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New issue published: Reference and User Services Quarterly, Volume 53, Issue 1

Read the new issue now

Need to activate your subscription to RUSQ? Access information is on the RUSA website.

In this issue…

Columns

From the Editor, Barry Trott
       Suggestions for Authors Considering Publishing in RUSQ
From the President of RUSA, M. Kathleen Kern
       I’m a Chair, but I Feel Like a Folding Chair.
Taking Issues, eds Karen Antell and Molly Strothmann
       Should Librarians Friend Their Patrons?
       Nedda H. Ahmed and Adriana Edwards-Johnson
Accidental Technologist, ed. Eric Phetteplace
      Know Thy Users
      Amanda Etches, Guest Columnist
Readers’ Advisory, ed. Laurel Tarulli
       Social Media and Readers’ Advisory: A Win-Win Combination?
       Rebecca Anwyll and Brenda Chawner, Guest Columnists
The Alert Collector, ed. Kelly Myer Polacek
       The World at 1200: A Guide to Introductory Sources
       Amanda Qualls, Guest Columnist
Management, ed. Marianne Ryan
      Access Services–Check Us Out!
      Beth E. Clausen, Guest Columnist
Information Literacy and Instruction, ed. Lisa O’ Connor
Establishing Twenty-First Century Information Literacy
Jennifer Sharkey, guest Columnist

Features

Information Literacy Skills of Humanities, Arts and Social Science Tertiary Students in Singapore
      Schubert Foo, xue Zhang, yun-Ke Chang, Shaheen Majid,
Intan Azura Mokhtar, Joanna Sin, and yin-Leng Theng
Arcane Magic: Hal Hall and the Creation and Transformation of Science Fiction Indexing
      Sarah Potvin and Catherine Coker
Arizona Public Libraries Serving the Spanish-Speaking: Context for Changes
      Denice Adkins and C. Sean Burns

From the Committees of RUSA

MARS Best Free Reference Websites, 15th Annual List

Reviews

Professional Materials, ed. Karen Antell Reference
Book Reviews, ed. Tammy Eschedor Voelker

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Read it Now: RSS Review from Reference Services Section

Check out the most recent issue of RSS Review, news from RUSA’s Reference Services Section!
Download the PDF of the most recent issue.

In this issue…

  • A new partnership: YARS (Young Adult Reference Services) is a brand new joint committee with YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association).

  • Stay tuned: The RSS Education and Professional Development for Reference Committee is co-sponsoring a webinar on promoting reference products!

  • For today’s reference librarian’s toolkit: The Job and Career Reference Committee is moving forward with a wiki open to interested librarians and a list-serv for librarians interested in Job & Career reference.
  • Members have spoken: Library Services to an Aging Population committee agrees to update Guidelines to reflect current best practices.
  • Se habla español en la biblioteca? Guidelines for Library Services to Spanish-Speaking Library Users may be due for an update.
  • Get involved! See how you can volunteer and make a difference.

RSS Review is the newsletter of the Reference Services Section of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association. Please send suggestions for future issues to Amy Rustic (aer123@psu.edu), editor.

The largest section of RUSA, RSS represents the interests of frontline librarians, information specialists, and library support staff engaged in all aspects of reference and information service across all types of libraries. Learn more about the section at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/rss.

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.

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Using Evaluation Data to Change & Improve Virtual Reference: Call for Virtual Poster Session Proposals

Using Evaluation Data to Change
& Improve Virtual Reference:

Call for Virtual Poster Session
Proposals

MARS Management of Electronic Resources and Services (MERS) Committee

How does your library (or consortium) use the results of evaluation to
change and improve your Virtual Reference service? Have you used data,
statistics, opinions, or other feedback to persuade administrators, librarians
and staff, or your patron body? To plan budgets, hours, or training? To test
anecdotal assumptions? To offer a new service? Are changes driven by evaluation
significantly different from those driven by technological advancement or new
VR products?

Share your successes and challenges via a Virtual Poster Session sponsored
by Management
of Electronic Resources and Services  (MERS), a Machine-Assisted
Reference Section (MARS) Committee.

We seek virtual posters which describe how libraries use evaluation to
change and improve their Virtual Reference services.

Virtual Reference can include reference assistance provided via chat, IM,
e-mail, videoconferencing, or other means. Evaluation methods can include
statistical analysis, patron surveys, transcript analysis, use of standards and
guidelines, interface usability testing, or any other method or combination of
methods that the library uses to evaluate its service. 

Virtual posters can be submitted as Web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or
other formats which can be mounted on the Web.

Accepted posters will be mounted on the American
Library Association (ALA)
web site before the ALA 2008
Annual Conference  and will be
announced at the conference.  Presenters will be asked to participate in
on-line discussions of their posters through the Reference and User Services
Association (RUSA) blog.

To apply, please use the form at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marssection/marscomm/mersvps2007.htm.
Proposals will be accepted through 5 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, January 3, 2008.
Authors of selected proposals will be contacted by e-mail by January 18, 2008. 

Completed virtual posters must be submitted to the committee by April 1,
2008.  The committee will review the
posters and work with the creators on any suggested edits needed for clarity
and to comply with ALA
and other guidelines.   

Questions?  Please contact the MERS Chair, Kathryn Courtland Millis at millisk@depauw.edu, or (765) 658-4427.

MERS is a committee of the Machine-Assisted
Reference Section (MARS) in the Reference and User
Services Association (RUSA) of the American
Library Association (ALA).