CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

CODES was well represented in Orlando at the ALA Annual Conference.  The program “Harnessing Research and Data to Advance Readers’ Advisory Services, ” the annual “Literary Tastes” breakfast, and of course the annual Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception all highlighted CODES and other RUSA activities.

Summer and fall are a busy time of year for CODES book and media awards committees!  CODES members are hard at work reading, listening and evaluating books, reference works, and other resources across all genres and formats in anticipation of the RUSA Book and Media Awards ceremony next January 2017 at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.  Membership in the book and media awards committees run February through January.  CODES leadership will be making appointments to these committees in late fall and winter.  Are you interested in serving on one of the book and media awards committees?  Check out the list of CODES committees at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/codes/section/rosters, click on a committee name to read about its charge, and volunteer via the RUSA Online Volunteer Form at http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer.

CODES has several other committees in addition to the book and media awards.  Appointments to these committees are made in the early spring.  It’s not too late to be thinking about joining!  Again, take a look at the list of committees at http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer and volunteer at http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer.

If you have questions about the purpose, composition, or work of any committee, contact Dan Mack, CODES Chair, at dmack@umd.edu.

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

CODES will be active in Orlando at ALA Annual!  On Saturday, June 25 at 10:30 am, check out our program “Harnessing Research and Data to Advance Readers’ Advisory Services” in the AM Orange County Convention Center, Room S330 C-D.  On Sunday morning at 8 am start your day with “Literary Tastes: Celebrating the Best Reading of the Year” in the Rosen Centre, Room Grand A.  This annual event has become a favorite for readers everywhere.  And you certainly won’t want to miss the Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception at 5 pm on Sunday in the Rosen Centre, Room Grand A.  Congratulate your colleagues from CODES and other RUSA sections as we recognize their outstanding achievements.

You may be interested in a couple of other CODES committee meetings as well.  The CODES All Committee Meeting at Midwinter in Boston was so successful that we are repeating it in Orlando.  Any CODES group that does not have its own specific meeting time and place can meet during the All Committee Meeting on Saturday, June 25, at 10:30 am in the Hyatt Regency Orlando, Room Plaza BR F.  It’s also a great venue to meet colleagues and introduce yourself to other CODES members.  The Reference Publishing Advisory Committee will meet on Saturday, June 25, at 4:30 pm in Orange County Convention Center, Room W307B.   This brainstorming session is open to all and will identify trends in reference publishing to serve as future topics.  Please join us for the conversation!

It’s not too late for appointment to a CODES committee.  A few committees still have available positions.  If you’re interested in serving or have questions about CODES committees, please contact Daniel Mack, CODES Vice Chair/Chair Elect, at dmack@umd.edu.

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

ALA Midwinter saw another great round of book and media awards. Be sure to see the spring copy of RUSQ for a listing of all the award winners. Please mark your calendars for the RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony 5-6:30 p.m. on June 26. This event is a great opportunity to the book award winners, as well as network with colleagues.

Appointments for 2016 CODES awards committees are just about complete, and CODES vice-chair, Dan Mack is getting set to start appointing members to other CODES committees as well as CODES representatives to RUSA level committees. Volunteers should fill out the form at http://www.ala.org/rusa/volunteer, or email me at dmack@umd.edu.  If members have a question about what membership on a particular committee may entail, please feel free to email Dan at dmack@umd.edu.

The CODES executive committee is working on their section review. Done every 5 years, the section review is a chance to look at the structure and operations of the section and see what is working well and what might be changed to improve CODES. The section review will be submitted to the RUSA Board later this spring.

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

Chair’s Note
CODES conducted a “Town Hall” meeting for members on 11/18/15. The discussions will continue at the ALA Midwinter conference in Boston.

We encourage all CODES and RUSA members to make plans to attend RUSA’s Book and Media Awards Reception on Sunday evening during ALA Midwinter. Award winners will be announced for numerous awards that CODES committees are currently working on, including Notable Books, Sophie Brody, Reading List, Dartmouth, Best Reference Books, and others.

Anyone interested in getting involved in CODES should fill out the committee volunteer form to indicate their interest in serving. Many CODES committees are now virtual, so opportunities may exist for participating that were not available in the past. Anyone with questions about appointments to CODES committees should check with Dan Mack, CODES Vice Chair/Chair-Elect if you have any questions (dmack@umd.edu). More information is available on the CODES web site: http://ww.ala.org/rusa/sections/codes/section.

Ed Kownslar, CODES Chair, 2015-16

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

CODES Highlights for RUSA Update
CODES chair Deborah Abston reports that the CODES Board will be meeting prior to ALA Annual to review policies and procedures, including updating procedures for awards committees. Committee appointments for CODES Committees are nearly complete.

CODES AT ALA ANNUAL
CODES committees will be presenting two programs at annual:
Reading into the Future: Tips and Tools for Staying on Top of the Book World (Saturday, June 27, 2015 – 10:30 am to 11:30 am, Moscone Convention Center 2016) It’s a big book world, and someone’s gotta read it. Keeping up with the burgeoning world of publishing and popular culture can appear daunting, but it can be done! Be the first to know (instead of the last to hear) about reading trends and hot new titles.Join a panel of experts who will share practical techniques and invaluable resources to help you keep up with the current literary scene. Learn strategies to maximize your reading time, stay ahead of your patrons, and position yourself as a crucial literary resource in your library community.

Whacking the Weeds in the Library: Deaccessioning Print and Digital Materials in the 21st Century and Beyond (Saturday, June 27, 2015 – 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm, Moscone Convention Center 2012) This program will include a public, academic, and community college librarian to discuss strategies for weeding/deaccessioning materials in their libraries and how to do so in ways that make providing user services more effective.

CODES will have representatives at RUSA 101, Friday, June 26, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm to talk with potential new members about the work of the section.

The CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee Discussion Forum will take place at ALA Annual on Saturday, June 27, 2015 – 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Hilton San Francisco Union in the Taylor Room.

CODES is also co-sponsoring a program with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) on university presses as an often-undiscovered gold mine of resources for school and public libraries. Sunday, June 28, 2015 – 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.

CODES also is cosponsoring with ALCTS Collection Management Section the Collection Management in Public Libraries Interest Group on Monday, June 29, 2015 – 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.

CODES

Barry Trott, editor

 

Chair’s Note

The CODES Board will not hold meetings at ALA Midwinter in Chicago, but will be meeting virtually prior to and following Midwinter.

We encourage all CODES and RUSA members to make plans to attend RUSA’s Book and Media Awards Reception on Sunday evening during ALA-Midwinter. At this time, award winners will be announced for numerous awards that CODES committees are currently working on, including Notable Books, Sophie Brody, Reading List, Dartmouth, Best Reference Books, and others.

Anyone interested in getting involved in CODES should fill out the committee volunteer form to indicate their interest in serving. Many CODES committees are now virtual, so opportunities may exist for participating that were not available in the past. Anyone with questions about appointments to CODES committees should check with Edward Kownslar, CODES Vice Chair/Chair-Elect if you have any questions (Edward.Kownslar@tamucc.edu). More information is available on the CODES web site: http://ww.ala.org/rusa/sections/codes/section.

 

Deborah Abston, CODES Chair, 2014-15

CODES

Barry Trott, editor

 

Notable Books Council
The announcements of the 2014 winners for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction in Las Vegas was a lively event. This year the Notable Books Council was asked to put their super-human readers’ advisory skills to use and compile a list of read alikes for the finalists and reading group discussion guides for the winners, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch for fiction and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism.

Here’s what Katharine Phenix, chair of the Notable Books Council had to say about the process:

What’s it like for a group of 12 librarians, spread out from Washington to Florida, North Carolina to New Mexico to work together on a project with a 2-week deadline? First we had to agree on which Internet cloud to work on….Then conversation became lively, one suggestion led to another, one author to another, and our mini-book club and bibliographer brains got to work. Which micro-history is most like On Paper? Salt? Coffee? Oysters?” and “Is this too academic?” and “Looking for more literature of disaster and redemption…” are a few of our gambits.

Did you love the Carnegie finalists? RUSA’s Notable Books Council recommends these other fantastic reads!

Interested in hosting a reading group for the Carnegie winners? Take a look at the discussion guides the Notable Books Council has created.
The Goldfinch
The Bully Pulpit

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

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.

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

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.

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.

 

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.

CODES Section

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

 

The Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee’s latest CODES Conversation had over 400 participants. Co-Chair Neal Wyatt notes, “We all got multiple personal notes of thanks for offering it and detailing how useful it was.”

From Bill McHugh, “I just wanted to let everyone know that the proposal from the Reference Publishing Advisory Committee for one of the free RUSA Webinar slots has been approved. The proposed Webinar will be based on our discussion forum in Seattle, ‘Are Users Finding Our Online Reference Resources?’ The four speakers at that forum have agreed to take part in the Webinar. The committee will be working on the planning for this event in the coming weeks and in Chicago; we’re anticipating that it won’t happen until after annual, but it will need to happen before December 31 in order to receive this funding. The RSS Education and Professional Development for Reference Committee has also been working with us on this project.”

Don’t forget to attend the Literary Tastes event at Annual, Sunday, June 30, from 8:00-10:00 A.M., to listen to some of the year’s best authors discuss their works and the craft of writing while enjoying the company of other book lovers. All Annual Conference registrants are invited to participate in this conference program.

Now’s the time to complete the RUSA Volunteer Form, especially if you are interested in serving on one of the many CODES awards committee which are appointed in the fall.

CODES is offering several programs at Annual and we welcome everyone to attend CODES committee meetings to learn about CODES and see which committees in which you might be interested joining. Check the conference scheduler for program times and details.

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

CODES had a very successful ALA Midwinter. The annual RUSA Book and Media Awards highlighted the work of several CODES committees, including Notable Books, the Reading List, the Listening List, Outstanding Reference Sources, the Sophie Brody Medal, the Dartmouth Medal, the Zora Neale Hurston Award, and the Louis Shores Award. The event was well-attended, and offered CODES and RUSA members good food and drink, and the opportunity to recognize outstanding materials, reviewers, and promoters of library resources.

Following in the footsteps of other RUSA sections, the CODES Board is trialing two virtual Midwinter meetings, 2013 and 2014. The Board will assess the effectiveness of virtual Board meetings following Midwinter 2014.

In December, the CODES Readers Advisory (RA) Committee debuted an email forum, entitled CODES Conversations, modeled after the ALCTS email events. The first conversation, centered on issues of genre, gathered close to 250 participants for a free, three-day conversation. Discussions were lively, wide-ranging, and involved librarians from the United States and abroad. The event was very well received and the committee is now planning to offer CODES Conversations three times a year. The committee continues to present the RA Research and Trends Forum at annual. This year’s program will address issues of genre fiction and how the classification system of genre impacts the work of RA librarians.

This year, CODES welcomed University Press Books for School and Public Libraries as its newest committee. Nann Blaine Hilyard was appointed chair together with four RUSA CODES members; four returning members are providing continuity this year as the committee transitions to CODES. This committee is a long-time collaboration with the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and a group of Public Library Reviewers (PLR). The work of the committee culminates in an annual publication and collection development tool titled University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries. Members write reviews for the titles they think are outstanding and the Association compiles, prints, and distributes the publication, which is also available online. 2013 marks the 23rd edition of the publication. At Annual, the committee typically hosts a “Best of the Best” program.

CODES continues to welcome new members and volunteers for various CODES committees. Those interested in serving on a CODES committee should contact CODES vice chair/chair elect Asia Gross (asiagross@gmail.com) who will be making appointments.

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

RUSA CODES at Midwinter

RUSA CODES will be active at Midwinter with several discussion groups and the increasingly popular Book and Media Awards. Join your fellow CODES members and bring along a potential member!

Midwinter Book and Media Awards Reception

Sunday, January 27, 5:00-6:30 PM; Renaissance Seattle Hotel, Municipal Room.

Be sure to attend the Midwinter Book and Media Awards Reception, where RUSA celebrates the best fiction, non-fiction and reference titles of the year! RUSA’s expert readers’ advisory committees will unveil their choices for the Collection Development and Evaluation Section’s

(CODES) literary awards. All Midwinter attendees and exhibitors are invited to attend.

Reference Publishing Discussion Forum: Are Users Finding Our Online Reference Resources?

Sunday, January 27, 1:00-2:30 PM; W Seattle Hotel, Great Room 1B.

Interested in online reference sources? Check out the CODES discussion forum on Reference Publishing Discussion Forum: Are Users Finding Our Online Reference Resources? Libraries spend a great deal of money on quality online online reference resources, in the hopes that they will be useful to our communities. But are they being used? How do users discover reference resources in the online environment: teaching, research guides, stand-alone vendor resources? How do we enable users to cross multiple interfaces to reach reference sources?

Join our discussions with librarians and vendors on these issues.

CODES Collection Management in Public Libraries Discussion Group

Sunday, January 27, 4:30-5:30 PM; Washington State Convention Center, Room 212.

Public librarians will want to stop by the CODES Collection Management in Public Libraries Discussion Group to share ideas and thoughts on new eBook platforms and other topics of interest in current collection management. Please email any topics you would like to see on the agenda to: Nanci Milone Hill at nhill@mvlc.org.

Hot Topics Discussion Group

Saturday, January 26, 10:30-11:30 AM; Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Virginia.

The Hot Topics Discussion Group will be talking about the role of Subject Specialists and Selection. Collection development is one of the most rapidly changing areas of librarianship. As patron-driven acquisitions and collaborative purchasing increase, do subject specialists still play an important role in selection? Is their participation essential? Join us for a lively discussion on how collection development responsibilities are changing and what these changes mean for librarians.

CODES Board

CODES

Barry Trott, Editor

The CODES Board voted to sunset the CODES Materials Reviewing Committee. The committee existed only to review and update the document “Elements for Basic Reviews.” After the discussing the usefulness of this resource, the board felt that there was little evidence that these guidelines were being used in the profession. As most review sources define their own review, the board felt that this detailed document was increasingly irrelevant, and that neither the committee nor the guidelines were necessary to meet the strategic directions of the section. The recommendation was sent to the RUSA Board.

CODES Communications Committee

The CODES Communications Committee drafted a new charge:

a.       To promote the visibility of CODES Communications and its activities and programs by:

i.      Developing and recommending plans and strategies for keeping members informed of the section’s activities and opportunities to the Section’s Executive Committee

ii.      Contacting and providing information about CODES to new members

iii.      Organizing, maintaining and regularly updating the CODES website and Facebook presence

iv.      Promoting internal communication among members, including ALA Connect

v.      Soliciting and coordinating the submission of articles and information related to the section for CODES publications

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

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/ruscoded. 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

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

What’s happening at Annual?

CODES

Vicki Bloom, Editor

Authors Not Eggs
Sunday, June 24 8:00-10:00 AM Anaheim Convention Center Room 204B
This year the Literary Taste/Notable Book Breakfast becomes a program! There are no tickets to buy and no eggs to eat but there is plenty of literary wonderfulness. Come listen to three outstanding authors from this year’s Notable Book list and Reading List: Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, Candice Millard, author of Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, and Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time. Meet the authors and other book lovers and get free or greatly discounted signed copies of these wonderful reads.

Submitted by Neil Wyatt

 
The Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum
Saturday, June 23 10:30-12:00 PM Anaheim Convention Center Rooms 304 A&B
Dedicated to exploring the cutting edge of Research Advisory (RA) practice and thinking collectively about its future, the RA Forum is a platform for discussions centered on contemporary RA issues. This year the forum will present three approaches to the topic “Browsing for Pleasure in the Digital Age.” Panelists will address the intersection of the catalog and the reader, how electronic reading changes reading preferences, and reader-driven and reader-led RA services through social media such as Goodreads. Come join the discussion!

Submitted by Neil Wyatt

Reference Publishing Advisory Committee Program
Monday, June 25, from 1:30-3:30 PM, in the Anaheim Convention Center
The Reference Publishing Advisory Committee will be co-sponsoring a program in Anaheim with the Reference Books Bulletin Board. The program, entitled "Why Can’t an E-book be More Like the Print?" will feature librarians and publishers discussing e-book policies and practices in libraries. Sue Polanka, owner of the "No Shelf Required" blog, will be among the speakers.

 
RUSA Awards reception
Sunday, June 24, 5:00-6:30pm: Disney Grand Californian Hotel, Sequia South Ballroom D
Among the other prize winners who will be honored, the Zora Neale Hurston Award will be presented to Vanessa Morris. This award, which is sponsored by Harper Perennial, honors librarians who have demonstrated leadership in promoting African American Literature through projects and programs. Morris was selected for her book, The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Street Literature, published by the American Library Association in 2012. Come congratulate Vanessa Morris as well as Louis Shores Award winner, Sarah L. Johnson, Professor of Library Services at Eastern Illinois University and author of the blog Reading the Past.

Submitted by Cynthia Crosser, Past Chair and Vicki Bloom, RUSA Update CODES editor.

Exec Council: Consolidation of Committees
At Midwinter, it was announced that the CODES review was completed and approved. Following RUSA’s goal to consolidate committee duties and eliminate overlap when possible, the Executive Council members talked about merging the Collection Development Education and the Collection Development Planning & Assessment Committees. At Annual the two groups will report at Annual with recommendations for a new name and a new charge. The Materials Reviewing Committee will be sunset as well, since the "Elements for Basic Reviews.." is no longer useful. Given that improving communication remains an issue and priority, the Communications Committee will have a new charge.

Submitted by Vicki Bloom, RUSA Update CODES editor

CODES/STARS Cooperative Collection Development committee

Planning for Annual 2013
 
A program is being developed for ALA Annual 2013 which will explore the opportunities and challenges that arise from merging interlibrary loan and acquisitions departments, as well as the administrative aspects of such a partnership. Through examining successful and unsuccessful cases, attendees will gain an understanding of how to move forward with a merger at their own institution.

Submitted by Rebecca Malinowski, Co-Chair

CODES

Announcements: Midwinter

Vicki D. Bloom, Editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Book and Media Awards Reception

The RUSA Book and Media Awards Reception will be held during Midwinter on Sunday January 22 from 5:00-6:30 pm. The RUSA event features many CODES awards including the Notable Book List, the Reading List, the Listen List, the Sophie Brody Medal, the Dartmouth Medal, the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the Louis Shores Award, and the Outstanding Reference Sources Award. The reception is open to all. Location details will be announced closer to Midwinter. Join your colleagues in this not-to-be-missed celebration that has become the highlight of Midwinter for many.

CODES Listen List

The inaugural announcement of CODES new audiobook juried list will be made at the 2012 Book and Media Awards. The Listen List honors the outstanding work of narrators whose reading creates a new story experience for listeners, one a reader could not achieve by her/his own reading of a printed book. The lists consists of twelve titles, all of which will be annotated and include listenalikes. This award extends CODES work promoting and supporting collection development and readers’ advisory service, extending that support into the realm of whole collection RA.
 

CODES Hot Topics Discussion Group

Saturday January 21, 2012; 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Dallas Convention Center, A302

For Midwinter 2012, the CODES Hot Topics Discussion Group is focusing on collection assessment. While assessing library services and resources has been important for many years, the current economic realities and serious interest in “return on investment” has brought it to the forefront in all kinds of libraries. Participants will exchange information on how their institutions are implementing collection assessment activities and share the methodologies they are using and the outcomes that result. What works and what does not work? How does assessment affect collection development decisions, budgeting, and cooperative collection development activities with other libraries?

Please join us for a lively and thought-provoking discussion on this very hot collection development topic. All conference registrants are invited to join us.

Call for Papers/Presentations

The RUSA/CODES Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee invites submissions of presentations and/or papers for the 5th Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum to be held in Anaheim during ALA’s Annual Conference. The Forum will take place on Saturday, June 23 from 10:30 am-12:00 pm.

They invite papers or presentations on various responses to:

●     Browsing for Pleasure Reading in the Digital Age: All aspects of the topic, including information encountering, 2.0 applications, the intersection of human/computer guidance, ILS integration, the impact of ebook sites, and the implications for cataloging, reviewing, organizing, and searching data are welcome, as are other interpretations and approaches to the topic.

●     Researched papers and in-the-trenches presentations are equally welcome.

The committee employs a blind review process and will select three projects for twenty-minute presentations.

To submit: Send an abstract of your paper or description of your presentation (up to 350 words) to: rusa.raforum@gmail.com by January 15, 2012. Please include on a separate cover sheet your name, title of presentation/paper, institutional affiliation, full contact information, and any technological needs. Include on your abstract ONLY the title of your presentation/paper. Notification of acceptance will be made by February 27, 2012.

CODES Readers Advisory (RA) Committee to Contribute to Library Journal’s Reader’s Shelf

Members of the CODES RA committee have contributed the end-of-the-year column for Library Journal’s Reader’s Shelf. Each year a group of RA librarians is asked to write the column, reflecting on some of their favorite titles of the year. This year’s column features titles from six members of the RA committee: Stephanie Chase, Multnomah County Library, Oregon; Jacob Cleary, Chicago Public Library, Illinois; Lucy M. Lockley, St. Charles City-County Library District, Missouri; Deborah Luchenbill,The State Historical Society of Missouri; Troy Lynn Reed, Southeast Regional Library, Maricopa County Library District, Arizona; Deborah T. Walsh, Geneva Public Library District, Illinois. The column will run in the December 15th issue of Library Journal.

CODES member Rebecca Vnuk heads to Booklist

Booklist has hired Rebecca Vnuk, a past member and chair of the CODES RA Committee, as the new Editor for Reference and Collection Management. Rebecca will be responsible for all print and electronic reference reviews, as well as for developing feature articles on readers’ advisory and collection development. Rebecca welcomes column ideas from CODES members. She can be reached at rvnuk@ala.org.

CODES

Vicki Bloom, Editor

 

CODES is doing lots of exciting work. There are several programs at Annual that promise to be interesting and informative:

●     Reader’s Advisory Trends Forum: Saturday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm

●     A-Z of Electronic Reference Product Development: Saturday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm

●     How is it shared? Remote Storage and Cooperative Collection Building: Monday from 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Committee Reports

Reader’s Advisory

The Reader’s Advisory is interested in running a survey in 2011 to gather more data about academic readers’ advisory service.

Collection Development Planning and Assessment

Collection Development Planning and Assessment will be discussing program for 2012 on e-book assessment panel featuring representatives from both large and small academic and public library systems.

Communications

CODES has a Facebook page: Friends and Content are welcome!

Awards

CODES
Vicki Bloom, Editor

 

During the RUSA Annual Awards event several CODES awards were presented and several members of CODES won awards. The CODES awards presented included The Dartmouth Medal (presented by Barbara Bibel), The Louis Shores Award (presented by Megan McArdle), The Sophie Brody Medal (presented by Edward Kownslar), and The Zora Neale Hurston Award (presented specially by Zora Neale Hurston’s niece). CODES winners included Joyce Saricks who won the Margaret E. Monroe Award and Diane Zabel who won the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award. Congratulations to everyone involved with CODES awards from the hard working committees, the talented authors, and our outstanding member-winners.

Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration Council

The Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration Council, the newest of CODES juried list awards, met virtually in July using RUSA’s new Go To Meeting program (we used the conference call feature). This new award selects the twelve best audiobooks published annually based on narrator performance. The list of winning titles will be announced at the Midwinter 2012 Book and Media Awards Reception.

Neal Wyatt, Chair

Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum

The fourth Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum was held at the 2011 Annual Meeting. An RA event, the forum featured talks by Nancy Pearl and Catherine Sheldrick Ross and a moderated discussion between Nancy and Catherine hosted by Joyce Saricks. A lively audience discussion followed. The theme of this year’s was “what we learn from our readers.”

Neal Wyatt, Chair

Readers’ Advisory Committee

The Readers’ Advisory Committee received word that their program proposal for ALA Annual 2012 has been approved. The program will be a panel discussion titled “RA for Town and Gown: Academic and Public Library Partnerships for Readers’ Advisory Service.”

Lucy M. Lockley, Chair

Reference Publishing Advisory Committee

The CODES Reference Publishing Advisory Committee sponsored a program at the Annual Conference in New Orleans, “eReference Publishing: Current Issues and Trends in Preservation.” Joseph, Yue, Chair of the committee, moderated the panel discussion. Speakers included:

  • Jacob Nadal, Preservation Officer, UCLA Library
  • Heather Ruland Staines, Sr. Manager eOperations at Springer Science + Business Media
  • Marie McCaffrey, Executive Director, HistoryLink.org
  • Ken DiFiore, Associate Director, Outreach & Participation Services,Portico

Jacob Nadal provided a broad discussion of preservation and how it relates to eReference. Three Core Issues in Preservation:

  • Reliable storage: What is the best way to store the information?  Backup vs. storage. Backup is the recovery of systems but the systems are subject to obsolesce and require maintenance.  Storage is for the recovery of content, which can be much more durable and technology independent.  Clouds, tape libraries, RAID arrays (inexpensive discs) are all viable.
  • Choosing formats and technology platforms: What is the best format and platform to store information? Open-source? Proprietary?
  • Planning for obsolescence: There will come a point when the digital materials we use today won’t be usable. It’s a problem, but not a pressing problem.

Bill McHugh, Chair

CODES is now on Facebook!

Check out CODES on Facebook for up-to-date information about upcoming events and programs. Get recent news, post notices on the wall, find new colleagues and reconnect with old ones. Visit and "like" CODES’ new Facebook page.

You can post information news about CODES programs, committees, and other activities by writing on CODES’ wall. You can also submit information, questions, or comments to the page’s administrator Daniel Mack either via Facebook message, or by email to dmack@psu.edu.

Website renovation
The Chair of the CODES Communication Committee, Vicki Bloom and Andrea Hill, the newly hired webmaster for RUSA, have made revisions to the CODES web site. Check it out!
 
Call for new members
The CODES Collection Development Planning and Assessment Committee is looking for new members to join our merry band! We’re in the midst of some exciting program planning on e-book assessment for 2012, and we would love to add your expertise! The current co-chairs are Christopher Platt with the New York Public Library and Serin Anderson with the University of Washington Tacoma Library. If you are interested, please contact either of us directly by email.

Christopher Platt and Serin Anderson, Co-chairs
christopherplatt@nypl.org
serin@uw.edu

ALA Programs

Literary Tastes Breakfast
Sunday, June 26, 8:00 – 10:00 am; Royal Sonesta, Grand Ballroom

Come celebrate the best reading of the year and have breakfast with Guy Gavriel Kay (winner of The Reading List best Fantasy Novel of the year), Nathaniel Philbrick (a Notable Book List winner for The Last Stand), and Judith Shulevitz (winner of the Sophie Brody award). Following breakfast the authors will sign their books and talk with audience members. Information on tickets and registration can be found on RUSAs events page.

What we Learn from Our Readers, A Conversation with Nancy Pearl and Catherine Sheldrick Ross moderated by Joyce Saricks
Saturday, June 25, 1:30 – 3:00 pm; Convention Center, room 391

Be a part of the reader’s advisory event of the year! Come join Nancy Pearl and Catherine Sheldrick Ross in a conversation focused on what we learn from our readers. Pearl will discuss her "Doorway" explanation of appeal and Ross will discuss her forthcoming book, The A, B, C of Pleasure Reading, based on her research with avid readers. Following the presentations, Joyce Saricks will moderate a twenty-minute conversation with Ross and Pearl on their lifetime experience working with readers. There will also be plenty of time for audience questions and conversation. Come learn from these experts how you can better work with readers in your library. If you have a question for Nancy or Catherine you would like Joyce to propose, please post it on Fiction-L.

Reference Publishing: Preservation Trends & Issues
Saturday, June 25, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

As electronic reference products transform to electronic formats, often with continuously updated content instead of one-time publications, new challenges for archiving and preservation arise. Building on recent developments for archiving electronic books and journal content, this program will highlight the issues and challenges of preserving free and licensed e-reference content as well as foster discussion on possible solutions.

Panelists

  1. Heather Ruland Staines, Sr. Manager eOperations at Springer Science + Business Media, Heather.Staines@springer.com
  2. Ken DiFiore, Associate Director, Outreach & Participation Services
  3. Portico, ken.difiore@ithaka.org
  4. Marie McCaffrey, Executive Director, HistoryLink.org
  5. Jacob Nadal, Preservation Officer, UCLA Library

Slicing and Dicing: Usage Statistics for the Practitioner
Saturday, June 25, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Got statistics? What now? Come hear three different perspectives on analyzing print and electronic statistics to provide meaningful data to stakeholders. Attendees will get a down and dirty look at usage statistics from the trenches of data gathering to the glorious heights of informed decision making. Our speakers will share their insights from the areas of approval plan analysis, consortium data management, and library administration.

Speakers

  1. Annette Day, NCSU Libraries: on Collection Intelligence in Managing Collections: Using Data to Drive a Collections Program
  2. Rick Burke, SCELC: on implementation of PaperStats (http://corporate.pubget.com/services/paperstats), a usage data analysis tool
  3. John McDonald, Claremont: on analysis of approval plan statistics.

Sponsored by ALCTS, Acquisitions Section, Research & Statistics, and CODES, Collection Development Planning and Assessment