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RUSA’s Newest Interest Group – FYE IG

RUSA is proud to announce the formation of the RUSA First Year Experience Interest Group, (FYEIG). This group has been formed in order to address the many challenges of first year students in higher education. One of the anticipated outcomes is to establish a forum with regular meetings for the discussion of practical and scholarly topics relating to first year students and those involved with this group.

The purpose of this group is to share ideas and develop new connections for future collegiality and support. Topics for discussions include but are not limited to retention improvements, introduction to higher education research skills development, outreach, first generation students, international students, students enrolled simultaneously in high school and college (dual enrollment programs), reference services, etc.

This group is in the initial pilot project phase, which ends on June 30, 2016.  In order to become a regularly scheduled, RUSA-sponsored group, there must be sufficient support and some credible work by this date.

You are invited to join this interest group by going to http://connect.ala.org/node/249585, then log into your ALA account, and join the group.  FYE IG membership is automatic.

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Deep Dive & History Genealogy Workshops – 2016 Midwinter Meeting

History Genealogy Institute – Free, But Registration is Required 
Friday, January 8, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, room 151 B
This free workshop will help librarians of all types learn techniques. This can include better understanding of genealogy research methods and sources. It can also include how libraries can leverage their unique holdings to become more relevant to genealogists, who tend to be passionate in their support of libraries that have useful materials. Lunch provided and sponsored by ProQuest. Must register here:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QWZP6WG.

Deep Dive Session – *BRAND NEW!
We are all user experience librarians: Creating change from the trenches
Saturday, January 9, 1:00 p.m.- 4:15 p.m., Location: TBA
This Deep Dive workshop will focus on user testing and understanding your users’ experience through a mix of discussion, presentations, and interactive experiences. Our five presenters will offer design strategies and tools from throughout the life cycle of a user experience design project, and they will also join together as a panel to provide a spirited, entertaining look at pitfalls to avoid and lessons learned. Unlike other sessions about user experience design, the proposed workshop will focus on providing attendees with concrete skills and techniques they can apply at their home institutions with relatively little expense or pre-planning. *Registration to open soon. More information here.

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Volunteer Opportunities with RUSA

The division has a multitude of volunteer opportunities available for its members through RUSA and special interest section committees.

Committee members have the opportunity to:

Please consider volunteering for one or more committee to help us meet our objectives and move RUSA move forward in new and exciting ways. Virtual members are encouraged and welcomed.

Volunteering can be done in just two steps:

Remember, you must be a RUSA member in order to volunteer for committee positions, with your membership current for the duration of your volunteer term. You must also be a section member in order to participate in section committees. RUSA dues are $60 annually plus the cost of ALA membership. Section membership is free for RUSA members. Visit www.ala.org/membership to update your membership record and add RUSA or a section, or call Membership and Customer Service at 1-800-545-2433, option 5.

Questions about volunteering should be sent to the appointing officers listed below.

We look forward to having you as a part of our leadership team!

Alesia McManus, RUSA Vice-President/President-Elect, AMcManus@howardcc.edu
Louise Mort Feldmann, BRASS chair, Louise.Feldmann@Colostate.edu
Daniel C. Mack, CODES chair, dmack@umd.edu
Christina Thompson, History Section chair, thompsonc@hendrix.edu
Courtney Greene McDonald, ETS: Emerging Technologies chair, crgreene@indiana.edu
Amy Elizabeth Rustic, RSS chair, aer123@psu.edu
Heidi Nance, STARS chair, hnance@uw.edu

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Call for 2016 MW Institute, AC Program & Preconference Proposals

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is now accepting institute, preconference and program proposals for the 2016 Midwinter Meeting in Boston and the 2016 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando.

Proposals will be accepted online through 11:59 p.m. Central on May 11, 2015. Faxed, e-mailed or mailed proposals will not be accepted.

Proposals must be submitted to the appropriate section for approval before being entered in the proposal system online (see instructions below for entering approved section proposals). For more information about how to submit a proposal to a RUSA section, please contact the section chair. Section chair contact information can be found in the Section Executive Committee rosters here.

Session topics should showcase emerging trends and examples of driving change in the areas of reference services including but not limited to: marketing library services, advocacy, special populations, collection development, evaluation, readers’ advisory, instruction, business reference, emerging technologies, interlibrary loan and resource sharing, genealogy and historical research and more!

The RUSA Conference Program Coordinating Committee will review, organize and recommend for final approval to the RUSA Board all submitted section-approved proposals and select sessions based on their relevance to the profession and general interest to conference attendees who work in reference services at the 2015 annual conference.

Instructions for approved section proposal submission: Once your proposal is approved by the section, it should be entered here. Once you’ve logged in, click on “Click here to begin a new Proposal.”  Note that there is an option to propose a tour; all tours must be proposed in this system.

Since this is our first year using it, we’d appreciate any constructive feedback from users about the new program proposal system set up by ALA.

For more information, contact the RUSA office at rusa@ala.org or (800) 545-2433, ext. 4395.