Musings on the Future of Reference – And of RUSA
As my term as RUSA President comes to an end, I have been thinking a lot about the future of reference--and the future of RUSA. What will the profession--and the organization--be like twenty-five years from now? To quote a participant in the 2002 RUSA Future of Reference Symposium:
Predicting the future of any endeavor is both a simple and an impossible task. It is simple because there are only two possible outcomes: some things will change, while others will remain the same. The impossible part is knowing which things fall into each category. The saving grace for any prognosticator is that the future never really arrives. Whenever tomorrow becomes today, there is always a new tomorrow in which the dreams of the forecaster may still come true.
Knowing that there will always be another tomorrow to make my predictions come true, I would like to speculate on what will change and what will remain the same.
Election Results Are In
Congratulations to those elected and thanks to all who agreed to run. Here are the election results:
RUSA president-elect: Susan Beck
RUSA directors-at-large: Corinne Hill and Suzanne Ward
BRASS vice chair: Celia Ross
BRASS member-at-large: Susan Neilson
CODES vice chair: Danise Hoover
CODES secretary: Mark Stengel
CODES member-at-large: Wayne Bivens-Tatum
History vice chair: Kathleen Strauss
History member-at-large: Jennalyn Tellman
MARS vice chair: Carolyn Larson
MARS secretary: Marilyn Ochoa
MARS member-at-large: Kim Vassiliadis
RSS vice chair: Barb Mann
RSS secretary: Marjorie Schreiber
RSS member-at-large: Sarah Hammill
STARS vice chair: Denise Forro
STARS secretary: Anne Bouvier
STARS member-at-large: David Larsen
Come to the RUSA President's Program
Quality Service in an Impersonal World
Monday, June 30, 1:30-3:30 PM
Is service important in today’s do-it-yourself world? Institutions as varied as banks, gas stations, grocery stores, and government agencies have all moved towards self-service models of commerce. Telephone trees, FAQs, and web pages have replaced human interaction in most customer service situations. Even libraries have moved toward a self-service model for circulation and computing. Should libraries still be in the service business?
Literary Tastes Breakfast
Sunday, June 29, 8:00 AM-10:30 AM
Hilton Anaheim California Pavilion D
The Literary Tastes Breakfast is a fun, thought-provoking program celebrating the best books of the year by bringing librarians together with first-time authors and well-known writers.
Last Chance to Register for Preconferences!
RUSA is offering four exciting preconferences in Anaheim. ALA advance registration closes Friday, May 16, so don't miss this last chance to learn and save money!
- Business Librarianship 101: Core Competencies for Business Librarians
- Genealogy Boot Camp
- Reinvented Reference 4: Emerging Technologies for Reference Service
- Throw Off Your Policies and Expose Your Resources; Rethinking Resource Sharing
For more information, click here.
New RUSA Blog Coming Soon
Changes are coming to the RUSA Blog. Find out how you can contribute, as a writer or a commenter, to the new blog.
Smart Investing@ your library Van Expands Program to Rural Areas
Smart investing@ your library is a partnership between ALA and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation. FINRA and ALA are focused on helping build the capacity of public libraries to provide unbiased investor education resources. Visit http://smartinvesting.ala.org/ for complete details about the project.