Category: Online Learning.

IN THIS ISSUE OF RUSA DIRECT:

• 2016 Achievement Award Winners
• 2016 Annual Conference
• 2016 Elections
• Online Learning

The 2016 ALA Annual Conference is 99 Days Away!

Don’t miss out on Early Bird Registration rates, which end at 12:00 PM (CST) on March 16, 2016. You can register for the conference using this link: ALA Annual Conference registration.

The conference will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, June 23–28. Be one of the first to sign up to experience RUSA’s President’s Program with keynote speaker Dave Cobb, Vice President for Creative Development of the Thinkwell Group. Celebrate the honorable work of your colleagues at the RUSA Awards Reception and Volunteer Appreciation Party, attend outstanding workshops and programs, network, and cruise more than 800 vendors in the exhibit hall. Register here.

RUSA Preconferences

• Business Data for Librarians – Ticket Purchase Required
  As the business world embraces big data, so must librarians. The focus of this full-day workshop will include: conducting a data reference interview; delving into the issues of data validity and data information literacy; and, working with data tools and datasets. Read more and register here.
• Spoonful of Data-Driven Sugar: Using Big Business Research to Improve Customer Satisfaction in Easy-to-Implement, Single-Serving Packets  –Ticket Purchase Required
  USAA, Amazon, Zappos, Trader Joe’s, and Starbucks are among companies ranked highest in customer service and they spend millions of dollars learning how to fulfill their customers’ needs. These techniques may be used to improve library programs and the customer service skills necessary for success. Read more and register here.
• Genealogy Workshop – Registration Required 
  This free workshop will help librarians of all types learn techniques to better understand genealogy research methods and sources. Lunch provided and sponsored by ProQuest. Read more. Register here.

2016 Elections

The 2016 ALA Elections will open on March 15th and close on April 22nd. Please click on this link to view the following RUSA members who will be running for RUSA offices in the 2016 Elections. For more information on the ALA Election process, please view this link: ALA Election Process.

We would like to thank these members for agreeing to stand in for election! Be sure to vote in the Spring elections!

If you have any questions, please email rusa@ala.org.

2016 Achievement Award Winners

RUSA’s achievement awards provide research and travel grants in recognition of the nation’s most exceptional librarians, libraries and projects involving reference services today. These awards are of the highest honor and recognize invaluable contributions to the field.

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.

Read about all the winners here. 

RUSA Online Learning

Online Courses

Business Reference 101
Demystify SIC and NAICS codes, ROI and 10k’s.
Read more. Register here.

Interlibrary Loan 101 (Recorded Live Sessions on M/W, Time 1-2 p.m. CST)
Participants will learn standard practices, gain an overview of emerging trends, and practice writing policies for interlibrary borrowing and lending. Read more. Register here.

Webinars

Teaching with Primary Sources
A colleague from archives and special collections provides a general introduction to teaching with primary sources. Read more.  Register here. 

IN THIS ISSUE OF RUSA DIRECT:

• 2016 Annual Conference – Registration & Preconferences! 
• 2016 Midwinter Meeting – Award Winners Announced!
• New Interest Group
• Online Learning

The 2016 ALA Annual Conference is 140 Days Away!

Don’t miss out on Early Bird Registration rates, which end at 12:00 PM (CST) on March 16, 2016. You can register for the conference using this link: ALA Annual Conference registration.

The conference will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, June 23–28. Be one of the first to sign up to experience RUSA’s President’s Program with keynote speaker Dave Cobb, Vice President for Creative Development of the Thinkwell Group. Celebrate the honorable work of your colleagues at the RUSA Awards Reception and Volunteer Appreciation Party, attend outstanding preconferences and programs, network, and cruise more than 800 vendors in the exhibit hall. Register here.

RUSA Preconferences

• Business Data for Librarians – Ticket Purchase Required
  As the business world embraces big data, so must librarians. The focus of this full-day workshop will include: conducting a data reference interview; delving into the issues of data validity and data information literacy; and, working with data tools and datasets. Read more and register here.
• Spoonful of Data-Driven Sugar: Using Big Business Research to Improve Customer Satisfaction in Easy-to-Implement, Single-Serving Packets  – Ticket Purchase Required
  USAA, Amazon, Zappos, Trader Joe’s, and Starbucks are among companies ranked highest in customer service and they spend millions of dollars learning how to fulfill their customers’ needs. These techniques may be used to improve library programs and the customer service skills necessary for success. Read more and register here.
• Genealogy Workshop – Registration Required                         
  This free workshop will help librarians of all types learn techniques to better understand genealogy research methods and sources. Lunch provided and sponsored by ProQuest. Read more here. Registration opening soon.

Winners Announced at the Book & Media Awards Ceremony & Reception

For the first time, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were announced at the 2016 Midwinter Meeting.

The 2016 winning titles are, The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, in fiction, and Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs, by Sally Mann, in nonfiction. Read all the details here.

RUSA also unveiled this year’s winners of Notable Books List, Reading List, Listen List and Outstanding Reference Sources selections, the Dartmouth Medal for excellence in reference, the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, the Zora Neale Hurston Award for achievement in promoting African-American literature and the Louis Shores Award for book reviewing. More information and a comprehensive list of winners can be viewed here.

Save-the-Date for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Celebration
Join us for this popular celebratory event and annual conference highlight—an engaging program followed by a dessert and drinks reception. The 2016 fiction and nonfiction winners will receive their medals, offer remarks, and mingle with attendees, publishers, and ALA leaders. Purchase your ticket here.

RUSA’s New Interest Group

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. Read more here.

RUSA Online Learning

Online Courses

Xtreme Bibliographic Searching for Interlibrary Loan & Reference
This four-week course, will take you from Mansel Pre 56 to Digital Repositories, DOAJ to Trove to HathiTrust. Don’t recognize those terms, then this course is for you! Register here. Read more here.

Introduction to Instructional Design for Librarians
Learn to use the Instructional Design Process and apply it effectively to library instruction. Register here. Read more here.

Learner-Centered Reference and Instruction: Science, Psychology, and Inclusive Pedagogy
An introduction to empirically sound approaches to learner-centered teaching that can be applied to creating effective reference and instruction services that maximally facilitate student learning. Register here. Read more here.

Reference Interview 101
This comprehensive course covers such reference interview topics as cultivating an approachable reference environment, successful questioning and listening techniques and appropriate follow-up methods. Staff of all levels and at all types of libraries will find this content, presented in a multi-media format, helpful in their day-to-day engagement with library patrons. Register here. Read more here.

Genealogy 101
This course is designed for reference staff with little to no experience in genealogy. Using a case study to frame the coursework, participants will learn about tools and techniques they can use to confidently assist patrons with family history research. Register here. Read more here.  

Webinars

Creating Virtual Connections in Your Community
The goal of this course is to empower library professionals to utilize free, available software that will take their community engagement and virtual practices to the next level. Register here. Read more.

What Does It Take? Building and Maintaining a Seed Lending Library
Presenters will discuss seed libraries that are thriving in a variety of settings, how to start and maintain a seed library, and will provide tools and resources for further exploration. Register here. Read more here. 

IN THIS ISSUE OF RUSA DIRECT:

• 2016 Emerging Leader Announced
• 2016 Spectrum Scholar for Internship Announced
• Bloggers needed – RUSA Voices
• Midwinter Meeting 2016 – In The Spotlight
• Online Learning
• Plunkett’s Research Scholarship – New Winners Announced
• RUSA seeks nominations for its annual series of achievement awards and grants
• Reference Research Forum invites submissions of reference service research project proposals
• Call for Volunteers

Midwinter Meeting 2016 – In the Spotlight

Book & Media Awards Ceremony and Reception
Sunday, January 10, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Boston Park Plaza, Grand Ballroom A

For the first time, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced during this Midwinter Meeting event by the selection committee’s inaugural chair, Nancy Pearl, reflecting the new calendar for these awards. As always, RUSA will unveil this year’s Notable Books List, Reading List, Listen List and Outstanding Reference Sources selections, the Dartmouth Medal for excellence in reference, the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, the Zora Neale Hurston Award for achievement in promoting African-American literature and the Louis Shores Award for book reviewing. Join us for this celebratory evening as we announce the best books and resources of the year and a chance to win some of this year’s best books! All MW attendees are welcome, no tickets required. The event is from 5-7pm, Boston Park Plaza, Grand Ballroom A. The event is sponsored in part by NoveList. More information about these awards can be found at www.ala.org/rusa/awards. Read more here.

Speed Mentoring Session
Saturday, January 9, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Hyatt Regency Boston, Adrienne Salon

Join a group of experienced RUSA leaders to engage in a fun, interactive “speed mentoring” session. Similar in format to “speed dating”, MLS students, new librarians, and mid-career librarians are invited to participate in this session where they will have the opportunity to gain leadership advice from a number of senior librarians and RUSA leaders. Read more here.

Membership Social
Saturday, January 9, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., Hyatt Regency Boston, Grand Ballroom B
Join members of RUSA for an opportunity to eat, drink, network, win door prizes and learn more about our division and its sections. The social is open to past, current and those interested in becoming members. All attendees are welcome! Read more here.

RUSA Discussion Forums at the 2016 Midwinter Meeting
Link to them here.

RUSA Workshops: 

History Genealogy Institute –  Free, but you must register                         
Friday, January 8, 8:00 a.m – 4:00 p.m. This free workshop will help librarians of all types learn techniques to better serve the genealogists and family historians who use their collections. 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. Sponsored by ProQuest. Lunch provided and sponsored by ProQuest. Register here.

*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.
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.
Read more here. Register here. 

RUSA Voices – Bloggers needed for Midwinter Meeting and Beyond!
Raise your Voice!  Consider blogging for RUSA Voices, the new blog for RUSA members and those who support the mission and goals of RUSA . . . Read more here.

Only 24 days until Midwinter Meeting 2016! 
Register by 11:59am CST January 4, 2016 and receive Advanced Registration rates. Register here.  

Seeking Nominations 2016 RUSA Achievement Awards

RUSA is seeking nominations for its annual series of awards and grants. Nominations and supporting materials for most awards must be submitted by December. 4, 2015.

RUSA encourages members to nominate their colleagues whose work has influenced their thinking and performance and whose contributions merit recognition by the profession. With over $30,000 generously donated annually by industry sponsors, RUSA has, and will continue to, nominate, select and honor the very best in the field of reference and user services. Read more here.

Plunkett’s Research Scholarship

Congratulations to Therese F Triumph, Feraz Ashraf, Angel Vu, Carmen Cole, Lindy Gerdes! They were students in the October session of RUSA’s Business Reference 101 course and were each the lucky winners of a Plunkett’s Research Scholarship covering the cost of their registration.

Thank you to Jack Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research Online (http://www.plunkettresearchonline.com/), who is behind this generous scholarship program.

2016 Emerging Leader Announced

Congratulations to Catherine Damiani for being selected as RUSA’s 2016 Emerging Leader. Read the press release here.

2016 Spectrum Scholar for Internship Announced

RUSA has selected Patricia Valdovinos as the 2016 Spectrum Scholar.
Read the full press release here.

RUSA Online Learning

February 2015

Xtreme Bibliographic Searching for Interlibrary Loan & Reference
This four-week class, will take you from Mansel Pre 56 to Digital Repositories, DOAJ to Trove to HathiTrust. Don’t know those terms, then this course is for you! Register here. Read more here.

Learner-Centered Reference and Instruction: Science, Psychology, and Inclusive Pedagogy
An Introduction to empirically sound approaches to learner-centered teaching that can be applied to creating effective reference and instruction services that maximally facilitate student learning. Register here. Read more here.

Introduction to Instructional Design for Librarians
Students will learn to use the Instructional Design Process and apply it effectively to library instruction which includes: identifying instructional problems, learner analysis, task analysis, defining instructional objectives, sequencing content, identifying instructional strategies, message design, instructional delivery, and evaluation instruments. Register here. Read more here.

Reference Interview 101|
This comprehensive course covers such reference interview topics  as cultivating an approachable reference environment, successful questioning and listening techniques and appropriate follow-up methods. Staff of all levels at all types of libraries will find this content, presented in a multi-media format, helpful in their day-to-day engagement with library patrons. Register here. Read more here.

Genealogy 101
This course is designed for reference staff with little to no experience in genealogy. Using a case study to frame the coursework, participants will learn about tools and techniques they can use to confidently assist patrons with family history research.Register here. Read more here.

Reference Research Forum – Call for Submissions

The Research & Statistics Committee of the Reference Services Section of the Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) invites the submission of reference service research project proposals for presentation at the 22nd Reference Research Forum at the 2016 American Library Association Annual Conference in Orlando, FL. Researchers and practitioners from all types of libraries, library school faculty and students, and other interested individuals are encouraged to submit a proposal. Get all the details here.

Volunteer Opportunities

RUSA’s special interest section committees has a multitude of volunteer opportunities available for the 2016-2017 year.

Committee members have the opportunity to:

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

To volunteer or for more information, please click on this link.

• Choose award-winning adult reading and reference books on the Notable Books Council or the Dartmouth Medal Committee, among others
• Honor colleagues for their outstanding contributions as part of an achievement award committee
• Plan discussion forums for online and in-person conference meetups
• Dabble in event planning as members of conference program committees
• Be at the front lines for shaping professional standards and guidelines,evaluating policies and making important decisions for the association
• …and much more!

Please contact RUSA Vice President, Alesia M. McManus at amcmanus@howardcc.edu, with any questions.