees. Thanks Qiana! We may have a few openings left, so if you’re interested, drop her a line!

I would like to thank you all for voting in the ALA Elections. Congratulations to our incoming Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect Crystal Lentz, Cathay Keough, our new Member-at-Large, and Tom Reinsfelder RSS’ Secretary. We look forward to your leadership in the coming years.

If you’re heading to Annual, make sure to come by the RSS Open House on Saturday, June 28, starting at 8:30 AM in the Flamingo Las Vegas (Laughlin II). We’ll once again be having our trivia contest and breakfast hosted by EBSCO. Our raffle consists of three $75 bookstore gift certificates and an RUSA/RSS Membership. The Open House is more than just fun and games though; it’s a chance to find out about all the different committees within RSS and the work we do.

We’ll be posting our sessions on Facebook and via RSS-L shortly.

See you in Vegas!

Ann Brown
RSS Chair, 2013-2014
agbrown@gwu.edu

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RSS Committee Reports

Discovery Services Committee (Formerly Catalog Use Committee)
Please join us in Las Vegas for a Discussion Forum on Discovery Services: “What’s Working, What’s Not and What’s Next?”

Sunday, June 29th, 3:00-4:00 PM, Las Vegas Convention Center, room N110

The first 15-20 minutes of this one-hour forum will begin with lightning round presentations followed by a Q&A. During the second half, presenters will rotate to start discussions about the themes of their presentations with each table.

Colleen Seale, Chair 2013-2014

Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need Committee
The Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need committee will have a virtual Annual meeting; the date and time will be announced on ALA Connect when decided. The committee has been working on a survey that will allow us to gather information to aid in planning programs, discussion forums, and professional development opportunities. Content and design of the survey have been finalized and we will begin gathering responses by mid-May. We plan to gather responses and complete an analysis with recommendations for next year by the end of June.

Julie Housknecht and Holly Wilson, Co-chairs 2013-2014

Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee
The Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee is pleased to announce that they will be hosting these discussion forums at Annual:

“Extreme Customer Service: Reference at Its Finest!”

Sunday, June 29, 1:00-2:30 PM, Las Vegas Convention Center, room N117

What can truly set reference apart from Google and other online information providers? What can breed patron loyalty and ensure return visits? Service! A library’s customer service can have a staggering impact on customer satisfaction and retention. Join with colleagues to share real world examples of extreme customer service—wonderful as well as woeful—and to learn practical tips for improving your service and making your reference service invaluable. Facilitator: Jeanne Holba Puacz, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

“Readying Reference: Training for Public Service Reference Providers”

Monday, June 30, 8:30-10:00 AM, Las Vegas Convention Center, room N120

The importance of interactions with users of a library’s reference services (online and in person) cannot be overstated. If the user has a good experience, they will be back when they have another question. A bad experience, and that’s the end of it. Library literature supports the idea that training of reference providers and setting standards of service is a crucial component in the process of bringing new staffers up to speed and making sure they are upholding the library’s service mission. Gather with other front-line reference providers and managers to discuss what reference training currently looks like and brainstorm new ideas for innovative training in the future. Facilitators: Geoff Johnson, University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas at Austin and Joe Dobbs, University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas at Austin.

Crystal Lentz, Chair 2013-2014

Education and Professional Development for Reference
We have completed the first phase of our research into the state of reference education in the United States and Canada. We have determined whether or not a basic reference course is required for students at ALA-accredited library schools and if more specialized reference courses are offered. As we move into Phase Two of this project (in which we will analyze our findings and seek more information on the general reference course and overall curriculum from ALA-accredited institutions), we hope to gather as much information as we can before the Annual Conference.

As we move toward the third phase of the project, we want to hear from fellow reference professionals about what you would like to learn about the state of reference education and what you feel is important to investigate.

If you care about the state of reference education, or want to know more about it, please come to the RSS Education & Professional Development for Reference Committee discussion forum at Annual 2014: “State of Reference Education: What We Have Learned And What Would You Like To Find Out?” on Monday, June 30 from 10:30-11:30 AM, in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N263C

At this discussion forum, we will share the preliminary summary of findings on general reference education from ALA accredited programs. We would love to hear from practitioners what is important in current and future reference education.

Check the conference schedule for any last minute room change.

Organized by the Education and Professional Development for Reference Committee, Reference Services Section (RSS), Reference and User Services Division (RUSA). Stay tuned for future plans on this project and ways to participate.

Joseph Yue, Chair 2013-2014

Evaluation of Reference and User Services
At the end of January 2014, Evaluation of Reference and User Services (ERUS) sent out a survey looking at reference service models and evaluation of service. At the close of the survey, we received a very large number of responses. Analysis of the results, as well as decisions on the best way to disseminate the findings will begin in this month. The committee is considering a discussion forum for Midwinter 2015 on the same topic, with the hope that the survey results can be incorporated or used to inform the discussion.

The ERUS committee meeting will be held during the RSS Open House and All-Committee Meeting on Saturday June 2 from 8:30-10:00am in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N113

There will be no other events for ERUS.

Jason Kruse, Chair 2013-2014

Health and Medical Reference Committee
The Health and Medical Reference Committee met at ALA Midwinter Meeting. Due to the intensiveness of the work on the Health and Medical Reference Guidelines, work in all other areas has been put on hold. The committee met with the liaison from the RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee about the progress with the Guidelines. A draft is expected to be given to the Standards and Guidelines Committee by the 2014 ALA Annual Conference for initial review.

Karen Vargas, Chair 2012-2014

Job and Career Reference Committee
“Community Needs, Reference, & Assessment in Job & Career Reference”

Saturday, June 28, 2014, 1:00-2:30 PM
Las Vegas Hotel, Conference Room 09

Large and small libraries hold a variety of programs for job seekers—regular classes, one-shot sessions, traditional reference services, reference appointments and others. How do libraries and information providers determine the needs of the community and which services and programs to offer? How do they assess outcomes? Come join the RSS Job & Career Reference Committee for a discussion of various strategies for best serving communities large and small.

The RSS Job & Career Reference Committee is also about to launch a needs assessment for librarians interested in career reference resources and information. This will be advertised via various means and we invite all interested in this subject area to participate.

Kate Oberg, Chair 2013-2014

Library Service to an Aging Population
Library Services to an Aging Population met March 24. The committee is working to update its Guidelines for Serving Midlife and Older Adults, which will be discussed at length on Saturday, June 28 at 3:00 PM.

The group is also finalizing details for its ALA program, “Creative Aging at Your Library,” scheduled for Sunday, June 29 from 10:30-11:30 AM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N243. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Abigail Elder, Chair 2013-2014

Management of Reference
The RSS Management of Reference Committee sponsored its first e-forum, where a total of 220 librarians registered to discuss new models of reference on May 6 and 7. Over the course of the two days, we had about forty librarians actively participate and engage in discussing how reference has changed and what institutions are doing to stay current. This is the introduction from our first day:

Reference services have evolved over the years, and current best practices inform the broadening of library services by building relationships with campus units and cross-training staff to create a synergistic combination that redefines the research experience of our faculty, staff and students by meeting them where they are. This concept expands the boundaries of the traditional library and calls for a reconfiguration of spaces, resources, and services focused on supporting the learning needs of our community.

In this e-forum we’d like to spend some time discussing each of the following subjects: new staffing models (including technologies), new methods of delivery (including technologies) and your success stories and tips to take away. Responses revolved around training, staffing models and statistics to help make decisions and determine how to best repackage existing services as desks are merged, librarians step away from the desk and new technologies assist us in new delivery methods.

Cinthya Ippoliti, Chair 2013-2014

Marketing and Public Relations for Reference Services
The Marketing and Public Relations for Reference Services Committee will be hosting a discussion forum, “The Soft Sell: Sales Skills for Librarians,” at Annual on Sunday, June 29 at 10:30-11:30 AM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N220. Our discussion forum will be facilitated by Nathaniel King (Director of Library Services at Nevada State College) and Jaqueline Solis (Coordinator of Liaison Services for Subject Librarians at the University of North Carolina). They will be lead a conversation about the SALES technique for promoting library services that provides a method for having conversations with community members and stakeholders about the value of library services. Specifically, the technique emphasizes understanding problems faced by patrons or potential patrons and demonstrating how the library can help solve those problems. They will do a brief presentation on the technique and then lead a discussion so that attendees can think about how they would apply the technique to their own libraries.

Jessica Hagman, Chair 2013-2014

Research and Statistics Committee
The Research and Statistics Committee of the Reference Services Section of RUSA will be presenting 20th Reference Research Forum at ALA on June 29th from 10:30-11:30 am. The Research and Statistics Committee employed a double-blind method to choose three groups of speakers on a variety of topics.

Our first speakers from OCLC will be focused on the data deluge and librarians’ experiences with data services in “Building Relationships for the Effective Development and Delivery of Research Data Services,” presented by Ixchel Faniel, Lynn Connaway, and Kendra Parson. This presentation is based on an analysis of interview data collected from thirty-six librarians. A major objective of the study is to explore librarians’ early experiences in developing and delivering research data services in order to consider how their experiences and the services can be improved. By opening an early dialogue about the opportunities and challenges associated with library-provided research data services, we aim to consider practical, effective approaches to the development and delivery of such services within the academic community.

Our second set of speakers from SUNY College at Old Westbury will be focused on student tech usage and trends. In “College Student Tech Usage: A Recent Survey of Trends”, Curt Friehs and Jason Kaloudis will present findings of a survey of undergraduates to gain a better understanding of motivating factors behind tech adaptations. The perspective of the Millennial college student provides insights into the desires and needs of the younger generation.

Our final group of speakers from the University of Missouri will focus on Libraries and the Affordable Care Act. Jenny Bossaller and Guinevere Lawson will be sharing the results of discussions with librarians across the United States regarding their involvement with the Affordable Care Act. This exploratory study will provide context for libraries’ actions or inactions that are a result of the law’s uneven implementation, differing community needs, and the attitudes of the community and librarians. The Research and Statistics Committee is also hard at work in gathering and vetting annotations for the Annual Reference Reviews as well and will be sharing the results of their research before the ALA Annual.

Ava M. Iuliano Brillat, Chair 2013-2014

Virtual Reference Tutorial Subcommittee
The Virtual Reference (VR) Tutorial Subcommittee continues to work on the Virtual Reference Companion (VRC) with the goal of completion by ALA Annual 2014. The group meets monthly (including our recent Virtual Midwinter Meeting on January 31) and works in subgroups between meetings.

To date, the Subcommittee has completed seven modules of the VRC and recently decided to remove the Information Literacy module since much of the relevant information can be found in the Skills module. We are in the finishing stages of the eighth and final module, Staffing/Partners, with completion expected in late May.

In addition to being accessible from the Hot Links section of the RSS Virtual Reference Committee page, and the Professional Tools section of the RUSA Resources page, the VRC is now linked in the Web Resources section of the ALA Library Fact Sheet 19: Virtual Reference: A Selected Annotated Bibliography .

After four years of hard work, the Subcommittee is looking forward to presenting the VRC at the MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Group meeting to be held at Annual, Sunday, June 29 at 10:30-11:30 AM at Paris Las Vegas in the Chablis Room. One section of the VRC contains Tips & Best Practices and we will actively seek input and feedback from audience members at this event. In addition, we encourage RSS members to contact Jared Hoppenfeld at jhoppenf@tamu.edu or Christine Tobias at tobiasc@msu.edu to share tips and best practices in virtual reference.

Jared Hoppenfeld, Chair 2012-2014
Christine Tobias, Chair 2013-2014

Young Adult Reference Services Committee
Young Adult Reference Services Committee (YARS) YARS is in the news! Based on our Midwinter discussion forum, the best-practices article “How Understanding Teen Brain Development Can Help Improve YA Reference Services” has been published in the Spring 2014 issue of Young Adult Library Services, the official publication of YALSA.

YARS is also preparing for Las Vegas, where we will host a discussion forum on Homework Help in libraries – a controversial topic on which some libraries are divided. We will gather information on best practices in order to make a recommendation as to what level libraries should expect to offer in-house homework help to their students. The discussion “Of *Course* it’s Due Tomorrow: What is the Appropriate Level of Homework Assistance in Libraries,” will be held Sunday, June 29, 2014 from 10:30-11:30 AM, in the Las Vegas Hotel, Ballroom G.

YARS will be meeting in-person at Annual during the RSS All-Committee Meeting.

Allyson Evans, Chair 2013-2014

RSS Review is the newsletter of the Reference Services Section of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association. Please send suggestions for future issues to Amy Rustic (aer123@psu.edu), editor.

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STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

Message from the Chair
Hello STARS Members and Friends,

STARS is turning 10! This year marks 10 years of networking, education, and research in support of resource sharing and access services professionals. Much thanks is due to everyone whose involvement has made STARS so successful for the past decade. To honor everyone who has made STARS what it is today, we’ll be hosting a 10th Anniversary Party at ALA Annual in Las Vegas! Please join us Friday June 27, 7:00-9 PM, at Bahama Breeze Island Grille, 375 Hughes Center Drive, Las Vegas.

STARS is also sponsoring two informative programs at ALA Annual. Code4ILL:How to Grow Your Own Innovation for Resource Sharing is on Saturday, June 28, from 1:00-2:30 PM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room S228. Finding Dead People: Genealogy and Local History Resources for the ILL Practitioner is on Saturday, June 28, from 3:00-4:00 PM, in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N232.

You can check out our other upcoming events on the STARS Events page on Facebook.

If you can’t make it to Vegas there are still lots of opportunities to become involved in STARS. Many of our committees offer virtual participation, and we’re always looking for active virtual members. For more information on our committees and volunteer opportunities, check out STARS’ committees page.Feel free to contact me at ndethloff@uh.edu for more info or answers.

This is my last update column as STARS Chair. It’s been an eventful, fun, and—above all—educational year as chair. I’ll take this opportunity to say a loud “Thank You!” to the wonderful members of STARS who have done such great work in the past year (and, indeed, the past 10 years). STARS really is a fantastic organization filled with hard working people, and I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to play this role. Thanks to all of you!

Nora Dethloff
STARS Chair, 2013-14

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STARS Committee Reports

CODES/STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee
The CODES/STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee is still working on updating the ILL Code documents. We’ll announce when updates are completed in a future STARS section newsletter.

Ryan Litsey, Chair

Boucher Award Committee
David K. Larsen has been named the Virginia Boucher/OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award winner for 2014. Larsen is Head, Access Services and Assessment at the University of Chicago Library. He is being recognized for his expertise in interlibrary loan technology, his innovative approach to library services, his influential work with individual libraries, consortia, and vendors to make ongoing improvements, and his service and leadership at all levels of professional library organizations dedicated to resource sharing.

Please join me in congratulating David!

Megan Gaffney, Chair

STARS Atlas Systems Mentoring Award Committee
Please join me in congratulating Jake Kubrin, the winner of the 2014 STARS Atlas Systems Mentoring Award. Along with other award recipients, Kubrin will be honored at the RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception from 5:00-6:30 PM on Sunday, June 29 during the ALA Annual. Jacob Kubrin is the resource sharing and fulfillment specialist at Cushing Library at Holy Names University. In a newly created position at the Cushing Library, Kubrin demonstrated a great need for professional development, networking and education to serve the ever increasing patron needs of the library. The award, sponsored byAtlas Systems, Inc. recognizes an individual new to the field of interlibrary loan and contributes $1,250 to attend the ALA Annual Conference.

You can find the official press release here. You can also find RUSA activities during ALA online.

Amy Paulus, Chair
Naomi Chow
Paul Drake
Jennifer Jacobs
Shirley Thomas

STARS Education and Training Committee
The STARS Education and Training Committee (E&T) is organizing the program “Finding Dead People: Genealogy and Local History Resources for the ILL Practitioner,” presented by Amber Case and Cherie Weible, on Saturday, June 28 from 3:00-4:00PM in the Las Vegas Convention Center, room N232. E&T continues to coordinate the updating of the ShareILL wiki. It is also organizing the free annual ALA Midwinter workshop “Everything you wanted to know about ILL” for Chicago 2015.

Karen Okamoto, Chair

STARS Membership Committee
The RUSA STARS Membership Committee has been working with a 10th Anniversary Celebration Committee to organize an extra special social at ALA 2014 in Las Vegas. Thanks to vendors such as OCLC, Innovative, and DLSG, the committee has been able to plan a special 10th Anniversary Celebration for June 27th from 7:00-10:00 PM at Bahama Breeze. There will be food, live music, cake, and of course, friends!

The Membership Committee is also pleased to announce Lars Leon as our newest STARGazer. Leon will be at ALA and is always a friendly face to look for if you’re a first time attendee of the conference or an experienced ALA navigator.

Current projects also consist of improving recruitment and retention initiatives of our STARS members. All are always welcome to join committee meetings, which are held virtually on the first Monday of every month. Contact Micquel Little, Chair of RUSA STARS Membership, at micq13@hotmail.com, for more details.

Micquel Little, Chair

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President’s Note

It is nearly spring. That time between ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual conference when RUSA is busy offering webinars and online courses, working on revising guidelines and planning discussion groups and programs for this year and beyond. It is also a time for refreshing and renewing, so it is when committee appointments will be made. If you have questions about the volunteer process, take a look at my column in the Winter issue of RUSQ for guidance. You can also drop in during my Office Hours and talk to me or President-Elect Joe Thompson. Office Hours are also a good time for discussing your ideas about RUSA and the library profession and there is always a RUSA Executive Board member available to answer questions or just talk.

One significant change is a new face in the RUSA Office. I’d like to welcome Marianne Braverman to the role of Marketing and Programs Manager. Marianne started with RUSA at the beginning of February and brings with her years of experience in association marketing and member services. If your group is in need of marketing and publicity or support for a conference program or event, Marianne is here to help.

RUSA is launching two new initiatives in spring 2014: sponsored student memberships and the RUSA Free School. Both initiatives are focused on library school students and making connections with new professionals. Through the sponsored student memberships, you can donate $25 to cover the cost of a student membership for one year, making the first year of membership free for the student. We will be working on ways to connect the sponsored students to mentoring opportunities and ways to be involved in RUSA. If you are interested in this or have ideas, email me at katkern@illinois.edu or Joe Thompson at thompson@hcplonline.org or drop in during Office Hours.

The RUSA Free School will provide students the opportunity to present short online-presentations about topics in reference and user services. They can bring their perspectives to RUSA members through these free programs as well as gaining practical experience in presenting to a professional audience and building their portfolios. RUSA Professional Development will be working on a process to review proposals and connect the student presenters with the appropriate RUSA Sections and mentors. We plan to announce the first Free School presentations this spring as a ramp-up to Annual Conference.

Speaking of Annual Conference, if you are still making your travel and attendance plans, RUSA has a three preconferences on Friday from services to entrepreneurs, to the reference interview, to genealogical research: http://ala14.ala.org/ticketed-events#RUSA. RUSA is a welcoming division; we want to get to know you and give you opportunities to get to know each other. Many of the Sections have social events at Annual conference. In addition, RUSA has several events where members can mingle as well learn and celebrate: the Andrew Carnegie Award Ceremony, RUSA 101, and the RUSA Awards. The schedule for Annual is full of programs of interest to RUSA members and organized by your RUSA colleagues, but more about that in the next RUSA Update!

This year’s RUSA President’s Program will address the big issue of library values. As a profession we have core values and concerns which form the foundation of our services. But do we all agree on these values? From where did these valued develop and how have they changed over time? Do our patrons value the same things about libraries as librarians? Join us for a lively, thought-provoking program with Wayne Wiegand, noted library historian, educator, and author of numerous books including Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956; Wayne Bivens-Tatum academic librarian and author of Libraries and the Enlightenment; consultant Lisa Carlucci Thomas; and Jeanne Goodrich, executive director of the Las Vegas Public Library and the 2013 Nevada Library Association’s Librarian of the Year.

Thank you!
Kathleen
RUSA President, 2013-14

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RUSA News/Announcements

2014 Achievement Award winners announced

The 2014 RUSA Achievement Awards have been announced. For full details on the award winners, please see the announcement at ALA News. Winners will be recognized at the RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception at ALA Annual on Sunday June 29 from 5:00-6:30 PM Sunday, June 29. Additional event details will be available on the RUSA website in April.

Achievement Award winners

Travel and Research Grant Recipients

RUSA Book and Media Awards
The following awards were announced at the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony at the 2014 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.

Dr. Grace Jackson-Brown from the Duane G. Meyer Library at Missouri State University is the 2014 winner of the Zora Neale Hurston Award, which recognizes an individual that has demonstrated leadership in promoting African-American literature. Selected for her work with the Springfield African American Read-In and Dream Big programs, has exposed diverse audiences to authors, workshops, live readings and celebrations that incorporate African-American authors. Sponsored by Harper Perennial, the award consists of $1,250 to attend the ALA Annual Conference, tickets to the FOLUSA Author tea, and a set of the Zora Neale Hurston books published by Harper Perennial at the time the award is made.

Francine Graf, former Editorial Director of Choice has been named as the 2014 winner of the Louis Shores Award, which honors an individual reviewer, group or editor for their book reviewing excellence for libraries. Graf, retired as of early 2014, was chosen for her outstanding contributions to reviewing for resources for academic audiences. Graf will receive a citation at the ALA Annual Conference.

Mammals of Africa (Bloomsbury), edited by Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Mike Hoffmann, Tom Butynski, Meredith Happold and Jan Kalina, was selected as the winner of the Dartmouth Medal, honoring a significant reference publication. This amazing source covers every recognized mammalian species in Africa. This resource will serve as a primary source of information and as a baseline for preserving the biodiversity of this great continent. A medal will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference.

Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation (HarperCollins) by Yossi Klein Halevi was named the winner of the 2014 Sophie Brody Award. The award encourages, recognizes and commends outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. A medal will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference.

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RUSA Committee Reports

Just Ask Task Force
At ALA Midwinter, the Just Ask Task Force met to discuss the follow-up to the Managing Changes to Reference Services delivered by Gail Griffith on December 4th, 2013 and the next steps. The registration went smoothly for the first webinar, and the 100 spaces were filled in less than a day. Sixty-seven people actually attended and registrants were from all types of libraries; mainly academic, but including twelve public librarians and nine special librarians as well as two students. The committee members and guests gathered agreed that we should work to increase the number of people from the smaller groups. Webinar attendees indicated a strong interest in having RUSA do more of these Webinars and suggested a variety of topics. Those most often listed include: a series of webinars on change management, a webinar on planning marketing and outreach, a webinar of case studies of innovative changes in reference in libraries other than their own, and a webinar on how to best show the value of the things they do.

The second of two Just Ask-sponsored webinars, “Got a Minute?: How to Prepare your Parking Lot Speech,” was on February 12. It sold out and attendance was strong; a recording to the webinar can be found here.

The Midwinter discussion followed on how to move forward with this information and create new programming that advances the charge of this task force.

  • Create a RUSA vision of the reference/ information professionals and the services they provide
  • Communicate that vision by advocating for reference librarians
  • Provide access and creative resources for librarians to engage in that advocacy

Several ideas were discussed by the members and guests present at the meeting, and the following three areas were seen as areas for the task force to move within the current charge which is somewhat broad.

  1. Clarify the charge of the Task Force to assure we are on course.
  2. Determine the feasibility of creating a National Reference Services Week or a Virtual Reference Day possibly in September.
  3. Create a RUSA online course that builds on the suggestions from the free webinars; and the data from the PEW report “How Americans Value Libraries in their Communities” The Committee will do a conference call this spring to flesh this out completely.
  4. Continue to develop the Ask Campaign based on the Maryland pilot project – discussion included creating posters kits like the READ Campaign only having the poster split diagonally and have a community member on one half and a reference librarian on the other half with a question and answer.
  5. The Online access to the two webinars already presented are available:

A meeting of the Just Ask Task Force at ALA Annual has been scheduled for Sunday June 29 from 1:00-2:30 PM, location TBD.

Diana Shonrock and Elizabeth Stephan
Just Ask Co-chairs

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Emerging Leader

Last month I attended my first ever ALA Midwinter Meeting and it was an amazing experience! Although I’ve attended several ALA Annual conferences this was my first opportunity to check out Midwinter. As RUSA’s Emerging Leader (EL), it was a pleasure to meet many RUSA members and to attend one of the RUSA Board of Directors meetings. My first full day at Midwinter was spent at an EL orientation, where I met the fifty-five other ELs from around the country and was introduced to my project team. It was really inspiring to hear the wisdom and advice of numerous people involved in ALA leadership, including ALA Past-President Maureen Sullivan and current ALA President Barbara Stripling.

Upon returning home to Brooklyn after Midwinter my EL project group and I began to discuss our group project. We were selected to design a virtual collaboratory for the members of ACRL’s Science & Technology Section (STS). In brief, we will design an online meeting space where STS members can meet to collaborate on scholarly projects and share research ideas. We will be creating a poster explaining the project which we’ll present at ALA Annual in Vegas. Stay tuned for more!

Katelyn Angell
RUSA Emerging leader

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BRASS Notes

Carol L. Schuetz, Editor

Message from the BRASS Chair

Hello BRASS Members!

Even though official BRASS meetings are conducted online for Midwinter, some of us can’t seem to stay away from the conference and it was a pleasure to see many of you in Philadelphia. I caught up with some friends while eating delicious (and sometimes peculiar) food, took care of some business during chance meetings in the convention center halls, and was enlightened and entertained by the conversation at the BRASS Discussion Group, as always.

At the RUSA Book & Media Awards Ceremony in Philadelphia, BRASS recognized the Outstanding Business Reference Sources for 2013, selected by the Sources Committee, and the Best of the Best Business Websites for 2013, selected by the Education Committee. The annual BRASS individual awards and research grants are being finalized now. Keep an eye out for the official announcement of winners from RUSA.

BRASS elections are coming up—look for the official ALA emails. We have a fine slate of candidates:

  • Vice-Chair: Paul Brothers and Julia Martin
  • Member-at-Large: Jason Dewland and Patricia Kenly
  • Secretary: Natasha Arguello and Adele Barsh

As you can see from the committee reports that follow, vendor support for BRASS remains strong. We appreciate our vendors for their sponsorship and for their eagerness for our input on their products, services, and practices. Work also continues on the IMLS grant for financial literacy education in libraries, with solid BRASS representation. Expect to see guidelines issued later this year.

Upcoming programming from BRASS includes:

  • Two more virtual discussion groups before Annual Conference (TBA)
  • The four-part MBA in a Day webinar series (http://www.ala.org/rusa/development/onlinece):
    • Marketing: Andy Spackman, Thursday, March 20, 12:00-1:30 PM (Central Time)
    • Management: Elisabeth Leonard, Friday, April 4, 11:00-12:30 PM (Central Time)
    • Accounting: Todd Hines, Thursday, May 1, 2:00-3:30 PM (Central Time)
    • Finance: Shikha Sharma, Thursday, May 15, 2:00-3:30 (Central Time)
  • At Annual in Las Vegas:
    • Preconference: How Business Librarians Support Entrepreneurs
    • Academic Libraries Forum: Business Information Literacy Instruction: Scalability, Assessment, and Philosophy
    • Publishers Forum: Hitting the Jackpot: Sources for Local and Regional Business Information
    • Traditional BRASS Discussion Group
    • The BRASS Annual Program: Mad Men: The Business of Advertising
    • And don’t forget our Friday night members’ reception and Monday night dinner!

Andy Spackman
BRASS Chair, 2013-2014
andy_spackman@byu.edu

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Committee Reports

BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
The BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee recently met virtually. The committee’s main task for the year 2014 is organizing the forum at ALA Annual. The committee members have been hard at work. After soliciting submissions for the forum, we conducted a poll and selected the following speakers: Ilana Barnes, Jason Sokoloff, and Lisa O’Connor. Barnes is writing a paper about her experiences teaching a required information literacy course to a large number of students (and the problem of scalability), Sokoloff is covering concerns associated with assessment, and O’Connor is doing something really fascinating: discussing the internal psychological motivations of why people seek knowledge or think that would be effective behavior.

BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
The BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee recently met virtually. The committee’s main task for the year 2014 is organizing the forum at ALA Annual. The committee members have been hard at work. After soliciting submissions for the forum, we conducted a poll and selected the following speakers: Ilana Barnes, Jason Sokoloff, and Lisa O’Connor. Barnes is writing a paper about her experiences teaching a required information literacy course to a large number of students (and the problem of scalability), Sokoloff is covering concerns associated with assessment, and O’Connor is doing something really fascinating: discussing the internal psychological motivations of why people seek knowledge or think that would be effective behavior.

The committee also started to divide up supporting logistical work for organizing the forum.

Charles Allan, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee
We have added a new Public Librarian’s Briefcase article, No. 29, 1st Quarter 2014, “What’s in a name? Naming Rights as Revenue Generators.” In addition to the ALA URL, we have created a tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/brassnr. The 2nd Quarter’s topic for the Public Librarian’s Briefcase is a case study: the grant process and program elements for a major grant on Financial Literacy received by Melissa Jeter and The Toledo Public Library.

We are still kicking ideas around for our 2015 Annual program.

Ed Rossman, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Program Planning Committee
BRASS 2014 Program: Mad Men: The Business of Advertising
Monday, June 30, 2014, 8:00-10:00am

Many companies spend millions on advertising their brands and products, yet the data can be hard to find. Specialized sources, available at many large libraries, focus on these statistics. The information they contain can be used by business students, researchers, or the general public. In addition, media planning, a component of a company’s marketing plan will be covered. Entrepreneurs need information on placing ads (and on how much it costs); reference librarians assisting these users will also find the content of the program very useful.

The session kicks off with breakfast, 8:00am-8:30am, sponsored by S&P Capital IQ.

Speakers:

  • Wendy Diamond, Business and Economics Librarian, California State University, Chico. Ms. Diamond has been a featured speaker at two prior BRASS annual programs (2001 and 2008) on marketing. She is the co-author of: Marketing Information: A Strategic Guide for Business and Finance Libraries (2004).
  • Dale Skarl, Search Engine Marketing Manager for MGM Resorts International.

Patricia Kenly, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
The RUSQ column on “Outstanding Business Reference Sources 2013” was published in December 2013 issue. Becky Smith was the selections editor.

Suzanne Sweeney presented the list of winning Business Reference titles at the RUSA Book and Media Awards Reception at Midwinter.

We currently have twenty-one business reference titles nominated for the coming year. We hope to get several more nominated before the spring, when we will meet again online to begin the review process. Jordan Nielsen and Mark Siciliano are co-coordinators of the nominations process this year.

The Publishers Forum this year is being co-coordinated by Janis Tyhurst and Penny Scott, with assistance from Brittany Geissinger and me.

The forum will be titled “Hitting the Jackpot: Sources for Local and Regional Business Information.” The discussion will focus on the various types of local business information that are available through a variety of sources. We have contacted the following vendors and they have agreed to demonstrate their products specifically concerning the types of data they have for Las Vegas and Nevada in general.

  • Euromonitor Passport Cities (localized city economic profiles and analysis on consumers)
  • Demographics Now (US Census data)
  • Data Planet (U S States statistical datasets)
  • ProQuest ABI Inform Dateline product (local and regional business journals)

Ed Hahn has created a LibGuide for Business Reference Sources Committee (BRSC): Outstanding Business Reference Sources: Yearly Selection of Recent Titles which we hope to link to from our BRSC page.

Susan Hurst, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Discussion Group Committee
The BRASS Discussion Group moderated the all BRASS meeting at the ALA Mid-winter in Philadelphia in January. The meeting kicked-off with President Andy Spackman covering official business, approval of notes, and reviewing current plans for BRASS at ALA Annual in Las Vegas. The discussion portion of the meeting’s topics varied from the very restrictive policies of the Harvard Business Review, an update of the maker lab at Chicago Public Library, and other topics.

The Discussion Group plans on having two online discussions prior to the annual conference in June/July, monitor BRASS-L for dates, times, and topics.

Jason Dewland, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Education Committee
The BRASS Education Committee is happy to report that our first BRASS-sponsored free webinar “Industry Research Using the Economic Census and Other Government Sources” presented by Jennifer Boettcher from Georgetown University and moderated by our member Peter McKay from the University of Florida was a huge success. The recording is available for here.

The registration for the 2014 2014 RUSA BRASS preconference “How Business Librarians Support Entrepreneurs” is now open: http://ala14.ala.org/ticketed-events#RUSA.

The winners of the Best of the Best Business Websiteswere announced by Louise Feldman at the RUSA Book and Media Award Ceremony at ALA Midwinter. This year we focused on the websites indispensable to entrepreneurs. The 2014 winners are:

  • SCORE.org
  • Entrepreneur.com
  • Entrepreneurship.org

To see the list of recipients, please visit the RUSA Awards Page.

At the virtual midwinter meeting the committee members discussed style guidelines for updating the BRASS Business Guides. The target deadline to complete the transition to topical guides is June 20, 2014.

Natasha Arguello, 2012-2014 Chair
University of Texas at San Antonio
http://connect.ala.org/node/65121
http://brass.libguides.com/

BRASS Membership Committee
BRASS Membership Committee will be hosting the BRASS Member Reception, Friday, June 27, 2014 5:30-7:30 PM, location TBA at ALA Annual in Las Vegas. This is a great opportunity for BRASS members and anyone interested in BRASS to meet and network! There will be hors d’oeuvres and beverages for your enjoyment. Sponsored by InfoGroup.

Membership is exploring ways to engage current members and recruit new business librarians to our great section. One is making Facebook more appealing as a place to get some of your BRASS information. Another is to offer ways for BRASS members to connect locally for more day-to-day operational support.

Kelly Janousek, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Vendor Relations Committee

  • We were successful at getting increased funding for the Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award and Gale Student Travel award.
  • BRASS also has a commitment from InfoGroup for the Member Reception in Las Vegas.
  • S&P Capital IQ has committed to supporting our Monday Program breakfast.

Chris LeBeau, 2013-2015 Chair

BRASS Publications and Communications Committee

  • Kelly Evans has updated the BRASS publications list
  • Chad Boeninger has sent several reminders to the BRASS-L list, and to individuals, regarding the list guidelines.
  • Genifer Snipes reports since ALA Annual in Chicago, we have added thirty followers (or “Likes”) to our Facebook page and have been seeing increased interaction with posts.
  • Annette Buckley has made significant updates to the BRASS web pages and roster.
  • Pauly Iheanacho: Update from BRASS Representative to RUSA Publication and Communications Committee.

Chad Boeninger, 2013-2015 Chair

BRASS Section Review Ad Hoc Committee
The BRASS Section Review Ad Hoc Committee would like to thank everyone for making the review successful. Thanks to all who contributed in giving thought and time to making our section more efficient, engaging and enjoyable for all BRASS members.

Paul Brother, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award Committee
We regret to announce that the Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award will not be given this year. The committee received no nominations. We strongly encourage BRASS members to consider which of their public librarian colleagues might have benefited from this excellent opportunity to be recognized and receive travel funds for the next annual conference, generously sponsored by our friends at Morningstar. Please plan to nominate deserving colleagues next fall!

Karen Chapman, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Expert Press Award Committee
The BRASS Business Expert Press Award has received seven nominations. The committee reviewed the files of the nominees and made the selection of the recipient.

Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet, the Business Librarian of James Madison University of Virginia, is the recipient of the 2014 BRASS Business Expert Press Award. Ms. Zingarelli-Sweet has done an outstanding job in library instruction and collaboration with business faculty. She has been working with 1,500 business students helping them with their research projects via library instruction sessions and individual consultations. She has updated business research web pages adding new resources and has worked together with the Library Director to create a Graduate Student’s position to help with the demanding business research requests. Committee members believe that Ms. Zingarelli-Sweet will make a strong contribution to the profession of business librarianship and to BRASS.

Kaiping Zhang, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Emerald Research Award Committee
The BRASS Emerald Research Award Committee received six applications. The committee is happy to announce Ilana Barnes, Business Information Specialist and Tao Zhang, Digital User Experience Specialist, at Purdue University, as this year’s recipients of the BRASS Emerald Research Award. Barnes and Zhang are assessing how students engage with CrowdAsk, a crowdsourced business library help system in a business information context and is a paradigm shift from the traditional library reference help model. Barnes and Zhang will look at the return on investment for business libraries interested in implementing the system or others like it. The committee was impressed with Barnes and Zhang’s proposal in terms of providing valuable insights into innovative reference service models. This research has the potential to study a new type of reference model, crowd-sourcing, while providing insights into user engagement opportunities within the scope of undergraduate business information literacy.

Elizabeth Stephan, 2013-2014 chair

 

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CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

Message from the Chair
During the CODES Board Midwinter Virtual Meeting, several actions were taken. The Listen List Manual was updated to reflect some important changes. The Board also approved a new charge for the Collection Development, Planning, Education and Assessment, which is now available on the committee’s webpage. Deb Abston (vice-chair) is hard at work on committee appointments. If you know anyone interested in serving feel free to contact her. The Board has decided to look into the possibility of offering a webinar with the $1500 allotted for recruitment and development of members. Overall everyone is looking forward to Annual 2014. CODES would love to see more attendance at the Association of American University Press’ (AAUP) “The Best of the Best from University Presses: Books You Should Know About,” program on Sunday June 29 at 1:00 PM. It’s a great opportunity to win some great books and be on C-SPAN.

Asia Gross
CODES Chair

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Committee Updates

Sophie Brody Award

The Sophie Brody Medal Committee met on Friday January 24 during Midwinter. We had a very efficient and productive meeting to choose a winner and two honor books. The winner is Yossi Klein Halevi’s Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation (HarperCollins). The honor books are Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumoh and Tragedy of Israel (Spiegel & Grau) and Jeremy Dauber’s The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye (Schocken).

Barbara Bibel, Chair

Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee

The Readers’ Advisory (RA) Research and Trends Committee will be presenting the RA Forum at ALA Annual. This year the forum will address RA marketing and features the award-winning marketing expert from Edmonton Public Library, Tina Thomas, and Duncan Smith of Novelist. Here is the program description:

 

Turning Books into a Cool New Tool: RA Marketing in the Age of Maker Spaces

Maker spaces and 3D printers are hip and libraries are using them to ensure that they remain relevant and are perceived as keeping up with the latest trends. One of the trends that hasn’t gotten much attention, however, is the fact that books are still our brand and reading is the main reason citizens view the library as valuable and continue to support it. Does the key to public library success lie in adopting new technologies or in revitalizing the one that has been at the heart of our services for more than 100 years? Join library marketing expert Tina Thomas of Edmonton Public Library and Duncan Smith of NoveList and find out at this program which argues that the key to our future is contained in our past.

This fall the RA committee partnered with Library Journal and NoveList to map the state of RA practice. The survey that we helped create has recently been complied. The survey can be found and downloaded at LibraryJournal.com.

Several times a year the RA committee hosts a CODES Conversation, a free, email-based conversation on an RA topic. Anyone can join in and participate or lurk as they desire. The last conversation was on RA training. Over 500 people signed up for the two-day event. The committee will host another conversation in early Spring. Look for details on CODES-L.

Neal Wyatt, Co-chair

Louis Shores Award

The Louis Shores Award Committee (Emily Hamstra, Barry Trott, and Ed Kownslar) met virtually on Tuesday, January 14 to select the 2014 award recipient. We had many outstanding nominations for the award this year. The committee chose Fran Graf, managing editor at Choice, as the 2014 Louis Shores Award recipient. Graf was announced as a recipient of the award at the RUSA Book and Media Awards at ALA Midwinter.

Emily Hamstra, Chair

CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee

The CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee hosted a discussion forum at the Philadelphia Midwinter jointly with the Reference Publishers Group. The forum gave reference publishers and reference librarians a chance to discuss common concerns. Discussion topics included the use and barriers to use of reference sources, the difficulty of locating reference sources spread among a number of different vendor sites, and the need for reference publisher to consider their target audience, whether it is to make information more accessible or at the other spectrum, more specialized and in-depth. Despite all of the issues surrounding the rapidly changing world of Reference Publishing, most present did affirm the continuing value of this material. The committee is planning a similar forum at the Las Vegas Annual Conference.

Bill McHugh, Chair

Listen List Council

The Listen List Council, Jen Baker, Reader Services Librarian, Seattle Public Library; Di Herald, Program & Outreach Manager, Delta County Libraries (Colorado); Joyce Saricks, Readers’ Advisory Consultant, Downers Grove, Illinois (chair); Neal Wyatt, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia; and Renee Young, NoveList audiobook project team lead, Durham, North Carolina, selected outstanding audiobook titles for 2014, and will be publishing a Reader’s Shelf column in Library Journals’ March 1 issue.

Renee Young, council member

Conference Program Coordinating Committee

The Conference Program Coordinating Committee will be focusing on the following items for the coming year: Working with the RUSA board to continue formalizing a new process for selecting and approving programs for presentation at ALA Annual; explore possibility of partnering with the Learning Round Table to improve ALA programming; consideration of planning an “unconference” for RUSA.

Kaite Mediatore-Stover, CODES Rep.

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History

Laura Hibbler, Editor

Genealogy Preconference Planning
An audience of about eighty librarians and archivists filled the conference room at the Free Library of Philadelphia for the RUSA History/Genealogy section ALA Midwinter preconference event. Sponsor ProQuest provided refreshments and a delightful lunch. Fourteen top ranking speakers addressed popular topics including free genealogical online resources, future and current directions for NARA, producing genealogical webinars, Quaker sources, and government documents. Guest speaker Curt Witcher, Allen County Library Senior Manager for Special Collections addressed “Making the Financial Case for Genealogical Librarianship.” His dynamic presentation was taped and will be made available later this year. We look forward to another cutting edge event at Las Vegas on Friday, June 27.

Melinde Lutz Byrne, Chair

History Librarians Discussion Group
The RUSA History Librarians Discussion Group met on Jan. 26, 2014 from 1:00-2:30 PM. We had an excellent panel presentation on the roles of humanities librarians in Digital Humanities! The three speakers for the event were Sarah How, the European Studies Librarian from Cornell University Library; Nick Okrent, History Librarian, University of Pennsylvania Libraries; and Virginia Cole, the History and Medieval Studies Librarian from Cornell University Library. They discussed their participation in digital humanities related initiatives on their campuses. The presentation was followed by a very lively discussion. We had more than sixty attendees who participated and it was a successful event! The PowerPoint presentation from Sarah How and Nick Okrent can be accessed on ALA Connect. We welcome comments or feedback about the discussion. Please e-mail them to cvaidyan@jhu.edu

Chella Vaidyanathan, Chair

Please check out the Information Literacy Guidelines and Competencies for Undergraduate History Students. These guidelines and competencies were developed by the History Sections’ Instruction and Research Services Committee and were approved by the RUSA Board of Directors last year.

Interested in updates from the History Section and keeping with news that is of interest to History Section members? Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and sign up for the history-l listserv!

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MARS: Update from the Emerging Technologies in Reference Section

Cathy Larson, Editor
Join the discussion at http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/mars-l

Message from the Chair

Greetings!

Annual Conference time is coming up soon, and I hope to see many of you in Las Vegas! I know I’m certainly looking forward to some warmer weather! The Emerging Technologies in Reference Group (MARS) has three discussion forums and one program planned as well as several committee meetings and a Happy Hour, so mark your calendars and we hope to see you often.

In addition, RUSA has a President’s program as well as an orientation, so there are lots of ways to get involved, learn more, and network with your colleagues. If you haven’t tried out the ALA Scheduler, I recommend it. ALA will keep this service up-to-date to reflect last minute room changes, and they monitor the site and may add seats to events where they see high advance demand.

On Saturday morning, June 29, from 8:30-10:00 AM, join us for our all-committee meeting. If you’re on a committee already, this is your primary meeting time. If you’re a member who can volunteer to help with the work of the section, this is a chance to stop by, talk with the committee chairs and members in one location, and find a committee that fits your interests.

Next up, our Management of Electronic Resources Committee is sponsoring a discussion forum. Please join us from 10:30-11:30 AM and keep an eye on your email for further details.

Saturday afternoon from 1:00-2:30 PM will be the MARS Chair’s Program. We will begin by honoring Anne Houston, this year’s recipient of the MARS Achievement Recognition Award. Then we have three great speakers lined up who will address the topic of Data Visualization.

Our Virtual Reference Discussion Group forum will also be held later Saturday afternoon, with the exact time to be finalized soon.

Capping off Saturday, from 4:00-5:30 PM, will be the RUSA President’s Program.

On Sunday, June 30, the Planning Committee will meet from 8:30-10:00 AM and on Sunday afternoon, from 1:00-2:30 PM, our Hot Topics Discussion Forum will be held.

Please join us late Sunday afternoon for the RUSA Awards Reception and Volunteer Appreciation Party from 5:00-6:30 PM.

On Monday, if you’re still in town, plan to stop by our MARS Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30-11:30 AM. The meeting is where MARS Committee and Discussion Forum chairs, as well as MARS representatives to RUSA level committees share their activities of the last six months and their upcoming plans. We are meeting jointly with the RSS Executive Committee for the last hour to coordinate activities of our two sections.

Locations for all events will be finalized and available next month.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to volunteer, please go to http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer, or contact Stephanie Graves, Vice Chair, Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) at stephaniegraves@library.tamu.edu.

For those of you who have already volunteered, thank you for all your contributions to MARS and MARS members this year. You are making a difference.

Sam Stormont
MARS Chair, 2012-2013
srstormont@widener.edu

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Committee Updates

Hot Topics in Electronic Reference Discussion Group
The RUSA MARS Hot Topics in Emerging Technologies Discussion Group held a roundtable discussion on Sunday, January 26, 1:00-2:30 pm. Approximately thirty-five people came for the discussion. The discussion centered on technology challenges and solutions, training staff and new technology initiatives and projects. A few of the resources shared include:

We are also planning a discussion forum for ALA Annual on MakerSpaces. More details will be available later.

Chanitra Bishop
Chair, Hot Topics in Electronic Reference Discussion Group 2013-2014
chbishop@indiana.edu

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RSS Review

RSS logo

 

 

Message from the Chair:

Hello Everyone!

Who knew that we had such a big winter in store? I’m counting on seeing more hints of spring shortly, as the robins are descending once again on the DC Metro Area.

RSS had a great ALA Midwinter, with five well-attended Discussion Groups and an amazing Fourth Annual Pancake Breakfast. But the overall high achiever was our MARS co-hosted workshop, “Collaboration: Spaces & Services,” with a whopping ninety attendees! Way to go RSS & MARS Education and Professional Development.

As March begins to fade away, don’t forget that this is the time to sign-up for Committees! Our Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Qiana Johnson, is looking for a few good volunteers. To get involved, please complete the RUSA Volunteer form. If you have questions or would like to learn more about RSS and its committees, please feel free to contact me at agbrown@gwu.edu or Qiana at q-johnson@northwestern.edu.

I look forward to hearing from you all as we begin the race to Annual and Las Vegas. And keep your eyes peeled for the first signs of spring!

Ann Brown
RSS Chair, 2013-2014
agbrown@gwu.edu

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Get Involved with RSS!

The Reference Services Section (RSS) of RUSA represents the interests of librarians and library support staff engaged in all aspects of reference and information services including the delivery, management, and evaluation of reference and user services in all kinds of libraries. We represent and support library staff providing frontline reference service in libraries of all types.

We are currently inviting new and not-so-new members of RSS to volunteer to lead and serve on committees. The list and information about these committees can be found here. We are also looking for members to serve as RSS representatives to RUSA-level committees.

Serving on an RSS and/or a RUSA committee is a great way to give back to the profession, grow professionally, and network. To get involved, please complete the RUSA volunteer form.

If you have questions or would like to learn more about RSS and its committees, please feel free to contact me at q-johnson@northwestern.edu.

Qiana Johnson
RSS Vice-Chair

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Committee Reports

Catalog Use Committee/Discover Services Committee

The RSS Board recently approved a name change to the Discovery Services Committee with this revised charge:

The RSS Discovery Services Committee focuses on the use of catalogs and other discovery tools in reference service, including such aspects as communicating, evaluating, improving, studying, and teaching the use of such tools; monitors and communicates significant continuities and changes in the use of such tools; identifies and examines critical issues and problems in the use of such tools; provides opportunities for librarians to propose and discuss innovative solutions to discovery problems; joins with librarians in other specialties to produce improvements in library service.

The Committee will hold a discussion forum at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas on Sunday, June 29 from 3:00-4:00 PM, opening with a few brief presentations as discussion starters.

Colleen Seale, Chair 2013-2014

Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need

The Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need committee conducted an online meeting on January 21 to check in on progress members have made with various tasks. One of those tasks is a survey to find areas of need within our community and the resources related to communication and teaching strategies. The survey questions were reviewed and finalized and we determined the venues we plan to send the survey out to initially. We also discussed the length of time the survey should remain open. We are currently working on getting the questions transferred and formatted into the survey software so that we can send it out soon. The results from the survey will be used plan programs, forums for discussions, and professional development opportunities.

Julie Housknecht and Holly Wilson, Co-chairs 2013-2014

Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee

The Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee sponsored two exciting forums at Midwinter. A standing room only crowd of roughly 140 people attended “Skype? FaceTime? Why Has Face-to-Face Not Been the New Wave in Digital Reference?,” which was facilitated by Benjamin Andrus, Binghamton University. The focus of the discussion was on how camera-to-camera reference has been implemented at different institutions. Most use Skype, but other platforms and course management systems were also discussed. The conversation then moved to emerging trends in digital reference and how emerging technology will shape the future of the reference interview. The take home lesson for the group was that all institutions are different and that a one size fits all solution for video based reference service has yet to be found. Many of attendees agreed that there is great value in offering these services, but they are underutilized by patrons. The hope is that as the next generation of library users come of age, they will not be hesitant to use services like Skype or FaceTime that they have grown up using.

Our second forum, “Patron-Centered Reference Librarianship: Using Patrons’ Interests to Motivate Information Literacy Learning,” was facilitated by Kevin Michael Klipfel, California State University, Chico, and it drew over seventy-five attendees. After discussing what is involved in student-centered teaching and agreeing that teachers are more Socratic facilitators than experts telling students what to think, focus shifted to how this would transfer to the reference desk. Attendees discussed the successes and difficulties that may be encountered when one tries to engage in patron-centered reference by tying students’ interests to their schoolwork. They also discussed how the traditional reference interview is not often patron-centric. Strategies for connecting with patrons as people and providing patron-centered reference in the virtual realm were also discussed.

The Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee did not meet at the Midwinter Meeting. The committee’s meeting for Midwinter was conducted via email in September when the winning forum proposals for the meeting were chosen.

Crystal Lentz, Chair 2013-2014

Education and Professional Development for Reference

Education and Professional Development for Reference co-sponsored events, a webinar with CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee and the in-person workshop before Midwinter Meeting with MARS Professional Development. The committee is currently engaged in gathering information on assessing the state of reference education. We hope to share our preliminary finding of phase one and two of the study by ALA Annual. Stay tuned for more information. If you are interested in helping us with this study, please contact the committee chair.

Joseph Yue, Chair 2013-2014

Evaluation of Reference and User Services Committee

A group made up of members of ERUS and the Virtual Reference Services Committee created a survey to assess the state of the profession in the provision of virtual reference services, and will be moving into the analysis stage. At the end of January 2014, ERUS sent out a survey looking at reference service models and evaluation of service. At the close of the survey, we received a very large number of responses. Analysis of the results, as well as decisions on the best way to disseminate the findings will begin in the next few months. The committee is considering proposing a discussion forum for Midwinter 2015 on the same topic, with the hope that the survey results can be incorporated.

Jason Kruse, Chair, 2013-2014

Library Service to an Aging Population

The committee met virtually in January. Committee member Janet O’Keefe represented us for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at ALA Midwinter.

Continuing our work on the Guidelines for Library Services to Older Adults, we have begun drafting new standards for programming, outreach, and technology. We generally use the phrase “midlife and older adults” to recognize the spectrum of ages and life-stages represented by adults over fifty years of age. We are finalizing speakers and format for our ALA presentation in Las Vegas.

We are an active and enthusiastic group, with participation from librarians from across the country. Please consider joining us!

Abigail Elder, Chair 2013-2014

Marketing and Public Relations for Reference

We met in person at Midwinter and finalized plans for our discussion forum proposal. The discussion forum will begin with a presentation by two librarians who are using a sales framework that helps them ask questions of their patrons and show how the library can help meet their needs. We’re exploring options for hosting a follow up open meeting for discussion forum attendees to discuss whether they have been able to use the framework in their daily work.

We’ve also been in touch with the Just Ask committee to see if there are areas where we could collaborate. We expect more discussion on this in the coming year.

Jessica Hagman, Chair 2013-2014

Virtual Reference Tutorial Subcommittee

The Subcommittee continues to work on the Virtual Reference Companion (VRC) with the goal of completion by ALA Annual 2014. The group meets monthly (including our recent Virtual Midwinter Meeting on January 31st) and works in subgroups between meetings.

To date, five modules have been completed and we are in the finishing stages of the Assessment and Professional Development modules. Once complete with those, we will begin the final two modules: Staffing/Partners and Information Literacy.

The VRC is accessible at this link; it is also linked under the Hot Links section of the RSS Virtual Reference Committee page, and the Professional Tools section of the RUSA Resources page, the VRC is now linked in the Web Resources section of the ALA Library Fact Sheet 19: Virtual Reference: A Selected Annotated Bibliography.

One section of the VRC has Tips & Best Practices and we continue to seek input from RSS members. If anyone has words of wisdom to share on any topics related to virtual reference, please send them to Jared Hoppenfeld at jhoppenf@tamu.edu or Christine Tobias at tobiasc@msu.edu.

Stay tuned to hear about a possible forum where you can hear more about this resource at ALA Annual in Las Vegas.

Jared Hoppenfeld, Chair 2012-2014

Christine Tobias, Chair 2013-2014

Young Adult Reference Services Committee

Young Adult Reference Services Committee (YARS) held a face-to-face committee meeting during Midwinter to finalize its discussion forum that was taking place later that afternoon on how adolescent brain development affects teen information seeking behaviors. The results of that discussion forum will be publicized in the upcoming issue of Young Adult Library Services (YALS). During the meeting, the committee decided that during 2014 ALA Annual, the committee will host a discussion forum on Homework Help in libraries, a controversial topic. Information will gathered on best practices in order to make a recommendation as to what level libraries should expect to offer in-house homework help to their students.

YARS will be meeting in-person at Annual during the RSS All-Committee Meeting.

Allyson Evans, Chair 2013-2014

RSS Review is the newsletter of the Reference Services Section of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association. Please send suggestions for future issues to Amy Rustic (aer123@psu.edu), editor.

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STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

Message from the Chair

Hello STARS Members and Friends,

I can’t believe my tenure as Chair is halfway over already! As usual, STARS has been an active section with a lot going on. Thank you to everyone whose hard work has helped us to offer webinars, programs, standards, and other practical tools. At our recent meetings in Philadelphia for ALA Midwinter, I was reminded of just how creative, clever, and hard-working STARS members are. It’s the involvement of great resource sharing and access services practitioners that keeps us one of the most interesting and vital sections in ALA—I may be a bit biased.

If you’re not already a member of STARS, please consider joining. Not only is the section doing great work, but its members are some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable folks you’d ever want to network with, and provides great opportunities for making connections, building resumes, and learning from experts in our field. Feel free to contact me (ndethloff@uh.edu or 713-743-9747) for more information or answers to burning questions.

If you’re ready to get involved, we’re currently making committee appointments for 2014-2015. Contact STARS Vice-chair Tina Baich, appointment maven extraordinaire, at cbaich@iupui.edu. She’ll be happy to connect you with an opportunity to serve on a committee or as a STARS representative.

All best,

Nora Dethloff
STARS Chair, 2013-2014

 

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Committee Reports

STARS Membership Committee

RUSA STARS Membership Committee has been busy working on the STARS 10th Anniversary Celebration with the extended planning committee. We’ve been exploring venues, themes, time lines, etc.—all based on the feedback we received from our members! Make a note to attend our special 10th Anniversary Social in Las Vegas! Membership also recently revised the Five Things to ensure updated links and resources. We also welcomed Naomi Chow as the newest STARGazer: http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/stars!

Micquel Little, Chair

Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award Committee

The Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award committee has finished accepting nominations and is in the process of vetting candidates. We look forward to announcing the 2014 winner in the near future. Look for the news in an upcoming STARS section newsletter.

Megan Gaffney, Chair

STARS Education and Training Committee

On Friday January 24, 2014, the RUSA STARS Education and Training Committee held its seventh annual free “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about ILL” workshop at Drexel University’s Library Learning Terrace. Fifty-six attendees learned about the basics of interlibrary loan including borrowing, lending, copyright, assessment, and statistics from speakers Megan Gaffney, Karen Janke, Cindy Kristof, and Collette Mak. Atlas Systems, OCLC, and Drexel Libraries generously sponsored the event.

Karen Okamoto, Chair

STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee

At Midwinter we met to discuss expanding the STAR Checklist and we will have a new and improved version ready soon!

Beth Posner, Chair

Atlas Systems-Mentoring Award Committee

The Atlas Systems-Mentoring Award committee has selected one nomination for this award and is waiting on final approval from the STARS Executive Board. We received seventeen applicants and the committee took a lot of time reviewing and discussing to finally select a winner.

Hopefully we will have a name to share in the very near future!

Amy Paulus, Chair

CODES/STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee

The CODES/STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee is busy at work, updating ILL Code documents. We’ll announce when updates are completed in a future STARS section newsletter.

Ryan Litsey, Chair

STARS Research and Assessment Committee

The STARS Research and Assessment Committee met at the ALA Midwinter and discussed the following:

  • We created procedures for survey assessments of workshops for RUSA STARS and are sent them to the Executive Committee for approval.
  • We have analyzed the feedback surveys from three programs, two from Annual 2013 and one from an online workshop. These will be going to be placed on ALA Connect and the chairs of the committees will be notified.
  • We will be doing the same for the Discussion Group and Hot Topics groups at Midwinter 2014.
  • We are also working on a proposal for a program at Annual 2015. We will be proposing a lightning round session of practical examples of assessment tools and outcomes including effects on collection development and marketing. Our working title is ILL Data-Storm: practical assessment.

Bethany B. Sewell, Chair

Vendor Relations Committee

The Vendor Relations Committee is planning its next meeting for ALA Annual in Las Vegas. We look forward to setting goals for increasing vendor communication with STARS members and welcome recommendations from all STARS members. Please feel free to contact Alison DePollo, at depollo@mail.etsu.edu with ideas or feedback.

Alison DePollo, Chair

 

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From the President

Every year is a great year for RUSA but I have to say I am really impressed with everything going on in the five short months since Annual Conference and what we have planned for the future. Go RUSA!

Some highlights:

  • IAmRUSA: An interactive member-of-the-week launched in September. A big thanks to Kirk MacLeod, RUSA Spectrum Scholar, and Sarah Hammill for showing what two dedicated and enthusiastic people can do in rolling this out.
  • RUSA President’s Office hours: Bring your questions and ideas!
  • BRASS Harvard Business Review 500 statement has been picked up by news outlets and library bloggers.
  • Several webinars and online courses were offered this fall and more are planned for the spring. Register now! Some, like Managing Changes to Reference Services have sold out.

The Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia is nearly here. While many committees do not meet face-to-face at Midwinter, RUSA has a full slate of activities: discussion groups, RUSA Social, RUSA Awards, a preconference institute, etc. See the RUSA News and Section Reports for more information on RUSA activities for Midwinter.

You are what makes RUSA great! Without you we would have no one to work for and no one to prepare webinars, plan programs, write guidelines, select awards, etc. Committee appointments will be done in the spring (link) and the volunteer form is very important to fill out, even if you have been on committees before. My president’s column in the Winter issue of RUSQ has hints on an effective volunteer form and more details about the appointment process.

I really enjoying my year as president, although it has certainly kept me busy. There are more exciting things yet to come, including RUSA event at the Annual Conference and several projects which are in the works, but are not yet ready announce. So,to keep up with what RUSA is doing for you, subscribe to rusa-lhttp://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/rusa-l or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you!
Kathleen
RUSA President, 2013-14

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Emerging Leader Report

I’m a reference and instruction librarian at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Prior to my current position I worked at Sarah Lawrence College as a social sciences reference librarian. My research interests include games based library instruction, the organization of information, and community outreach, and recent publications include articles in Reference Services Review and Public Services Quarterly. I’m currently pursuing a graduate degree in psychology at LIU Brooklyn. I’m very excited to serve as an Emerging Leader, and look forward to representing RUSA.

Kate Angel
RUSA Emerging leader, 2014

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RUSA News

RUSA Nominees for 2014 ALA Elections
ALA elections may not be until Spring of 2014, but RUSA already have a full slate.

President-Elect

  • Liane Luckman Taylor
  • Anne Beaubien

Director-at-Large

  • Danise Hoover
  • Stephanie Atkins
  • William McHugh
  • Janalyn L. Moss

For more information about ALA elections, please see ALA Election Information.

Confessions of a reference librarian: IAmRUSA launches interview series
Ever wonder exactly what kind of work members of RUSA do, or maybe which courses they would recommend for students looking for a career in reference or user services?

Each week IAmRUSA will feature a different interviewee for participants to ask questions about their professional careers, their passions and anything else involving librarianship. Hosted by ALA Connect, anyone interested may join the IAmRUSA community; participants do not need to be RUSA members.

If you are interested in participating as an interviewee, contact Kirk MacLeod or Sarah Hammill for more information.

Accepting Nominations for 2014 RUSA Achievement Awards
http://rusa.ala.org/blog/2013/09/03/2014_achievement_awards_nomination_period/

RUSA and RUSA sections are now accepting nominations for the following grants and awards. Please be aware of deadlines as some of them may have passed by the publication of RUSA Update.

Andrew Carnegie medal finalist named MacArthur Genius
Fiction writer, Karen Russell was named as one of 24 MacArthur “genius” fellows. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awards this annual grant to “encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.”
Russell was a finalist for the 2012 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for her first novel, Swamplandia!.

Call for RUSA Volunteers
March 1, 2014 is the planned closing date to volunteer for our RUSA, BRASS, CODES, History, MARS, RSS, and STARS committees. There’s no reason to put it off, though—volunteer today! Keep in mind that attendance at ALA Midwinter may not be required for some committees and sections. Feel free to contact the committee chair, section chair, or me if you have any questions about attendance. Links to RUSA division-level and section committees can be found here. Access the volunteer form using the same URL provided above. The menu to select section-level committees is located at the bottom of RUSA Committee Volunteer Form (requires sign-in).

Read the latest issue of RUSQ!
Reference and User Services Quarterly, Volume 53, Issue 1 is available and can be found on the RUSQsite.

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers at President Kathleen Kern’s Office Hours
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers at President Kathleen Kern’s Office Hours

Already a RUSA member but not sure where you fit in? Want to get involved? Just curious? Have a question about working with your committee and getting things down? We’ve got all the answers and more. President’s Office hours are also a good place to bring your ideas and enthusiasm.

RUSA President Kathleen Kern will hold virtual office hours via Adobe Connect every Tuesday from 2:00-3:00 p.m. CST.

Meet RUSA Board members:
From flight attendant to librarian: Q&A with Louise Feldmann, RUSA Director-at-Large

RUSA Membership Social and Trivia Contest at Midwinter!
Saturday, January 25, 5:30-7:00 PM, Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel-Liberty Ballroom B

Kick off the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in style with the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Membership Social—an opportunity to eat, drink, network, win door prizes, and learn more about RUSA. The social open to all current RUSA members, friends of RUSA and those meeting attendees interested in learning more about the association and networking with peers. All attendees will have the opportunity to play trivia to win fantastic door prizes!

RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony and Reception at Midwinter!
Sunday, January 26, 5:00-6:30 PM, Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel-Liberty Ballroom A

We’ll unveil the winners of the The Reading List, Notable Books and Listen List selections—lists that are used by readers advisory librarians nationwide—as well as the winners of the Dartmouth Medal for reference, the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, the Zora Neale Hurston Award for achievement in promoting African-American literature and the Louis Shores Award for book reviewing. All ALA Midwinter Meeting participants are invited to this celebration on-site in Philadelphia. Can’t attend? Track the announcements on Twitter with the hashtag #literarytastes.

Midwinter RUSA Board Meeting I, Town Hall Chat
Saturday, January 24, 1:30-3:30 PM
Midwinter RUSA Board Meeting II, Town Hall chat room, Monday, January 27, 2:00-4:00 PM, Pennsylvania Convention Center-118 A

Not able to attend Midwinter? You can still participate in RUSA planning. At the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, join the RUSA Board either in person or online to participate in the annual Town Hall meeting on Saturday, January 25, at the beginning of the RUSA board meeting which begins 1:30-3:30pm. Visit these ALA Connect chat rooms on January 25 to participate online (you may be asked to login or register to comment):

Chat Room 1:http://connect.ala.org/node/214095
Chat Room 2:http://connect.ala.org/node/214096
Chat Room 3:http://connect.ala.org/node/214097

Here are some questions to think about:

  • What keeps you involved in RUSA?
  • What encourages you to attend RUSA meetings?
  • What additional topics would you like to see in RUSA professional development activities?
  • What affinity areas would you like to see in RUSA (such as interest groups on particular topics that cross section levels)?
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RUSA Committees

Just Ask Task Force
The Just Ask Task Force has been planning two upcoming free webinars. “Managing Changes to Reference Services” featuring Gail Griffith was held on December 4. The webinar was full, so for those not able to attend, a recording will be available. The second webinar titled, “Got a minute?: How to Prepare Your Parking Lot Speech,” time and date to be determined later.

Elizabeth Stephan
Diana Shonrock
co-chairs

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BRASS Notes

Carol L. Schuetz, Editor

 

Message from the BRASS Chair
Hello BRASS members! It’s been an eventful fall for BRASS, as shown by the reports from committee chairs below.

We are excited about the $25,000 IMLS Sparks! Grant received by RUSA to create guidelines and best practices in financial literacy education in libraries. Kit Keller has been selected as project director, with a working team consisting of BRASS members Chris Le Beau, Andy Spackman, and Elizabeth Malafi, and an advisory panel with membership from a variety of organizations involved in financial literacy education. The grant will result in guidelines, a white paper, and webinars, and is an excellent opportunity for BRASS to make a difference in a growing area of library service.

In August the Harvard Business Review removed the ability to print, link, or download for 500 of its most used articles on the EBSCO platform. To regain this level of access libraries must now pay a significant premium. Concerned about this loss of access and its implications for the information ecology, BRASS formed a task force to study the situation and make recommendations. Ann Fiegen, Past Chair, led the group, which also included Annette Buckley, Glen McGuigan, Heidi Senior, Linda Hauck, and Lisa Ancelet. The resulting document passed through additional revisions and was approved by a vote of both the BRASS and RUSA executive committees. The RUSA/BRASS Statement on Harvard Business Review Pricing & Access will be announced through an ALA press release, distributed through multiple listservs, and is available on the BRASS website.

The HBR 500 statement will by no means be our last word on the matter. Rather, it should be the beginning of discussion, both within BRASS and between business librarians, their institutions, and publishers. BRASS has a role to play in advocating for access to information, and the strength of our members’ contributions will help us lead the way.

Andy Spackman
BRASS Chair, 2013-2014
andy_spackman@byu.edu

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BRASS Committee Reports

BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
The Business Reference in Academic Libraries committee is busy planning its forum at 2014 ALA Annual. Several submissions have been received for potential speakers and a subcommittee is busy evaluating a lot of interesting and innovative proposals. If you think you would like to submit an idea and be part of the three to four speakers, please do so!

The committee is also gathering responses to Celia Ross’s call for all BRASS committees to respond to a series of self-evaluation questions on how each committee fulfills the BRASS mission statement. The Business Reference in Academic Libraries committee contributes significantly to academic business education outreach and leadership and we’re looking forward to sharing our insights with Celia.

This committee is planning to hold a virtual meeting during ALA midwinter.

Charles Allan, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee
The committee has added a report to the Public Libraries briefcase. The report is Google Drive or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Online Forms by Sal DiVincenzo. This report can be found by going to the BRASS website and clicking on the MORE link by the Public Libraries Briefcase. The committee also discussed topics for ALA Annual in San Francisco in 2015. The committee has liaised with the RSS/Job and Career Services committee on resources for specialized entrance and certification exams.

Ed Rossman, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Program Planning Committee
Mark your calendars for …..BRASS 2014 ALA Annual Program
Monday, June 30, 2014, 8:0010:00 AM

Mad Men: The Business of Advertising
Many companies spend millions on advertising their brands and products, yet the data can be hard to find. Specialized sources, available at many large libraries, focus on these statistics. The information they contain can be used by business students, researchers, or the general public. In addition, media planning, a component of a company’s marketing plan, will be covered. Entrepreneurs need information on placing ads (and on how much it costs); reference librarians assisting these users will also find the content of the program very useful.

The session kicks off with breakfast, 8:00am-8:30am, sponsored by S&P Capital IQ.

Speakers:
Wendy Diamond, Business and Economics Librarian, California State University, Chico. Ms. Diamond has been a featured speaker at two prior BRASS annual programs (2001 and 2008) on marketing. She is the co-author of: Marketing Information: A Strategic Guide for Business and Finance Libraries (2004).

The other speaker will focus on an advertising campaign, or advertising expenditures by a large “ad spender.”

Patricia Kenly, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
The Business Reference Sources Committee is off to a good start, with several business reference titles nominated so far, but we could always use some more. Please let Jordan Nielsen or Mark Siciliano know if you run across any new good business reference titles, as they are coordinating the Business Reference nominations process for the committee. We are also starting to work on putting together the Publisher’s Forum for ALA next summer. If there are topics or vendors you’d like to see us present, please contact the Janis Tyhurst or Penny Scott, the Publisher’s Forum coordinators for this year. We are also wrapping up our section review and will turn in our self-study responses to the Section review Committee by the end of Sept.

Susan Hurst, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Discussion Group Committee
The BRASS Discussion group hosted an online discussion in August and had a truncated discussion in October due to technical difficulties.

The August discussion was an open forum, the free flowing conversation focused on collection development and smaller institutions as well as trends in business reference. The meeting concluded with an update of the BRASS reaction to the Harvard Business Review’s new access policies. Emily Treptow, Michigan State University, and Jason Dewland, University of Arizona, served as moderators, thirty individuals participated.

The second online discussion was organized by Stephanie Tulley, UC Santa Barbara, and Jason Dewland and was to feature a business librarian from the Boston Public Library. Due to technical difficulties in Boston, that portion of the discussion had to be cancelled. A brief overview of working with entrepreneurs at academic institutions and a review of the data management tool DataZoa concluded the meeting. Approximately twenty-five people were present.

Jason Dewland will reach out to the creators of DataZoa to have them sponsor an online webinar about their product (unaffiliated with BRASS). Watch for more on this event via the BRASS-L listserv.

Jason Dewland, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Education Committee
Lots of exciting events are happening in the BRASS Education Committee:

  • Our first BRASS-sponsored free webinar “Industry Research Using the Economic Census and Other Government Sources” presented by Jennifer Boettcher from Georgetown University is scheduled for December 11, Wednesday, 2:00-3:30 PM EST, with the follow-up in one week, on December 18, Wednesday, 2:00-3:00 PM EST. You can register here.
  • The preparation for the 2014 RUSA BRASS preconference is also under way. The preconference working group, including Natasha Arguello, Tom Ottaviano, Hiromi Kubo, and Christina Sheley, will coordinate the event. We are venturing out into a new topic which will be of interest to many librarians, “How Business Librarians Support Entrepreneurs.” This full-day preconference will focus on market research for entrepreneurs for both Main Street and technology start-ups. The preconference will address common questions on how to help entrepreneurs locate information about their market, industry, competitors and customers and which free or premium resources to use. Speakers will discuss existing best practices of supporting small business along with examples of collaboration with entrepreneurship faculty. Attendees will also learn about licensing business resources relevant to entrepreneurs and avoiding material breaches.
  • The committee members are working on creating updated BRASS Business Guides which will combine Best of the Best Business Websites and Selected Core Resources guides for each topic. We expect to have drafts ready by Midwinter.
  • Another traditional October activity for our committee is nominating and voting for three Best of the Best Business Websites which will be announced at the RUSA Book and Media Award Ceremony at the ALA Midwinter. Our theme this year is Entrepreneurship. Voting should be completed in the first week of November. To see the previous winners, please see the RUSA Awards site.

Natasha Arguello, 2012-2014 Chair
University of Texas at San Antonio
http://connect.ala.org/node/65121
http://brass.libguides.com/

BRASS Membership Committee
Did you see BRASS’ own Chris LeBeau lead the week long IAmRUSA interview session with members? This forum led by RUSA gives ALA members the opportunity to ask RUSA members about their professional careers, their passions, and anything else involving librarianship. Chris had a video interview and answered questions about business librarianship. If you did not see her posts the last week in October, go to ALA Connectto read more about Ms. LeBeau!

A mini-reminder since BRASS just does not have enough friends. Become a “friend” of BRASS Facebook page. See pictures and events. You can LIKE US at Facebook.

If you did not get to attend the 25th Anniversary Celebration, you can see all the smiling BRASS members and dignitaries who attended here.

Kelly Janousek, 2012-2014 Chair

BRASS Vendor Relations Committee
The Committee has been communicating with the award vendors and RUSA to get the awards lined up for the New Year. The Committee has also been actively working on the Harvard Business Review issue, and we have received approval for the S&P Breakfast for our Annual Program.

Chris LeBeau, 2013-2015 Chair

BRASS Publications and Communications Committee
The Publications and Communications Committee has been in a bit of transition this year.

  • John Gottfried stepped down as committee chair this year. His work is greatly appreciated by the committee members and BRASS.
  • Several new members have joined the committee.
  • Chad Boeninger is the new Chair of the Publications and Communications Committee and is doing his best to get a lay of the land.
  • Genifer Snipes is the new Social Media Coordinator
  • Katie Emery is the new BRASS-L manager
  • The committee has worked with and completed the section review process with Julia Martin.
  • As a committee we have discussed challenges and issues with the website, including Natasha’s recommendations on how to improve content and navigation of the site.
  • We will look into doing a content audit to figure out what is on the Brass website and how much it is used
  • Genifer Sipes has reached out to BRASS chairs and committees to understand which committees have social media profiles.

Chad Boeninger, 2013-2015 Chair

BRASS Section Review Ad Hoc Committee
As the chair of the BRASS Section Review Ad Hoc Committee, I would like to remind everyone (especially committee chairs), of the due date on the BRASS Section Review. The final report is due to RUSA on Feb. 15, 2014. The committee’s desire is to get a finished review to the BRASS Executive Committee by Midwinter meeting. If you have not been contacted already with your committee’s participation request please contact Paul Brothers, committee chair, ASAP. Brothers can be reached at pbrother@bruno.cba.ua.edu or by phone at 205-348-1097.

Paul Brother, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award Committee
The committee for the Morningstar Public Librarianship Award is now seeking nominations. The award is $1,250 in travel funds for the 2014 ALA Annual Conference to a public librarian who has performed outstanding business reference service and who requires financial assistance to attend the conference. Find more details on the BRASS website. BRASS members who are public librarians are encouraged to nominate themselves!

Karen Chapman, 2013-2015 Chair

BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Excellence in Business Librarianship Award Committee
This award honors an individual who has made significant contributions in the field business librarianship. The recipient will receive a $3,000 cash award and a citation. Applicants for this award will be evaluated based on their contribution to the field of business librarianship. To submit a nomination, please download and complete the nomination form, and follow the submission instructions therein. The deadline for submissions is December 15. For more information, as well as link to the nomination form, please see the RUSA site. A copy of the nomination form (PDF) can be downloaded here.

Mark Andersen, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award Committee
Sponsored byGale Cengage Learning, this $1,000 monetary prize is given to a student enrolled in anALA accredited master’s degree program to fund travel to and attendance at the ALA Annual Conference and a one-year membership in the Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) of RUSA. Applicants may download the form here: nomination form (PDF format). Deadline for all nominations is January 31, 2014.

Matthew Brower, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Business Expert Press Award Committee
This award presents a citation and $1,250 to an individual new to the field of academic business librarianship in order to support attendance to the ALA Annual Conference. To nominate a deserving candidate, download and complete the nomination form, and follow the submission instructions therein. The deadline for nominations is December 15.

Kaiping Zhang, 2013-2014 Chair

BRASS Emerald Research Award Committee
The Emerald Research Grant Award, sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing Limited offers one award of $2,500 and a citation to an individual or team seeking support to conduct research in business librarianship. Interested candidates should submit a detailed proposal outlining their proposed research project; methodology, scope and timetable; how this project fits into the existing literature; and projected outcomes, including a statement outlining how this research will benefit the library profession. The deadline for submissions is December 15.

Elizabeth Stephan, 2013-2014 Chair

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CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

The CODES Board will have its 2nd virtual Midwinter Meeting meeting in 2014; CODES is testing the efficacy of virtual CODES Board meetings as part of a two-year pilot project. All are welcome to attend.

The fall is the busy time for many of the CODES awards committees. The book award committees are deep into reading titles and narrowing down the hundreds of possibilities to shortlists for consideration at Midwinter. The service award committees are issuing calls for nominations, and reviewing nominations, in preparation for making selections by Midwinter. RUSA members should be sure to keep their calendar open for the RUSA Book and Media Awards event at Midwinter when the work of these committees is announced.

 

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History

Laura O’Neill Hibbler, Editor

Midwinter Institute: Genealogy Resources for Librarians Institute
Sponsored by ProQuest Friday

January 24, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM
Philadelphia Free Library conference room, 1901 Vine St., Philadelphia, PA 19103

This all-day institute addresses issues of importance to library staff and administration when serving or partnering with genealogical patrons, volunteer, scholars, or educators. Fourteen panelists and lecturers will present at the midwinter ALA RUSA Midwinter Genealogy Resources for Librarians Preconference Institute, “Future Directions for the National Archives and Records Administration.” Specialists will discuss everything from superb free resources to future directions at NARA to webinar outreach, new online offerings, webinar instruction, government documents, Quaker resources, and making the financial case for genealogical librarianship. Luncheon included.

Register now at the Midwinter Ticketed Events page. You do not need to be registered for the entire conference to participate in the ticketed events.

The History Section Genealogical Publishing Company Award
Established in 1992 and sponsored by Genealogical Publishing Company this award presents a citation and $1,500 cash to a librarian or library in recognition of their professional achievement in historical or genealogical reference, service or research. The recipient shall be selected for exceptional accomplishment in one or more of the following areas: professional association leadership and/or service and training; reference services; publication of recent, important, and highly regarded print or web based reference works; or digital projects that offer important access to genealogical or historical sources. Please visit the Genealogical Publishing Company Award page for more information.

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MARS

Update from the Emerging Technologies in Reference Section
Join the discussion at http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/mars-l

Cathy Larson, Editor

Greetings!

We are fast approaching the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia from January 24-27, 2014. For Midwinter of 2014, MARS will again use a modified system of meetings. Most committees, other than the Executive Committee, will not meet in person during Midwinter. Committees are meeting virtually prior to Midwinter, and submitting a report of committee activities to the Executive Committee by email. The Executive Committee will meet in person during Midwinter and will refer to committee reports to conduct business. The Planning Committee, and members of those groups hosting discussion forums will be present as well. With the continuing challenges many of our members face in finding funding for two conferences per year, we hope this model will meet our needs.

Please let us know how you feel about this change. One issue is that we don’t seem to be able to get as many committee volunteers with the new format. Committee appointments, which typically begin July 1 of each year, are generally made between the Midwinter and Annual meetings and without interested volunteers attending our Midwinter committee meetings, it has been more of a challenge to identify those interested in working with our committees. I welcome your thoughts on ways we can increase our ability to identify willing and interested volunteers.

Watch for details on time and place in the coming weeks regarding the RUSA Membership Social. This event allows RUSA members and prospective members to meet and mingle while learning more about RUSA. I encourage you to attend if you are able to do so. The social is a highlight for RUSA during the Midwinter Meeting and it is a great place to encourage others to join us in MARS and to volunteer to serve on committees.

MARS will also be hosting some very interesting discussion forums during Midwinter. We are also planning a free preconference workshop Look for more specifics later this month. Please show your support by attending these forums if your schedule permits.

Please note that ALA’s new meeting policy, initiate last year, will be in effect. As a result, you will note that two of our discussion forums are shorter; only sixty minutes instead of the usual ninety. This new meeting policy is ALA’s response to feedback from members who requested shorter meeting times. See the Annual Conference 2013: Change Roadmap for more details on the change discussion.

Highlighting some of the work going on between conferences:

The Nominating Committee has been hard at work over the fall and they have prepared a slate for the upcoming elections. Watch your emails in March for the new ballot. And be sure to make your vote count!

The Planning Committee is preparing for Section Review. In conjunction with the members at large, the committee will be meeting virtually and at Midwinter to finalize the report that will be submitted to RUSA. This is a regular task, whereby each of the Sections in RUSA review their activities, structures and plans for the future. The review helps us to formally document where we’ve been, evaluate what changes may be needed, how we relate to other sections and divisions within ALA, to create a roadmap for continual improvement in the section, and to provide information back to our parent division, RUSA.

Finally, help us to select an outstanding section member for the MARS Achievement Recognition Award (My Favorite Martian) this year! See the Call for Nominations for information on award criteria and deadlines for nominations.

See you in Philadelphia!

Sam Stormont
srstormont@widener.edu
Chair, Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) 2013-2014

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RSS Review

Amy Rustic, Editor

RSS_Logo

 

 

 


Message from the Chair:
Hello RSS Members!

I hope all of you are staying warm as we head into winter.

RSS is working on its agility and responsiveness to the changing nature of librarianship. We are currently reviewing the charges of three of our committees to better reflect our membership and its needs. As we finalize those, please check this newsletter for the next update.

If you’re heading to Midwinter, please make a point of stopping by one of our discussion forums, or join us for our Fourth Annual Pancake Breakfast! It’s a great opportunity to network with RSS leadership and make new friends. We are in the last phase of planning, so make sure to check RSS-L for where we’ll be eating the morning of Saturday, January 25.

See you online and (maybe) at Midwinter!

Ann

Ann Brown
RSS Chair, 2013-2014
agbrown@gwu.edu

What Makes RSS Great? Tell us why you think RSS is great:http://tinyurl.com/rssgreat

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RSS Committee Reports

Catalog Use Committee
The RSS Catalog Use Committee is applying to the Board to change the Committee’s name and to revise its charge. We will not be meeting at Midwinter but will be meeting virtually and will plan a discussion forum for the 2014 Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Colleen Seale, 2013-2014 Chair

Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need
The Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need committee met on October 23 to review its goals and direction for the future. We decided to continue with our plan to survey relevant communities with the objective of using the data gathered to build a portfolio of best practices and created a timeline for completion. The committee will review the survey at our Midwinter meeting in January and administer it in February 2014.

Julie Housknecht and Holly Wilson, 2013-2014 Co-chairs

Discussion Forums Coordinating Committee
SKYPE? Face Time? Why Has Face-to-Face Not Been the New Wave in Digital Reference?
Saturday, January 25, 1:00-2:30 PM

Face-to-face communication utilizing mobile devices has become increasingly popular thanks to front-facing cell phone cameras and other technologies, yet literature written about offering video reference services concludes that such services are not heavily utilized. Join with colleagues to share your own experiences with video chat reference, ideas for marketing the services, and whether or not you believe what the literature concludes is true. Facilitator: Benjamin Andrus, Binghamton University

Patron-Centered Reference Librarianship: Using Patrons’ Interests to Motivate Information Literacy Learning
Sunday, January 26, 8:30-10:00 AM, Pennsylvania Convention Center-115 C

Although it is widely acknowledged that library education should be patron-centered, serious discussions of patron-centered reference librarianship are virtually non-existent. Now is your chance to be part of just such a discussion. Gather with colleagues to share best practices and strategies for engaging users in patron-centered learning at the reference desk. What does patron-centered learning mean to you? What strategies do you use to connect with users at the reference desk? How can we motivate authentic learning within the context of reference? Learn from others and share your own strategies for connecting with users as unique individuals, not just information problems to be solved. Facilitator: Kevin Michael Klipfel, California State University, Chico

Crystal Lentz, 2013-2014 Chair

Evaluation of Reference and User Services Committee
A team made up of members from Evaluation of Reference and User Services Committee (ERUS) and Virtual Reference Services (VR) Committee, created a survey to assess the state of the profession in the provision of virtual reference services. The survey was sent out in September, and the analysis of results will begin soon. ERUS is also finalizing the questions for a survey looking at reference service models and evaluation of service. The survey will hopefully be ready to send out to listservs by the end of this year. ERUS will be meeting virtually after the Midwinter Conference.

Jason Kruse, 2013-2014 Chair

Health and Medical Reference Committee
The committee will host a discussion group during the ALA Midwinter Meeting called “Your Experiences with the Affordable Care Act.” The program will take place Monday, January 27 from 8:30-10:00 AM in the Pennsylvania Convention Center in room 105A. Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment goes through March 31, 2014. Come to this forum to discuss your library’s experiences: what has worked, what hasn’t worked, complaints, successes, surprises (both good and bad), and any other things about this process. A subgroup to rewrite guidelines for medical reference has met monthly to prepare a draft of the Guidelines. The committee will meet at ALA Midwinter to discuss the guidelines and other committee business on Sunday January 26 from 3:00-4:00 PM.

Karen Vargas, 2012-2014 Chair

Job and Career Reference Committee
Webinar
The RSS Job & Career Committee held it’s first free webinar on Thursday, November 21: “Partnerships in Career Services @ Your Library: A Case Study at St. Paul Public Library”,

Description: Join the ALA RSS Job & Career Reference Committee for a presentation and discussion on the work of St. Paul Public Library surrounding their Mobile WORKplace, community partnerships, and other initiatives to assist their patrons with digital literacy and employment after a strategic planning process.

New Listserv
We are also launching a subject-specific reference listserv: http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/rssjcr-l

RSS Job and Career Reference Listserv. This is a subject-specific listserv that addresses Job and Career reference/public service delivery within a library setting (public, academic, corporate or special). Appropriate content includes relevant workshop offerings, reference questions & resource reviews. No vendor surveys.

We invite anyone with interest in the topic to join the listserv by sending an email to sympa@ala.org with SUBSCRIBE rssjcr-l firstname lastname in the subject of the message and leave the rest of the email blank.

For any questions or concerns please contact Kate Oberg.

Midwinter Discussion

RSS Job & Career Reference will be meeting virtually during Midwinter although they have an in-person discussion also planned entitled “Partnerships and Job & Career Reference: RSS Job & Career Reference Committee Discussion Forum.”

Description: There are many organizations involved in assisting job-seekers. How do libraries interact with community partners when offering library services to job seekers? Join the RSS Job & Career Reference Committee for a discussion and sharing of programs, strategies & techniques.

It is tentatively scheduled for: Saturday, January 25 3:00-4:00 pm

Nominations Requested
The Committee is also accepting nominations from ALA members for speakers on job and career reference. If you know a library system or librarian who has accomplished a great deal in job & career reference, that has strong presentation skills, and an interest in sharing with the wider library community, please email us. Send all nominations to committee chair, Kate Oberg.

Kate Oberg, 2013-2014 Chair

Library Service to an Aging Population
The RSS Library Services to an Aging Population continues to work on overhauling the Guidelines for Library Services to Older Adults, for which we are responsible. Right now, we are working on the reference and programming sections, with the goal of having a draft ready for our virtual meeting on January 16.

Abigail Elder, 2013-2014 Chair

Library Services to the Spanish Speaking
The RSS Library Services to the Spanish Speaking Committee, is trying to get the Board to approve a revision to our Committee’s charge so that our focus can be changed to immigrants, not just the Spanish speaking. The proposed revision of the charge reads: “To improve library services to immigrants of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds at the local and national levels.” We are a very small group at present and would really welcome more participation.

For more information about the committee please contact: DLL-2@hotmail.com

Dana M. Lucisano, 2013-2014 Chair

Marketing & Public Relations for Reference
The Marketing and Public Relations Committee met virtually in early October. We are exploring ways that libraries can work to promote the work of librarians in promotion for libraries overall. We will continue our discussion when we meet at Midwinter and are investigating possibilities for hosting a discussion forum at Annual. If you’ve seen any great examples of campaigns promoting the work of librarians or library staff, we’d love to see them. Please send to Jessica Hagman.

Jessica Hagman, 2013-2014 Chair

Recognition Committee
The Recognition Committee is soliciting nominations for the RSS Service Achievement Award.

This annual award is presented to an RSS member who has made either a sustained contribution towards attaining the goals of the Reference Services Section or a single significant contribution that has resulted in a positive impact upon the work of the section.

Anyone who wishes to nominate a Reference Services Section member for the award should do so by December 15. Please send a nomination letter to the award committee chair (Emilie Smart) detailing how the nominee has met either of the above criteria Questions regarding the award or nomination process should be directed to the committee chair.

Emilie Smart, 2013-2014 Chair

Research and Statistics Committee
The Research and Statistics Committee of the Reference Services Section of RUSA invites the submission of research projects for presentation at the 20th Reference Research Forum at the 2014 American Library Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

The Reference Research Forum continues to be one of the most popular and valuable programs during the ALA Annual Conference, where attendees can learn about notable research projects conducted in the broad area of reference services such as user behavior, electronic services, reference effectiveness and assessment, and organizational structure and personnel. All researchers, including reference practitioners from all types of libraries, library school faculty and students, and other interested individuals, are encouraged to submit a proposal.

For examples of projects presented at past Forums, please see the Committee’s website.

The Committee employs a blind review process to select three projects for 20-minute presentations, followed by open discussion. Selected submissions must be presented in person at the Forum in Las Vegas, NV.

Criteria for selection:

  • Quality and creativity of the research design and methodologies;
  • Significance of the study for improving the quality of reference service;
  • Potential for research to fill a gap in reference knowledge or to build on previous studies;
  • Research projects may be in-progress or completed;
  • Previously published research or research accepted for publication will not be accepted.

Proposals are due by Monday, December 30, 2013. Notification of acceptance will be made by Monday, February 10, 2014.

The submission must not exceed two pages. Please include:

  1. A cover sheet including your name(s), title(s), institutional affiliation(s), mailing address(es), fax number(s) and email address(es).
  2. The second page should NOT show your name, any personal information, or the name of your institution. Instead, it must include:
  3. Title of the project;
  4. Explicit statement of the research problem;
  5. Description of the research design and methodologies used, and preliminary findings if any;
  6. Brief discussion of the unique contribution, potential impact, and significance of the research.

Please send submissions by email to:
Ava Iuliano, Chair, RUSA RSS Research and Statistics Committee, aiuliano@fiu.edu

Ava Iuliano, Chair 2013-2014

Virtual Reference Tutorial Subcommittee
The Subcommittee continues to work on the Virtual Reference Companion (VRC) with the goal of completion by ALA Annual 2014. The Subcommittee meets monthly and works in subgroups between meetings.

The Skills module was completed at the end of August and resources were added to the Resources section of the VRC. The remaining four modules to complete are Assessment, Professional Development, Staffing/Partners, and Information Literacy. The Subcommittee has divided into two subgroups to complete work on the Assessment and Professional Development modules by ALA Midwinter 2014.

The VRC is now live at http://www.ala.org/rusa/vrc. It is also linked on the RSS Virtual Reference Committee page under the Hot Links section and on the RUSA Resources page under Professional Tools. We have requested to have it linked in the Web Resources section of the ALA Library Fact Sheet 19: Virtual Reference: A Selected Annotated Bibliography. The old resource is still available at http://cs.ala.org/ra/vr_adventure/vr_adventure_index.htm.

One section of the VRC has Tips & Best Practices and we seek input from RSS members. If anyone has words of wisdom to share on any of these or other topics related to virtual reference, please send them to Jared Hoppenfeld or Christine Tobias.

Jared Hoppenfeld, 2012-2014 Chair
Christine Tobias, 2013-2014 Chair

Young Adult Reference Services Committee
Young Adult Reference Services Committee (YARS) has gone through a busy year of transition. At the ALA Annual in Chicago this summer, the YALSA Board voted to conditionally make YARS a joint committee between YALSA and RUSA RSS, so long as its charge was rewritten to reflect its new joint committee status and approved by both divisions. Not only is the committee rewriting its charge, it is also overhauling RUSA’s Guidelines for Library Services to Teens to better align with YALSA’s Research Agenda. The committee will be holding an in-person meeting at Midwinter on Sunday, January 26 at 8:30 AM, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown in Room 402. Following the meeting, YARS will host the discussion forum “The Teen Brain Construction Site: How the Adolescent Work-in-Progress Mind Shapes Information Seeking Behaviors” from 10:30-11:30 on Sunday January 26 at Midwinter; Pennsylvania Convention Center Room 204 C.

Allyson Evans, 2013-2014 Chair

RSS Review is the newsletter of the Reference Services Section of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association. Please send suggestions for future issues to Amy Rustic (aer123@psu.edu), editor.

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STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

 

STARS Membership Committee
STARS Membership has just posted a new STARGazer! Naomi Chow’s interview can be found on the STARS page. The 5 Things webpage has been revised and updated for this upcoming year and we’re working hard to communicate with committees in an outreach effort through our monthly updates to new and current members.

We’ve also been working with additional members who volunteered for the 10th Anniversary Social Planning Committee to organize a celebratory social in Las Vegas! Lars Leon, Heather Weltin, Megan Gaffney, Shirley Thomas, Denise Forro, Beth Clausen, Deidre Clarkin, and myself are busy busy brainstorming ideas, options etc. We recently sent out a survey to the STARS Members asking for feedback on what folks would like to see. Five quick questions taking less than forty-eight seconds can be found here.

Micquel Little, Chair

STARS Legislation and Licensing Committee
The Licensing and Legislation Committee, would like to make sure that everyone is aware that the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild against Google was dismissed. It’s a big victory for Google. For those who would like to read more about the case, please see the article “Google Books: Court Dismisses Authors’ Lawsuit” from the November 13, 2013 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The Committee will be meeting remotely in December and at ALA Midwinter.

Shannon O’Grady, Chair

STARS Education and Training Committee
The STARS Education and Training Committee is currently distributing a survey to ILL practitioners asking for their feedback and thoughts on the ShareILL wiki. We are also organizing our free 2014 ALA Midwinter workshop “Everything you always wanted to know about ILL.” The workshop will be held on January 14 at the Library Learning Terrace at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Registration is limited to sixty-five.

Additionally, we are working with the Research & Assessment Committee, headed by Charla Gilbert, on analyzing the survey results for our ILL and genealogy webinar presented last month by Amber Case and Cherie Wieble. We are trying to establish a partnership with the RUSA Genealogy Committee, headed by Michael Hall, for our 2014 ALA Annual presentation also on ILL and genealogy.

Karen Okamoto, Chair

STARS Research and Assessment Committee
The Research and Assessment Committee is working with the Training and Education Committee to input surveys for webinars and upcoming sessions at Midwinter. We are also evaluating said surveys and looking for trends within the surveys. Because we received a new mission this past summer, we are continuing to redefine our purpose and work on policies and processes for the work to be completed.

Becky Ringwelski, Chair

Boucher Award Committee
The Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award committee welcomes nominations in recognition of outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery. For full award criteria and nomination instructions, visit the awards page. The nomination deadline is December 15.

Megan Gaffney, Chair

STARS-Atlas Systems Mentoring Award Committee
The STARS-Atlas Systems Mentoring Award committee has been promoting this award via various listservs. Deadline for nominations is December 15. Additional promotions are planned. To date, the committee has received one official nomination and several inquiries about eligibility.

Amy R. Paulus, Chair

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From the President

For many of us, the fall is the start of a new year: a new academic year for ourselves or our children, a post-vacation or post-summer-reading-program year, and the start of a new RUSA year. We have new committees, new programs, new online learning opportunities, newly elected leaders, and new initiatives. In many ways, one season blends into the next and one year becomes another without much fuss. Certainly there are continuing initiatives in RUSA, but I’ll give you a look at some of what is new.

Tuesdays from 2:00-3:00 PM Central, I will hold an “open office hour” in Adobe Connect. As President, one of my goals is to make it easier to work with RUSA and easier to be a part of everything that we have going on. Look for the link to the Adobe Connect room to be announced on the RUSA-L listserv* and the RUSA Facebook page and website. I will also be available during this time via telephone 649-9174 (area code 217). You can, of course, email me or call at other times, but 2:00-3:00 on Tuesdays I am dedicated to your questions and your ideas. I will be joined selected weeks by a member of the RUSA office who can also answer your RUSA questions and we will announce in advance who will be present

IAmRUSA is a new interactive member-of-the-week being worked on by Kirk MacLeod, RUSA Spectrum scholar along with two or three fabulous RUSA mentors. Each week one member, or person of interest to RUSA such as a RUSA award-winning author, will present a brief profile on ALA Communities and then field questions about her job. ALA Communities allows a threaded discussion, so people will be able to post questions, receive responses, and engage in asynchronous conversations with the profiled member and each other. ALA Communities requires registration but is free, so this will be a good way to reach non-RUSA members and library school students to spread the word about the meaningful—and often fun—work of user services and reference librarians and staff. If you are interested in helping to organize IAmRUSA or in being a member of the week, please contact MacLeod at (kgmcleod@ualberta.ca).

More online learning! This past year RUSA sections and members were active with offering webinars and online courses. We offered five webinars and eighteen online courses reaching over 500 learners. Our members (and non-members) are eager for opportunities to learn from RUSA’s experts and we are increasing our online learning offerings. This past year was our first foray into the 1-1.5-hour webinar format and there interest in adding more topics. Our four-week courses continue to be strongly attended as well with many offered additional times due to continuing demand. We have an open-call for webinars for the fall and online courses for the spring (deadline for both is September 1.) See the list of the currently scheduled (more to come!) webinars and courses.

RUSA was awarded a Sparks! Ignition grant from IMLS for the project: National Guidelines and Best Practices for Financial Literacy Education (FLE). This work will be carried out by BRASS (Business Reference and Services Section). This initiative dovetails nicely with the existing SmartInvesting@YourLibrary grant from the FINRA foundation and addresses a very timely topic in the lives of our library users. Congratulations to RUSA and BRASS!

 

This year we moved to the Adobe Connect platform for our online meetings and webinars. This is not to be confused with the ALA Connect platform for asynchronous communications and committee documents. (Sort of like journals with similar names, there ought to be a rule against naming products this closely!) Virtual and between-conference committee meetings can be held in Connect or via conference call. Here is how to arrange a meeting online or via conference call. ALA is using the Adobe Connect platform so the move takes advantage of pricing and support offered by ALA.

 

Leadership development is something that we all need in our careers. RUSA recognizes the need for growth at all levels of your career. To start, we are focusing on early to mid-career librarians who are active RUSA volunteers. After we have developed within this scope, RUSA will expand the foci and reach to new librarians, later-career librarians, and all of RUSA membership. Gary White, RUSA past-President, is leading this initiative. Connect with Gary White (gww2@umd.edu) if you are interested in volunteer to help work on this program of activities, if you have ideas on content that we should offer, or are an experienced librarian/committee chair who would like to provide mentorship or online leadership training to newer leaders. My fall RUSQ column also focuses on Leadership Development and Mentoring with tips on being a mentor and on being a mentee.

Every year brings new leadership within RUSA. Here are the elected RUSA and Section officers for this year. Newly elected Vice-President Joe Thompson and Secretary Erin Rushton and newly elected Directors-at-Large Margaret Ellingson and Louise Feldmann. Continuing on the Executive Committee are Jennifer Boettcher, RUSA Councilor, and Mary Popp, RUSA Past-President. On the RUSA Board Cynthia Levine, Celia Ross, Doris Anne Sweet, and Patrick Wall, are Directors-at-Large. The 2013-2014 RUSA Board of Directors also includes section chairs: Andy Spackman (BRASS), Asia Gross (CODES), Michelle Baildon (History), Sam Stormont (MARS), Ann K. G. Brown (RSS), and Nora Dethloff (STARS). Congratulations, too, to the new section Vice-Chairs/Chairs Elect: Todd Hines (BRASS), Deborah Abston (CODES), Jenny Presnell (HS), Stephanie J. Graves (MARS-ETS), Qiana Johnson (RSS), Christina “Tina” Baich (STARS).

Annual 2013 in Chicago was a whirlwind of RUSA activities, far too many to mention them all. The RUSA President’s program was attended by over 650 people and featured Lee Raine from the Pew Internet Trust and was followed-up the next day with an expert panel. Watch and listen online if you missed this program. We hope in the future to be able to capture more sessions for later viewing and are working with ALA Conference Services. For a full list of RUSA programs and events at Annual 2013, see the ALA Scheduler, links to program slides and handouts may be available in the comments section at the end of the program description.

As with the Academy Awards, there are so many people to thank. This is also a list of people that you might want to get to know, if you don’t already, as they know a lot about RUSA and libraries.

  • Thank you to Mary Popp, outgoing RUSA President (now Past-President), Gary White, Past President, and Carolyn Larson, Secretary, for being people who offer good counsel and get things done.
  • Thank you to the outgoing members of the RUSA Board of Directors: Chris LeBeau (BRASS), Dianna McKellar (MARS), Alesia McManus (Director at Large), Amber Prentiss (Director at Large), Janice Schultz (History), Liane Taylor (RSS), Barry Trott (Past President), and Heather Weltin (STARS).
  • Thank you to every volunteer in every part of RUSA! RUSA does nothing without you.
  • Thanks to the RUSA office for supporting the work of RUSA: Executive Director, Susan Hornung; Andrea Hill, web services manager; Liz Markel, marketing and programs manager; and Leighann Wood, membership assistant.
  • Thanks to Barry Trott for successfully moving Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) to online-only and a great first-year as editor of our esteemed journal.
  • Thank you, Liane Taylor, for your hard work in supporting Blackboard Collaborate for online meetings and webinars and for helping us with the transition to Adobe Connect.
  • And thank you to all of the RUSA members who support what we do through their membership and their attendance at RUSA events at conference and online.

Making it (even) easier to volunteer Members are what make RUSA work. It is trite, but true. Our programs, our webinars, our courses, our guidelines, our awards, our social functions: everything is based on member ideas and member work. Sometimes, though, people don’t have the ability to volunteer for an entire year of committee work. And sometimes we don’t have room on the committees for all of the volunteers, since a too-large committee is unwieldy. We are working with RUSA Office and some of the committees on short-term and micro-volunteer opportunities. Look for the announcements about those on RUSA-L. The RUSA Legislative Assembly Reps have already launched a call for volunteers to help with advocacy for legislative issues. If you did not see that call but have a passion around in legislation that affects libraries, please contact Alesia McManus at amcmanus@howardcc.edu

Anyone can have a good idea, share yours! A lot of what we do comes from committees and sections, but RUSA also serves members who are not committee members. I know that many people do not have the time to volunteer or put their volunteer efforts elsewhere. Suggesting an activity or topic area for RUSA doesn’t mean that we will make it your responsibility. So, stop into my weekly Tuesday office hour or send me an email. The email inboxes of the rest of the RUSA Board (named above) are also open.

Have a great year!
Kathleen

M. Kathleen Kern
RUSA President 2013-2014

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RUSA News

Let’s get in touch, and get social!
Are you connected? Stay in touch with these RUSA communication tools:

Reference and User Services Quarterly: Accessing the journal
Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), a quarterly benefit of RUSA members, is an all-digital journal available online via Metapress; however, you will need to set up a Metapress account. Complete, detailed instructions for accessing the journal can be found on the RUSA website or visit www.ala.org/rusa, then float over the “Communications” button near the top left portion of the page, and scroll down to “RUSQ”. If you run into challenges with journal access, contact support@metapress.com for assistance.

Once you’ve accessed the journal, make sure to check out the following content for volume 52, issue 4:

  • The library profession, and RUSA, lost an important member this winter with the death of former RUSQ editor Connie Van Fleet. In the editor’s column in this issue, Connie’s colleagues, students, and teachers remember her and her wide ranging interests.
  • Victoria Caplinger’s column on readers’ advisory (RA) from the cataloger’s perspective should provoke some useful discussion on improving RA services in libraries of all sorts.
  • Other columns and articles explore Google Scholar, the role of the reference desk, and readers’ advisory in academic libraries.

Call for online learning proposals!
Proposals for webinars and online courses are being accepted through September 1! There’s a wide variety of topics. Get the scoop on what we’re looking for, and find links to the submission form here.

MacLeod joins RUSA as Spectrum Scholar intern
RUSA welcomes its Spectrum Scholar, Kirk MacLeod from the University of Alberta! In this role, MacLeod will work with RUSA’s member leaders on various professional and association-related projects, including launching a weekly “I Am A” question-and-answer with a different RUSA member each week and revitalizing the RUSA Ambassadors outreach out to LIS programs. Details here.

Summer Reading: Andrew Carnegie Medals
There are just a few days of summer left to squeeze in some good books, and we think you should make the Andrew Carnegie Medals for fiction and nonfiction part of your lists. This year’s winners are Richard Ford’s Canada (fiction), and Timothy Egan’s Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (nonfiction). Complete winner information is on the RUSA blog.

Student-to-staff: A snapshot of the 2013 ALA Annual Conference experience
Wayne State University MLIS candidate Michelle Scobie, along with fellow library school student Jay Ballenberger of Emporia State University, were a tremendous help in Chicago, providing logistical support at a variety of RUSA events. Read Michelle’s writeup of her experiences on the RUSA blog.

Legislative Issues Task Force
Do you have an interest in legislative issues facing libraries such as funding for libraries, access to research and government information and privacy?

If so, please consider volunteering for a RUSA ad-hoc task force that is charged with 1) identifying legislative issues of concern to RUSA and ways that sections and committees can respond to these concerns, and 2) after identifying issues of concern, making a recommendation to the RUSA Board for further action, including a recommendation for an on-going mechanism for RUSA to stay in touch with legislative issues. The ad-hoc task force will be asked to make a recommendation to the RUSA board by the ALA Annual meeting in 2014.

If you are interested in volunteering for this RUSA ad-hoc task force on legislative issues, please send a statement of interest along with information on your ALA Committee experience to Alesia McManus amcmanus@howardcc.edu.

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RUSA Committees

Just Ask

Just Ask met at ALA Annual to review what had been done since Midwinter in Seattle. The Ask Campaign has been piloted by Cathay Crosby and Julie Strange as a way to promote Maryland’s JustAskNow service. The Ask Campaign is a series of posters with library users holding a question asked at the library, similar to the READ posters. We hope that this project will lead to a national campaign. You can read more about Crosby and Strange’s pilot on ALA Connect and on the JustAskNow page. We are also planning at least one free webinar that will be focused on change and how it can specifically be applied to reference services.

Elizabeth Stephan, Co-Chair
Diana Shonrock, Co-Chair

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Message from the Chair

BRASS Notes

Carol L. Schuetz, Editor

 

BRASS members:

Please read the committee reports below about the activities and initiatives highlighting the 25 year of BRASS. This all occurs because of volunteer work! It has been an honor to serve with such a dedicated group of librarians. We look forward to more with the new BRASS Chair for 2013-2014 Andy Spackman.

For 25 years BRASS IS…

  • Welcoming new business librarians.
  • Professional growth in the field of business information (how to find it, and how to use it!).
  • Teaching and learning: guiding library users to business resources.
  • Education: preconference, programs, publications, guidelines and listserv advice that are used daily to make choices and decisions that affect our users.
  • Member publishers, database developers and our sponsors who work in conjunction with librarians and libraries to supply tools to enable our users to meet their goals.

The opportunity to learn from the best leaders and to become one.

BRASS IS more than 800 members working everyday in every kind of library.

Ann Fiegen
BRASS Chair 2012-2013
afiegen@csusm.edu

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BRASS Committee Reports

BRASS 25th Anniversary Planning Committee
The BRASS 25th Anniversary Dinner was held at Fulton’s-on-the-River in Chicago on Monday, July 1, 2013 with 150 BRASS members attending. Many thanks to the event grand sponsor, Gale Cengage Learning, and to the other sponsors: S&P Capital IQ, ReportLinker, Morningstar, Annual Reviews, EBSCO, Mintel, PrivCo, SimplyMap, Mergent, and Emerald. The event committee chair would also like to thank the planning committee members for their tremendous work putting this event together (Mark Andersen, Bobray Bordelon, Irwin Faye, Michael Oppenheim, and Celia Ross)! Thank you everyone for a great evening!

Louise Feldmann, 2011-2013 Chair

BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
The Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee met on Saturday, June 29 at McCormick Place. Twenty people were in attendance, ranging from new librarians to veteran business librarians. New business librarian Nicole Spoor took excellent minutes of the meeting.

After welcoming everyone and giving personal introductions, we discussed the following items: possible topics for future BRASS forums, publishing opportunities in the BRASS newsletter, an update on the status of the Core Competencies Task Force and a discussion of our committee’s duties and mission with BRASS executive representative Celia Ross.

Possible topics for future BRASS Forum discussions included local economies, entrepreneurship, business instruction, presentation of award-winning research papers and working with faculty. The purpose of the discussion was to get people thinking about emerging issues in business librarianship and to refine ideas into possible forum topics. Committee chair Charles Allan reminded everyone that the BRASS Newsletter is open to receiving new submissions on varying topics. Participants were urged to submit a brief article.

Charles Allan and several members of the joint BRASS/CUBL Core Competencies Task Force were present and informed the meeting attendees of their work and its current status. The Task Force currently has seven main points and covers material that students should know when they graduate. The competencies might be a bridge between us and AACSB standards (the relationship is too vague and we would like to fix that). The next step in the evolution of the competencies is to survey faculty, students and employers.

Celia Ross came for the last segment of the meeting to get our take on how our committee fits into the BRASS architecture. Members present cited the committee’s attention to addressing a wide variety of issues facing business librarians in universities.

Charles Allan, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee
The Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee hosted a discussion at ALA Annual —Business Programming in Public Libraries. This spirited discussion included business programming ideas and advice from librarians around the country. The feedback for the program was excellent.

The committee met after the program and discussed the forum, state of business reference in our libraries and what’s to come. New Public Libraries Briefcases will be released by the end of the year.

Elizabeth Malafi, 2011-2013 Chair

BRASS Program Planning Committee
BRASS_1The BRASS Program, “Investment Success! Building & Managing Your Retirement Portfolio,” took place on July 1, 2013 at McCormick Place. Approximately 130 people turned out to hear our two speakers.

Charles Rotblut, Vice President of the American Association for Individual Investors (AAII) and editor of the AAII Journal, titled his presentation, “Smart Investing: Seeking Reward While Reducing Risk.” He emphasized that “the optimal strategy is not one that maximizes return, but rather one that helps you stick to your long-term investing plan and achieve your goals.” He discussed common cognitive errors investors make including loss aversion, overconfidence, confirmation bias, recency bias, and hindsight bias. A chart from an article in the October 2012 AAII Journal shows that the average equity mutual fund investor underperformed a simple buy and hold strategy using a Standard & Poor’s 500 index fund or ETF by more than 4% per year. The reason: individual mutual fund investors “buy high” and “sell low”, i.e., they buy funds that have already gone up in price and sell funds after they have gone down. Mr. Rotblut advises a three step process. 1) Understand the role your mind plays; 2) Use the power of the written word to your advantage by writing down your investment strategy, stating your buy and sell rules; he said that his favorite investing tool is a spiral notebook. 3) Determine your long-term allocation strategy and stick to It.

Jeremy Glaser is the Morningstar Markets Editor. His presentation was titled, “Investing Well at Every Life Stage.” He focused primarily on Pre-Retirees, people in their 50s and 60s, who are strategizing about retirement, and Retirees, people in their 60s and 70s, who are already retired. Pre-retirees should continue to save aggressively for retirement, gradually reduce risk in their portfolio, pay off debt, including “good” debt like mortgage debt if you intend to stay in your home, assess retirement readiness by looking at income needs, withdrawal rates, and portfolio sustainability, develop a Social Security and retirement date strategy, and formulate a long-term care and estate plan. Retirees (60s, 70s, and beyond) should continue to reduce risk in their investment portfolio, segment portfolio by time horizon, liquidate investments in a tax-efficient manner, and regularly revisit their withdrawal rate to make sure it is sustainable.

Audio recordings were made of both presentations. The Powerpoint slides and audio will be made available exclusively to BRASS members for the first six months. Check the BRASS website under the “Presentations” category.

 BRASS_2 Morningstar distributed a free book, Investing for the Long Run: Strategies and Solutions to Help You Shape Up Your Finances. The book contains sound advice for investors of all ages. The book may be freely downloaded as a PDF: http://library.morningstar.com/mkt/investing_for_the_long_run.pdf .

 

Peter McKay, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
The Business Reference Sources Committee (BRSC) met twice online during May and June to discuss nominated titles for the Best Business References Sources. Selecting these titles is one of the major charges of the BRSC. With an abbreviated one hour meeting schedule in Chicago at ALA, the committee decided that we wanted to do this before we met in person in order to give the titles the time and consideration they deserved. The winning titles will be reviewed in the winter edition of the RUSQ and also announced at the Midwinter Book and Media Awards Reception in Philadelphia on Sunday, January 26, 2014. Many thanks to Ed Hahn, Nominating Coordinator, for his work in getting titles nominated and then leading the online meetings to determine which titles would be selected. Thanks also go to Becky Smith, Column Editor, who will be compiling the reviews of the winning titles and submitting the column to RUSQ for publication. Finally thanks to the committee as a whole for their efforts in nominating and discussing the titles and then reviewing those selected for the column.

The BRSC also sponsors the Publishers’ Forum at ALA each year. This year forum was titled, “Finding Business Information in a Googlized World: The Future of Business Research and Discovery Layers.” This was a timely topic, focusing on the impact of discovery services on locating business information and data. This is especially important since most of the discovery platforms tend to be focused on articles and do not pulling out the types of data that business researchers seek. Our speakers included Gilad Gal, Director of Product Management for Discovery and Delivery Solutions Ex Libris Ltd.; John Law, Vice President of Discovery Solutions, ProQuest/Serials Solutions; Sam Brooks, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, EBSCO Publishing; and Suzanne Kemperman, Director, Business Development & Publisher Relations, OCLC. We had approximately eighty persons in attendance and the evaluations returned after the session were quite positive. Thanks in particular go to Penny Scott who chaired the Forum sub-committee, as well as the other committee members who made it the success it was.

Susan Hurst, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Discussion Group Committee
The BRASS Discussion Group hosted their annual discussion at the ALA annual conference in Chicago on Sunday, June 30, 2013. The discussion kicked-off with outgoing BRASS Chair Ann Fiegen hosting the annual BRASS membership meeting. After the membership meeting Kelly Janousek led a short discussion about what online conference software members were using and what were the strengths and weaknesses. This was followed by a call to follow and use the #bizref for BRASS related tweets.

The two scheduled areas for discussion were: 1) increasing significance of commercialization on campuses; 2) tools for finding information about online businesses. The commercialization efforts have been occurring primarily on large research campuses and smaller institutions haven’t been affected by this trend. Among the larger institutions there has been limited cooperation between the commercialization groups and libraries. While there has been limited cooperation between libraries and the campus commercialization groups, the majority of the interactions that libraries have in the process has occurred early on with the researchers.

The conversation about online business research focused on different tools that are available for free and on a subscription basis. A list of resources is being compiled in a Google Doc.

In June, there was the first open online discussion forum hosted by the discussion group and facilitated by Kelly Janousek and Jason Dewland. The first half of the discussion focused on how libraries are working with entrepreneurs. The second part of the discussion was about big data and the different areas librarians and researchers are finding it and tools to manage it. The final 10 minutes was a review of the changes made by Harvard Business Review. A recording of the discussion can be found here.

In the fall, the BRASS discussion group will host additional two to four online discussions. Dates, times, and topics are to be determined.

Jason Dewland, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Education Committee
The BRASS Education Committee is happy to report that the 2013 BRASS Preconference, “Business Reference 101: Core Competencies for Business Librarianship” was a success. Forty-five librarians from academic, public, and special libraries across the nation attended this preconference at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on June 28, 2013. Chris LeBeau from the University of Missouri-Kansas-City and Rhonda Kleiman from the Library System of Lancaster County discussed core resources for business reference; Leticia Camacho from Brigham Young University covered selecting and evaluating business resources; and Jared Howland, also from Brigham Young University, addressed licensing of business electronic resources. On behalf of the organizers, I’d like to thank our presenters for volunteering countless hours and keeping the audience engaged. Next year’s preconference will be on supporting entrepreneurs.

On Saturday, June 29th, we held our annual Education Committee meeting for the first time in the new 4:30-5:30 PM slot. We said goodbye to John Juricek from University of Southern California and Mary Martin from Claremont Colleges whose term ended, as well as Chad Boeninger who left to chair the BRASS Publications Committee. Thank you all for your service! We were also excited to welcome incoming members who were able to attend our meeting: Tom Ottaviano from Cornell, Christina Sheley from Indiana University, and Hiromi Kubo from California State University, Fresno.

The BRASS Education Committee worked hard on recruiting presenters for the RUSA webinars. Thanks to Peter McKay, Jennifer Boettcher will be offering a free online webinar on industry research this fall. If you missed last year’s preconference, “MBA (Mastering Business Acumen) in a Day,” Elisabeth Leonard will be presenting a webinar on Management, Chris LeBeau on Finance, Todd Hines on Accounting, and Andy Spackman on Marketing. Keep an eye out for announcements!
BRASS_3
We are looking forward to a busy year ahead of us. One of the major projects we’ll be working on is creating a new set of BRASS LibGuides which combines both the Best of the Best Business Websites and Selected Core Resources. Another important project is fleshing out Business Reference Essentials LibGuide which will serve as a start-up guide for a new business librarian and refresher for the rest of us.

photo caption: Chris LeBeau is discussing core business resources

Natasha Arguello, 2012-2013 Chair
University of Texas at San Antonio

http://connect.ala.org/node/65121

http://brass.libguides.com/

 

 

BRASS Membership Committee
Don’t you LIKE us? Please become a “friend” of BRASS Facebook page. See pictures and events. Committee chairs this is your opportunity to publicize your events and previews of your speakers. You can LIKE US Facebook.

Kelly Janousek, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Vendor Relations Committee
The BRASS Vendor Relations Committee had a very successful year. Close to $30,000 was raised for the BRASS 25th Anniversary event. The Committee also received approval at Annual to explore the possibility of developing a “Virtual Expo” site which would serve as a clearinghouse of sorts for BRASS members to explore various business database vendors. Thanks go to committee members Paul Brothers and Lydia LaFaro for all of their great work and welcome to Chris LeBeau who will be serving as the new Chair!

Celia Ross, 2011-2013 Chair

BRASS Publications and Communications Committee
The BRASS Publications and Communications Committee met at ALA Annual, discussing several projects for the coming year. First, a representative from the BRASS Section Review Committee covered some of the basic questions and procedures the committee will undertake this year in the committee review process. We then heard reports from several of our members on their specific areas of responsibility. We spent considerable time discussing a variety of plans and possibilities for a revision and restructuring of the BRASS Web site. We hope to contact representatives of a number of BRASS committees to obtain input and suggestions for these revisions. We also decided, due to positive reaction, to continue producing the BRASS Events Schedule to help our members keep up with BRASS-related activities at ALA Annual. Finally, we met incoming chair of BRASS Andy Spackman, and incoming chair of the Publications and Communications Committee Chad Boeninger, and we look forward to working with both of them this year.

John Gottfried, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Section Review Committee
This is the year for the review/evaluation of the committees that comprise the BRASS section of RUSA. If you are a committee chair, you should soon be contacted by a BRASS member asking permission to be included on the agenda of your committee’s meeting at the ALA annual conference in June. More information to follow soon. Thank you in advance.

Paul Brothers, 2012-2013 Chair

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award Committee
Salvatore DiVincenzo was recognized at this year’s RUSA Awards reception as the recipient of the Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award. DiVincenzo is the business librarian at Middle Country Public Library in Long Island, New York. The award, sponsored by Morningstar, offers $1,000 in travel funds for ALA’s Annual Conference to a business librarian from a public library.

Congratulations, Salvatore!

Melissa Jeter, 2011-2013 Chair

BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Excellence in Business Librarianship Award Committee
Michael R. Oppenheim was recognized at the RUSA Awards ceremony during the ALA Annual conference in Chicago as the 2013 recipient of the Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship. This award ($3,000 and a citation) is for his outstanding contributions to the field of business librarianship. Quoting from the citation: “Through publication, service in professional organizations, mentoring, and sharing of subject expertise, Michael has contributed significantly to the professional growth of colleagues throughout their careers”.

Michael R. Oppenheim is the business librarian’s librarian—as an author, officer, mentor, and expert.

Congratulations, Michael!

We thank Gale Cengage Learning for the generous support of this award.

The committee members: Mark Andersen; Karen J. Chapman; Patricia E. Kenly

Patricia Kenly, 2011-2013 Chair

BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award Committee
Kelly LaVoice, graduate student of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University and current business librarian intern at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lippincott Business Library, was recognized at the RUSA Award reception as the 2013 BRASS Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award recipient. The award, sponsored by Gale Cengage Learning and the BRASS, offers $1,000 and a one year membership to BRASS to an outstanding MLIS student to fund travel to the ALA Annual Conference.

Todd M. Hines, 2012-2013 Chair

 

BRASS Business Expert Press Award Committee
Annette Buckley, Business Research Librarian at UC-Irvine and this year’s recipient of the Business Expert Press Award, was recognized at the RUSA Awards reception at ALA Annual. The award, sponsored by Business Expert Press, is given to a librarian who is new to the field of academic business librarianship, in order to support his or her attendance to the ALA Annual Conference. Congratulations to Annette who also serves as our BRASS Webmaster—A BIG THANK you from your BRASS colleagues!

Paul Brothers, 2012-2013 Chair

 

BRASS Emerald Research Award Committee
Jennifer Boettcher, Business and Economics Reference Librarian at Georgetown University Library, was the recipient of this year’s Emerald Research Award and was recognized at the RUSA Awards reception. The award is sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing and is for for ALA members seeking support in conducting research in business librarianship. Jennifer’s research interests are in government sources and industry research.

Congratulations, Jennifer!

Christy Goodnight, 2012-2013 chair
Mark your calendars for …..BRASS 2014 PROGRAM
Mad Men: The Business of Advertising, Monday, June 30, 2014; 8:30-10:00 AM

Many companies spend millions on advertising their brands and products, yet the data can be hard to find. Specialized sources, available at many large libraries, focus on these statistics. The information they contain can be used by business students, researchers, or the general public. In addition, media planning, a component of a company’s marketing plan, will be covered. Entrepreneurs need information on placing ads (and on how much it costs); reference librarians assisting these users will also find the content of the program very useful.

Speakers: Wendy Diamond, Business and Economics Librarian at California State University, Chico. Ms. Diamond has been a featured speaker at two prior BRASS annual programs (2001 and 2008) on marketing. She is the co-author of Marketing Information: A Strategic Guide for Business and Finance Libraries (2004).

The other speaker will be either from an advertising agency in Las Vegas—about what their clients (ad buyers) need, or a professor from UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

Patricia Kenly, 2013-2014 Chair

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Announcements

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

 

Mary Parker, CODES past-chair, will be serving as acting CODES chair through the early fall. Please direct any questions about CODES committees or volunteering to Mary Parker at m-park1@umn.edu.

The CODES Readers’ Advisory committee has been hosting email forums, entitled CODES Conversations, modeled after the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) email events. The committee plans to offer CODES Conversations three times a year. The first conversation gathered close to 250 participants and over 400 participated in the second. These are free, two-day conversations. Discussions were lively, wide-ranging, and involved librarians from the U.S. and abroad. The events were very well received.

Chairperson Bill McHugh successfully shepherded a proposal from the Reference Publishing Advisory Committee for one of the free RUSA webinar slots through the approval process. The proposed webinar will be based on the CODES discussion forum held at Midwinter 2013 in Seattle, “Are Users Finding Our Online Reference Resources?” The four speakers at that forum have agreed to take part in the webinar.

The RSS Education and Professional Development for Reference Committee has been working with CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee on this project; thank you RSS!

Daniel Mack will be the CODES representative on the RUSA Ad Hoc Committee to revise Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians. Mack is the Interim Director of Collection Management & Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Maryland.