lwood – Page 4 – RUSA News

April 22, 2016

Celia Ross appointed as new vendor relations liaison

RUSA President, Anne Houston, has appointed Celia Ross, Associate Librarian at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan as RUSA’s newest position, Vendor Relations Liaison.

The Vendor Relations Liaison’s role is to facilitate communication between RUSA, including its staff, members, committees, sections and Executive Board, and database providers, publishers and other research resource vendors in order to ensure the continued support of RUSA’s awards, events, learning opportunities and strategic plan. The Liaison will also work to highlight the value and impact produced by this collaboration.

“Celia has had a direct impact on the professional development of many librarians, drawing them into business reference services and research. Celia is the ideal candidate for this position in that she has been one of RUSA’s greatest assets in advocating for our profession, creating and maintaining relationships with industry vendors and securing sponsorships for many of RUSA’s awards and events. Her rapport within and without the library community goes unmatched and we are beyond excited to have her as the face of our vendor relations liaison,” said RUSA President, Anne Houston.

In collaboration with RUSA, vendors gain unique access to a targeted audience of RUSA members, including reference and acquisitions librarians, collection development specialists, and other information professionals, resulting in a mutually beneficial partnership.

March 4, 2016March 7, 2016

2016 RUSA and Section Achievement Award Winners Announced

RUSA has selected the winners of the 2016 achievement awards, which provide research and travel grants in recognition of the nation’s most exceptional librarians, libraries and projects involving reference services today.

RUSA’s Achievement Awards are a chance to give praise to the most notable librarians, libraries and library research in reference services. These awards are of the highest honor and recognize invaluable contributions to the field.

The following recipients were selected:

DIVISION AWARDS:

Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award
Cheryl LaGuardia, research librarian at the Widener Library of Harvard University, has been named the 2016 winner of RUSA’s highest honor for her distinguished and multifaceted contributions to reference librarianship. Sponsored by Credo Reference.

Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services
The San José Public Library is the 2016 winner of the Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services, which honors a library or library system for developing and imaginative and unique resource to patrons’ reference needs. Sponsored by ReferenceUSA.

John Sessions Memorial Award
The Center for Labor Education and Research, University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu was selected as this year’s winner. “The mission of the labor archive at the Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR) is to preserve labor history materials for future generations, protect the artifacts and make them accessible for public use, and defend the importance of working class history.” Sponsored by the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.

NoveList’s Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award
Dr. Mary K. Chelton, retired professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queen’s College, CUNY, was selected as this year’s winner. The award honors a librarian who has made significant contributions to library adult services. Sponsored by NoveList.

Reference Service Press Award
Denice Adkins, associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Information Science and Learning Technologies and C. Sean Burns, assistant professor, University of Kentucky School of Information Science, authored the winning article, “Arizona Public Libraries Serving the Spanish-Speaking Context for Changes.” The article was first published in Fall of 2013, (Vol. 53, No. 1) of Reference and User Services Quarterly. This award is sponsored by Reference Service Press.

SECTION AWARDS:

Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS)

BRASS Mergent Excellence in Business Librarianship Award
winner is Jared Hoppenfeld, business librarian at Texas A&M University, for his lasting service on many BRASS committees, his outstanding published works on topics relevant to academic and public business librarians, including “Information-Seeking Behaviors of Business Faculty,” the most-downloaded article of 2014 in the Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, and his continued support of business students, entrepreneurs and veterans. This award is sponsored by Mergent, Inc.

Global Financial Data Academic Business Librarianship Travel Award
winner is Ruth D. Terry, business and government information librarian, assistant professor at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, for her promising work in the area of academic business librarianship. This award is sponsored by Global Financial Data.

BRASS Emerald Research Grant Award
winner is Lisa O’Connor, associate professor, School of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky, for her study, “Why Aren’t Millennials Taking Stock?: Assessing the Role of Information Literacy in Market Avoidance.” This award is sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing.

BRASS SimplyMap Student Travel Award
winner is Katherine Glasoe, student at the School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for her potential to be very influential in the field of business librarianship and her impressive work and academic experience. Sponsored by SimplyMap.

BRASS Morningstar Public Librarian Support Award
winner is Susan Wolf Neilson, librarian, Wake County Public Libraries (N.C.). Neilson was selected for her support of the business community through public library programming, librarian training and working with community business organizations to make her library a great resource for business owners and entrepreneurs. This award is sponsored by Morningstar.

Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES)

Louis Shores Award
Multimedia & Technology Reviews, a publication of the Art Libraries Society of North America, was named the 2016 winner for its incisive, objectively written, critical reviews for a variety of free multimedia resources.

Zora Neale Hurston Award
Dr. Florita Bell Griffin, creative director of ARC Communications, LLC, a Texas-based Visual Art Communications and Publishing Company, was announced as the 2016 winner for her outstanding leadership and tireless efforts in promoting literacy and African American literature through the creation of the Little Flower literacy project. The Little Flower® project works to improve youth literacy, self-esteem, and imagination through the use of art, artistic media, and African American literature (storytelling). Sponsored by HarperCollins.

Emerging Technologies Section (ETS)

ETS Achievement Recognition Award
Beth Boatright, information services and instruction librarian, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, was selected as the winner for her dedication and enthusiasm to ETS.

HISTORY Section (HS)

Gale Cengage History Research and Innovation Award
winner is Thomas G. Padilla, digital scholarship librarian, Michigan State University Libraries was selected as this year’s winner. Through oral histories, Padilla will create a better understanding of the past, present and future roles of librarians in the Digital Humanities. Sponsored by Gale Cengage.

Genealogy / History Achievement Award
Michele C. McNabb, library manager, Genealogy Center, Museum of Danish America was selected for her exemplary service, support, leadership and contributions to the field of genealogical and local history librarianship. Sponsored by ProQuest.

Reference Services Section (RSS)

RSS Service Achievement Award
Sarah J. Hammill, business and online learning librarian at Florida International University, was selected as the 2016 winner of the RSS Service Achievement Award. The award recognizes a member that has made exceptional contributions to RUSA’s Reference Services Section.

Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS)

Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award
Tina Baich, associate librarian and head of resource sharing and delivery services, bibliographic and metadata services, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Baich is honored for her outstanding and sustained contributions to the resource sharing community both nationally and internationally. Sponsored by OCLC.

STARS-Atlas Systems Mentoring Award
Kimberly Steiner, interlibrary loan technician at Messiah College (Pa.). Steiner was chosen because as the sole person in interlibrary loan at her library, attendance at the ALA Annual Conference would allow her to learn skills necessary to support users from Messiah College, an institution that is continually expanding their graduate programs; better understand the profession; and also network and learn from colleagues. Sponsored by Atlas Systems, Inc.

The RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, June 26 at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando. All conference attendees are invited to the event. Additional event details will be available on the conference website in April.

January 11, 2016

2016 Notable Books List: Year’s best in fiction, nonfiction and poetry named by RUSA readers’ advisory experts

BOSTON—The Notable Books Council, first established in 1944, has announced the 2016 selections of the Notable Books List, an annual best-of list comprised of twenty six titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The list was announced Sunday during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Boston.

The 2016 selections are:

Fiction

“In the Country: Stories” by Mia Alvar. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
Exploring the Filipino experience spanning decades and continents, these fully rendered tales express wonder and sadness leavened with humor.

“The Sellout: A Novel” by Paul Beatty. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Poking the underbellies of many sacred cows, this biting social satire examines race, culture and politics in modern America.

“Did You Ever Have a Family: A Novel” by Bill Clegg. Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
The aftermath of a tragedy and its rippling effects in a small Connecticut town.

“Delicious Foods: A Novel” by James Hannaham. Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group.
Themes of race, addiction, wage slavery, and corporate greed coalesce in this startling, darkly comic coming of age odyssey.

“Black River: A Novel” by S.M. Hulse. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
This modern literary Western explores a man’s redemptive journey and the possibility (and cost) of forgiveness.

“Fortune Smiles: Stories” by Adam Johnson. Random House, a division of Penguin Random House.
Humanity: quirky, disturbing, endearing, striving, resigned, and fascinating.

“The Prophets of Eternal Fjord: A Novel”” by Kim Leine, translated by Martin Aitken. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton.
An epic and evocative tale of colonialism in Greenland; translated from the Danish.

“The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories” by Anthony Marra. Hogarth, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group.
Beauty and humanity are found in the darkest and grimmest of places in these interconnected pieces.

“The Sympathizer: A Novel”” by Viet Thanh Nguyen.Grove Press.
A half-French, half-Vietnamese man serves as a double agent after the war, and struggles with the contradictions of his identity and loyalties.

“This Is the Life: A Novel” by Alex Shearer. Washington Square Press, a division of Simon & Schuster.
Spare prose mixes with heart-wrenching humor in this gem of a story about two brothers coping with terminal illness.

“The Book of Aron: A Novel” by Jim Shepard. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
The perspective of a boy whose only goal is to live another day gives a sharp edge to the mind-numbing tragedies of the Warsaw Ghetto.

“A Little Life: A Novel” by Hanya Yanagihara. Doubleday, a division of Random House.
A visceral, provocative story of four New York City lives marred by ambition, abuse, and addiction.

Nonfiction

“The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission” by Jim Bell. Dutton, and imprint of Penguin Group.
An enthusiastic account of our reach for intergalactic space — and the people who made it possible.

“Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” by Ali Berman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
A sobering and impassioned popular history of the fight for universal suffrage in the United States.

“The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World” by Joel K. Bourne Jr. WW. Norton and Company.
An agricultural revolution supported our booming population in the twentieth century, but we’ll need another one to sustain us in the years to come.

“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House.
Framed as a letter to the author’s teenage son, this chronicle of race in America works as memoir, meditation, and call to action.

“The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle” by Lillian Faderman. Simon & Schuster.
An authoritative, affecting account of the effort to establish and solidify legal rights and cultural acceptance in the United States.

“Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter, Mary Shelley” by Charlotte Gordon. Random House, a division of Penguin Random House.
From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to Frankenstein, this dual biography provides fresh insight about these groundbreaking authors.

“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” by Erik Larson Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. “Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.” (Penguin Random House, 2015)

“The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. Simon & Schuster.
A strong work ethic and keen observation fueled the quest to conquer manned flight.

“The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness” by Sy Montgomery. Atria Books, Simon & Schuster.
A charming, revelatory journey into the world of cephalopods.

“M Train” by Patti Smith. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
Part memoir, part travelogue, and ultimately an elegy to her beloved husband, written by an iconic American artist.

“Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War” by Susan Southard. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Bearing witness to hibakusha, those left behind.

“Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva” by Rosemary Sullivan. HarperCollins.
A portrait of a woman unable to escape the terrible shadow of her father.

Poetry

“Bastards of the Reagan Era” by Reginald Dwayne Betts. Four Way Books.
Drugs, violence, and incarceration during a period of fear and chaos told in a brutal and haunting poetic voice.

“Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems” by Joy Harjo. W.W. Norton.
Folklore, history, personal journeys, and modern times are entwined in this absorbing work by a Native American poet.

The winners were selected by the Notable Books Council whose members include twelve expert readers’ advisory and collection development librarians. The Council considers titles based on stellar reviews published in standard library reviewing sources and other authoritative sources.

The Council includes Liz Marie Kirchhoff (Chair); Kristen Rae Allen-Vogel; Rochelle Redmond Ballard; Victoria Caplinger; Craig Allan Clark; Carol Lynn Gladstein; Dr. Vicki L. Gregory; Marlene A. Harris; Stacey J. Hayman; Sarah Jaffa; Elizabeth M. Joseph; Mary Callaghan “Cal” Zunt.

January 10, 2016December 22, 2015

Year’s most Outstanding Business Reference Sources announced by RUSA’s Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS)

BOSTON—The annual list of the most Outstanding Business Reference Sources was announced by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Book and Media Awards Ceremony at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting.

Each year, the Business Reference Sources Committee of BRASS selects the outstanding business reference sources published since May of the previous year. This year, the committee reviewed 20 entries; of these, two were designated as “Outstanding,” seven were selected as “Notable,” and one was designated as a “Significant New Edition.”

To qualify for the award, the title must meet the conventional definition of reference: a work compiled specifically to supply information on a certain subject or group of subjects in a form that will facilitate its ease of use. With print reference materials being used less heavily in most cases, these works stood out based on their content, quality, and utility. The works are examined for the following: authority and reputation of the publisher, author, or editor; accuracy; appropriate bibliography; organization; comprehensiveness; value of the content; currency; unique addition; ease of use for the intended purpose; quality and accuracy of index; and quality and usefulness of graphics and illustrations. Each year, more electronic reference titles are published. Additional criteria for electronic reference titles are accuracy of links, search features, stability of content and graphic design. Works selected must be suitable for medium to large-size academic and public libraries.

The list includes:

Outstanding

Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data. Edited by David Lee Kuo Cheun. London: Academic Press, 2015.

Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility : CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance. Samuel O. Idowu, editor-in-chief ; Nicholas Capaldi, Matthias S. Fifka, Liangrong Zu, René Schmidpeter, co-editors. Springer International Publishing, 2015.

Notable

The Oxford Handbook of Gender in Organizations. Edited by Savita Kumra, Ruth Simpson, and Ronald J. Burke. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.

The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Edited by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III. Rowan & Littlefield.

Disaster Recovery, Crisis Response, and Business Continuity: A Management Desk Reference. By Jamie Watters. Apress, 2013.

Guide to Reference in Business and Economics. Edited by Steven W. Sowards and Elisabeth Leonard. Chicago: American Library Association, 2014.

Handbook of Emerging Multinational Corporations. Edited by Mehmet Demirbag and Attila Yaprak. Cheltanham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015.

The Oxford Handbook of Management Theorists. Edited by Morgen Witzel and Malcolm Warner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

The Investment Assets Handbook: A Definitive Practical Guide to Asset Classes. By Yoram Lustig. Harriman House Ltd., 2014.

Significant New Edition

Gower handbook of project management, 5th ed. Edited by Rodney Turner. Gower Publishing, Inc.

The Outstanding Business Reference Sources is produced by the BRASS Reference Resources Committee. Contributing members include Jordan Nielsen, selections editor; Ed Hahn, chair; Naomi Lederer nominations coordinator; Erin Wachowicz; Anthony Raymond; Glenn McGuigan; Valerie Freeman; and Suzanne Freeman.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more about the association at www.ala.org/rusa.