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Health and Medical Reference Committee

The first meeting of the Health and Medical Reference Committee was held at the all RSS meeting at ALA annual. The committee discussed new health and medical reference guidelines, the program that the committee will hold at ALA annual in Chicago in 2013, possible webinars that could be sponsored, and ways to communicate health reference issues with the broader librarian community. Karen Vargas brought several documents that would be helpful in the creation of the guidelines and an online page will be set up where people can post additional resources as a first step for the guidelines. Panelists were proposed for the 2013 program on serving the health information needs of a diverse community. The committee agreed that they would like to work on a quarterly series of RUSA webinars, beginning with one on basic resources for medical reference.

Karen Vargas, Chair 2012-2014

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Job and Career Reference Committee

The inaugural meeting of the Job and Career Reference Committee was held July 2012 and the following members attended: Kate Oberg (co-chair), Jennifer Hootman, Gergana Kostova, Samantha Soucy, and Arlene Weismantel. The charge of the committee is: to offer programming, forums for discussions, and professional development opportunities focused on providing services and outreach related to patrons’ jobs and career needs, including library resources and reference assistance; guides, tutorials, and web content; programming, promotion, and instruction; and effective community partnerships.

Kate Oberg, Chair 2012-2013

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Library Service to an Aging Population

he RSS Library Services to an Aging Population Committee sponsored a program at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim: “How Libraries Are Meeting the Evolving Needs of Baby Boomers and Older Adults.” Over 100 people attended the program, which included presentations by Susan Hildreth (IMLS), Jane Salisbury (Multnomah County Public Library), Tony Sarmiento (Senior Services America), and Suzanne Flint (California State Library). The program included a lively question and answer period, in which various viewpoints on serving these populations were expressed. If you would like slideshows from the program, you can view them online at TransformingLifeAfter5.org.

Jeff Kempe, Chair, 2011-2013

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Library Services to the Spanish Speaking

The Library Services to the Spanish Speaking Committee is planning a discussion during ALA 2013 Midwinter with a speaker from a public library to present their children’s program. The session would include a demonstration of their story hour, in addition to a discussion of the marketing of similar programs and why community health organizations seemed to be more popular to promote services such as story hours to the Spanish community. The presentation will be in English and Spanish.

Other activities for this year may include a review of the Guide to Services to the Spanish and another review article potential on case studies of Spanish speaking library use.

Stephen Marvin, Chair 2012-2013

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Management of Reference Committee

The Management of Reference Committee met twice in Anaheim at ALA Annual. At the first meeting William Weare, Chair, reported that the Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers revisions now needed approval from the Standards and Guidelines Committee and then final approval from the RSS Board. We discussed the Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians. At the most recent Midwinter meeting, the discussion session did find value in the Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians, but the Committee isn’t sure whether they were referring to the Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers. Because of other problems the Committee sees with them we agreed that the original document should be sunsetted and this Committee should focus on updating the professional competencies for managing reference services and departments. William brought this plan to the RSS Board who approved it.

Sally Dockter, Chair 2012-2013

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Marketing and Public Relations for Reference

Our committee sponsored a workshop at ALA Annual, “Let’s Work Together: Integrating Social Media, Online Marketing and Outreach” with David Lee King, Marshall Breeding and Jennifer Robinson. Liane Taylor assisted with on-site organizing and reported that the workshop went well.

As mentioned in our prior update, for ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago, we are pleased to collaborate with two other committees to co-sponsor with the RSS Virtual Reference (VR) Committee Chair Don Boozer and MARS co-chair Ellen Filgo a proposed workshop: ” Slam the Boards: A Model for Marketing Through Action.” This would be presented by Bill Pardue and may include an expansion of the concept of “guerilla marketing techniques for VR” (as Don put so well). We may shift this workshop to be a webinar prior to June’s conference, with a discussion forum at the conference. We’ll know soon which way we’re taking this.

Marketing and PR are essential for the promotion of all library services. During our most recent RSS meeting (Friday, July 20), our committee began to look at two elements for our upcoming initiatives to work on with partner committees:

1. School sustainability (working with YARS)
2. Marketing in academic libraries (working with Research & Statistics)

We’re excited for an active new year!

Cathay Crosby, Chair 2011-2013

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Organization and Planning Committee

The RSS Organization & Planning Committee will be working closely with the RUSA Executive Committee over the next year to continue to improve the effectiveness of the section. We will also be following up on feedback we’ve received over the next year, updating the handbook, reviewing the bylaws, and creating several surveys.

Liane Taylor, Chair 2012-2013

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Research and Statistics Committee

The Research and Statistics Committee hosted the 18th Annual Reference Research Forum on Sunday, June 25. This year’s presenters were Lili Luo presenting “Best Practices of Text Reference Service: A Synergistic View,” Susan Gardner Archambault and Kenneth Simon presenting “Apples and Oranges: Lessons from a Usability Study of Two Library FAQ Web Sites,” and Alison Graber, Alison Hicks, Caroline Sinkinson, and Stephanie Alexander presenting “Research Assistance Interactions: Exploration of Users’ Motivation and Perceptions.” The committee also combed the literature to select exceptional articles detailing research in reference for the Reference Research Review: 2011.

Lynda Duke, Chair 2012-2013

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Virtual Reference Services (MARS/RSS)

The RSS/MARS Virtual Reference Services Committee held its official meeting at ALA Annual in Anaheim on Saturday, June 23, as part of the RSS All-Committee meeting. Twelve people were in attendance. One of the primary goals of the meeting was final planning for the committee’s sponsored program held on Saturday, June 23, at 1:30-3:30pm: “Are Virtual Reference Services Worth the Effort? What ROI Analysis and User Evaluations Tell Us”. The program was successful with approximately 150 people attending.

The committee is partnering with the RSS Marketing Committee on a webinar with Bill Pardue on marketing virtual reference services prior to Annual 2013. A discussion forum on this topic is planned for Annual 2013 itself with some sort of “bridge” activity between the webinar and Annual also being considered.

With the Virtual Reference Tutorial Subcommittee now having access to the RUSA Drupal installation, they are moving ahead with posting content. They have renamed the “Tutorial” the “Virtual Reference Companion” and aim to make it applicable to both managers/supervisors of VR service and frontline VR librarians. We are very excited about their progress and what they have planned.

We are also looking at a change in our official mission statement to fold in the charge of the now-disbanded Cooperative Reference Services Committee to “To identify and study issues relating to virtual reference services, and to evaluate and promote technological and service standards, guidelines, and ‘best practices’ for local and cooperative virtual reference services in all types of libraries.” We will be working with MARS and RSS to accomplish this.
Jason Coleman (Kansas State University Libraries and incoming Secretary of RSS) is moving ahead with the Survey Ad Hoc Group. He has recruited 2 people to help in designing and distributing the survey to determine the current state of virtual reference services.

The committee will be considering a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at either Midwinter and/or Annual. The committee plans to conduct their official midwinter meeting virtually with a time to be determined.

Don Boozer, Chair 2012-2013

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Virtual Reference (VR) Tutorial Subcommittee

After receiving training from Louise Gruenberg and with her assistance as well as that of Sean Bires and Andrea Hill, the VR Tutorial Subcommittee has begun populating the new resource in Drupal. The Planning Module now includes what used to be the Policies Module and is complete. The Training Module is currently in progress. The Resources section is a work in progress and we will add to this, as well as Tips & Best Practices and Activities, as we work on the modules. We will be reorganizing the Resources by topic, instead of alphabetically. We are awaiting permissions from ALA so we can populate the Welcome page.

The subcommittee continues to meet monthly and works in subgroups between meetings. We will be brainstorming about the Interview Skills Module next and a subgroup will take ideas from that meeting and implement into Drupal content. We plan to continue to work this way until the resource is complete, hopefully by next year’s annual conference.

We decided that “Virtual Reference Tutorial” does not fit the resource anymore and have renamed it the “Virtual Reference Companion: A Guide for VR Coordinators and Librarians”, or VRC for short.

The subcommittee would like your help in making this resource be as useful as possible. We will be sending out a survey in the near future to request tips & best practices, activities, and resources in regards to virtual reference that we may be able to use for the VRC. We will greatly appreciate your input.

Jared Hoppenfeld, Chair 2012-2013
Jennifer Lau-Bond, Chair 2011-2013

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Young Adult Reference Services

The newly minted Young Adult Reference Services (YARS) committee held a lively and informative discussion forum at 2012 Annual. The varied group of attendees points to the importance of reference services to this demographic. Fifteen participants talked about teen/young adult reference-related topics that ranged from assisting with research to marketing reference services to tweens, teens and undergrads (and the difficulties therein).

Plans are to continue offering discussion forums at conference and online while building name recognition and growing the committee’s membership from within YALSA and RSS.

Barbara Roos, YALSA
Emilie Smart, RSS
Co-Chairs, 2012-2013

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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Message from the Chair

STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

Hello STARS and friends of STARS.

I do hope this finds you well. I’m David Atkins, the 2012-13 Chair for RUSA/STARS. As both chair and a STARS member, I am looking forward to another fun and productive year in service to resource sharing professionals everywhere. For this year, STARS will build on our successes in research, education, and training. Along with our midwinter and annual programming, STARS will launch an online interlibrary loan training course. We’ll also start using online tools that support virtual meetings. Over the next two-three years, RUSA will channel resources to fund programming and promotional activities among RUSA and all its sections. STARS will capitalize on any and all opportunities fund diverse professional development programs and give you more value for your time, energy, and dues.

If you would like to become involved in our dynamic section or have questions out what STARS can do for you and your library, please drop me an email (datkins@utk.edu) or give me a call (865-974-6866). There is always room for more STARS.

Sincerely,
David P. Atkins
STARS Chair

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Awards

STARS is excited to report on the success of the RUSA Award Banquet at this year’s ALA Annual. Cyril Oberlander, the director of Milne Library at SUNY Geneseo, was recognized for his exceptional contributions to resource sharing and received the Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL (Interlibrary Loan) Librarian Award on Sunday, June 24. This award recognizes a librarian for outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery through recent publication of significant professional literature, participation in professional associations, and/or innovative approaches to practice in individual libraries. The banquet was attended by the Executive Board Members, the Committee Chair, and Cyril’s family and friends.

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Hot Topics Discussion Group

This year’s Hot Topics Discussion Group was held on Saturday, June 23 in the Hilton Anaheim from 4:00-5:30 PM and covered Electronic Licensing, ILL Article Delivery Methods, the GPO OCLC Holdings Project, the Future of ILL, the OCLC Symposium/Cost Sharing Taskforce Report, and mailing address for shared ILLiad sites.

Attendee tips and insights included:

  • Recommendations on using PDF “printer” programs and researching institutional Electronic Rights Management packages to determine best practices for electronic article sending.
  • Best practices on obtaining statistics and how they can be used to advocate for ILL
  • OCLC should consider alternatives to the elimination of credits.
  • ILLiad libraries should take extra care when determining “Ship To” addresses. Efforts should be made to identify which lender address number by changing preferred address format or using other indicative markings.
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STARS Legislation and Licensing Committee

Georgia State Copyright Case
The final court opinion the Cambridge University Press. Press; Oxford University Press; Sage Publications v. Georgia St. University case was given on May 11, 2012. It largely upheld most of the uses of Georgia State, and considering the context of Judge Evan’s ruling according to ARL’s issue brief prepared by Brandon C. Butler, the opinion creates a “very comfortable safe harbor for fair use of books on e-reserve. Educause has a wide range of information about the case for anyone who wants a more in-depth analysis.

The Center for Copyright Information Alert System
The committee reported on 6/28/2012 regarding the partnership between content producers and ISPs who came to their own agreement on how to monitor, regulate, and penalize certain internet behavior. Touted as part of a “progressive educational system to help subscribers understand the significance of protecting copyright” (see http://www.copyrightinformation.org/alerts), it is also part of a behavioral intervention and mitigation system that raises important questions about internet rights, anti-trust practices and due process. Considering how unaware those on STARS have been to this implementation of a new “Copyright Alert System,” it is important to get the word out and start a conversation about one of the largest raw exercises of concerted private power on internet behavior we’ve yet seen.

Welcome Shannon O’Grady (Colorado Library Consortium) as incoming chair and offer thanks to Robin Moskal as she assumes the responsibility of Secretary for RUSA STARS, and Joseph Sharpe as he rotates off to contribute to Assessment related functions.

Joe Sharpe, Chair

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STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee

The RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee met at ALA Annual in Anaheim to discuss current projects and initiatives. The most pressing was a revision of the Rethinking Resource Sharing STAR Checklist, which serves as a compilation of best practices in resource sharing that libraries can use to gauge how they are providing such services to their local communities and to their library partners. The committee completed revisions on two-thirds of the Checklist and are busy scheduling times to finish reviewing it. Emerging best practices in resource sharing are under consideration as the committee weighs how to expand the Checklist beyond its 60+ items.

Evan Simpson, Chair

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STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee

This committee did not meet at Annual in Anaheim, but we are looking forward to our program at ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago, which has been approved. The topic is on mergers of acquisitions and ILL departments; title and speakers are still to be finalized. The program will be on Saturday, June 29  from 1:00-2:30 PM.

Sydney Thompson, Chair

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STARS Cooperative and Remote Circulation Task Force

Our committee hosted a very successful program at ALA Annual titled, “Sharing Our Collections: Looking to the Future.” The program featured a “floating collections” project undertaken by a public library consortium, a shared eBook collection in an academic library consortium, and a vendor introduction to how next generation, cloud-based integrated library systems (ILS) will support collection sharing. This program is scheduled to be offered again, this fall, as a webcast.

The committee has taken July to indulge in a collective sigh of relief. We anticipate regrouping in August to begin forming our plans for the next year.

Peter Collins, Chair

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STARS Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee

The Committee’s major project for the year was finalizing the “Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management,” which has been under development since 2006. The guideline was approved at the ALA 2012 Midwinter Meeting in Dallas by the RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee. The new guideline is available on the RUSA website.

Current guidelines that the committee maintains are the following:

Code Timeline Notes
Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States Explanatory Supplement Review in 2016 as part of the Interlibrary Loan Code
Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States Review in 2016 Approved by S&G Midwinter 2009; approved by RUSA Board 2009 (according to RUSQ)
Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management Review in 2019 Approved by S&G Midwinter 2012; approved by RUSA Board 2012
Resource-Sharing Response to Natural Disasters Review in 2017 Approved by STARS Annual Midwinter 2009; approved by RUSA Board Annual 2010

Each guideline is reviewed every seven years and the committee had no other guidelines or standards to maintain this year.

Jen Bartlett, Chair

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STARS Research & Statistics Committee

The RSS sponsored program for 2013 annual has been approved by RUSA. The title is “Does Your Data Deliver for Decision Making? New Directions for Resource Sharing Assessment.” We have three speakers confirmed.

Congratulations to Charla Lancaster and Susan Buzzell, who will be joining us as the incoming co-chairs.

RSS plans to continue work on compiling a resource sharing glossary project and updating ShareILL.

Amy Boucher, Chair

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STARS Section Review Task Force Committee

The Section Review Task Force Committee came together at the ALA Annual meeting to discuss our progress and review what needs to happen for the remainder of the year. This committee is charged with preparing a section review for the RUSA board by March 2013. We have been meeting monthly via conference call over the past year. We have gathered preliminary information from the STARS committee chairs as well as historical information on programming and membership.

Sherri Michaels, Chair

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STARS Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Committee

ALA programming changes that will take effect at the Annual Conference in Chicago 2013 have limited the number of program slots and designated that all conference programs will be held at the Conference Center. Our committee was asked to consider having our RUSA STARS ILL Program proposal: “How Will the Current Climate/Trends in Libraries Influence/Impact the Future of Resource Sharing?” moved from a program to a presentation at the RUSA STARS ILL Discussion Group. The committee agreed with this proposal.

This program will focus on trends and reasons for changes in ILL requests and how these may affect resource sharing as a whole. The committee will use data from a survey of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), conducted in spring 2012. Members of the GWLA plan to complete another follow-up study in the spring of 2013. The committee discussed and identified potential speakers for this upcoming program, as well as its format and options for engaging participants and marketing strategies.

Jeanne Voyles, Chair

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STARS Education and Training Committee

STARS welcomed Natalie Beam, Head of Access Services at University of Hawaii at Hilo and recipient of the 2012 STARS-Atlas Systems Mentoring Award, to the all-committee meeting.

The Education and Training committee will hold its 6th annual “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About ILL” pre-conference workshop on January 25, 2013 in Seattle. The University of Washington has generously donated space in Odegaard Library; OCLC and Atlas Systems are providing additional support.

Our video series exploring careers in ILL has received positive feedback and over 1,000 total views on YouTube. We will continue to add content and welcome participation. Please contact Lars Leon (lleon@ku.edu) if you are interested in filming a one-to-two minute video.

Finally, the Education and Training Committee will partner with ShareILL administrators to update the ShareILL wiki. We hope that other STARS committees can contribute their own expertise and make this resource as accurate, current, and useful as possible. Please contact Committee Chair Jen Jacobs (jjacobs3@luc.edu) if you are interested in helping with this project.

Jen Jacobs, Incoming Chair

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STARS International Interlibrary Loan Committee

The International ILL Committee is in the final stages of completing a report on the survey of international libraries conducted in 2011. We hope to have it to the Executive Committee for approval in a month or two. The Committee plans to write an article with further analysis of the survey. The Committee will also assist the Education and Training Committee in updating ShareILL by creating a page regarding international ILL.

Congratulations to the new chair of the International ILL Committee, Tom Bruno.

Tina Baich, Chair

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STARS Membership Committee

The RUSA STARS Membership Committee completed revisions for their initiative-in-progress, titled “RUSA STARS’ 5 Things Every New Resource Sharing Librarian Should Know,” and are in the process of submitting it for final review to the Executive Committee. Membership is also moving forward with a program that will highlight a RUSA STARS member before each ALA conference. “Star Gazing” is a program being designed to share more information about STARS members at a time where new librarians/members might enjoy learning more about a friendly face they may run into at the conferences.

Congratulations to the new chair of the Members Committee, Micquel Little.

Micquel Little, Incoming Chair

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STARS Vendor Relations Committee

The Vendor Relations Committee sponsored a presentation at the ILL Discussion Group meeting at ALA this year. The description of the presentation was:

“The Changing Landscape of e-delivery: Hear how libraries are using Atlas Systems Odyssey, BSCAN from Image Access , Relais Express from Relais International, and OCLC’s Article Exchange for electronic delivery in their interlibrary loan offices. You’ll learn about the key features of each product to determine whether they fit your e-delivery needs.”

Each presenter described their ILL environment, including the number of articles sent and received via this system; why they chose the system they are using, features, ease of use, technical requirements, and any pertinent limitations.

The Vendor Relations Committee members also decided to put forward a presentation that we hope to include in the Midwinter  ILL Discussion Group meeting. The topic would be an update on the review of the ISO ILL standard. We are waiting for confirmation that that will be included on the agenda for the meeting.

Becky Ringwelski, Chair

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STARS Organization Committee

The Organization Committee discussed whether the committee should be dissolved or combined with another group. A possible merger would be considered with the Membership Committee, as our committee functions have been combined in other RUSA sections. The Committee also discussed a need to update the STARS handbook, regardless of a merger or dissolution decision. These decisions will be postponed until after the Section Review is completed.

Sarah McHone-Chase, Chair

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Message from the Past Chair

History

Laura Hibbler, Editor

It’s been a productive time for the History Section. The RUSA Board has approved a new Gale Cengage History Section Research and Innovation Award. We have gotten to this point through the diligent efforts of Agnes Widder. The monetary award is intended to promote and further research relating to history and history librarianship. We are still awaiting approval from the ALA Executive Council before advertising the award this fall.

The History Section annual program this year was sponsored by the Genealogy Committee and entitled “Mining Gold from the 1940 Census.” The main speaker was Joel Weintraub, a volunteer at the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside. A panel discussion followed and included Amy Crow of Archives.com, Michael Hall from Family Search, and Bill Forsyth from ProQuest. Over 100 people attended the program. The Genealogy Committee meeting discussed getting youth involved in genealogy research and what to do with donated genealogy research papers.

One of the communication avenues available to History Section members is History-L. This listserv has 279 subscribers with eighty-nine messages sent to the list from July 1, 2011 to June 20, 2012. If you are not a member of the History-L, you can subscribe you can do so by going to http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/history-l. You can also find out about History Section events and activities by “liking us” on Facebook.

The Genealogy & Local History Discussion Group had a presentation by a representative of Fold3 who talked about their military content. There was also a discussion about Family History Books, a free website containing free digital genealogy books.

The Historical Materials Committee finalized their list of Best Historical Materials for publication in RUSQ. The committee also started planning the 2014 History Section program.

The Instruction & Research Services (IRS) Committee had a discussion on history standards for college students. They are developing a set of guidelines on this topic. The guidelines were brought before the RUSA Standards & Guidelines Committee prior to the Annual Conference. A few changes are needed. IRS is planning the 2013 History Section annual program. The topic will be Digital History.

The Local History Committee updated Guidelines for Establishing Local History Collections. It was approved by the RUSA Standards & Guidelines Committee prior to the Annual Conference as well as being approved by the RUSA Board prior to the conference. The major discussion in the meeting centered on how to find new publications of county histories.

Membership in the History Section committees is open to any RUSA History Section member. You will find a link to the volunteer form at http://www.ala.org/rusa/about/divisioncommittees.

Janice Schultz
History Section Past Chair

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From the President

The year’s ALA Midwinter in Dallas was a great time to see old friends and to participate in the many RUSA activities that took place there. Two of the highlights were the annual RUSA Social and the RUSA Book and Media Awards. I’d like to thank Liane Taylor and the RUSA Membership Committee for coordinating the well-attended RUSA Social on Saturday evening. It was a lot of fun to catch up with RUSA members and to meet some new members! And I’d like to convey a special thanks to Sharron Smith and to Neal Wyatt for their great work in organizing this year’s Book and Media Awards reception held Sunday evening, and also express my thanks and appreciation to all of the hardworking award committees and chairs. Please visit http://www.literarytastes.com for a complete list of winners and for important updates on RUSA’s literary news. A very special thanks goes to Susan Hornung, Liz Markel, and Andrea Hill for all of their work with both of these events and with all of the activities that go into making Midwinter successful. Thank you all!

We also held our second annual Virtual Town Hall meeting this year for members who could not attend in person. The RUSA staff created five chat rooms where users could post questions and comments and to get live feedback from the meeting. Thanks to our volunteers for monitoring the rooms! After the Virtual Town Hall meeting, the RUSA Board Big Think focused on discussing the kind of organization that RUSA should become in the future. Both of these events will inform us as we begin to craft our next strategic plan, which will take place this spring.

The work of two important committees will also greatly assist in our strategic planning, the RUSA Structure Taskforce, chaired by Kate Kosturski, and the RUSA/ASCLA Web Conferencing Task Force, chaired by Liane Taylor. Kate gave an overview of her committee’s recommendations, which will greatly aid RUSA in its future plans. Liane’s Task Force has also completed its work and RUSA will be implementing Blackboard Collaborate in order to allow more members to conduct work virtually. These are both significant accomplishments that will help RUSA grow and prosper. Thank you, Kate and Liane! The RUSA Board also approved the creation of one new committee, the ad-hoc Resource Development Committee, which will be asked to explore and facilitate fund raising and donor relations. The work of this committee will help to identify and seek resources for new RUSA initiatives.

The RUSA Board also approved two new awards. The BRASS Business Expert Press Award for Academic Librarians is a new $1,250.00 cash award given to an academic librarian who is new to the field of business librarianship in order to support attendance to the ALA Annual Conference. The Gale Cengage History Research and Innovation Award is a new award for up to $2500 to facilitate and further research in history and history librarianship and to encourage membership in the ALA RUSA History Section. Thanks to Chris LeBeau (BRASS Chair) and Janice Shultz (History Section Chair) and members of their sections for bringing these awards to fruition. And a big thanks to Business Expert Press and Gale Cengage for their support of RUSA.

RUSA also continues its role as administrator for the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulator Authority) Investor Education Foundation’s program entitled Smart investing @ your library. This grant program, in place since 2007, funds public library efforts to provide library patrons with access to effective, unbiased financial education resources. To date, sixty-four grants have been awarded, totaling $4,691,952. I had the pleasure of attending a FINRA reception on Friday evening in order to meet many of this year’s grant recipients. For more information about Smart investing @ your library, visit http://www.smartinvestingala.org. For more information on the FINRA Foundation see http://www.finrafoundation.org/. A big thank you to FINRA for sponsoring this important program.

Last, but certainly not least, the RUSA Board approved a recommendation for our new editor of Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ). The editor selection committee, chaired by current RUSQ editor Diane Zabel, has been working hard on the selection and interview process during the past year. I am pleased that our new editor is Barry Trott, RUSA Past-President and long-time RUSA member. Thank you Barry for taking on this important role, and thank you Diane for your years of service as editor! Under Barry’s leadership RUSQ will continue its rich tradition as RUSA’s premier publication.

Thanks again to all of the RUSA volunteers who make RUSA the outstanding organization that it is. And a huge thanks to the RUSA staff for making it all work! It was great seeing many of you at Midwinter and I look forward to seeing you in Anaheim!

Gary White
RUSA President, 2011-12

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From the Director

You’re Invited: Nancy Pearl, RUSA and Booklist host Carnegie Medal reception at Annual Conference

“The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction recognize literary excellence, but more, they also celebrate the important role librarians play in opening up the world of imagination, education, and aspiration to new readers and avid book lovers alike.”

–Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation and past president of the New York Public Library

Dear RUSA Members,

I wanted to extend a personal invitation to you to attend the inaugural reception for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference —a prestigious award made possible by a partnership between RUSA and Booklist, and supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

When: Sunday, June 24, 8:00-10:00 PM

Where: Hilton Anaheim, Pacific Ballroom A & B

Announcement and presentation of the medals and cash prizes to this year’s authors of the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers.

Seats are limited, and tickets are just $25 for RUSA members.

Buy your tickets now through the ALA Annual Conference registration site.

Nancy Pearl will serve as our host for the evening, and the authors whose books are finalists for the awards will also be in attendance! There will be time to meet, mingle, and celebrate over dessert and drinks with literary luminaries, adult-book-loving colleagues, and ALA leaders including President Molly Raphael and Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels.

The event is the culmination of months of work and hundreds of hours of fiction and non-fiction reading by your RUSA Notable Books Council colleagues serving on the selection committee, as well as the Booklist members of the selection committee. As a reception attendee, you’ll be participating in a historic moment as the first to hear which two authors win these prestigious awards. Your attendance also honors the work of readers’ advisory librarians everywhere.

I look forward to celebrating the most outstanding fiction and nonfiction of the year with you in Anaheim in June!

Sincerely,

Susan Hornung

RUSA Executive Director

 

P.S. – For general information about the meeting in Anaheim, CA, June 21-26, 2012, visit the conference website: www.alaannual.org.

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Smart investing@your library®

Margaret Monsour, Project director, Smart investing@ your library®

 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation is partnering with the American Library Association and RUSA to bring Smart investing@ your library® to communities across the country. This grant program supports public libraries in their efforts to ensure that library customers have access to quality, unbiased resources and programming related to personal finances and investing. The program was established five years ago, and since that time has provided nearly $6 million in grants, as well as educational materials, to public libraries and library networks.

Ongoing support is provided for grantees, who attend an initial training seminar that features social media and social marketing, outcome-based evaluation techniques, and an introduction to the financial education resources created by the FINRA Foundation. Components also include communications guidance, individual coaching and consultation, guidance on building local partnerships, and site visits.

See the press release http://www.ala.org/rusa/ on the RUSA website for most recent list of grantees.

There are three overall goals of the Smart investing your library®:

●     Build capacity of public libraries and make available reliable, unbiased investor education and protection resources and services through public libraries in the United States.

●     Create and expand community awareness of the investor education resources and services available through public libraries

●     Achieve sustained use of such resources and services by library patrons in various demographic categories.

The New York Times, in a 2010 article, observed, “Most Americans aren’t fluent in the language of money. Yet we’re expected to make big financial decisions as early as our teens — Should I take on thousands of dollars of student debt? Should I buy a car? — even though most of us received no formal instruction on financial matters until it was too late. While no course in personal finance could have prevented many Americans from getting caught up in the housing bubble, it’s clear that most of us need some help, preferably starting when we’re still in school.”[1]

Librarians are taking a leadership role by providing the help with knowledge and expertise to make the connection between people and financial information. Because people of all ages need to know how to make good financial decisions, a wide variety of financial education program models are emerging as public libraries across the country identify audiences who want and need to know how to manage their money.

Partnerships Pay Off

All projects in Smart investing@your library involve partnerships, typically multiple partnerships at any one project site. And usually once the project gets going, new partnership opportunities may appear or an area of activity may develop where a new partner would be beneficial. Program highlights from Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Library and Orange County (Florida) Library System illustrate the role that partnerships play and the impact each library’s financial education programs have in their communities.

Milwaukee Public Library’s program entitled Get Smart About Money @MPL focuses on engaging 6,000 11th graders in the public schools. To reach this notoriously difficult audience, project principal, Judy Pinger teamed up with multiple partners to get additional resources and expertise.

The Library started from a position of strength by collaborating with existing partner the Milwaukee Public Schools and then brought in Make a Difference-Wisconsin (MAD-WI), Money Smart Week, and the library’s own Teen Advisory Board. MAD-WI provides classroom financial education for high school students and uses trained volunteers and a curriculum based on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC’s) Money Smart program. The Teen Advisory Board kept the focus on what matters to teens and they advised Plum Productions, a film production company. The partnerships were strong and focused and the strategy worked because three authentic videos are now part of the high school curriculum.

These videos—To Your Credit, Check it Out and Bank Your Future—are posted on the Smart investing@your library® YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ALAsmartinvesting

The synergy that developed among the librarians and their partners produced a truly unique teaching tool for teens that is now available to educators across the country. “Although like many other libraries, we are short-staffed, we found a way we can still make a difference,” said project principal Judy Pinger, the library’s business coordinator. ”Strong partnerships with like-minded organizations create the right energy to sustain our program model.”

The videos also have a growing presence on Facebook and Twitter. As further evidence of their value and utility, other educational organizations are interested in the videos. Victory Productions, a K-12 content developer of educational materials, has recently requested permission to use the videos in their online course. Virtual Virginia: Economics and Personal Finance for the Virginia Department of Education, is a course taken by public school students in Virginia to fulfill a new requirement for graduation.

The Orange County Library System’s program, MONEY TIP$ Make it Work: Smart investing@your library® was developed to meet the needs of central Florida’s workers in the leisure and hospitality industry. A slow-down in travel and dwindling occupancy rates created financial challenges for service industry workers and Orlando ranks 10th in the U.S. with an average consumer debt of $25,316. Job loss, cuts in hours, cuts in wages or required furloughs (Employment); housing losses, foreclosures, or plummeting housing values (Real Estate); retirement loss, 401Ks, or personal investments declining in value (Investing), those facing retirement (Retirement) or dealing with looming bankruptcy, school loans coming due, and the surging costs of food or fuel (Budgeting) left no one untouched.

Project principal, Paolo Melillo initiated a partnership with the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association (representing nearly 80% of all the hotel rooms in the region.) to develop marketing and attract the attention of the target audience. He also continued an established partnership with Rollins College’s Crummer Graduate School of Business (CGSB), a well-known business school in the area, nationally ranked by Bloomberg Business Week and Forbes.

Any effective partnership entails a values exchange, in which each partner offers something of value to the other. Together, the existing partners created a program that delivered exceptional value to members of their community. In the process they gained new partners and increased their visibility with a new audience. Here’s how they did it. Professors from the university revised workshop content from a previous FINRA grant and tailored it to the needs of local hospitality workers. They also drew from FINRA modules to revamp the content and programs for hotel staff were offered at hotels and also at branch library locations. Simultaneous children’s story time programs were offered in the library locations to alleviate the possible barrier of child care and allow working parents to attend programs. Powerpoints used to present the workshops were repurposed as booklets to take home and videos were made from the Powerpoints and uploaded to the library’s dedicated web page. Online learning was always available.

The library’s partners helped with promotion with a news feature on the city’s Channel 13, which was facilitated through a media firm working for Rollins Crummer School of Business. The Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association was also instrumental in helping promote Money Tip$. One of the Library’s branch administrators attended a meeting with CFHLA and through this Association the library garnered the interest of at least six hotels to host the program series.

In addition to print ads, online ads and bus ads, the library also pioneered the use of cinema commercials to reach their target audience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbspu–bALt8&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t1ZJXgylhA A new partner, Walt Disney Resorts, stepped up to help and professionally produced two library commercials to promote the series in local cinemas.

And to top it off, the library’s publication Top Ten Tips to Save Money at Your Library is so popular that hotel staff are asking for more. “The Human Resources Department at the Caribe Royale asked for packets to share with staff,” said Melillo. “And attendees wanted extras to give to their friends and co-workers.”

Conclusion

Each round of grant recipients expands the reach, enhances the scope of resources, and helps to refine the Smart investing@your library® program. As recipients have frequently noted, the program allows for project development specific to each community. This customization results in the development of a rich array of target audiences, goals, marketing techniques, and evaluation practices to learn from and build upon.

Another round of grant invitations will be sent in April and the deadline to apply is June 6, 2012. Contact mmonsour@ala.org for more information.

●     Visit http://smartinvesting.ala.org to learn more about the initiative and to explore resources and program ideas for use in your own library.

●     BRASS is sponsoring a panel discussion Smart investing @ your library®: Program Models That Work, 10:30 am-noon on June 23, 2012 at the ALA Conference in Anaheim.

●     For more details about grant programs and other FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit http://www.finrafoundation.org

 

[1] Bernard, T. S. (2010, April 9). Working financial literacy in with the three R’s. Retrieved from the New York Times website: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/your-money/10money.html?pagewanted=all
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Emerging Leader Report

On Friday, January 20, the 2012 class of Emerging Leaders met for a daylong session of leadership training, project planning, and an introduction to ALA. Though this was a lot to pack into one day, it was energizing to have so many creative and thoughtful librarians in one room!

I will be working with a team of fabulous librarians to create a blog for RUSA. At the Emerging Leaders workshop we had time to plan for the blog. Blog posts will focus on different aspects of and issues surrounding reference librarianship and other areas of interest to RUSA members. Since Midwinter, the team has been meeting virtually to set up the site, policy, and schedule. There will be more details about the blog to come! If you’d like me to email you when the blog is up and running, email ehamstra AT umich DOT edu.

Aside from the Emerging Leaders workshop, I was able to attend many other committee meetings, programs, and events at Midwinter. Sitting in on the RUSA Board Meeting gave me added insight into the structure of RUSA and ALA. I had a great time at the RUSA Book and Media Awards (kudos to the Statistical Abstract of the United States for winning the Dartmouth Medal, Lifetime Achievement Award).

I want to thank you all for welcoming me to committee meetings, and for giving me the opportunity to be the RUSA Emerging Leader!

Emily Hamstra
Learning Librarian
Shapiro Undergraduate Library
University of Michigan

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RUSA Standards and Guidelines (S&G) Committee

Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management, from the STARS Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee is now an official RUSA guideline! These guidelines make recommendations regarding the qualifications needed for managers of interlibrary loan and document delivery services and give other guidance concerning ILL staffing. RUSA Board members approved the document at Midwinter. The guidelines will be posted to the RUSA website and published in the Reference and User Services Quarterly. Many thanks to the dedicated members of STARS who worked on this project.

At Midwinter, members of the RSS Management of Reference Committee (MOR) led a discussion relating to two guidelines currently under review with the committee’s guidance. These are Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers (2004) andProfessional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians (2003). MOR members report that the draft revision of “Behavioral Guidelines” is nearly done. Revision of “Competencies” is proving a harder task.

A History Section task force has quickly gotten through the first stages of reviewingGuidelines for Establishing Local History Collections (2006). This project looks like a fast-track effort.

Several new guidelines are under development:

●     The History Section’s Instruction and Research Services Committee is nearly done with guidelines for providing research and information resources to undergraduate students of history. These should be ready by the 2012 Annual Conference.

●     Steve Alleman is taking the lead on organizing a revision of Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements (1996 from ALCTS)

●     A brand new BRASS effort, in cooperation with SLA and ACRL, is focusing on core competencies for business students.

●     Members of the Access to Information Committee have just started on a statement on access.

Good news for those who regretted the demise of Guidelines for Medical, Legal and Business Responses at General Reference Desks (2001) and Guidelines for Information Services (2000). BRASS and RSS leaders are working to address the guidelines gap created by the sunset of the “Medical” guideline. Members of the Access to Information Committee hope to bring back “Information Services.”

For more information on RUSA guidelines, please contact Larayne Dallas (Ldallas@austin.utexas.edu), Chair of the RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee.

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Message from the BRASS Chair

BRASS Notes

Carol E. Schuetz, Editor
Hello BRASS members!

2012 promises to be a very good year for BRASS. First, the programs and forums for Annual in Anaheim look very exciting. We are bringing back the Mastering Business Acumen (MBA) in a Day Preconference. Program and forum topics include using social media to promote business librarians and resources, finding private company information, and our Monday program which picks up on the Disneyland theme, “Adventures in Dataland,” features a morning of information about data sources, including the new U.S. Census. Our thanks to Van Houlson and Christy Goodnight for volunteering, again, to capture the program for BRASS members.

Celia Ross (Chair, Vendor Relations) has been actively working on a new BRASS award that we are trying to fast-track through ALA in order to begin this year. Our thanks to Celia. Stay tuned for details about that.

If you haven’t seen the title selections yet, be sure to read the “Outstanding Business Reference Sources,” selected by the BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee and published in RUSQ, winter 2011. Also, at the RUSA Awards celebration at Midwinter, BRASS announced its choices for “Best of the Best Business Websites” which were globalEDGE, Statistical Abstract of the United States and FRED (St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank).

Our BRASS 25th Anniversary Planning Committee has been hard at work on our celebration in Chicago in the summer of 2013. You won’t want to miss this. There will soon be a BRASS Web site so you can follow the events as they are planned. For now see the RUSA Blog. Thank you, Louise!

Please consider volunteering for a committee or renewing your interest in serving on a committee by filing out the RUSA Volunteer Form. Be sure to change the drop down menu to BRASS rather than RUSA, not that we discourage you from serving RUSA, too! If you know any business librarians from public libraries who are not BRASS members, tell them about BRASS, and encourage them to join.

Read more details on all of this below. Hope to see many of you in Anaheim, June 21 – 26, 2012!

Chris LeBeau
BRASS Chair 2011-2012
lebeauc@umkc.edu

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BRASS Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee

The committee has completed the spring 2011 and fall 2011 issues of the online newsletter, Academic Brass. Now that the conversion of the ALA website to a new web management system has been completed, these issues are being posted on the BRASS website. We are also continuing to collect article submissions for the spring 2012 and fall 2012 issues. Anyone interested in submitting an article should send a proposal to the newsletter editors, Lydia LaFaro (lafaro@asu.edu) and Nathan Rupp (nrupp@umich.edu). Articles should address current issues, practices, or resources in academic business libraries. See the Newsletter Description and Guidelines for additional information.

In addition, the committee is finalizing panelists for the BRASS Forum—” Using Social Media to Promote Business Librarians and Resources”—at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim on June 23rd at 1:30 PM. Check the next issue of BRASS Notes for the final details on this event.

Lydia LaFaro, 2009-2012 Chair

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BRASS Program Planning Committee

The 2012 BRASS Program Planning Committee decided to add a little spice to our program title with the hopes of attracting more attendees to our event. The program title has been changed to “Adventures in Dataland: Business Data Sources.” We are also pleased to report that Christy Goodnight from Utah Valley University and Van Houlson from the University of Minnesota Libraries have both kindly volunteered to record our program and capture the PowerPoint screenshots.

We are pleased to invite the following speakers:

●     Bobray Bordelon – Princeton University, Librarian

●     Jerry Wong – US Census, Information Specialist

●     Angela Lee – ESRI, Education Programs

●     Joe Nation – RAND Corporation State Statistics, Director

Over the next few months, our committee will be working on marketing ideas, coordinating our RUSQ article, and working on logistics on the day of our program. Please stay tuned for more updates.

Program planning members: Anthony Lin (BRASS Program Planning Committee Chair), Chris LeBeau (BRASS Chair), Paul Brothers, Laura B. Carscaddon, Jason Dewland, Allison Leaming, Julia Martin, Peter McKay, Michael Oppenheim, and Mark Siciliano

Anthony Lin, 2011-2012 Chair

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BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee

The Business Reference Sources Committee (BRSC) is continuing to nominate titles for its best business reference sources of the year column which appears in RUSQ – and beginning to winnow down the initial list that we’ve put together so far this year. We’ve also begun to plan for the BRSC Publisher’s Forum for ALA Annual, the title of which will be “How Private is Private: Is it Really Possible to Find Information on Private Companies?”

Nathan Rupp, 2011-2012 Chair

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BRASS Education Committee

The RUSA BRASS Education Committee is excited to present a new full-day preconference for the ALA 2012 Annual Conference in Anaheim: “Mastering Business Acumen (MBA) in a Day: Business Concepts for Library Reference.” The last time we were in Anaheim, sixty librarians attended the Business Reference 101 preconference that focuses on business reference, business resources, and collection development. This new preconference will complement the Business 101 preconference and will provide librarians with a broad conceptual understanding of business support and business reference.

Please help us advertise our program by forwarding this information to your friends and colleagues.

Program: Mastering Business Acumen (MBA) in a Day: Business Concepts for Library Reference

Date: Friday, June 22, 2012

Time: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm

Where: ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim (workshop location to be determined)

Presenters:

Accounting – Todd M. Hines (MSLS, MBA, MAcc, CPA), Princeton University Library;

Finance – Chris LeBeau (MLS, MBA), University of Missouri Kansas City;

Management – Elisabeth Leonard (MLS, MBA), Sage, Market Research Analyst;

Marketing – Andy Spackman (MBA, MLS), Brigham Young University;

For more information, and links to ALA Registration pages, go to http://alaannual.org/content/preconferences, Event Code: RUS1

Ticket Prices

  Early Bird Advance Onsite
ALA Member $199 $239 $239
Division Member $179 $219 $219
Round Table Member N/A N/A N/A
Retired Member $149 $189 $189
Student Member $149 $189 $189
Non-Member $219 $259 $259

 

Leticia Camacho, 2011-2012 Chair

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

http://brass.libguides.com/index.php

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BRASS Vendor Relations Committee

The BRASS Vendor Relations Committee has been working on getting a new sponsored award up and running. Currently, we are awaiting final approval from ALA and we look forward to hopefully announcing this new award (and to soliciting nominees) soon! In other news, we have been assisting the BRASS 25th Anniversary Planning Committee by reaching out to new vendors and working with longtime partners to help secure funding for the celebration event planned for 2013 in Chicago.

Celia Ross, 2011-2012 Chair

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BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award Committee

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award committee has made a selection for this year. In order to be eligible for the award, nominees must be a current member of the American Library Association, have a career interest in business reference librarianship, and be willing to participate in BRASS.

We have chosen a recipient and are looking forward to the official presentation and announcement this June at the ALA Annual.

Melissa Jeter, 2011-2012 Chair

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BRASS 25th Anniversary Planning Committee

Plans are underway for the BRASS 25th Anniversary Party to be held on Monday, July 1st at ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago. Keep your calendars open for this fabulous event. Stay tuned for details to come over the next year.

Louise Feldmann, 2011-2012 Chair

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Reference Publishing Discussion Forum

CODES

Vicki Bloom, Editor


About fifty librarians, publishers, and vendors attended the Reference Publishing Discussion Forum: “Life after the Statistical Abstract,” sponsored by RUSA/CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee.Moderated by Alesia McManus, owner of the “Save the US Statistical Abstract” Facebook page, Alesia McManus, along with Dan Coyle from ProQuest and Bruce Samuelson from Bernan Publishing spoke about what the proposed demise of the Statistical Abstract means for reference librarians and library users. Here are some highlights:

Dan Coyle from ProQuest remarked that all of the public domain content (90%) of the content is received at ProQuest. They ingest the data and use it in a variety of publications, including Statistical Insight. Coyle said that there is a possibility that Proquest will continue publishing Statistical Abstract with deeper indexing of the tables. Bruce Samuelson from Bernan Publishing stated that his company does publish the Statistical Abstract; in fact, it is the second largest title that they sold for years. Moving forward, Bernan is looking to publish it themselves but only in print. Librarians agree that Statistical Abstract has three great virtues—comprehensive data in one location, footnotes for further information, and low price. Plus it includes data collected from private sources. Whatever the end result, librarians don’t want a product that is too complicated.

Also discussed were open access and/or grant funding, the Statistics Canada model, and the advocacy role of ALA. While it hasn’t been updated in ages, perhaps librarians should visit the FedStats website and request newer information as an indication of interest. Perhaps those interested could use CapWiz, a legislative action center within ALA as an outlet. Alesia McManus plans to continue maintaining her Facebook page and is hoping to establish an ALA Connect group devoted to this issue.

Bill McHugh, Chair

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Collection Development Education Committee

The Collection Development Education Committee recently posted a toolkit of resources to the RUSA web pages at: http://www.ala.org/rusa/contact/rosters/codes/rus–coded. The committee is open to recommendations to add to the toolkit. Please contact one of the co-chairs if have suggestions for additional collection development resources.

After some discussion, the CODES Executive Committee decided that the Reference Book Review Checklist falls under education and therefore will now be revised by the Collection Development Education Committee.

Lesley Brown, Co-chair

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Upcoming at ALA Annual in Anaheim

Two RUSA CODES Committees Unite! Collection Development Planning and Assessment Committee & Collection Development Education Committee

Big news for the Collection Development Planning and Assessment and the Collection Development Education Committees! Based on member interest, enrollment and overlapping committee charges, these two committees have been merged and will meet as a combined group at the annual meeting in Anaheim. The new combined committee will be meeting during the current Planning and Assessment slot scheduled for Sundays from 10:30 am – 12:00 pm. That meeting will be a chance for all members to review the current charges, draft a new combined charge and consider name changes.

In addition, the Collection Development Planning and Assessment Committee have an exciting program planned for Anaheim that is co-sponsored by the ALCTS Collection Development & Electronic Resources Interest Group. The program features four highly experienced panelists and is scheduled for Saturday morning from 8:00-10:00 A.M.; moderated by Heather McCormack from Library Journal, it should be a lively and informative discussion to kick-start your Saturday!

●     Title: The E-book Elephant in the Room: How to figure out what’s relevant and working for your patrons to help you make effective decisions for your e-collection of the future.

●     Description: Patron demand for e-books is growing; as our e-collections grow, as publishers create more interesting e-content that may have value-added content over printed works, and as we struggle to effectively balance our materials budgets across physical and e-content, how do we make good decisions about what these collections should contain?

●     Day/Time: Saturday, June 23rd from 8:00-10:00 A.M.

Hear from four highly experienced panelists:

●     Alene Moroni, Manager, Selection and Order, King County Library

●     Anne Silvers Lee, Chief, Materials Management Division, Free Library of Philadelphia

●     Linda DiBiase, Collection Development Librarian, University of Washington

●     Sue Polanka, Head of Reference & Instruction, Wright State University

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Message from the Chair

History

The History Section, with the sponsorship of ProQuest, offered a free genealogy preconference at the Midwinter in Dallas, Texas. Speakers included Lloyd Bockstruck, retired librarian from the Dallas Public Library, Aaron Holt of the National Archives, Sue Kaufman of the Clayton Library in Houston, Texas, Ari Wilkins of the Dallas Public Library, and Bill Forsyth of ProQuest. Plans are underway for another free preconference at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. We hope many will plan to attend this June 22, 2012, event.

The History Section program at the ALA Annual Conference will be entitled, “Mining Gold From the 1940 Census.” The opening of the 1940 census for public view on April 2, 2012, will be unlike any other. This census is being offered in digital content only. Joel Weintrub of the National Archives and Records Administration will speak about the impact of this census which documents the Greatest Generation on the brink of war. A panel discussion will follow by representatives of vendors who will host the 1940 census images. They will discuss what their individual companies are doing to index the census records.

The History Librarians Discussion Group, monitored by Heather Tompkins, had twenty-eight in attendance at the Midwinter meeting. There was a mix of public, academic, and special librarians, as well as two students and some vendors. The discussion focused around the issues and challenges of providing access to the kinds of sources people use when researching public history topics. They also explored some of the challenges of teaching the complexities of public history. The discussion ended with some thoughts about the definitions of public history and some thoughts about the perceptions of public history as a discipline.

The Local History Committee has revised Guidelines for Establishing Local History Collections. The RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee has reviewed the document and when the recommended changes are made it will proceed again to the committee before it is brought before the RUSA Executive Board at the Annual Conference.

A new History Section award will be announced at the RUSA Awards Program at the 2012 Annual Conference.

Sara Morris, History Section Vice-Chair is making appointments now for those who would like to be involved in committee work for the History Section. Please fill out the volunteer form on the RUSA website if you would like to volunteer.

Janice Schultz
History Section Chair

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Genealogy Committee

The Genealogy Committee and GODORT will sponsor the RUSA History Section’s program at Anaheim this summer: “Mining Gold from the 1940 Census.”

Images of the 1940 U.S. Population Census were released in April, 2012 following a 72 year embargo for privacy concerns. These images are of great interest to genealogists and other social historians. This program will be presented on Sunday, June 24 at 1:30 P.M. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Joel Weintraub who collaborates with Steve Morse on the many1-Step indexes. His presentation will be followed by a panel who represent organizations which began to provide access to images of the 1940 US Census on April 2, 2012:

●     Kerry Bartels, US Archives

●     Bill Forsyth, Proquest (Ancestry.com Library edition and Heritage Quest)

●     Michael Hall, FamilySearch

●     Amy Johnson Crow, Archives.com

Dave Dowell, Chair

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Message From the Chair

Message from MARS

Newsletter of the RUSA-MARS Emerging Technologies in Reference Section

Melissa J. Clapp, Editor

 

MARS had a very productive Midwinter Meeting. This was the first Midwinter Meeting at which MARS largely participated virtually. Committees, other than the Executive Committee, had the option of meeting in-person or meeting virtually prior to Midwinter and sending in a report that would be discussed during the Executive Committee meetings, which were held in-person. This seemed to work well for committees. Two committees opted to meet in-person during Midwinter, while other committees chose to meet virtually. Of course, committees that presented discussion forums did send committee representatives to conduct the forums.

In total, three MARS discussion forums were held during Midwinter. Hot Topics presented a wonderful discussion forum entitled “Reaching out to Patrons in Virtual Ways: Old School Successes and New Initiatives.” The Virtual Reference Discussion Group held an engaging discussion forum entitled “UX + VR FTW,” which explored user experience as it pertains to virtual reference. Local Systems and Services presented a stimulating discussion forum entitled “The Learning Commons and the Academic Library: Using Emerging Technologies and New Partnerships to Build Student Success.”

In addition to the MARS gatherings, RUSA held its Annual Membership Social. The RUSA Social was very well attended. It provided a wonderful opportunity to chat with RUSA friends as well as meet and welcome new RUSA members. The Midwinter Meeting proved to be very informative, and MARS is looking forward to an equally engaging Annual Conference.

Warm Regards,

Dianna McKellar
MARS Chair, 2011-2012

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MARS Chair’s Program Planning Committee

The MARS Chair’s Program Planning Committee has been steadfastly working towards organizing a program that will be presented at the Annual ALA Conference. The program, which has been selected to serve as the 2012 RUSA President’s Program, is entitled “Library in Your Hand: Mobile Technologies for Exchanging Information with Patrons.” This program will explore the importance of libraries supporting mobile technologies for the dissemination and acquisition of information. Joan Lippincott, Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, will speak about why libraries should embrace communicating with patrons through mobile devices. Kristin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries, will speak about mobile initiatives at NCSU including WolfWalk, a photographic guide to the history of NCSU optimized for mobile devices. David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka Public Library, will discuss the library app and social media used to communicate with patrons at the Topeka Public Library.

Dianna McKellar, MARS Chair

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RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Planning Committee

Conference report for 2012 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Dallas, TX

Discussion topic: “UX + VR FTW”

Courtney Greene, Head of Digital User Experience at Indiana University Libraries-Bloomington, opened the Virtual Reference Discussion Forum by describing general principles of designing for user experience and examining how those might apply to virtual reference. She emphasized the need to go beyond supposition and assumptions by gathering information from patrons through a variety of means including usability testing, focus groups, and web analytics. Greene also illustrated how her library used UX principles to create multiple IM widget access points for users and corresponding queues for library operators. Her presentation slides are available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/xocg/ux–vr–ftw–mars–vrdg–alamw12. Following Courtney’s presentation, there was a lengthy question and answer session that involved sharing of ideas and best practices.

A total of fifty-two people attended the session. Twenty-three of the attendees completed an evaluation form. The feedback was extremely positive, with many respondents expressing appreciation for Courtney’s enthusiasm and expertise. They expressed a strong desire to continue learning more about UX and its implications for VR.

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Virtual Reference Discussion Group Planning Committee

The Virtual Reference Discussion Group Planning Committee is currently discussing topic ideas for its Discussion Forum at ALA Annual. After the committee finalizes a topic and identifies a kick-off speaker, it will begin work on the following two projects:

●     Update the committee’s public page on the ALA website. The page will include lists of past members as well as lists of past topics for the Discussion Fora at MidWinter and Annual. When possible, the list of topics will include links to notes and presentation materials.

●     Establish and promote a public page on ALA connect for soliciting suggestions for future topics for Discussion Fora.

Jason Coleman, Chair