Print version (Adobe Reader required)
The readers’ advisory world has seen a shift in the past several years from focusing exclusively on fiction reading to taking a broader view of recreational reading that includes nonfiction titles and audiobooks as well. This shift is a reflection in large part of the growing interest of readers in narrative nonfiction, as seen in the success of such works as Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, Dava Sobel’s Longitude, and Anna Pavord’s The Tulip. Librarians are realizing that they can increase their readers’ advisory services and expand their community of readers by applying the same techniques that they have used to find new titles and authors for fiction readers to working with readers of nonfiction.

In this essay, Abby Alpert examines the history of narrative nonfiction; discusses the current state of readers’ advisory services for nonfiction readers, including looking at tools and techniques for working with readers; and makes some recommendations for future directions for this service.

Abby Alpert worked as a readers’ advisor for the Evanston (Illinois) Public Library for nine years. She is a 2005 graduate of the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and is currently working part-time in Readers’ Services and Children’s Services for Evanston. She reviews audiovisual materials for Booklist, and is working on constructing an online readers’ advisory thesaurus. She is also beginning a book on graphic novels.– Editor

Now that the revitalization of traditional fiction readers’ advisory is firmly established, publishing and reading trends require the readers’ advisory community to turn its energy to expanding services to include new formats. These include graphic novels, audiovisual (AV) materials, and works of narrative nonfiction. Increasingly, nonfiction titles are being published, receiving positive critical attention, and becoming popular with the general reader. This has created both the need and the opportunity to develop readers’ advisory services for nonfiction readers. This article will provide an overview of current practices in nonfiction readers’ advisory, focusing primarily on narrative nonfiction, a style of nonfiction writing that adheres to the facts, but employs the literary techniques of fiction to tell a vibrant story about real events, phenomenon, people, and places. The intention is to look at the growth of narrative nonfiction, what is currently happening in nonfiction readers’ advisory, and what needs to happen as narrative nonfiction is incorporated into the realm of readers’ advisory services.

What is Narrative Nonfiction?

To begin with, narrative nonfiction is not a genre itself; rather it is a style that encompasses any nonfiction genre or topic that emphasizes story, including biography, memoir, and essays. Hume proposes that “somewhere between the newspaper on your doorstep and the novel on your nightstand lies narrative nonfiction.”¹ At a conference focused on narrative nonfiction hosted by Columbia University, Yare, senior editor at The Atlantic, defined it as “essentially a hybrid form, a marriage of the art of storytelling and the art of journalism–an attempt to make drama out of the observable world.” He also said it “harnesses the power of facts to the techniques of fiction–constructing a central narrative, setting scenes, depicting multidimensional characters and, most important, telling the story in a compelling voice that the reader will want to hear.”²

There are two elements to consider in looking at this type of writing: the Narrative and the Nonfiction. The narrative requires elements that go beyond merely reporting facts or technical or expository writing. How the story is told is as significant as what happened. The strategies of fiction writing are used to recount the development of an idea, to investigate a phenomenon, or to explore a piece of history. The storytelling element necessitates scene-by-scene construction, drawing characters, finding a moving voice to communicate the drama, and conveying the facts in a way that will draw readers into the story. The Nonfiction element means that the story is based on fact, not on the realm of the imagination. The story is based on actual historical figures, political developments, institutions, objects, events, natural phenomenon, and so on; whatever the subject matter, it must have really happened. Herda aptly notes:

The key word in Narrative Nonfiction is nonfiction. Narratives must be fact. Unlike the Historical Novel that uses a real-life element as a focal point and then is fleshed out with fictional elements and characters, the Narrative Nonfiction tale starts with fact and ends with fact (and, in fact, has fact sandwiched in between).³

Basically, narrative nonfiction uses literary devices of fiction writing to take nonfiction beyond the summarization of a series of facts and into the realm of storytelling.

Why Narrative Nonfiction?

Why focus on readers’ advisory for narrative nonfiction as opposed to nonfiction in general? Saricks has expanded her definition of readers’ advisory in the current edition of Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library from “service for adult fiction readers” to “service for adult leisure readers.”⁴ With the increased popularity of narrative nonfiction, book publishers are seeing it as a reliable source of income. Bowker notes in its United States publishing statistics a decline in 2003 of 1.6 percent in output of fiction while nonfiction recorded “double-digit increases.”⁵ Nonfiction is a growing segment of leisure reading. As Burgin states, “many users read nonfiction for pleasure and not to meet specific information needs or to conduct research.”⁶ A 2002 thread in Fiction_L, an active, archived readers’ advisory e-mail list, was devoted to the question of including nonfiction in readers’ advisory; near unanimous agreement resulted in the inclusion of nonfiction materials.⁷

Nonfiction library transactions have traditionally been the sphere of reference or adult services. This was based on the assumption that nonfiction titles are primarily used to gain specific information or for problem solving and are easily located by subject heading and classification number. While nonfiction collections are still composed of large numbers of informational and how-to books focused on the needs of “information people,” there is a growing emphasis on putting out nonfiction for “story people.”⁸ This is where narrative nonfiction comes in, a style of writing that tells a true story as a compelling narrative. It cuts across all categories and appeals to readers for reasons other than solely solving a problem or gaining information on a specific topic. Nonfiction titles that have been consistently popular in the past few years include Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Current titles that are creating a buzz are River of Doubt by Candice Millard , Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. New titles by key authors in the genre include Michael Pollan’s Omnivore ‘ s Dilemma, Mark Kurlansky’s The Big Oyster, Simon Winchester’s A Crack at the Edge of the World, and Jared Diamond’s Collapse .

Assisting patrons in searching for narrative nonfiction involves different strategies than searching for informational nonfiction. For example, in searching for informational nonfiction about childbirth, an annotated list may help a patron distinguish biases and types of information in various titles within a subject heading. If patrons wanted more titles like those written by attachment-parenting obstetrician Dr. Sears, they would search a subject heading such as natural childbirth to find additional authors such as Kitzinger. It is a fairly objective process, like searching for reference materials, where patrons know what information they are seeking and the classification system directs them to the location of materials that will meet their needs. Finding read-alikes for narrative nonfiction is a subjective skill, like suggesting fiction, and in many cases the patron may not simply want more books on a specific subject with set access points in the catalog, but rather books with similar appeal elements.

The annotations and reviews of informational nonfiction versus narrative nonfiction reflect the distinctions between them. Informational nonfiction reviews evaluate the title using such criteria as thoroughness, currency, accuracy, organization of information, ease in accessing, and indexes. These criteria reflect an emphasis on nonfiction titles that is mainly utilitarian. For narrative nonfiction, the above elements may also be considered, but the emphasis of the reviews and annotations is on expressing whether the book is a “good read.” Does the author meld the facts into an engrossing, fun, or remarkable drama? What are the pacing, point of view, and tone? Are the storyline and characterizations compelling? All these factors–traditional appeal factors that distinguish various fiction titles from each other–are applied to nonfiction, bringing it out of the realm of straightforward information.

The following examples illustrate how readers’ advisors can work with popular narrative nonfiction titles in the readers’ advisory interview process.

• If a patron is looking for another book like Junger’s The Perfect Storm, but not necessarily another book about shipwrecks, there is no way to search for “like” reads. The Perfect Storm crafts the specifics of an actual natural disaster into an absorbing plot with varied themes, rich characterizations, and a blend of historical and scientific details. The appeal to the reader might be in overcoming inconceivable challenges, or the man-against-nature theme, in which case Alfred Lansing’s Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage or Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm might be relevant suggestions. The appeal might lie in the suspense, the thriller-like pacing, in which case Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action might be a good match.
• What if a reader enjoyed Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World by Simon Garfield? A key appeal element of Mauve is putting the creation of a commonplace thing in a larger context, exploring its impact, how “it changed the world.” If the task was purely to find similar subject matter, one might suggest Michel Pastoureau’s Blue: The History of a Color. But just as a fan of Ruth Rendell’s mysteries might discard what superficially appear to be the similar psychological novels of P. D. James, a lover of Mauve might reject Blue as simply a collection of facts about a color, rather than an exploration of the history of an invention and its significance in the bigger picture. Better suggestions for a reader looking for books about small objects that created significant global ripple effects might be Zipper by Robert Friedel, the story of the “hookless fastener,” Nathaniel’s Nutmeg by Giles Milton, or Mark Kurlansky’s Cod .
• Then there is the patron who is looking for read-alikes of James McManus’s Positively Fifth Street, a journalist’s absorbing account of his growing obsession with the world of competitive poker. If the appeal is in the humorous characterizations of fanatical game players or the account of intense competitive quest, Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, a book about international Scrabble competitions, might fit the bill. If the reader’s interest is in the journalist as an observer and participant or the writer’s experience of becoming passionate about his subject matter, they might find Susan Orleans’s The Orchid Thief a satisfying read.

Just as in an encounter with a fiction reader, suggestions for each of these nonfiction titles could go in multiple directions because the potential appeals are numerous and subjective. Appeal extends beyond subject headings and varies from patron to patron, requiring the application of readers’ advisory strategies to clarify the compelling facets of a book and base relevant reading suggestions on those appeals.

History of Narrative Nonfiction

Narrative nonfiction is relatively new and its history reveals much about the style. One of the most curious elements is that important novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Henry Fielding, Leo Tolstoy, and William Makepeace Thackeray all used nonfiction to build fictional accounts. Their novels were based on detailed realism about people and events of their day. Beginning in the mid-1900s, fiction moved away from social realism toward the experimental, the imaginary, and the spiritual. Looking at nonfiction bestseller lists, which began in 1912, it is evident that through the 1950s, “most of nonfiction continued to represent an America involved in home, family, and looking good.”⁹ A focus on childrearing, self-help, celebrity books, cookbooks, diet, and etiquette continues, but a new trend began to emerge in the 1960s pioneered by writers including Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, and Hunter S. Thompson. Called “literary journalism,” “fact writing,” or “the new journalism,” it was a style that used literary technique to endow journalistic reporting with drama and emotional impact.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
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, followed by a great review of the RQ/RUSQ literature that highlighted the exciting reading we’ve brokered throughout our existence as an organization. So, as the torch passes from Diane to me, and as she moves on to become both past-president and the editor of RUSQ, I wish her the best.

The Future for Reference and RUSA

Currently my library–and probably a lot of yours–are examining reference services in our libraries and asking, “What now? Where can we look for guidance?” At Iowa State University, we have begun anew the process of examining the trends that have occurred within our services to help us rethink the way we are delivering reference services. In 1992, Virginia Massey- Burzio changed the way we did reference at Iowa State with her article, “Rethinking the Reference Desk,” and as a result we created a tiered-reference service.¹ In 2002, the white papers presented at RUSA workshop on the future of reference challenged us to look at various future scenarios for the future of reference service.² As a consequence, we implemented e-mail and Web-reference services at Iowa State, and later, chat reference. Now many libraries of all types (academic, public, corporate, and school) are again examining how they deliver reference service and how the new technologies of the new millennium will drive change. As the old Bob Dylan song says, “the times, they are a changin’”; (perhaps we should include the word “again”?) As we think about the future of our services, what would we do without Google? We don’t necessarily like how much our students and patrons depend on Google, but we all are using it, and depend on it in those times when all else eludes us. So how can we move to the future of reference without selling out? What will be our roles in five years, or ten? What will be the role of RUSA in creating this future role?

In April 2006, Cathleen Bourdon (RUSA’s executive director) and I attended a leadership symposium in Chicago, along with a hundred or more people representing other nonprofit organizations. During our two days together, we spent time examining the challenges to our organization’s focus in the twenty-first century. In the course of contemplating where to go next–Diane is a hard act to follow–I began by examining some of the organizational issues that the literature indicates are affecting the ways in which we choose our leaders and the values our organizations have come to represent. I have combined this information with insights from the Chicago symposium, the results from a May 2005 RUSA needs survey, and the findings from a RUSQ survey also conducted in 2005. Some of my thoughts about what this may mean for RUSA as an organization and for our membership frame my musings. I began by asking questions that many have probably asked before: What do our members expect from RUSA as an organization, and how can we meet those needs? Where are we now, what are the challenges ahead, and how do we meet them?

As I reflected on the symposium, I realized that RUSA’s development could be adapted to fit into a couple of models called the four E’s, one developed for the business community, and a second framed in the perspective of organizational leadership. Both perspectives offer the opportunity to encourage the same goal–the growth of RUSA as an organization. In the world of business, the four E’s are defined by Pine and Gilmore as the “experience economy” that occurs “when a company [organization] intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props to engage individual customers [members] in a way that creates a memorable event.”³ Therefore, I would propose that this line of thought works for nonprofit organizations such as RUSA as well. It is the little things that make the difference and pull each of us to select one section or division of the American Library Association (ALA) over another. Pine and Gilmore note that experiences have two dimensions–their level of participation can be either active or passive, and their connection may be one of absorption or immersion. The four E’s of the experience economy are:

• entertainment–attending a program and our level of enjoyment;
• education–taking a class and the benefits anticipated;
• esthetics–viewing a thing of beauty such as art or a new Web page; and
• escapism–acting in a role, becoming a leader, or presenting a program.

The level that any of us become involved in an organization such as RUSA can also run the gamut from passive to active and from absorption to immersion.

Entertainment

As a member or prospective member of RUSA, you may be watching from afar; you may be observing the ways we interact with our members and considering what is available for you as an individual. You may notice that RUSA is the only organization within ALA that is specifically for reference librarians regardless of library type. You may attend a program or peruse our Web pages but still feel safer at arm’s length. You enjoy our services and entertainment but opt to remain outside.

Education

At some point, you may decide to reach out and become involved by enrolling in a continuing education course such as the one RUSA has now offered several times, “The Reference Interview,” or the newest one, “Business Reference 101.” You may decide to attend a conference program like the one this past summer, “What You’ll Read Next: The Buzz of Books,” or the one planned for next June on reference and user services librarians of the future. Some of you may have attended the pre-conference in New Orleans, “Reinvented Reference: The Integration of Digital and Traditional Reference Services,” and are already applying what you learned in your home library. You may decide to fill out a Volunteer form on the Web page and become involved in one of hundreds of RUSA section- and division-level committees. The next round of committee appointments will be made in spring 2007, with terms of service beginning at the close of the 2007 Annual Conference.

Esthetic

The esthetic nature of RUSA may encourage you to get involved by attending a committee meeting or program, allowing you to observe the decision-making process at various levels. You may like what you see and be prepared to contribute your ideas. During the past year I had the pleasure of making nearly one hundred committee appointments to committees ranging from Professional Development to Access to Information. These don’t include the numerous committees available if your interests lie in membership within one of the six sections of RUSA: Reference Services, Machine-Assisted Reference, History, Collection Development and Evaluation, Business Reference and Services, and Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources.

Escapist

As a member or chair of a RUSA committee you now have the opportunity to escape from the library where you work every day. This may not be what Pine and Gilmore had in mind for this category, but think of it as an opportunity to escape from what you do every day and join others to discuss similar needs, enabling you to return to your library invigorated by new ideas. According to the 2005 RUSA member survey, one of the primary reasons that librarians choose to join a professional organization is networking.

In like manner, the Web site LeaderValues examines the four E’s of leadership; the opportunities to extend benefits to members in various categories.

• Envison
• Enable
• Empower
• Energize⁴

A vision varies from person to person, but is something that an association needs in order to identify with some focus, to envision its future. The stated vision for RUSA is that “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.”⁵ This vision enables us to assist you to see how the RUSA vision can help your library create its own vision.

Enabling is realizing that tools make each and every part of the vision a reality. RUSA believes that:

• universal access to information is important;
• high-quality collection and information sources are necessary;
• reading is fundamental to quality of life;
• innovative services and programs meet the changing needs of diverse populations;
• the management and delivery of collections and services must continually be evaluated and improved;
• professional growth and development is important for librarians and library staff;
• the role of reference and user services staff as educators is in creating lifelong learners; and
• unique contributions of librarians and library staff further the process of connecting users and information.

These values can create the foundation to enable libraries to create their own tools to make their vision a reality and to better serve their clientele.

Empowerment is the involvement of the membership with this common vision and goals. The RUSA Board of Directors has just completed the process of identifying the Association’s goals and objectives. Primarily, these are:

• to provide leadership in professional development for reference and user services librarians and library staff;
• to work toward equity of access for all patrons;
• to seek ways to increase participation in RUSA by reference and user services librarians and library staff;
• to ensure the effectiveness of RUSA in meeting its goals and those of ALA; and
• to increase the visibility of RUSA within the profession and society at large.⁶

Energizeis pulling members together and making them excited about working with each other. I guess that makes me chief cheerleader, and I hope that some of my enthusiasm can rub off on each of you, allowing us to work through our differences in order for RUSA to realize its full potential as an association. In some ways, RUSA has already begun this process with your help. Many of you have participated in one of the two surveys that RUSA has undertaken in the past two years. The first, in May 2005, looked to identify the needs of RUSA members, and the second, in fall 2005, to understand the readership of RUSQ and the journal’s success or failure in meeting readers’ needs. As RUSA planned and executed these surveys, RUSA leaders began to realize some of what’s important to our members. However, additional elements we hadn’t expected were also made clearer during the Chicago leadership symposium. During one exercise, Cathleen and I were asked to map the trends within our organization. Thanks to these RUSA surveys, we were able to outline several things about RUSA and identify areas we want the association to work on. At this symposium, we also learned that the following association trends are applicable to RUSA:

• one size doesn’t fit all;
• members want return for their dues;
• informat ion is important but knowledge is more valuable;
• virtual members want personal relationships with the organization; and
• differences in positions and locations are continuing to diversify our needs.⁷

What does this mean for the future of RUSA as an association? First of all, we must recognize you (our members) as the owners, consumers, and workforce of the organization. So what is an association? An association is, by definition, “a group of people who voluntarily come together to solve common problems and meet common needs and accomplish common goals.”⁸ And what do our members and consumers want and need?

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
The stereotype of the reference transaction is more or less unchanged since Samuel Swett Green’s day, as involving precisely one librarian and one user. There are many common situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction, and this article will explore those situations. Additionally, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction are becoming more common. Indeed, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, reference work will become fundamentally a collaborative effort, to the benefit of both individual reference services and reference work in general.

Our conception of the stereotypical reference transaction comes to us more or less unchanged since Samuel Swett Green’s day, as involving precisely one librarian and one user. There are many common situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction, and this article will explore those situations. Additionally, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction are becoming more common. Indeed, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, reference work will become fundamentally a collaborative effort, to the benefit of both individual reference services and reference work in general.

Another seminal author on the topic of library reference, Taylor, adopts Green’s implicit model of the reference transaction being a one-to-one interaction.² Taylor’s concern was not to make a case for interaction between librarian and user, as Green’s was; rather, Taylor’s concern was to elucidate the steps that librarians must lead the user through during this interaction. As with Green, however, Taylor implicitly assumes that there is one and only one librarian and user in this interaction.

The major textbooks on reference work similarly treat the reference transaction as a one-to-one interaction.³ On the one hand, it is perfectly reasonable that textbooks would take this approach, since one-to-one interaction is the simplest model of interpersonal communication and is how many models of dialogic communication portray that communication.⁴ On the other hand, like many models, the model of the reference transaction as a one-to-one interaction is overly simplistic. There are many common situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction, and this article will explore those situations. Additionally, as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction are becoming more common. Indeed, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, reference work will become fundamentally a collaborative effort.

Reference Work Has Always Been Collaborative

Tyckoson discusses the two historically predominant models of reference service: the model in which the librarian provides an answer to the user’s question, and the model in which the librarian teaches the user to use the library and to answer her own questions.⁵ Regardless of which model a library or a librarian practices, however, it is necessary for the librarian and the user to collaborate.

The reference transaction is a collaborative effort between the librarian and the user, in the sense that all interpersonal communication is a collaborative effort between the participants in a communication process. The field of communication studies known as discourse analysis is based on what Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs refer to as the “conversational model” of communication.⁶ According to this model, both individuals involved in a conversation are active participants in constructing meaning in the context of the conversation. Clark and Schaefer build on this idea of mutual construction of meaning, and propose what they refer to as a contribution. A contribution is a combination of a speech act–that is, the utterance of some meaningful content–and the acceptance of that content. This acceptance occurs when “the speaker and addressees mutually believe that the addressees have understood what the speaker meant.”⁷ (This situation is summed up most artfully by the character of Prince Geoffrey in the 1968 film The Lion in Winter, when he states that: “I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it.”) When that mutual acceptance of the speaker’s meaning is accomplished, the original speech act achieves the status of “common ground” between the speaker and the addressee, for the purposes of the conversation.

The reference transaction is not, however, an ordinary conversation. The conversation that is the reference transaction is complicated by the fact that the participants are not simply exchanging statements; rather, one of the participants is asking a question of the other. Further, the questioner may be asking a question on a topic about which he may know little or nothing. Belkin, Oddy, and Brooks refer to this as an “anomalous state of knowledge,” and claim that “in general, the user is unable to specify precisely what is needed to resolve that anomaly.”⁸ What sets the reference transaction apart from an ordinary conversation is that the participants attempt to achieve common ground on a topic about which neither may possess any knowledge. In a way, it is amazing that common ground is ever achieved in reference transactions; it is for this reason that Lynch refers to the reference transaction as a process of “mind-reading.”⁹ But this mind reading does occur, and it is through the process of mutual construction of meaning that it is able to occur. It is because the reference transaction is a conversation, and conversations are collaborative efforts between the participants, that the reference transaction is able to succeed in resolving the user’s anomalous state of knowledge, or in providing the user with the knowledge to resolve it herself.

While the conversation that is the reference transaction is a collaborative effort between the librarian and the user, there may also be a conversation that leads up to the reference transaction. This is the case when the user in the reference transaction is acting as an agent for another. Gross refers to a reference question of this type as an “imposed query,” which is a reference question that is “set in motion when a person gives a question to someone else to resolve.” ¹⁰ As Gross points out, much of reference work is predicated on the assumption that through conversation, the librarian can elicit information about the user’s situation and the context of the question, and thereby arrive at an understanding of the question. This situation and context is, however, not present for a user who is acting as an agent. On the other hand, in order for the agent to be in possession of the question in the first place, and for the principal to be comfortable with the agent representing her to a reference service, the principal and the agent must presumably have a conversation in order for the former to convey to the latter her information need. Although this conversation is most likely hidden from the librarian (because it takes place prior to the reference transaction), it must take place in order for the principal and the agent to have arrived at common ground sufficient for the agent to operate.

Regardless of whether its purpose is question answering or instruction, the reference transaction is fundamentally a collaborative effort. Collaboration necessarily occurs between the librarian and the user, and may also occur between a principal and an agent. The remainder of this article, however, will focus on collaborations on the other side of the reference transaction: between librarians, and between reference services.

Collaboration at the Desk

Perhaps the most familiar form of collaboration between librarians in reference work is also one of the simplest: the referral. Childers draws a distinction between “steering,” or providing directions for the user to another service, and “referring,” or making contact with that other service for the user.¹¹ In both cases, a librarian directs the user to another librarian or reference service, and collectively the librarians at these different services answer the user’s question. In the case of Childers’s steering, the librarians may never directly collaborate with one another about the user’s question; they may never meet or even know that each other exists except in the most abstract way. Indeed, in such a case, the referring librarian may never even know if the user contacts the referred-to service. Thus, a steered referral is a collaborative effort, but only barely: it is collaborative in the sense that multiple librarians are part of a virtual team that works on answering a question, though that team is connected in that task only by the user. A referred referral, then, according to Childers, is one in which the librarians actually do directly collaborate with one another on the user’s question.

Hawley takes a different approach to categorizing types of referrals, drawing a distinction between an “intra-library” referral, where the user is referred to another librarian within the same library, and an “extra-library” referral, where the user is referred to another library altogether.¹² In an intra-library referral, it can probably be assumed that the referring and the referred-to librarians at least know each other, and it allows for the possibility that they will actively collaborate in answering the user’s question. This is probably the simplest model of true collaboration in reference work, when the librarians are physically collocated, and collaborate in person. Reasons for this type of collaboration may vary: one librarian may have expertise that the other does not have, or one librarian may simply be stumped and two heads are better than one. This form of collaboration is a conversation in the sense discussed above, only instead of being between a librarian and a user, it is between two librarians.¹³ The user is thus in the position of being the user of the artifacts of the conversation–that is, the common ground agreed upon by the librarians participating in the conversation. This common ground will hopefully include an answer to the user’s questions. In an extra-library referral, on the other hand, the user may be either steered or referred: that is, the librarian may simply tell the user to go to another service (with contact information in hand, one hopes), or the librarian may make contact with that other service for the user.

The universe of possibilities for interaction between librarians in referrals is pretty much exhausted by the situations described above: collaboration in person, a referral made to a colleague within the library, and a referral made to another library or service. In the case of a referral, the universe of possibilities is that the burden is on the librarian or on the user to contact that other service. It was only after the adoption of the telephone at the reference desk, however, that it was feasible for the librarian to contact the referred-to service. Most of the literature on providing reference service by telephone discusses the telephone as a tool for the provision of reference service.¹⁴ This literature treats the reference transaction as a collaborative effort between the librarian and the user, as discussed above. Very little of this literature mentions the telephone as a tool for contacting other librarians or reference services, though this is a very obvious use of the telephone. Indeed, Janes, in a 2003 Luminary Lecture at the Library of Congress, stated that his mother, who was herself a reference librarian, always said that “her favorite reference tool was the telephone.”¹⁵ It seems unlikely that Mrs. Janes is alone in this. Prior to the adoption of the telephone as a reference tool, however, extra-library referrals could only be steered–it would have been impossible for the librarian to make contact with another library or service without leaving the desk.

In this same lecture, Janes also mentions the example of an art question being submitted to the Internet Public Library (IPL). In this case, Janes states, the question might be forwarded to the Ask Joan of Art service, because a subject specialist in art would likely be able to provide a better answer than a subject generalist could. But, Janes points out, in this situation it would be up to the librarian to know that Ask Joan of Art is the best service to provide an answer to the user. A reference service is inevitably going to receive questions that it cannot answer, and for which the best alternative service for answering those questions is unclear. There are books that attempt to fill this
niche by providing answers to unusual questions, such as The Book of Answers by the New York Public Library, and the many books by Feldman.¹⁶ Even armed with such books, however, it is still up to the librarian to know that an answer may be found in one of those books. And if an answer cannot be found in such a book, what is a librarian to do? Or, more to the point, what was a librarian to do in the days before Google?

Collaboration Forums

In the situation where a librarian does not know where to find an answer, and also does not know to where to refer the user, the best option may be to send out a message in a bottle, as it were. The column, titled The Exchange, which appeared in RQ from 1965 through its entire run, and subsequently in Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) through 1999, fulfilled this function. The archives of The Exchange are now available online to members of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). As a forum for the exchange of “tricky questions, notes on unusual information sources, and general comments concerning reference problems and their solutions,” The Exchange allowed librarians to seek input from other librarians whom they may not even have known.¹⁷ The Exchange effectively allowed librarians to collaborate with the whole world (or at least the whole RQ- and RUSQ-reading world) on answering reference questions.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
As more institutions of higher education recognize the importance of information literacy, the collaborative role for librarians is growing. Integration of information-literacy instruction is the key to successful student learning, and librarians are using various collaborative models on teams and as co-instructors in courses, learning communities, and campus-wide information-literacy initiatives. This article looks at some of the successful programs on college and university campuses.– Eds.

As the importance of information literacy grows within the academy, so does the importance of the role of librarians as integral members of the teaching and learning mission of the college and university. There is now a growing emphasis on teaching and learning as a component of the mission of twenty-first century libraries. At the same time, there is a growth in collaborative endeavors involving librarians and teaching faculty in efforts to reach larger numbers of students. Instead of relying on reference encounters in the library and formal library instruction, librarians are working to promote collaboration with faculty and campus units in an effort to integrate information literacy into the curriculum. Although the concept of librarian and faculty collaboration is not new, the commitment to an integrated approach has not become a trend. A review of recent literature and searching the Web showed that new forms of collaboration are making broad inroads into academic programs. This article highlights new developments in collaborative interactions in which the role for librarians is as a partner in the classroom and part of an integrated process.

The Importance of and Definitions of Integration

The need for librarians to collaborate with faculty in order to enhance the teaching and learning process has been acknowledged as both significant and as a challenge for the field since the inception of library instruction. The recent literature continues to articulate this need, identifying successes and failures in collaboration, as well as further defining what it means to collaborate.

The importance, and yet, difficulty, of engaging in successful collaboration has been well documented. In a preface to a 1995 article by Farber, Shirato noted that Farber stayed with the subject of faculty and librarian cooperation for such a long time because “he rightly recognizes it as one of the most essential ingredients in effective library instruction…. Success in this area has been hard-won… and in many ways the battle is not yet won.”¹

Winner agrees that collaboration is essential and also notes its difficulties, identifying the areas where collaboration often fails. She comments that there is still “no widespread acceptance of the librarian’s role in curriculum planning and course-integrated instruction. Teaching faculties are appreciative of the support given by librarians; however, librarians are not universally recognized as playing an integral role in course planning and teaching.”² Winner suggests that simply working with faculty is not enough; collaboration is only successful when the interaction between librarians and faculty results in an integration of the library into all elements of curriculum planning.

Many agree with this assessment. In 1995, Rader outlined three factors on which successful integration of library and research skills (information literacy) into the academic curriculum depended:

• library administrators had a long-term commitment to integrate library instruction into the curriculum;
• librarians and faculty worked together in curriculum development; and
• the institution had a strong commitment to excellent educational outcomes for students in the areas of critical thinking, problem solving, and information skills.³

Simons, Young, and Gibson expanded on the concept of integration as a critical component to programming in their development of the “learning library.” They defined the learning library as having:

active programmatic partnerships; curricular integration; sustained interactions among students, faculty, and librarians; and extension of influence into a ‘multiplier effect.’ The library becomes an essential component of students’ formal education and informal research needs. Rather than an external ‘add on’ to the educational experience, the library, as information resource and gateway, is a primary catalyst for cognitive, behavioral, and affective changes in students.⁴

Collaboration, then, continued to be the focus of a large body of literature that agreed that it is an essential element to successful teaching and learning. As Wilson observed, “Collaboration is key if librarians are to educate their clientele to be critical and self-sufficient users of information.”⁵

Characteristics and Skills Needed for Successful Collaboration

In addition to emphasizing the need for and more clearly defining the concepts of collaboration and integration, the recent literature has begun to articulate and define the elements of successful collaborations and the skills that librarians need in order to successfully interact with faculty. While many articles suggest these skills indirectly, there is a growing body of literature that specifically addresses this topic.Lippincott has written several articles on the importance of collaboration that emphasize the broad range of skills required to operate in a digital world and to work with faculty in educating students to find, critically evaluate, and use information successfully. She suggests that to be most effective, these collaborations should involve librarians in the development of the learning program. Librarians must be fully prepared and feel competent to work with classroom faculty in teaching students how to use technology to access information and then how to utilize critical thinking in the selection of information. She notes that there are a variety of factors that encourage success in cross-sector collaborative teams, including a “willingness to shape a common mission outside of the unit-specific mission; interest in sharing jargon and definitions of technical terms; willingness to learn aspects of the other partners’ expertise; and ability to appreciate differences and not criticize or stereotype others’ professions.”⁶In a 2002 study to attempt to identify the elements that create a successful collaboration, Ivey interviewed seven librarians and seven academics who were already working in partnerships in an attempt to identify the elements most important to collaboration. She defined four behaviors essential for successful collaborative teaching partnerships:

• shared understood goals;
• mutual respect, tolerance, and trust;
• competence for the task at hand by each of the partners; and
• ongoing communication.⁷

In 2004, Bell and Shank took the concept of integration one step further with the idea of a “‘blended librarian’ as an academic librarian who combines the traditional skill set of librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware and software skills and the instructional or educational designer’s ability to apply technology appropriately to the teaching-learning process.”⁸ Librarians and academics are becoming increasingly aware of the need to provide programs that develop student communication and research skills (information literacy). The examples of programs that exemplify information literacy or new methods of communication are well documented in the literature. However, the need for these two to become one–or integrated–is now emerging along with the need to understand what forms a successful collaboration.

New Methods for Successful Collaboration

Many college and university libraries are attempting to promote collaboration by having subject-specialist librarians serve as departmental liaisons. As such, they can make contact with the departmental faculty and develop relationships that will hopefully lead to opportunities for information-literacy instruction for their discipline. The goal is to bring departmental faculty and librarians together to improve student learning through course-integrated information-literacy instruction. Whether the collaborations result in single, well-timed instruction sessions related to class assignments, or become more involved with team teaching, they achieve the goal of integrating information literacy into academic programs. There are numerous examples showing that the depth of librarian involvement is growing, from librarians teaching information-literacy instruction as an add-on, to librarians as team members, or librarians in a coinstructor role. The examples selected for this article illustrate the characteristics of successful integration models. Most represent the first-year experience, as this is where most of the efforts for integration of information-literacy instruction into classroom instruction are taking place.

Integration into Specific Courses

Mathies outlines how a library liaison to Butler University’s College of Business Administration effectively built relationships that resulted in a 93 percent increase in the number of information-literacy instruction sessions over six years. This eventually led to the opportunity to collaborate with business-course instructors on a new course for freshmen business majors. The librarians worked to identify learning objectives for course instruction, and planned multiple library-instruction sessions that covered all of the instructors’ course objectives including group participation and an emphasis on critical thinking about information resources.⁹

At the University of Auckland Business School, information-literacy instruction in an electronic format was embedded in a compulsory introductory management course taken by students in their first semester. The modules of an online tutorial were designed to complement and to be accessed in conjunction with course assignments by students in multiple sections of the course.¹⁰ “Through cross-disciplinary collaboration on course design, delivery, and assessment, librarians and teachers created a student-centered information-literacy program for developing the skills identified… as being essential for business students, e.g., to effectively locate information and critically evaluate its usefulness.”¹¹

At Penn State University, librarians collaborated with faculty in the First-Year Seminar in the School of Information Sciences and Technology in developing and delivering course-integrated library instruction employing problem-based learning. Pelikan and Cheney have written about using problem-based learning to help students discover through experience how the library, its resources and their use, and varying approaches to research are basic to problem-based learning.¹² The development process involved close cooperation between faculty and librarians in developing the content for the multiple sessions for this team-based learning, where the librarians are functioning in a co-instructor role.

As Thaxon, Faccioli, and Mosby point out, difficulties in implementing collaborative programs are not uncommon. However, what distinguishes the collaborative endeavors mentioned here is not the time commitment for the librarian, the number of sessions being taught, or the number of students being reached; it is the level of librarian involvement in terms of goal setting and course development.¹³ Whether viewed as subject expert, as team member, or as coinstructor, librarians have been successful in developing course-based integrated instruction that can result in successful student learning, but librarians have also been successful in integrating information-literacy instruction into courses through learning communities.

Guidelines

1.0 Considerations before making a commitment to developing of a local history collection

1.1 Establish and maintain a dialog between local institutions and agencies. Consider what is currently being collected, what services are needed, to what depth such collections are being developed, and what collaborative or cooperative agreements are needed. Determine the most suitable repository for particular materials with respect to use, dissemination, and preservation.

2.0 Scope and Services of the Collection

2.1 Identify the focus and depth of the collection. Limiting factors may include geography, format, and so on.

2.2 Identify the range of services which will be provided, onsite and remotely.

3.0 Collection Development

3.1 Write an acquisitions policy for collecting local history materials.

3.1.1. State the intended geographic collection area.

3.1.2. Describe those materials desired by the institution and the extent to which they will be collected.

3.1.3 Describe the formats you will collect.

3.1.4 Identify the types of materials that will not be collected by the institution. Other institutions may be better equipped to handle a given type of material. Some items may not be accepted due to preservation issues.

3.1.5 Identify those subject areas that will be acquired only on a cooperative basis.

3.2 Write a policy on acceptance of materials through gifts and bequests. Include forms for “deeds of gift”. See the Society of American Archivists Web page for detail guidelines.

3.3 Write a policy on de-accessioning that is in keeping with the overall policy of the institution. Bear in mind policies already established by other professional organizations. (See www.archivists.org or www.aam-us.org for de-accessioning guidelines.)

4.0 Collection Location and Access

4.1 Establish the local history collection in an identifiable place in the library, separate from other collections. Create a separate area on the library’s Web site for the local history collection.

4.2 Provide an environment that is conducive to the preservation of materials.

4.3 Designate a secure space for the local history collection with proper provisions for monitoring materials.

4.4 Provide a clear and visible access policy.

4.5 Provide equipment and workspace sufficient to use the collection.

4.6 Utilize professional staff to collect, process, maintain and provide access to the local history collection. Professionals may be assisted by trained paraprofessionals and volunteers.

5.0 Fiscal Considerations

5.1 Provide a budget sufficient to acquire, process, maintain, and staff the local history collection.

5.2 Provide a budget for physical and bibliographic access to the collection.

5.3 Provide a budget for reproduction and reformatting of rare and fragile materials.

Bibliography

Harden, Johanna Jaeggli. “Saving the Past for the Future! Part 1: Deciding What to Save for a Local History Collection.” Colorado Libraries 27 no. 4 (Winter 2001):43-44

——. “Saving the Past for the Future! Deciding What to Save, Part 2: Preserving What Is Saved.” Colorado Libraries 29 no. 3 (Fall 2003): 44-46.

Ogden, Sherelyn, ed. Preservation of Library & Archival Materials: A Manual. Andover, Mass.: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 1999.

Phillips, Faye. Local History Collections in Libraries. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1995.

North Carolina Library Association. “Establishing and Main-taining a Local History Collection.” North Carolina Libraries 46 (Summer 1988): 70-84.

Carvalho, Joseph. “Organizing a Local History Collection in a Small Public Library.” Library Quarterly 8, no. 1-2 (1987-1988): 109-18.

American Association for State and Local History series. Several titles available from AltaMira Press.

Developed by the Local History Committee of the History Section, Reference and Adult Services Association, American Library Association, June 1979. Reaffirmed by the Reference and Adult Services Division Board of Directors, January 1993. Revised 2005 and approved January 2006 by the Reference and User Services Association Board of Directors.

This is the first edition of a new online document developed by the RUSA CODES Materials Reviewing Committee in 2003-2004. Its primary purpose is to guide librarians who wish to become reviewers on the elements that make up a good review; in addition, it warns them about elements to avoid. Its secondary purpose is to help library selectors recognize elements that define a good review. Finally, it may serve the needs of authors and publishers by demonstrating how reviews in professional library trade journals are written. For all three audiences, it offers an overview into the reviewing process.

Reviews serve multiple purposes for library selectors, publishers, authors, students, and scholars. Library selectors use reviews to make informed decisions concerning the potential usefulness of an item for their clientele, to compare like items, to choose one item over another (or to choose not to purchase an item), and to justify the purchase and defend the appropriateness of an item for a library collection. Reviews in some publications (such as Library Journal ) are written for a library audience; the purpose of such reviews is not only to evaluate the quality of a specific item but also to assess how it may fit into an academic, public, school, or special library collection. Selectors may also use reviews for readers’ advisory and for program planning (such as book or film clubs). Publishers and authors may use reviews to promote sales, to improve existing products, and to develop future products. Scholars and students may use reviews to track and evaluate publishing trends as well as related cultural and social changes.

Reviewers should be qualified to judge the reliability and validity of facts presented in materials that they evaluate, to compare such materials to similar works, and to determine whether such materials provide a greater understanding of a specific subject. Consequently, reviewers should have a solid academic background and strong personal or professional interest in the subject of the materials examined. Fiction reviewers should have an extensive background or a keen interest in literature.

Reviewers need to schedule sufficient time and obtain appropriate equipment (such as a CD player for music recordings or a DVD player for films) to examine and write about materials. Reviewers must adhere to deadlines and inform the editor immediately if a deadline cannot be met. Some journals publish reviews of materials prior to their publication; such reviews normally require quick turn-around time (often two or three weeks). Prior to publication, some materials may lack graphics, indexes, or other elements and reviewers need to indicate what elements were unavailable for examination.

Reviewers should be sensitive to ethical issues regarding the practice of examining and evaluating materials. Reviewers should make every effort to provide an objective evaluation. Consequently, they should not review materials written by themselves, colleagues, or friends; they should also avoid reviewing materials if any financial stake is involved. A review should be submitted to only one publication.

Reviewers should be aware that each publication has its own guidelines, requirements, and audience for reviews. Editors of some publications request that potential contributors submit a sample review. It is unusual for reviewers to receive monetary compensation, but they are often permitted to keep materials they have reviewed.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Common Elements Found in Most Reviews

3. Reviewing of Books

3.1 Adult Fiction
3.2 Adult Nonfiction
3.3 Collections of essays, short fiction, and other multi-authored works
3.4 Reference Books
3.5 Academic Books
3.6 Children’s Books
3.7 Teen Books
3.8 Graphic Novels
3.9 Materials in Other Languages

4. Electronic Resources

4.1 General Considerations
4.2 Special Considerations for Various Electronic Formats

5. Audio Visual

5.1 General Considerations
5.2 DVD and VHS
5.3 Spoken Word
5.4 Musical Recordings
5.5 Scores

6. Finalizing the Review–Polishing

Appendix I Major Genres

Appendix II Example of a Bad and Good Review

Appendix III Bibliography

Developed by the Materials Reviewing Committee of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES). Approved by the Reference and User Services Association Board of Directors, January 2006.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
The “contact zone” has emerged as an important concept for conceptualizing cultural difference in educational institutions. This article explores the usefulness of the contact zone as a guiding principle for academic librarianship. It suggests that by using contact-zone theory, librarians can develop a more reflective educational practice. Contact-zone theory is described and its implications for librarianship are explored.

In 1991, Mary Louise Pratt addressed the Modern Language Association annual conference. In her presentation, she used the phrase “contact zone” to describe “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power.”¹ Pratt argued that education is negotiated in contact zones where students of diverse backgrounds learn to communicate with each other and with their teachers. By focusing on transmitting academic content, faculty often miss this fact, which means they often misread or ignore important dynamics in their classrooms. Pratt argued that students devise a multitude of strategies to deal with the contact zone. The effectiveness of the strategies they choose has much to do with their ultimate success in classes and in the larger cultural space of the institution. Students must resolve their own unique backgrounds, especially their language practices, with classrooms that demand standard academic English. Pratt described the creative approaches students must develop to negotiate this conflict as the “arts of the contact zone.”

In the not-so-distant past, college students were a homogeneous group–white, male, and financially well-to-do. Today’s campus, by contrast, is marked by increasing diversity in age, gender, ethnicity, and economic background. To be successful in this diverse environment, college students have to find ways to communicate successfully across cultural and linguistic boundaries, and it is in response to the ensuing challenges that they develop Pratt’s arts of the contact zone. Many of these challenges will be posed by professors, who are powerful authority figures in students’ lives, but others will be posed by their classmates and friends. Change is implicit in the educational process, and challenges can be important to encourage growth, but many students find that developing the kind of academic identity that colleges encourage undermines the identity that binds them to family and culture. This conflict between loyalty to the past and hope for the future that a college education can provide generates complex responses that give rise to the arts of the contact zone.

College is a time when many people encounter true difference for the first time. They have learned to deal with their families, towns, and neighborhoods. As their sphere of experience necessarily widens in the university, their education involves exposure to increasing levels of difference. This process is by design and is generally healthy, but difference also generates conflict, and learning to negotiate conflict in productive ways is key to learning in the contact zone.A contact zone can become problematic when a student’s cultural identity comes into conflict with the diverse culture of the academy, causing the academic performance of that student to suffer. As the academic library navigates its way through the many changes currently underway, theories of the contact zone can be used to create a more student-centered institution, one that acknowledges student difference, facilitates learning, and thereby provides a valuable service to the academic community. Two things will be presented in this discussion of the contact zone. First of all, the various ways the idea of the contact zone has shaped discourse in composition scholarship will be surveyed. Secondly, the ways that contact-zone theory might give shape to the practices of academic libraries and librarianship will be explored.

Pratt’s Theory and Its Impact

Pratt wove two narratives into her discussion of the contact zone. In the first narrative, she told the story of Guaman Poma, an indigenous Andean who addressed a huge correspondence (twelve hundred pages) to the king of Spain in 1613. In this missive, Poma uses the Spanish language (the Incas had no written language) to articulate a vision of the Incan world and how the Spanish monarch might rule that world in benevolent, culturally respectful ways. In her second narrative, Pratt told the story of her fifth-grade son and his growth toward literacy through baseball-trading cards and writing assignments in the standard public-school classroom. The two stories share themes important to Pratt’s development of the contact zone as a defining principle for the educational process.

Poma’s letter to the king of Spain proposes a new model of government for the management of the Incas. In the letter, Poma presumes to teach the king of Spain how to rule his empire. Pratt calls Poma’s text autoethnographic, which she defines as “a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them.”² In effect, the autoethnographic text is an effort to grapple with the description an outside culture has imposed on a less powerful one. At stake in this process is the ownership of culture and the right of the less powerful to define their culture for themselves. Pratt’s theory is tied to language. The Incas had no written language. Poma had to “construct his text by appropriating and adapting pieces of the representational repertoire of the invaders,” the Spanish. Pratt calls this appropriation “transculturation,” which she defines as “processes whereby members of subordinated or marginalized groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture”³ Poma’s “letter” was never delivered to the king of Spain, and for Pratt, such dead letters–efforts to communicate that fail to reach an audience–represent a common problem of those who attempt to articulate identity in the contact zone.

Pratt also describes her own son’s experience in the educational system. This obviously bright young student is not the subject of a controlling monarch, but is instead a student in an elementary school. Nonetheless, Pratt sees her son employing many of the same linguistic strategies as Poma in his efforts to negotiate the contact zone of the classroom. In response to his teacher’s assignments, he invents responses that “parody, resist, and critique the imagined classroom community”⁴ In this way, he attempts to engage the teacher’s representation of him, and he attempts to use the language he is being taught while still retaining control over his own ideas and identity. In other words, as he negotiates his identity in the context of the classroom, he practices the same autoethnographic and transculturalistic strategies as Poma. These negotiations typify students’ responses to the contact zone at all academic levels.

Pratt concludes by noting that “community,” which has become a feel-good mantra within educational circles, is, in fact, more problematic than many thinkers in the academy will acknowledge. Pratt calls these academic constructions of community “utopian,” in that they hypothesize a world based on “equality, freedom, and liberty” without recognizing that the academy is not equal, free, or liberating for many students.⁵ This problem can be particularly acute for students attempting to negotiate simultaneous membership in two communities that resist assimilation into one cultural identity. Bruffee suggests that when students enter college, they must learn the discourses of academia. Because students already have one community-based discourse (from home), Bruffee refers to this as a process of “reacculturation.”⁶ Gee notes that this process of acculturation is more difficult for students who are not from middle-class homes, because academic discourse reflects language practices of the middle class.⁷ Bartholomae suggests that a college student must “build bridges between his point of view and his readers.”⁸ For students to write for a professor of English means they have to write the way an English professor writes, or at least “to offer up some approximation of that discourse.”⁹ These theorists agree that mastering academic discourse relates directly to academic success. As Pratt notes, academic communities are based on the assumption that “whatever conflicts or systematic social differences might be in play, it is assumed that all participants are engaged in the same game and that the game is the same for all players.”¹⁰ In fact, the game is not the same for all students. In the modern multiversity (as Kerr described it) many students compensate with arts of the contact zone as they negotiate their identities in class and in the social world that surrounds them.¹¹ These arts include, of course, transcultural and autoethnographic strategies–efforts by students to use language to define themselves rather than letting others define them. They also include an abundance of other strategies–”critique, collaboration, bilingualism, mediation, parody, denunciation, imaginary dialogue, [and] vernacular expression,” strategies that reflect varying degrees of resistance as practiced by the individual student to the idealized academic community he or she wants to join.¹²

The concept of the contact zone has been creative and energetic since the origination of the term. Miller has questioned Pratt’s idealistic belief that contact zones can be negotiated in safe houses. For Miller, classrooms by definition bring discordant values and voices into conflict in ways that resist resolution.¹³ Researchers have refined their perspectives on the ways that students from diverse backgrounds experience the contact zone as a reality of the college experience.¹⁴ Writing centers, where peer tutors work with other students on their writing, create a special kind of contact zone where students work with each other’s unpolished writing.¹⁵ The electronic interface to a Web site or online learning environment has been explored as a virtual contact zone.¹⁶ Theorists have explored the ways academic disciplines negotiate their identities with each other as an example of the contact zone.¹⁷ Bizzell has gone so far as to argue that the contact zone should not only change the practice of composition instruction, it should also transform the teaching of literature.¹⁸ Contact-zone theory taps into deeply held beliefs about the rights of students to hold their own languages and identities as they learn in school. It has become so significant for composition studies that at least one writer has described it as “Composition’s Content in the University.”¹⁹ Indeed, when broadly interpreted, contact-zone theory applies to any situation where cultural difference (based on gender, ethnicity, geography, disciplinary practice, religion–the list goes on and on) might alienate a student from higher education.

A Larger Theoretical Context

Contact-zone theory is derived at least in part from the work of social language theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, whose work explores patterns of discourse in novels. He developed a way of understanding these books as either “monologic” or “dialogic.” Novels dominated by the narrator’s voice are monologic. In the monologic novel, all characters in the novel are subordinate to rules established by the dominant voice of the narrator. Novels that incorporate a multiplicity of voices, each one important to the collective community in the novel, are dialogic or “polyphonic.”²⁰ In Bakhtin’s scheme, novels mirror human culture, in which people use language to establish power and control dangerous social disruptions. According to Bakhtin, human situations are ritualized into “speech genres.” These genres arise in the course of human interaction when a certain event or situation becomes governed by understood rules and conventions. These speech genres encode issues of class and are a key means by which conflict and difference are controlled.²¹ They can become stiflingly formal if they become associated with moral judgment or social superiority, or they can be flexible and open-ended if such moral and social judgments are lessened. Following Bakhtin, educational theorists argue that monologic classrooms, where one dominant voice and style of speaking is authorized while others are controlled, create an educational system that eradicates individuality and institutionalizes the status quo.²² Bakhtin’s theories imply a preference for art and life as dialogic and polyphonic. By embracing many voices and the worldview they imply, Bakhtin’s thinking has been held up by language theorists as a democratic model for art and culture.

Further complicating the question of voice and identity is the influence of educational theorist Lev Vygotsky, whose research explores the connection between language, identity, and the thinking process. Vygotsky argues that from a very young age, language and thought are intertwined in human processes of growth. As young people learn language, he reasons, they learn a voice that develops into a thinking process. When the voice they use to speak aloud becomes internalized (and silent), it develops into thinking. For Vygotsky, thinking emerges from the social process of language acquisition: “intellectual growth is contingent on … mastering the social means of thought, that is, language.”²³ The increasingly sophisticated use of language enables increasingly sophisticated thinking. Put quite simply, thinking is much like talking to yourself, which you learn by talking to others. Vygotsky hypothesized that students continue to acquire language and thinking ability by engaging in increasingly sophisticated language and thinking, and he suggested that they learn in a “zone of proximal development” characterized by their ability to discourse at higher levels when in the company of higher performing teachers and peers.²⁴ The zone in Pratt’s contact zone clearly echoes Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
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. In particular, I am profoundly aware that my immediate predecessors will be a hard act to follow. While Bill Katz edited the journal for the most consecutive number of years (ten) Connie Van Fleet and Danny Wallace have the distinction of editing the journal for the greatest number of years (twelve in total). What is even more remarkable is that they made it look so effortless all these years (and, of course, it is not, as editing a journal is hard work).

Thanks to Van Fleet and Wallace’s diligence, RUSQ has retained its status as a premier publication for academic and public librarians engaged in reference and user services. Their own contributions to the journal have significantly impacted our profession. Their cleverly titled spring 2002 editorial, “O Librarian, Where Art Thou?” has been widely cited and was integral to the 2002 RUSA President’s Program on staffing and recruitment. In fact, it has become a seminal work on recruitment to the profession. Because they did such an excellent job of promoting RUSQ as a publication venue, the number of manuscript submissions has increased significantly during their most recent tenure as editors. Consequently, I will be working through an acceptance backlog. On a personal note, I want to thank Connie and Danny for all their help in orienting me to the editorial process to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, JoAnn Palmeri and Rachel Mosman , their editorial assistants, graciously assisted me with the preparation of this issue.

I strongly believe that one of the missions of RUSA is to respond to the continuing education needs of the Division’s membership. Many members are unable to attend Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. Consequently, RUSQ plays an important role in serving the continuing-education needs of the entire RUSA membership. I view RUSQ as a forum for librarians to learn from one another. I strongly believe in the importance of research as a tool for strengthening professional practice. The journal must provide a balance of practical and empirically based articles on problems and issues that widely impact reference and public-services librarians. Librarians seek out thoughtful articles on new public-service configurations, alternate modes of reference service, innovative instruction, the impact of e-resources on reference and collection development, strategies for improving and marketing library services, institutional cooperation, and other timely topics. RUSQ is a vehicle to share information about these issues.

The next few years will be critical ones for RUSQ . Findings from the 2005 readership survey conducted by Readex Research provide data on how well RUSQ currently meets the needs and interests of RUSA members. It also provides a measure of readers’ interest in a digital version of the journal. This four-page readership survey was mailed to a random sampling of one thousand RUSQ readers and had a 54 percent response rate. As a follow-up to the survey, professionally facilitated focus-group interviews were conducted at the 2006 Midwinter Meeting to provide additional insight on the expectations of both public and academic librarians regarding the journal.

Data from the readership survey provide a profile of readers and their preferences for future content. RUSQ readers are engaged with the journal. A typical recipient has read all four of the last four issues, spending forty-nine minutes reading or browsing each issue. Seventy-nine percent of recipients indicated that they do something as a result of reading an article or column. They visit Web sites, order a product, file articles for further reference, discuss articles with others, or pass along items to others. In fact, one out of three readers passes along issues to others, which significantly increases the journal’s readership.

The journal is well regarded; almost 91 percent of recipients reported that they find the information credible. RUSQ also ranked high in categories involving thoroughness, timeliness, ease of reading, and attractiveness. However, readers indicated a very strong preference for more practical articles. The focus-group data confirm this preference for the practical over the theoretical.

While there were indications that readers would respond favorably to an online version (especially one incorporating dynamic links and access to full-text), one of the most surprising findings from the readership survey was that there is a strong preference for print over online. Seventy-one percent of respondents indicated that they prefer a print version compared to electronic (9 percent) or both print and electronic (18 percent). However, the focus-group data indicate that readers would welcome an electronic version that includes access to the full-text of current and previous issues, dynamic links, interactive features (including threaded discussions and opportunities to communicate with authors), and functional features (such as e-mail alerts, the ability to e-mail a link to colleagues, and good use of color and graphics). Given this feedback, I have asked Michael Stephens ( www.tametheweb.com), a well-known blogger highly regarded for his technological expertise, to serve as a consultant to production staff on the development of an interactive online companion to RUSQ .

According to the readership survey, RUSQ readers are seasoned professionals, with median tenure of employment at seventeen years. Many readers have assumed managerial responsibilities, as 26 percent of respondents indicated “administration/management” as a job function. Consequently, there may be a need for more advanced practical information in the journal. One-third of recipients worked in public libraries while more than half (53 percent) worked in academic libraries. Among the broad topics of high interest to readers are collection development, frontline and virtual reference services, readers’ advisory, and reference and user services in public libraries.

The readership survey included an open-ended question asking recipients to list topics they would like to see covered in future issues. Respondents provided great ideas for future content. Among the topics suggested were the following:

• best practices;
• assessment of reference and user services;
• publishing trends and the impact on collection development;
• use of new technologies such as podcasting and blogs to market library services;
• administrative/managerial topics such as staffing, training, and personnel issues;
• development of policies and procedures ranging from cell-phone use to the use of public computers;
• diversity issues ranging from serving diverse populations to the development of a diverse staff;
• federated searching;
• e-learning and its impact on libraries;
• future trends as well as a look back at our profession;
• advice for new librarians;
• career development;
• adult programming;
• library as place;
• impact of technology on all aspects of librarianship; and
• copyright and fair use.

I am particularly pleased that copyright and fair use is the theme of this issue’s Alert Collector column.There will be some changes for the journal as a result of the readership survey and focus-group discussions. One of the findings from the focus groups is that readers want RUSQ to include more color and graphics. As a result, I worked with ALA Production Services to create a redesign of the journal’s layout. I want to thank Stephanie Kuenn, Christopher Keech , and Christine Velez for their effort to create a design that we hope you will find crisp, clear, and contemporary. In response to feedback from the readership survey, I have added a column that will focus on technology twice a year and on management twice a year. That column will debut in the next issue. I am delighted to announce that Kathleen Kern will serve as editor of the technology column and Judith Nixon will serve as editor of the management column. In terms of other changes, Neal Wyatt has taken my place as editor of the Alert Collector column, and the Community Building column has been discontinued. I am pleased to report that Beth S. Woodard and Lori Arp continue as editors of the Information Literacy and Instruction column and Barry Trott continues as editor of the Readers’ Advisory column. Carolyn J. Radcliff is continuing as Reference Books editor and Karen Antell will be continuing in her role as the Professional Materials editor.I am also pleased to announce several new appointments to the RUSQ Editorial Advisory Board: Judith M. Arnold, Gwen Arthur, Corinne Hill, Jessica E. Moyer, Amber E. Prentiss, and Michael Stephens. These individuals bring interesting and diverse perspectives to the board and I appreciate their willingness to take on this important assignment. I am also thankful for the four continuing board members (Robert V. Labaree , Dale McNeill, Douglas Raber , and Kathleen A. Sullivan) who will provide continuity and guidance. I am looking forward to working with all the editors, editorial-advisory board members, and staff at ALA Production Services to incorporate changes and suggestions that you, our readers, have put forward for consideration.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
Welcome to the eighth annual Best Free Reference Web Sites List.In 1998, the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) appointed an ad hoc task force to develop a method of recognizing outstanding reference Web sites. The task force became a formal committee at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2001 Annual Conference. This is the eighth Best Free Reference Web Sites list produced by the group. The list is published in each year’s fall issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly . The annotations also are included in electronic resource records for the sites in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. An online version of the list appears on the MARS publications portion of the RUSA Web page, along with a new combined index to sites included in previous lists. A subject index is being created; links to it will be included on the Web page in the future.

Because the Web is a changing world, readers should note that the Web sites were as annotated on the date the member reviewed the site. Reviewing previous lists is not part of the committee’s charge.

Once again, the committee considered sites in all subject areas, selecting only free sites that meet the definition of ready reference and that would be of value in all types of libraries. The committee has established the following criteria for nominated Web sites:

1. Quality, depth, and usefulness of content

• clear statement of the content, including any
  intended biases;
• appropriate for the intended audience;
• provide appropriate links to other Web sites; andn
  attention to detail, such as absence of grammatical
  errors

2. Ready reference; usefulness for reference to answer specific questions

• Ready reference; usefulness for reference to answer specific questions
• may also give a broad perspective of a particular subject

3. Uniqueness of content

• uniqueness of the resource as a whole; creativity; and useful in a variety of reference settings

4. Currency of content

• links are kept up-to-date; and
• update frequency is appropriate for the subject matter

5. Authority of producer

• authority and legality clearly stated; and
• if not easily recognizable, an explanation of the history and purpose of the organization

6. Ease of use

• user-friendly design, easy navigation;
• good search engine;
• attractive; graphic design leaves a good impression on the user; and
• easy output (printing or downloading)

7. Customer service

• contacts are responsive; e-mail addresses are correct;
• authority of producer;
• authority and legality clearly stated; and
• if not recognizable, an explanation of the history and purpose of the organization

8. Efficiency (Note: Efficiency is affected by the user’s method of Internet access–dial-up access, for example, will no doubt be less efficient for all sites–evaluators endeavored to take such differences into account.)

• graphics load quickly or are not so intensive as to seriously degrade access;
• any required plug-ins are available for easy download; and
• reliable, speedy server; information is there when
  needed;

9. Appropriate use of the Web as a medium

• components are well-integrated (audio, video, text);
• useful information is still available, even if the user does not have all the plug-ins and media components; and
• effective use of Java, other newer technologies

As in previous years, the committee worked virtually, and the process went smoothly, especially since many of the members were returning for a fifth, sixth, or seventh year. Each member of the committee nominated five to seven sites using the criteria specified above. The committee members then reviewed the annotated nominations and voted for their favorite sites. Previous winners were not eligible for this year’s list, but a site that did not win previously could be renominated.
Selected sites were notified electronically with a recognition certificate. They are also invited to use the MARS logo and link to the online version of this list, located on the MARS publications portion of the RUSA Web page.

AF: Acronym Finder, Mountain Data Systems. Reviewed: March 17, 2006.

Developed by Mountain Data Systems, in cooperation with several other groups, AF: Acronym Finder describes itself as “The world’s largest and most accurate human-edited dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.” It currently contains more than 475,000 entries covering fields such as information technology, business and finance, slang and pop culture, military and government, organizations and schools, and science and medicine. Both searching by acronym and browsing by broad subjects are available. It is possible to expand your search to Acronym Attic, containing almost three million entries. However, these have not been edited. This is a very useful resource for anyone trying to discover what particular acronyms represent.

American Rhetoric, Michael E. Eidenmuller. Reviewed: March 8, 2006.

American Rhetoric combines the Online Speech Bank and The Top 100 Speeches into one easy-to-use, searchable reference database for all ages. According to the Web site, the online speech bank is an index to and growing database of more than five thousand full-text, audio, and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events. There are approximately 604 active links arranged alphabetically by first name and checked for errors at least once every two weeks. According to leading scholars of American public address, the top one hundred speeches in this Web site are an index to and partial database of full-text transcriptions of the one hundred most significant American political speeches of the twentieth century.

Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Paul Getty Trust. Reviewed: March 17, 2006.

AATO contains more than 125,000 terms covering “fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and material culture” and is more than a thesaurus, including brief definitions (the searchable “notes” field) and an impressive, easily navigable hierarchical tree. Extensive and still growing, it includes historic and contemporary terms. Any concept can list numerous variants (for example, alternate spellings, plural form, synonyms) and may include brief citations for bibliographic sources and contributors. Every page includes a link to generate a printer-friendly version; a thorough help page is always available. AATO’s sister databases from Getty, Union List of Artist Names Online (220,000+ terms) and Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online (1,000,000+ terms), are similarly designed. This comprehensive Web resource offers an excellent introduction to art terms.

BBC News, BBC News. Reviewed: March 5, 2006.

BBC News is the largest news broadcaster in the world, with more than two thousand journalists in forty-eight bureaus around the globe. Visitors to this site will find extensive, in-depth coverage of the world’s news that strives to be “impartial, fair, and accurate,” offering an alternate perspective to that of American-based news media. Sections of the site focus on world regions, business, health, science and nature, technology, and entertainment. Articles are well illustrated, and often supplemented by links to audio and video coverage. Articles are also accompanied by links to older, related reports furthering understanding of complex issues. News is available in thirty-three languages. Users can download a desktop-alert application, and can subscribe to e-mail updates and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.

The Big Cartoon Database, Dave Koch, The Big Cartoon Database (bcdb.com). Reviewed: February 22, 2006; revised May 1, 2006.

Produced since 1998, the Big Cartoon Database currently features 70,298 cartoons from film and television, 4,965 series, 26,294 registered users, and 4,210 reviews. Cartoons can be accessed by studio, an Academy Award-winning classic-cartoon link, or by a basic or advanced keyword-search area. Detailed entries include a brief history of the cartoon, a synopsis, cast and crew, production notes, user reviews, and a cartoon forum for registered users to discuss a particular cartoon. Although it does provide a cartoon pictures link, original cartoons, however, are not available for viewing or downloading on this Web site. The Big Cartoon Database is the definitive Web compendium for anyone interested in the history of animation.

Print version (Adobe Reader required)
The Education Committee of the Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) strives to support all librarians and researchers with their business reference needs

The Core Competencies for Business Reference series is one of the results of this goal. This article serves as an introduction to the ten core competencies guides currently included in the series.

Core Competencies for Business Reference

One of the primary goals of the Education Committee of the Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is to support the needs of business reference librarians and other librarians involved in providing business reference service and to develop educational resources to support this goal. In light of these goals, the BRASS Education Committee has created two Web guides: the Core Competencies for Business Reference and Best of the Best Business Web Sites.¹ This article is an introduction to the Core Competencies for Business Reference guides.

The Core Competencies for Business Reference guides were created by, and are maintained by, members of the BRASS Education Committee. There are ten core competencies guides in the series:

• accounting;
• advertising and marketing;
• banking;
• company and industry research;
• insurance;
• international business;
• investment and finance;
• jobs and human resources;
• small business; and
• taxation.

Each core competencies guide defines the basic concepts associated with each respective topic and lists the core resources, both print and online, needed to develop a working knowledge of the research area, and that are likely to be available in small- to medium-sized libraries’ business-reference collections. Each guide includes a scope statement, a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and, when needed, a glossary of important terms. The guides provide a foundation for research by describing the context and resources that support basic information-seeking in each topic area. Each guide presents distinctive characteristics of the discipline requiring special resources. They list current resources used every day by business librarians, and materials that will help readers further develop knowledge of the discipline.

The discussion that follows describes each of the ten core competencies guides, with information on scope and content, as well as the benefits to using each guide.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Accounting

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Accounting helps make a complex subject area, which even some business librarians consider daunting, more approachable and less intimidating. In conjunction with the BRASS Core Competencies for Taxation, this guide covers basic and advanced areas of accounting reference.

While you will still need to take some auditing courses or hire an accounting firm to tackle actual accounting problems, this Core Competencies guide covers everything from what accounting standards are and where they are found, to which indexing sources and databases cover articles in accounting, to information on how to cite it all. It will also help you to differentiate between accountants, bookkeepers, and CPAs.

Originally developed by Edith Gilbreath with assistance from Tony Lin, Core Competencies for Business Reference in Accounting was reorganized and updated in 2005 by former BRASS Education Committee Chair Ann Fiegen and is currently maintained by Lee Pike.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Advertising and Marketing

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Advertising and Marketing focuses on information resources, both print and online, in the area of marketing. Marketing can be divided into several categories, including advertising, direct marketing, franchising, market research, retailing, sales, and service. The guide primarily deals with information resources covering market research and advertising. The information resources listed are applicable for research by faculty and students in academia and for practitioners in the marketing profession.

The guide lists important terms in marketing and provides detailed definitions for each term. The FAQs are common questions that are asked at a library reference desk. The topical questions covered include locating demographic information for business locations, finding marketing and advertising statistics for the United States and international locations, finding market share, planning marketing and advertising budgets, locating marketing companies, defining marketing terms, identifying academic and trade journals, and locating professional associations and organizations. The resources listed include books, journals, databases, and Internet sites.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Advertising and Marketing was originally created by Bill Kinyon. It was previously maintained by Paul Arrigo and is currently updated by Elisabeth Leonard.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Banking

From the credit union down the hall to the Federal Reserve, banks and similar financial institutions provide a vehicle to make connections between depositors’ money and borrowers’ financial needs. Resources included in this Core Competencies guide describe institutions known as banks, trust companies, savings banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, thrifts, financial services institutions, and central banks (such as the Federal Reserve). They may be involved in international lending; foreign-currency operations; commercial, consumer, or real estate loans; securities; or other financial services.

Because of their essential role in business, financial institutions operate somewhat differently from companies in other industries. Laws and regulations are critical to protect businesses and consumers. Regulations also standardize fund-transfer processes between institutions, and between institutions and customers. Since the federal government does not regulate all banking, special agencies operate to regulate processes for transactions that cross jurisdictions, as is often the case with international and interstate banking. This vast morass is well managed in the Core Competencies for Business Reference in Banking.

Statistical sources listed provide current and historical interest-and-exchange rates, and assets and liabilities, such as current deposits, outstanding loans, investments, and non-deposit liabilities. For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provides detailed and historical financial reports for each insured institution, including data for each branch. The Federal Reserve is also a wealth of information about the U.S. financial environment, monetary policies, financial institutions, and national and regional economics.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Banking was originally created by Michael Oppenheim. It was previously maintained by Kerry Wu and is currently updated by Kevin Harwell.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Company and Business Research

Some of the most common business-information requests are for contact information for a company, which is relatively easy to find, or for a company snapshot (describing lines of business and providing some key facts), which requires more effort to collect. Fortunately, Hoover’s Online, Ward’s Business Directory, and similar resources gather such information and are listed on the Core Competencies for Business Reference in Company and Business Research.

There is also a wide variety of sources for anyone interested in historical information about companies. The histories of some well-known companies, such as Wal-Mart Stores, Apple Computer, and Enron have been documented in books. Many others are the subject of articles in academic journals, trade publications, and newspapers. Core Competencies for Company and Business Research guides researchers to the best resources in each category of company and industry research.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Company and Business Research was originally created by Dennis Smith, University of Pittsburgh, and currently is maintained by Elisabeth Leonard.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Insurance

Core Competencies for Business Reference in Insurance identifies the major branches of this industry, including fire, travel, household, liability, vehicle, health, and property insurance. Important insurance terms are highlighted at the beginning of the guide. Online sites for comparing prices and coverage are listed, as are resources that provide general information on the insurance industry and industry-related dictionaries. Major trade journals and professional associations in this field are also listed. Insurance-company ratings sources are provided and subscription databases that cover insurance-industry trade journals are noted. The guide is clear in highlighting the necessity of checking with particular agents or claims departments with specific policy questions, but for consumer information and all other general questions on the insurance industry, the Core Competencies in Business Reference in Insurance is a great place to start.

Originally created by Joseph E. Straw and currently maintained by Steve Cramer.

Core Competencies for Business Reference in International Business

Given increasing globalization and the growth of U.S. multinational firms worldwide, international-business reference questions are more and more common. The BRASS Core Competencies for Business Reference in International Business provides a useful starting point for research related to this growing and broad topic. Beginning with a list of important terms taken from Michigan State University’s globalEDGE portal, Core Competencies for Business Reference in International Business highlights the key reference works in this area and then breaks out print and online resources covering country information. From starting a business in a foreign country to comparative product pricing to cultural customs across countries, there are numerous resources presented to provide insight and information.