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48, no. 2

A Personal Choice: Reference Service Excellence

Mar 29th, 2009
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Diane Zabel
Marie L. Radford, Guest Columnist

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In an effort to bring RUSA’s ALA Annual Conference programming to RUSQ readers who cannot attend the conference, I invited Marie Radford to write this guest editorial based on her address that was presented as part of the 2008 RUSA President’s Program, “Quality Service in an Impersonal World,” at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. However, this article is much more than a reworking of that excellent presentation. (more…)

A History of Innovation and a Future of Possibility

Mar 29th, 2009
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Neal Wyatt, President

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Close to fifteen years ago some very bright people in RUSA decided to create a space where the most significant reference research of the year could be shared with RUSA members and other ALA Annual Conference attendees. (more…)

From Accidental Technologist to Accidental Traveler, or What I Learned from a Month in Shanghai

Mar 29th, 2009
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M. Kathleen Kern, Editor

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In May 2008 I spent a month working at the Shanghai Library as part of a work exchange. A month is a long time to be gone from work and home, but a short time to become acquainted with a library as large as the Shanghai Library. In this column I will share a few of my thoughts on my experience. (more…)

American Presidential Power: A Research Guide

Mar 29th, 2009
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Neal Wyatt, Editor
Amalia L. Monroe, Guest Columnist

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The role and powers of the president have come under increasing scrutiny since the tragic events of September 11. While the current political debate is focused on the unilateral actions of the office of the president since the terrorist attack, interest in the ways presidents use and manage the power of their position have been a subject of concern since George Washington. (more…)

From the Front Lines: An Academic Librarian Reports on the Impact of APA’s New Electronic References Guidelines

Mar 29th, 2009
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Diane Zabel, Editor
Leslie A. Lewis, Guest Columnist

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This column addresses the impact of recent changes to APA style citation on the academic community, which widely uses this style to document its research. The author notes that these changes, especially the wholesale adoption of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for citing electronic journal articles, have caused frustration and confusion for users of APA style, and the problem is likely to worsen as more students and faculty realize what the new changes entail. (more…)

Building on a Firm Foundation: Readers’ Advisory over the Next Twenty-Five Years

Mar 29th, 2009
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Barry Trott, Editor

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For the past quarter century, we have seen a revitalization of readers’ advisory (RA) services in the public libraries in the United States. The 1980s saw three major events that re-established the value of working with readers: the publication of the first edition of Genreflecting under the editorship of Betty Rosenberg (1982); the establishment of the Chicago-area Adult Reading Roundtable (ARRT) (1984); and the publication of the first edition of Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks and Nancy Brown (1989). (more…)

Outstanding Business Reference Sources: The 2008 Selection of Recent Titles

Mar 29th, 2009
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BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee

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After many discussions and intense scrutiny, the working group of the BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee selected ten recent works as either “outstanding” or “other noteworthy titles.” (more…)

Volunteers in Libraries: Program Structure, Evaluation, and Theoretical Analysis

Mar 29th, 2009
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Erica A. Nicol and Corey M. Johnson

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Volunteers have had a major impact on libraries throughout U.S. history. The rapid changes in the information world of the last decade serve as a catalyst for evaluation of library programs including those for volunteers. This article offers a brief history of volunteers in libraries and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of instituting a volunteer program as well as implications based on library implementation of new computer technologies. (more…)

Whose Decline? Which Academic Libraries Are “Deserted” in Terms of Reference Transactions?

Mar 29th, 2009
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Rachel Applegate

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This study examines reference transaction quantities reported through the Academic Library Survey of the National Center for Educational Statistics to explore whether, and the extent to which, academic libraries are seeing a decline: the beginnings of a “deserted library.” (more…)

Use of Public Libraries by Immigrants

Mar 29th, 2009
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Susan K. Burke

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The United States has experienced increased immigration rates since 1990 and public libraries are faced with providing services to immigrants from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Which immigrants are the most likely to utilize public library services? (more…)

Overcoming Transactional Distance: Instructional Intent in an E-mail Reference Service

Mar 9th, 2009
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Martha Portree, R. Sean Evans, Tina M. Adams, and John J. Doherty

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Dedication: Martha Portree died tragically on July 7, 2007, just days after she completed her work on revisions to this paper. Her enthusiasm and wicked sense of humor sustained us throughout this project, even during the most trying times, and her sly editorial pen lent much needed focus to this paper. (more…)