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Many individuals helped create this memorable volume. Tim Clifford, our production editor at ALA Production Services, is responsible for the great cover graphic commemorating the journal’s fiftieth anniversary. The members of the RUSQ Editorial Advisory Board helped authors to create their best work by offering thoughtful and constructive feedback. (more…)
Departments
Farewell Stacks … Hello Digital
Announcing the Move of Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) to an Online Publication
Barry Trott, President
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At the 2011 Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Board voted unanimously to approve the move of the division’s professional journal, Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), to a solely online publication beginning in fall 2011. (more…)
Happy Anniversary, RUSQ
Diane Zabel, Editor
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This volume marks a milestone for RUSA. RUSA’s journal is celebrating its fiftieth year. The first volume of our division’s journal was published in November 1960. This inaugural issue of RQ (the title preceding RUSQ) was eight pages long. In the past fifty years, our journal has come a long way in terms of length and production quality. Issues now average 104 pages in length, and the top notch staff at ALA Production Services is responsible for the crisp and contemporary design. While the look and feel of the journal has changed over the past half-century, the journal has consistently published a balance of thoughtful articles on practice and empirically based articles on issues in reference and public services librarianship. (more…)
Reflections of a Reference Librarian
Susan J. Beck
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In this, my final column as RUSA President, I am taking some time to reflect on my career as a reference librarian. I guess you could say that I am probably in the declining years of my career. I am over fifty and have been a reference librarian since 1980—you do the math. (more…)
Special Thanks in a Year Like No Other
Diane Zabel
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This past year was a stressful one for several individuals associated with RUSQ as they took on additional responsibilities at work (myself included), dealt with budget cutbacks in their libraries, and in some cases took salary reductions themselves as a result of pay cuts and furloughs. (more…)
We Must Think Strategically
Susan J. Beck, President
We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.—Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, 1996
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Bill Gates could probably have used even more extreme adverbs. (more…)
Why Is Germany in Europe? And Other Lessons from a Life in Reference
David A. Tyckoson, President
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For many of us reference librarians, one of the greatest rewards we get from what we do is the immediate and direct feedback that we receive from our users. Because we help people, we are on the receiving end of their gratitude when we are able to give them what they want. (more…)
Mining Ballots: Nuggets for the Future
Susan J. Beck
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I was born on November 4. I am an election baby. I was born on a Wednesday, but in the year I was born, there was not a U.S. general election. (more…)
Letter to the Editor
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September 30, 2009
To the Editor:
I read “Developing a Model for Reference Research Statistics” by Harry C. Meserve, et al., (volume 48, number 3) with interest. (more…)
A Year in the Life: Business Librarians Report on 2008–09
Roye Werner, Guest Columnist
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Academic Business Library Directors (ABLD), an association consisting of the directors of libraries at the preeminent business schools in the United States and Canada, comes together each year to discuss issues of interest. Prior to the meeting, members are asked to respond to a questionnaire on what has happened in their libraries in the previous year. (more…)
An Interview with 2006–07 ALISE: President Connie Van Fleet
Diane Zabel
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Connie Van Fleet is well known to RUSQ readers. She edited the journal (in conjunction with Danny P. Wallace) for twelve years. Upon completing her final term as editor, she assumed leadership for the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). (more…)
This Is Our Time to Shine: Opportunities in a Recession
Susan J. Beck, President
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As I begin my first presidential column, I believe what is upmost on everyone’s mind is the state of the economy. (more…)
First Impressions and Rethinking Restroom Questions
Diane Zabel
Lorraine J. Pellack, Guest Columnist
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In her inspirational article in the Winter 2008 issue of RUSQ (“A Personal Choice: Reference Service Excellence”) Marie Radford reminds us that reference service excellence begins with the initial patron interaction, whether it is face-to-face or virtual. (more…)
Kudos Redux
Diane Zabel
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I am using this space to once again thank all the individuals who contributed to the production of RUSQ during the past year. Members of the RUSQ Editorial Advisory Board strive to provide meaningful and constructive feedback to authors. The 2008–09 board was composed of Judith M. Arnold, Gwen Arthur, Corinne Hill, Jessica E. Moyer, Kjerstine Nielsen, Lisa O’Connor, Amber A. Prentiss, Marianne Ryan, Michael Stephens, and Molly Strothmann. (more…)
Visions of RUSA Future
Neal Wyatt, President
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It is somewhat traditional for RUSA presidents to focus their final “From the President” column on the future of RUSA and the profession. I think that the future of librarianship is, as ever, strong and exciting. (more…)
The Flow State: An Interview with RUSA’s Section Chairs
Neal Wyatt, President
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RUSA is an oddity. Usually institutions fall into one of two categories: Either the sum of its parts is greater than the whole, or the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Think about Congress, the UN, or a car manufacturing line. In each case, either the total institution is more important than its parts, or the parts are what make the institution shakily hold together. (more…)
Maximizing Local and National Assessment for Evidence-Based Librarianship
Ellysa Stern Cahoy and Loanne Snavely, Guest Columnists
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A few months ago I was riveted by an in-house presentation disseminating results from a 2008 survey of computing by Penn State University faculty, students, and staff. I couldn’t help but think that RUSQ readers would also find the Penn State data interesting, especially comparisons with national survey data. (more…)
A Personal Choice: Reference Service Excellence
Diane Zabel
Marie L. Radford, Guest Columnist
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In an effort to bring RUSA’s ALA Annual Conference programming to RUSQ readers who cannot attend the conference, I invited Marie Radford to write this guest editorial based on her address that was presented as part of the 2008 RUSA President’s Program, “Quality Service in an Impersonal World,” at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. However, this article is much more than a reworking of that excellent presentation. (more…)
A History of Innovation and a Future of Possibility
Neal Wyatt, President
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Close to fifteen years ago some very bright people in RUSA decided to create a space where the most significant reference research of the year could be shared with RUSA members and other ALA Annual Conference attendees. (more…)
That Thing You Do
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…)
A Reference Renaissance
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…)
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
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…)
Letter to the Editor
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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…)
“Nice Shoes.”
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…)
Retail Reference or Not? Where Are We Headed?
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…)
The Thank You Tradition
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…)
ALA-APA Support Staff Certification: RUSA’s Role
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…)
A Midyear Progress Report
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…)
NextGen Librarians: Interviews with RUSA Interns
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…)
Advice for Prospective Authors
Diane Zabel
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I have read numerous manuscripts in the past few years in my role as an editorial board member for two journals and a monographic series. I recently spoke on the topic of journal publishing for an in-house workshop on tenure and promotion. Since my appointment as editor of Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), I have responded to several queries about publishing in RUSQ. I am using this column to pass along my perspectives on writing for peer-reviewed journals in general, and RUSQ in particular. (more…)
The Four Es of Experience and Leadership; or How to Plot a Future Course for RUSA
Diana D. Shonrock, 2006-2007 RUSA President
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In this column in the previous volume of Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), Diane Zabel, then-president of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), took a look at the issues facing reference librarians as they plan for the future (more…)
A Hard Act to Follow
Diane Zabel
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I have been involved with our division’s journal for more than seventeen years, first as a reviewer of reference books, and for the past seven years, as the editor of the Alert Collector column. I am humbled to have this opportunity to assume a larger role with the journal. I know that I will need to work hard to continue the legacy of the many esteemed editors that came before me. (more…)