What’s Happening in Philly!

Dear RUSA Members,

The Midwinter conference will be in Philadelphia this year and I hope those of you who will be there will take time to visit with us at the RUSA Membership Social. It will be held Saturday, January 25, from 5:30pm – 7pm at the Sheraton, Liberty Ballroom B. Join us to mingle, meet the RUSA board members, committee chairs, and volunteer leaders, and have a little bit of fun. We’ll have a raffle and, new this year, a trivia contest! Great prizes and refreshments will be available so be sure to come and bring your friends and colleagues – all members and visitors are welcome!

One other event that is always of interest to all RUSA members and book lovers is the Book & Media reception taking place Sunday, January 26, 2014 at the Sheraton, Liberty Ballroom A, from 5:00pm to 6:30pm. We’ll unveil the winners of The Reading List, Notable Books (which help form the long list for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence for Fiction and Nonfiction) and Listen List selections, as well as the winners of the Dartmouth Medal for reference, the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, the Zora Neale Hurston Award for achievement in promoting African-American literature, the Louis Shores Award for book reviewing and many more. All ALA Midwinter Meeting participants are invited to this celebration on-site in Philadelphia. Thanks go to our event sponsor NoveList and the publishers for  donating their books to our committees. If you can’t attend, you will be able to track the announcements on Twitter with the hashtag #literarytastes. Don’t miss this wonderful event. We hope to see you there!

This year, RUSA is co-sponsoring a Midwinter Institute with ASCLA (the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies) on creating and designing online courses – advance registration ends January 15, 2014 so now is the time to register:

Designing Online Courses for Significant Learning Experiences
January 24, 8:00am-4:00pm

If you’re a trainer, instructor or teacher don’t miss attending this valuable workshop co-sponsored by ASCLA and RUSA, and presented by international consultant Dr. Stewart Ross on the most effective practices designing and teaching online courses. More information is here. REGISTRATION RATES: ASCLA and RUSA members, $279; ALA members, $299; non-ALA members, $349; Student/Retired members of ALA, $229. Event Code: ASC3. Register now!

In addition, the RUSA board will meet twice in Philadelphia; please feel free to join us as our honored guests. The meetings will be held:

Board of Directors I (RUSA)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Board of Directors I (RUSA) 1:30-3:30

Pennsylvania Convention Center – 118 A

Board of Directors II (RUSA)

Monday, January 27, 2014

2:00pm to 4:00pm

Pennsylvania Convention Center – 115 B

RUSA Town Hall: All RUSA members are invited to share comments, suggestions and concerns with the RUSA Board at the beginning of RUSA Board Meeting I, Saturday, January 25, 2014 – 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center – 118 A. For those who want to participate virtually, the following chat rooms are available and will be monitored by board members (these chat rooms will be public; anyone may read the posts, but you will have to login to Connect to post messages):

Chat Room 1: http://connect.ala.org/node/215389
Chat Room 2: http://connect.ala.org/node/215390
Chat Room 3: http://connect.ala.org/node/215391
Chat Room 4: http://connect.ala.org/node/215392
Landing page for all chat rooms: http://connect.ala.org/rusa?gh=31208   

Specific Questions for Discussion:

  • What issues in reference and user services are you facing? 
  • How can RUSA as an organization help you address these issues? 
  • How can RUSA be changed to better meet these needs

Please join us – we want to hear from you!

It has been wonderful to work with all the RUSA members this past year. We have so many wonderful things to offer to members such as service on our book award committees, our beloved Literary Tastes and Book & Media Awards events, guidelines for reference and user services and our online educational sessions among others. We couldn’t have done any of this without the invaluable advice and assistance of our member leaders and volunteers. I want to thank every RUSA member for all their dedicated work and loyalty in helping to make our division successful; it’s a pleasure and a privilege to serve you! Best Wishes for a happy new year!

Susan Hornung

 Executive Director, ASCLA/RUSA

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