Membership blog, RUSA Voices looking for bloggers!

The latest addition to RUSA is the new membership blog, “RUSA Voices“. We are looking for all RUSA and non-RUSA folks to contribute to share experiences, ideas and concerns with colleagues and fellow librarians.

A message from Editor David Midyette:

Writing a blog post can be simple. Your colleagues want to hear from you about your trials and tribulations, your successes and challenges, but mostly, they just want to hear what’s important to you in your professional lives. While RUSA is focused on reference and user services, that is still an incredibly broad category, and provides innumerable options for sharing of information. How is your transition to LibGuides 2.0 coming? What are your challenges in collecting quantitative and qualitative data to prove your worth? What new reference services are red hot topics? How are old concepts and techniques being applied in new and novel ways? Is Google still putting us out of business or is it just reshaping how we help people connect to information?

Still not convinced? Send me an email or give me a call! I’ll help you work through the process of putting fingers to keys. It really can be as simple as sitting down and typing out your string of consciousness about a topic. We can work from there to refine and shape your writing. Heck, it may be perfect the way it is! The point is that you have a Voice and it needs to be heard. You may think to yourself that you have nothing interesting or novel to say (I know I listened to my inner voice saying that for far too long), but in truth, you have a lot to say and it WILL interest people. While many of us live at the bleeding edge of technology, others bide their time and wait to see how these new technologies express themselves through patron usage. Twitter is an awesome tool, but it has changed immensely from the beginning. Think about what you do on a daily basis and simply report on some of the unique things, even if they seem mundane.

I love editing people’s writing and helping them shape their ideas. Send me something and let me help you get started. Write a blog post for RUSA Voices and put it in your resume. Posts can be more academic or more practical in orientation; it’s up to you and your interests. You don’t have to agonize over things, just get something down and send it in; we will go from there together . . . We will make sure that your colleagues hear your Voice and share what you have to say! I look forward to working with you, now sit down and write something!

David (dmidyette@roseman.edu)
Editor, RUSA Voices

SAVE THE DATE! Join us for RUSA’s Midwinter membership social in Philly!

Kick off the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in style with RUSA’s Membership Social—an opportunity to eat, drink, network, win prizes and learn more about RUSA.

The event will be held Saturday, January 25, 5:30pm to 7:00pm at the Sheraton hotel.

The social open to all current RUSA members, friends of RUSA and those meeting attendees interested in learning more about the association and networking with peers. All attendees are invited to play trivia for a chance to win fantastic door prizes!

Hope to see you there!

Meet Reference Librarian, Latanya Jenkins, this week’s IAmRUSA interviewee

Starting today, RUSA’s week-long interview series, IAmRUSA, is featuring Reference Librarian, Latanya Jenkins from Temple University!

Ever wonder exactly what kind of work members of RUSA do, or maybe which courses they would recommend for students looking for a career in reference or user services? Read on and ask away!

My name is Latanya and I received my Bachelor’s degree in anthropology and English at F&M. I received my Master’s in Information Science and Library Science at Drexel University in 2006 in Philly, while working full-time at Temple University’s Health Sciences library as a clerk.

Currently, I am working as a Reference Librarian at Temple University’s Paley Library on the Main campus, a position which I just started in January. I am the Reference Librarian for Government Information and African American Studies.

I am also working on collecting books in the area of African American Studies and the faculty are also keeping me busy with Instruction. I am also responsible for Government documents at Temple University managing that collection. Academic libraries is where I have all of my professional experience. I have a lot of experience with the associations as well.

I became active in RUSA through the Emerging Leaders program, which helped me understand more about committee work and how to volunteer in projects that could use my talents, which would help the association.

Latanya N. Jenkins
Reference Librarian for Government Information
Liaison to the African American History Department

Hosted on ALA Connect in the IAmRUSA Community –http://connect.ala.org/node/211629 ALA members have the opportunity to ask questions of participating RUSA members about their professional careers, their passions, and anything else that may come up involving librarianship.

Be sure to join in the community and if you are interested in participating as an interviewee, contact Kirk MacLeod at kgmcleod@ualberta.ca or Sarah Hammill at hammills@fiu.edu for more information.

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