Call for volunteers: ALA & RUSA committee service

A message from RUSA’s President Elect, Joe Thompson:

Hello RUSA members!

I’d like to encourage you to volunteer for ALA Committees before the volunteer form closes for these on November 1, 2013.  Committee appointments will be finalized at the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, and notifications will be sent out in the spring.  Terms begin July 1, 2014.  Visit the ALA and Council Committees webpage for committee descriptions: http://www.ala.org/groups/committees/ala.  For technical assistance or for more information on the ALA-level committee appointments process, you may contact Kerri Price at kprice@ala.org.

To volunteer, go to: http://www.ala.org/CFApps/Committee/volunteerform/volunteerform.cfm

Of course I’d also like to see you volunteer for RUSA!  You do have a bit more time to get your name submitted for these however.  March 1, 2014 is the planned closing date to volunteer for our RUSA, BRASS, CODES, History, MARS, RSS, and STARS committees.  There’s no reason to put it off though, so volunteer today!  Keep in mind that attendance at ALA Midwinter may not be required for some committees and sections.  Feel free to contact the committee chair, section chair, or me if you have any questions about attendance.  Links to RUSA division-level and section committees can be found at http://www.ala.org/rusa/contact/rosters.  Access the volunteer form using the same URL provided above.  The menu to select section-level committees is located at the bottom of RUSA Committee Volunteer Form.

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.

Thanks for supporting your associations!

-Joe

Join ALA’s virtual town hall on ebook lending

Calling all RUSA members who offer ebooks:

If you work with Ebooks, you may be interested in the American Library Association’s Virtual Town Hall on Ebooks, an interactive online session that will take place from 11 a.m.- noon Central time, Wednesday, October 23, 2013.

ALA leaders will discuss the present state of ebooks and libraries and directions for the future. Click here to register.

For more information on e-books and Libraries, an FAQ is available from ALA’s Transforming Libraries website:
http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/frequently-asked-questions-e-books-us-libraries

Alesia McManus
RUSA Representative to the ALA Legislative Assembly

Call for speakers: Business library instruction forum

Call for speakers for the BRASS Forum at the ALA 2014 Conference

The theme for next year’s forum is business library instruction.

Got an idea about what makes a business instruction session work? Share your experiences or research with one shot sessions, collaboration with faculty, course embeds, liaison, roving reference, or other innovative techniques. Special attention given to proposals that focus on assessment or other measurable results.

We are looking for 3-4 panelists. Each panelist will speak for approximately 20 minutes.  We are looking for librarians from any type of library setting, including academic, public, or special (see the abstract below for more details on the forum topic). While we are not able to offer any type of financial compensation, this is a great addition to any librarian’s CV.

Please send nominations (self-nominations welcome) or proposals to Charles Allan, ca20@txstate.edu.

The Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) represents the subject interests of reference librarians, business information specialists, and others engaged in providing business reference/information services. For more information about the section and its committees, please visit the section page at www.ala.org/rusa/sections/brass.

 

 

 

How is BRASS like the Oscars?

Call for Nominations – Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship

(A message from award committee member, Bobray Bordelon)

Dear Colleagues,

For those of us in BRASS and/or the field of business librarianship—the Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship is like the BRASS Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars!  We honor an individual who has made significant contributions in the field business librarianship.

So please take a look around your professional life and reflect on what contribution to business librarianship has made an impact on your professional career.  Now is the time to honor this person for their important contribution with a nomination for this prestigious award. Our sponsor is Gale Cengage Learning.

The recipient will receive a $3000 cash award and a citation. The award and citation will be presented at the RUSA Awards ceremony at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas June 26-July 1, 2014!

Applicants for this award will be evaluated based on their contribution to the field of business librarianship. These contributions may include, but are not limited to: authorship of a seminal book or articles in business librarianship; development of an imaginative and successful program centered around business within a library; teaching business librarianship in a particularly creative and substantive manner; and displaying strong leadership in a professional association geared to business librarianship.

NOMINATIONS –

To submit a nomination, please download and complete the nomination form, and follow the submission instructions therein.  For more information, please visit the award page at http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/businesslib.

Please email or mail the nomination packet by DECEMBER 15, 2013, to the Committee Chair, Mark E Andersen.

Mark E Andersen
Division Chief
Business Science Technology
Chicago Public Library
400 S. State Street, 4N-7A
Chicago, IL  60605
(p) 312.747.4470
-OR-
andersen@chipublib.org

(Drum roll)…  And the Oscar Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship goes to…stay tuned!

Remember, if you don’t nominate that significant contributor in our field, they can’t be considered for this award!

More information about these awards, including nominating instructions, can be found at the RUSA Awards Web page. Monetary award amounts are subject to change without notice and are contingent upon donor funding supplied at the time the award is presented. Questions about these awards should be directed to the committee chairperson or to Leighann Wood, RUSA awards program coordinator at lwood@ala.org.