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January, 2008:

Back to the Future? A Response to Dilevko and Magowan

Jan 6th, 2008
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Barry Trott, Editor
Neil Hollands, Guest Columnist

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Readers’ advisory (RA) services have a long history in United States public libraries. Since the late nineteenth century, there always has been a component of public library services that has focused on connecting readers with books. As RA services have developed, contemporary practices have generally built on the foundations established by previous generations of readers’ advisors. (more…)

Assessing User Interactions at the Desk Nearest the Front Door

Jan 6th, 2008
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Pixey Anne Mosley

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Some library users come in the door knowing exactly where to go, with clearly defined and communicated needs. However, many more enter the library on an exploratory mission and often stop at the first service desk that catches their eye. In many libraries, this point of first contact is a security or general information desk, not a full-service reference desk. This opens the question, are users being served effectively and their expectations being met? (more…)

Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Multilingual Collections and Services

Jan 6th, 2008
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1.0 Introduction

Traditionally, the United States has been a country that attracts large numbers of immigrants from all over the globe. While some libraries have established collections and programs to serve the needs of library-users whose native language is not English, little has been done on a national scale to systematically address these needs. In addition, the multilingual needs of library patrons who are language students, foreign students or bilingual citizens have been under-served by traditional library services. (more…)

That Thing You Do

Jan 6th, 2008
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David A. Tyckoson, President

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Let’s do a little experiment. Before you read the rest of this article, go to your reference desk (or information desk, or help desk, or whatever term you use for your primary, in-person service point). Look around. What do you see? Are there people in the area? Are they staff or users? What are they doing? What library materials are they reading or using? What personal materials are they reading or using? Are they alone or in groups? Is it noisy or silent? (more…)

Guidelines for Library Services to Spanish-Speaking Library Users

Jan 6th, 2008
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Library services to Spanish-speaking users can be complex: nationality, regional differences, and culture provide myriad combinations within that community. As an example, there are significant linguistic and cultural differences reflected in the varieties of Spanish spoken by Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Spanish-speaking groups. To recognize and respond correctly to these differences is a major theme within these guidelines. (more…)

A Reference Renaissance

Jan 6th, 2008
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Diane Zabel

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Two events this past August prompted me to think more about reference services than I have for some time. The first was being interviewed by the editor-in-chief of Arugus, a journal published by the Corporation of Professional Librarians of Quebec. I was asked to respond to several questions about the future of reference services for a forthcoming thematic issue on this topic. The second event was a two-day Penn State University Libraries reference retreat (more…)

Outstanding Business Reference Sources: The 2007 Selection of Recent Titles

Jan 6th, 2008
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RUSA BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee

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A BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee working group, after year-long discussions, voted for three titles to be included in the outstanding category. Four additional titles were selected as noteworthy. In order to qualify for inclusion on the list, the works must have been published since May 2006, must be a source for frequently asked business reference questions, and must be suitable for mid-size to large academic and public libraries. (more…)

Determining Use of an Academic Library Reference Collection: Report of a Study

Jan 6th, 2008
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Jeannie Colson

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Studies indicate that a lean reference collection is the ideal, but how does a librarian determine what to pare? A small academic library did a five-year reshelving study to guide in collection management. Dots were applied to books as they were reshelved, with different colors for each year. Data indicate that, while many items were heavily used, many others were not used at all in five years. As a result of the study, reference staff are reconsidering the nature of the reference collection, beginning to develop a collection management policy, and determining the disposition of the good, but unused, items. (more…)

Core Collections in Genre Studies: Romance Fiction 101

Jan 6th, 2008
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Neal Wyatt, Editor
Georgine Olson, Kristin Ramsdell, Joyce Saricks, and Lynne Welch, Guest Columnists

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Building genre collections is a central concern of public library collection development efforts. Even for college and university libraries, where it is not a major focus, a solid core collection makes a welcome addition for students needing a break from their course load and supports a range of academic interests. Given the widespread popularity of genre books, understanding the basics of a given genre is a great skill for all types of librarians to have. (more…)

Looking to Connect: Technical Challenges that Impede the Growth of Virtual Reference

Jan 6th, 2008
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M. Kathleen Kern, Editor
Sam Stormont, Guest Columnist

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Sam Stormont’s well-considered column made me think about current virtual reference issues in a different way. He brings together and unifies several threads: instant messaging, the goal of convenience, technological barriers, and collaboration. These themes were hot topics at the Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium in July 2007. (more…)

Good for What? Non-appeal, Discussibility, and Book Groups (Part 2)

Jan 6th, 2008
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Barry Trott, Editor
Joan Bessman Taylor, Guest Columnist

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Since the publication of Joyce Saricks’s Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library (ALA, 1989, 1997, 2005), readers’ advisors have used the concept of appeal as a way to connect readers with books. Looking at the elements of a piece of writing–character, language, mood, setting, and story–and what the reader preferred in each area helps the readers’ advisor to make connections between works that the reader may not have considered and thus expands the possible choices for that reader. (more…)

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning at the Reference Desk

Jan 6th, 2008
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Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, Editors
Edward J. Eckel, Guest Columnist

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Those who assist undergraduates at the reference desk know how tempting it can be, especially under time pressure, to find sources or perform online database searches for them. At the same time, reference librarians are likely to spend a significant number of classroom hours each week teaching undergraduates how to find, evaluate, and use information. (more…)

The Effects of Librarians’ Behavioral Performance on User Satisfaction in Chat Reference Services

Jan 6th, 2008
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Nahyun Kwon and Vicki L. Gregory

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effective behaviors of reference librarians during the chat reference interview, with particular emphasis given to whether the service users would feel more satisfied when librarians adopt the behaviors recommended in the revised “RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers.” The data analyzed for this study consisted of 422 chat reference transaction transcripts and corresponding user surveys obtained from a public library system that participated in a nationwide chat reference consortium. (more…)

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Jan 6th, 2008
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David A. Tyckoson, President

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Of course you are. If you are reading this column, you are most likely a college-educated, twenty-first-century information professional who is engaged in assisting members of your community navigate through, find, and understand complex information resources. This takes skills far beyond those of a fifth-grade education. So why am I asking? (more…)

The LibQUAL+ Phenomenon: Who Judges Quality?

Jan 6th, 2008
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Judith M. Nixon, Editor
E. Stewart Saunders, Guest Columnist

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For my second column as the editor of the new Management column, I decided to focus on library service assessment. It is certainly one of the most important activities we need to do; however, often we, as librarians, have little training on or knowledge of how to evaluate and assess our service. We are better at collection evaluation than service evaluation. (more…)

Letter to the Editor

Jan 6th, 2008
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May 1, 2007

To the Editor:

In a column analyzing his own inaccurate quotation of a definition of the ideal college, David Isaacson reveals himself a serial offender. (more…)

Comparison of Retrieval Performance of Eleven Online Indexes Containing Information Related to Quaternary Research, an Interdisciplinary Science

Jan 6th, 2008
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Lura E. Joseph

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Interdisciplinary research offers increasing information challenges for researchers and scholars as well as for librarians. Quaternary research is an example of a highly interdisciplinary area incorporating research ranging from geochemistry and microbiology to planetary science. This study compares retrieval performance of eleven online indexes that can be used for Quaternary research, and discusses three others. (more…)

“If My Mother Was Alive I’d Probably Have Called Her”: Women’s Search for Health Information in Rural Canada

Jan 6th, 2008
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Roma Harris and Nadine Wathen

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Women living in a rural Canadian county were interviewed about how they locate health information. The experiences they described raise interesting questions about the efficacy of government sponsored e-health initiatives, particularly when such programs are intended to compensate individuals who live in remote communities for lack of access to health care services. (more…)

“Nice Shoes.”

Jan 6th, 2008
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Lisa O’Connor, Guest Columnist

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What could be more appropriate for the fall issue than an editorial on library education? I was delighted when Lisa O’Connor accepted my invitation to contribute a guest editorial on this topic. Lisa O’Connor earned her MLIS from the University of South Carolina in 1995. She served as a reference and business librarian at Youngstown State University and as business librarian and instructional services coordinator at Kent State University. (more…)

Best Free Reference Web Sites: Ninth Annual List

Jan 6th, 2008
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RUSA Machine-Assisted Reference Section

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Welcome to the ninth annual Best Free Reference Web Sites List. In 1998, the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) appointed an ad hoc task force to develop a method of recognizing outstanding reference Web sites. (more…)

Best Bibliographies in History

Jan 6th, 2008
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RUSA History Section Bibliography and Indexes Committee

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Each year, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) History Section’s Bibliography and Indexes Committee continues its project to honor outstanding book-length English-language bibliographies in the field of history. It is our goal to encourage both the work of scholars in the bibliography of history and the publishers who support this important activity. (more…)

Collection-Related Courses in ALA-Accredited Master’s Programs: A Description

Jan 6th, 2008
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CODES Collection Development Education Committee

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Education for librarianship has been receiving quite a lot of attention recently. Forums have been held, teleconferences organized, papers written. The population of the concerned include members of ALA’s Reference and Adult Services Association (RUSA). (more…)

Afro-Latinos: An Annotated Guide for Collection Building

Jan 6th, 2008
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Neal Wyatt, Editor
Shana M. Higgins, Guest Columnist

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Collections that explore the wealth of a culture are vital to the essence of every library, as they provide opportunities to build connections between students, faculty, librarians, and the community. As witness to the possibilities stands the amazing Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. New York Public Library provides a service to the world with this rich collection and beautifully arranged, accessible Web site. (more…)

Whatever Happened to “Always Cite the Source?”: A Study of Source Citing and Other Issues Related to Telephone Reference

Jan 6th, 2008
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Denise E. Agosto and Holly Anderton

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This article presents a study of source citing in telephone reference service at the twenty-five largest public library systems in the United States and Canada. The results showed that in eighty-six out of the 125 total reference transactions analyzed (68.8 percent of the cases), respondents gave no sources for their answers. (more…)

Onsite Reference and Instruction Services: Setting Up Shop Where Our Patrons Live

Jan 6th, 2008
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A. Ben Wagner and Cynthia Tysick

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Electronic, full-text resources, and on-line forms have become more and more established in most libraries. As a result, foot traffic has decreased significantly, leading to fewer opportunities for personal contact between librarians and patrons. Innovative outreach efforts are required to counter this trend. In the past two years, some University at Buffalo (UB) librarians have set up office hours in the departments they serve to provide onsite reference and instruction services. (more…)

Good for What? Non-appeal, Discussability, and Book Groups (Part 1)

Jan 6th, 2008
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Barry Trott, Editor
Joan Bessman Taylor, Guest Columnist

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Since the publication of Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library (Joyce Saricks. ALA Editions: 1989, 1997, 2005) readers’ advisors have used the concept of appeal as a way to connect readers with books. Looking at the elements of a piece of writing–character, language, mood, setting, and story, and what the reader prefers in each area–helps the readers’ advisor to make connections between works that the reader may not have considered, and thus expands the possible choices for that reader. What has been less explored, though, is the concept of working with those elements of a book that the reader did not enjoy. (more…)

Retail Reference or Not? Where Are We Headed?

Jan 6th, 2008
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Diana D. Shonrock, President

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How has reference changed? I came to reference later in my career after attending library school in the late ’80s and early ’90s. At that time, I was still enough of an idealist to think that I would be supplying better reference service when I graduated even though I had already been teaching in a library instruction program for more than twenty years. (more…)

Learning From Leisure Reading: A Study of Adult Public Library Patrons

Jan 6th, 2008
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Jessica E. Moyer

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Using a combination of surveys and interviews, this research project explores the relationship between educational and recreational outcomes of leisure reading, the importance of learning to the leisure reading experience, the role of learning in leisure reading, and the educational outcomes reported by leisure readers. (more…)

The Thank You Study: User Feedback in E-mail Thank You Messages

Jan 5th, 2008
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Lorri Mon and Joseph W. Janes

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This exploratory study of unsolicited thank you messages from e-mail digital reference users analyzed the information provided in these messages for user perspectives on digital reference success, outcomes, and quality elements in answers. Digital reference interactions receiving thank you messages were also compared with nonthanked interactions. (more…)

Cognitive Development: The Missing Link in Teaching Information Literacy Skills

Jan 5th, 2008
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Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, Editors
Rebecca Jackson, Guest Columnist

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They’ll do a database search, and they will invariably choose the first five articles in the list. Doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad, relevant or not.

(more…)

Ranganathan’s Relevant Rules

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diane Zabel, Editor
Emily Rimland, Guest Columnist

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Some things are timeless: the golden rule, family traditions, and even the more materialistic simple black dress or string of pearls. These classic items are often passed over for a shinier new toy or the latest trend. However, they are timeless because we can always return to and trust them. They ground us. For librarians, Ranganathan’s five laws of library science are timeless objectives that put our profession’s goals in perspective. (more…)

The Thank You Tradition

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diane Zabel

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One of the traditions established by the previous RUSQ editors was to use the editorial in the summer issue to thank all the people who contributed to the production of the journal during the past year. I am continuing that fine tradition, given that I have a multitude of individuals to thank as I complete my first year as editor. To start off, I am certain that I would never have gotten my first issue to press without guidance from Connie Van Fleet and Danny Wallace, my predecessors. (more…)

Outstanding Reference Sources: The 2007 Selection of Recent Titles

Jan 5th, 2008
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RUSA Reference Sources Committee

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The 2007 list of Outstanding Reference Sources for small and medium-sized libraries has been announced by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The titles, selected by RUSA’s Reference Sources Committee, represent high-quality reference works that are suitable for small to medium-sized libraries. (more…)

An Exploration of the Working Relationship between Systems/IT and Reference/Information Services Staff in an Academic Library Setting

Jan 5th, 2008
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Machine-Assisted Reference Section User Access to Services Committee

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The worlds of information technology (IT) professionals and academic librarians have been on a convergent path for the last twenty years, propelled by technological advances that unite them in their mission. These new relationships have not always worked smoothly as these professionals from very different workplace cultures try to respond to shared problems. (more…)

Riddling The Da Vinci Code

Jan 5th, 2008
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Neal Wyatt, Editor
Terry Beck, Guest Columnist

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A major event in the publishing world, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code inspired a stream of books reacting to its subjects and presentation. Readers became caught up in the mix of fiction and fact, often confused the two, and looked for nonfiction titles to shed light, support ideas, or further debate. (more…)

Rethinking the Public Workstation

Jan 5th, 2008
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M. Kathleen Kern, Editor
Amy Wallace, Guest Columnist

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When I finished reading Amy Wallace’s manuscript, I knew it needed to be the next Accidental Technologist column. Amy’s experience with users’ constantly changing technology needs will resonate with all frontline librarians. Her library’s response is a readily available but often overlooked technology and her advice will be of great use to libraries in their quest to provide access to a variety of computer peripherals, both cutting-edge and legacy. (more…)

Academic Libraries and Extracurricular Reading Promotion

Jan 5th, 2008
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Barry Trott, Editor
Julie Elliott, Guest Columnist

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It is clear to anyone in the library profession, and certainly to readers of this column, that readers’ advisory (RA) services have become an important part of libraries. While librarians have worked to connect readers and books throughout the history of libraries, the past eighteen years since the publication of Joyce Saricks’s Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library (ALA, 1989, 1997, 2005) have seen a blossoming of RA tools for thoughtful discussion of techniques for working with readers, (more…)

Data Services in Academic Libraries: Assessing Needs and Promoting Services

Jan 5th, 2008
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Eleanor J. Read

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Academic libraries play an important role in making numeric data collections available to their researchers and providing assistance in identifying and accessing appropriate resources. The University of Tennessee Libraries have been working to strengthen the numeric data component of their reference services and have expanded promotion and outreach activities to make this specialized service more visible. In fall 2003, the Data Services Awareness and Use Survey was conducted to learn more about the university’s users of research data and assess their awareness of the service and the effectiveness of promotional activities. Results of the survey are being used to plan, promote, and provide data services. The survey portion of this manuscript was presented, in part, at the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology Conference on May 26, 2004 in Madison, Wisconsin. (more…)

ALA-APA Support Staff Certification: RUSA’s Role

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diana D. Shonrock, President

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As I put pen to paper to write this column (yes sometimes the ideas still start that way for me), the ghosts and goblins are at the door. Perhaps that’s not such a strange metaphor for this column because the idea of support staff certification is one that, like Halloween ghosts, has visited the American Library Association (ALA) in the past, only to disappear from view again and again. ALA has been discussing a certification program for library support staff for more than twenty years. (more…)

The Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse Project: Creating the Infrastructure for Digital Reference Research through a Multidisciplinary Knowledge Base

Jan 5th, 2008
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Scott Nicholson and R. David Lankes

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One of the valuable offerings of librarians in the digital age is the human intermediation of information needs. In physical libraries, these reference questions are answered, and few artifacts remain from the transaction; therefore, the knowledge created through the work of the librarian leaves with the patron. Due to the medium of communication, digital reference transactions capture the knowledge of information professionals. There are hundreds of digital reference services generating knowledge every day; however, the lack of a schema for archiving reference transactions from multiple services makes it difficult to create a fielded, searchable knowledge base. (more…)

Providing Reference Service in Our Sleep: Using a FAQ Database to Guide Users to the Right Sources

Jan 5th, 2008
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Judith M. Nixon, Editor
Karen Anello and Brett Bonfield, Guest Columnists

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This is my first column as the editor of the new Management column. I am heartily in favor of a column on managing reference and user services departments. In my career as a librarian, I have managed collections ranging from as small as a popular books collection in a public library to the largest library at Purdue University. (more…)

Information Literacy and IT Fluency: Convergences and Divergences

Jan 5th, 2008
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Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, Editors
Craig Gibson, Guest Columnist

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Academic librarians are currently challenged by a variety of nomenclature issues, nowhere more evident than in the expanding cluster of terms centered on concepts and processes of accessing, evaluating, and using information. This development is undoubtedly caused by the nature of library and information science itself, which is a soft applied discipline, or one without a prevailing explanatory paradigm, and with an overriding concern for application rather than pure theory. (more…)

Got Data? The Census Bureau’s State Data Center Network Reaches Out to Local Communities

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diane Zabel, Editor
Michele Hayslett, Guest Columnist

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“Let me be sure I understand you: You want to start a tearoom and bakery business, and you’d like to know the number of women living in Kansas City whose households have incomes of more than $60,000? … Okay! Yes, I can help you with that.”

So begins another reference interaction in which a librarian is asked to provide quite specific data for a business plan. Where should libraries without specialized staff turn for help? (more…)

A Midyear Progress Report

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diane Zabel

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Because I am halfway through my first year as editor, I thought RUSQ readers were due a progress report. I hope some of you noticed a redesign, beginning with the fall 2006 issue. I felt that RUSQ was due for a facelift as the journal had not been redesigned for some time. The purpose of this redesign was to incorporate suggestions made by participants in the 2005 Readex Readership Survey and the 2006 RUSQ focus groups.

Here is a summary of some of the major changes. (more…)

An Analysis of the Literature on Instruction in Academic Libraries

Jan 5th, 2008
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Gregory A. Crawford and Jessica Feldt

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This research examined the literature on instruction in academic libraries to determine the journals in which such articles were published, the types of articles, and changes in the types by year. Results show that Research Strategies, Reference Services Review, College & Research Libraries, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, and Reference & User Services Quarterly have published the most articles on academic library instruction. (more…)

Euthanasia: A Guide to Sources

Jan 5th, 2008
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Neal Wyatt, Column Editor
Kelly Myer Polacek, Guest Columnist

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Euthanasia is a topic of hot debate in social, political, legal, medical, religious, and ethical arenas. It is one of those topics that collection development librarians grapple with when striving to create authoritative, accessible, and useful collections. What are the best books, what journals are needed, and just what issues make up the debate? (more…)

The Library and My Learning Community: First Year Students’ Impressions of Library Services

Jan 5th, 2008
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Tammy J. Eschedor Voelker

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During the 2002-2003 academic year a team of reference librarians at the Kent State University main library began working with two freshman learning communities as part of an initiative to learn more about the needs of first-year students. This article reports on the outreach to one of those, the Science Learning Community, and on the results of a focus group undertaken with members of that group. The study found that the students valued the library instruction offered (more…)

A House Divided? Two Views on Genre Separation

Jan 5th, 2008
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Barry Trott, Column Editor
Barry Trott and Vicki Novak, Guest Columnist

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In spring 2006, a spirited debate on the merits of separating out library fiction collections by genre was held on the Fiction_L discussion list (subscribe at www.webrary.org/rs/FLmenu.html). Interesting points were made on both sides of the issue, and while no firm conclusions were reached, the discussion exemplified the thought and passion that readers’ advisors bring to their work. This issue’s column features two articles that present each of the sides in the ongoing question of how to best present a collection that will best serve the reading interests of library users. (more…)

NextGen Librarians: Interviews with RUSA Interns

Jan 5th, 2008
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Diana D. Shonrock, President

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Because I knew the goals of my Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) presidency would cluster around encouraging membership by new librarians, I took the opportunity as vice president of RUSA to appoint interns to all the RUSA-level committees and to nominate some for American Library Association-level (ALA) committees. My second column takes a peek at the people who filled these positions. (more…)

Accommodating Diverse Learning Styles in an Online Environment

Jan 5th, 2008
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Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, Column Editors
Lori Mestre, Guest Columnist

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As librarians and instructors strive to provide optimal learning experiences in an online medium, they need to consider the different ways that students learn. Some of the questions that should be asked include: Does one’s learning style or preference for a face-to-face environment carry over into an online environment? What learning principles should be considered when designing instructional content for the Web? Are there clues that can be used from what is already known about learning styles for multicultural populations that should be considered as materials are put online? (more…)

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