Messages from MARS
From the Chair
Greetings,
In the happiest place on earth, MARtianS were some of the busiest people in Anaheim. Several programs were presented or co-sponsored by MARS. Mary Pagliero Popp of Indiana University was awarded the MARS Achievement Recognition Certificate (My Favorite Martian award). Mary was unable to accept the award in person due to an injury she sustained earlier in June. However, she sent her remarks which were relayed by Mary Mintz, MARS Chair. Congratulations to Mary Popp, and we hope to see you in Denver.
Welcome and congratulations to our new officers: Carolyn Larson from the Library of Congress, vice-chair/chair-elect, and Kim Vassiliadis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Executive Committee member-at-large.
The RUSA MARS Preconference Program, Reinvented Reference: Emerging Technologies for Reference Services, was very successful with a record-breaking enrollment. The keynote speaker was Cathy De Rosa, Vice President for the Americas and Global Vice President of Marketing for OCLC. Additional speakers were Michelle Jacobs, Emerging Technologies and Web Coordinator at the UCLA College Library, who talked about texting, Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Service Coordinator for the Multnomah County Library, who provided further insight into virtual reference, and David Lankes, Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS), the first ALA Office for Information Technology Policy Fellow as well as noted speaker on participatory librarianship who delved into the area of social networking as a reference tool. Barbara Mann and Alesia McManus did a superb job putting together the Preconference.
The traditional MARS Happy Hour followed the conclusion of the Preconference. Thanks to Jim Langan, Stephanie Graves, and the Outreach Committee for their usual fine planning for the Happy Hour.
Debbie Bezanson and Alex Hodges co-chaired the MARS Chair’s Conference Program Planning Committee. Their theme this year was What is the Future of Face-to-Face Reference?, a dynamic program featuring Char Booth, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Ohio University, Geri Purpur and Louise Ochoa, Distance Learning Librarians, Appalachian State University, and Sara Davidson, Head of User Communication and Instruction, University of California, Merced.
The Hot Topics Discussion Group focused on Finding the Pod People: Looking at Services and Collections Through Podcasting. It was a lively discussion that was very well attended.
The Local Systems and Services Committee hosted a program entitled, Who is Using Our Computers? Best Practices in Managing and Serving Public Computer Users, a topic that captured the audience’s attention.
Providing Technology Services on the Front Lines garnered widespread interest. The program was arranged by the Education, Training and Support Committee.
The Virtual Reference Committeepresented, Please Talk to Strangers Online: Spreading Trust in Virtual Reference Services, featuring speakers Karen Docherty, Ask a Librarian Coordinator, Maricopa (Arizona) Community Colleges, Vince Mariner, AccessPA Virtual Reference Coordinator, Bill Pardue (appearing virtually), Virtual Services Librarian, Arlington Heights (Illinois) Memorial Library and Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Project Coordinator, Multnomah County Library.
Continuing Education and Publications Task Force presented their report to the MARS Executive Committee. Their report was the subject of a major portion of an Executive Committee meeting. A subcommittee, reporting to MARS Planning Committee, will investigate further the implementation of several recommendations made in the report.
My year as chair began immediately after annual. One of my major goals is recruitment. There are many exciting activities going on in MARS and its committees. If you are interested in joining your colleagues in this work, please fill out the MARS Committee Interest Form or send me an email. If you have suggestions about MARS and its work, I would very much like to hear from you.
With your help, I am looking forward to an exciting year ahead for MARS.
Rosemary L. Meszaros
MARS Chair, 2008-09
Rosemary.meszaros@wku.edu
Annual Conference Committee Reports
MARS Chair’s Program - 2008
About 400 people gathered for the MARS Chair’s Program which was held Sunday, June 29, at the Hyatt Grand Ballroom A. Mary Mintz started the program by awarding the MARS Achievement Recognition Certificate, also known as the “My Favorite Martian Award,” to Mary Pagliero Popp. Mary Popp was unable to attend ALA this summer due to a medical emergency, but she sent her acceptance speech which Mary read aloud.
The program began with Sara Davidson, who presented a look at the public service philosophy of University of California at Merced. In her presentation, she challenged us to meet our users face to face in other places and spaces than the traditional Reference Desk.
Second on the program were Geri Purpur and Louise Ochoa who presented their work using a virtual Information Garden to provide services to distance students at Appalachian State University. They compared this type of service to other types of remote services and discussed how this virtual presence can provide more “face to face” type benefits.
Char Booth of Ohio State University concluded the program with data (and some interesting photos!) from their work providing reference to patrons in various parts of the library using Skype. They experimented with a couple iterations of their service model and had mixed feelings about the success, but Char stressed the need to continue to try new approaches, collect feedback, and keep experimenting as we reach out to our users.
Powerpoints from all three presentations are available on the ALA 2008 Annual conference wiki and on the MARS website.
MARS/RSS Preconference a Success!
At the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, MARS & RSS hosted a preconference “Reinvented Reference 4: Emerging Technologies for Reference Services.” Over 100 attendees heard four engaging speakers talk about the use of online reference services, texting, and issues such as privacy and participatory reference.
Keynote speaker Cathy De Rosa, Vice President for the Americas and Global Vice President of Marketing for OCLC, spoke about demographic trends and the OCLC report Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our Networked World (http://www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/default.htm). Michelle Jacobs, Emerging Technologies and Web Coordinator at the UCLA College Library, gave some practical tips on setting up a text messaging reference service. Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Service Coordinator for the Multnomah County Library, reflected on the changing landscape of virtual reference. David Lankes, Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, gave a thought-provoking talk on the participatory approach to reference which has implications for how we utilize social networks to facilitate learning as a collaborative conversation.
We had support from an excellent group of sponsors including Altarama Information Systems, OCLC QuestionPoint, Reference Universe by Paratext, and RefWorks, a division of ProQuest.
The preconference was recorded for a podcast. The podcast will be announced and made available from the MARS website. Presentation slides will be available on the
ALA Conference Materials Archive and the MARS website.
Thanks to all of the Preconference Planning Committee members, including Barb Mann (co-chair), Mark Dehmlow, Jami Haskell, Jaclyn Bedoya, and Donna Dinberg for a wonderful experience planning and putting on the preconference.
Alesia McManus
Co-Chair MARS/RSS Preconference Planning Committee
amcmanus@binghamton.edu
MARS Products and Services Committee
The Products and Services Committee met over two sessions at annual. Marina Salcedo will be stepping down as committee chair and the committee after 4 years of service. Hui Hua Chua has accepted the chair position for the 2008-09 term. The group would like to thank both for their service to the committee.
The group brainstormed on ideas for a discussion forum to be hosted during Midwinter 2009. The topic of Management and Marketing of Electronic Reference Collections was agreed upon and approved by the MARS Executive Committee. The committee plans to move forward with planning via email and the committee wiki
Marina Salcedo
msalcedo@ufl.edu
Outgoing Chair, Products and Services Committee
“Who is using our computers?”
The MARS Local Systems & Services Committee, along with the MARS Public Libraries Committee, asked this question at a discussion forum during the 2008 ALA Annual Conference. The session, entitled “Who is using our computers? Best practices in managing and serving public computer users,” invited librarians to discuss trends in computer use, security, applications, software, and hardware in small breakout groups facilitated by members of the sponsoring MARS committees. Forty people participated in the forum by contributing their ideas, challenges, and solutions.
The session was facilitated by LSAS Co-Chairs Charles Cobine and Valerie Boulos, and PLC Chair Carolyn Strickland.
Valerie Boulos
Valerie.boulos@fiu.edu
Co-Chair, Systems & Services Committee
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