RSS

Denise Wetzel, Editor

Welcome to summer everyone!

We’re getting ready for ALA Annual in steamy-hot New Orleans. Then again, New Orleans has
such charm that it’s a great place to be anytime. Lots of RSS activities happening at the
conference, including:

• Another joint ETS/RSS Social on Friday evening, June 22, from 7:00-8:30 pm. At the
end of the social, there will be a tour guide who will give a walking tour of historical
spots, at $20.00 per person. RSS socials are always fun, offering a chance to meet and
eat (courtesy of Plunkett Research), and simply relax and socialize. The location will be
posted on RSS-L when it is finalized…

• RSS has its all committee meeting on Sunday, June 24 (8:30 – 10:00 am, Morial
Convention Center, rm. 275-277). If you are interested in volunteering for an RSS
Committee or you want to find out what RSS and its committees are doing, this is a great
time to find out. The RSS officers will be there, as well as representatives from each
committee. Talk to us, ask questions, make new connections.

• On Monday, June 25, from 4:00 – 5:00 pm at Morial Convention Center, rm. 390, RSS is
hosting a discussion forum, Sound Bites: Current Conversations About Reference. Join
us in a discussion one of three current reference issues:

• managing reference services in a library with a single point of service;
• providing multilingual library services;
• developing best practices for using social media to extend and market reference
services.

Brainstorming is encouraged.

RSS is still seeking volunteers for its committees. For a list and description of each committee
go to http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/rss. To volunteer for a committee, go to the RUSA
Volunteer Form, https://www.ala.org/cfapps/committee/volunteerform/volunteerform.cfm?, and
click on RUSA-RSS at the bottom of the first page. Service on RSS committees is terrific for
two reasons: 1) you can feel pride in contributing to your profession and to reference services,
and 2) you can make some great friends from around the country.

There have been some exciting changes in the various RSS committees—a few on hiatus and
three that have merged to focus on management and evaluation of reference. Stay tuned for
more on this.

If you’re going to ALA Annual, enjoy the wonderful programs, meet new people, and don’t miss
out on any of the RSS activities.

Have a wonderful summer,
Rebecca Jackson
RSS Chair

RSS Newsletter Announcement

Looking for a chance to contribute your editing skills to RSS? Want to get gain more experience
with RSS, but not chair a committee? Look no further. Our current editor, Denise Wetzel, will be
stepping down at the end of June 2018 and we will need a new editor. The editor solicits and
edits copy for the quarterly section column in RUSA Update, serves on the Communications
Committee, and has an ex-officio role on the RSS Executive Board. If you are interested, please
contact Cynthia Johnson, RSS Vice-Chair, cynthiaj@uci.edu.

Many thanks to Denise Wetzel for all of her contributions as RSS Editor!

RSS Honor Roll

It’s that time of year! We want to recognize you and your contributions to RSS!

The RSS Honor Roll gives recognition to active RSS members who have served the section in
three different capacities since its inception.

If you have been a member of three or more committees or discussion groups since RSS was
established in 2004 and have not previously been added to the honor roll, please send your
name and a list of the three ways you have served RSS to Ellen Keith at
keith@chicagohistory.org.

Not only will you become a member of this esteemed group, you will also be recognized at ALA
Annual in New Orleans!

Join the RSS Honor Roll today!

RSS COMMITTEE REPORTS

Communication & Teaching at the Point of Need Committee

The Communication and Teaching at the Point of Need Committee will be helping to facilitate
part of RSS’ Discussion Forum at ALA Annual in New Orleans, on June 25th; the session is
titled, Sound Bites: Current Conversations about Reference Services. The Committee is also
continuing work in updating the bibliography that it hosts on its Connect site, as well as
beginning to work on a document on “Best Practices for Social Media.”

Shannon Richie, sgr1@psu.edu
Tricia Greenstein, southard@email.gwu.edu
Co-Chairs, 2017-2018

Communications Committee

The RSS Communication Committee is suggesting the following to help keep RSS activities
publicized and committee web pages updated:

A survey will be sent to RSS committee chairs at the beginning of a committee year, and
possibly a variation of it each time the RSS Review editor sends out the reminder to submit
reports for the RSS Review.

o What are your committee’s goals for this year?
o Please write a short statement (to be posted on your committee’s web page) indicating
the reasons a librarian who is looking for involvement in ALA/RUSA/RSS would want to join
your committee.
o Do you have upcoming events that the RSS Communication Committee can publicize
for you (webinars, events at conferences, etc.).
o Is there anything else you would like updated on your committee’s web page? Does
anything need to be added or removed?

After the first issue of the RSS Review for the year, the survey will likely only include the last two
questions.

Members of the Communications Committee are posting regularly to the RSS Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/rss.rusa), so feel free to send your committee news and activities to
the Facebook contacts, Denise Wetzel (dwetzel@fsu.edu) or Manda Sexton
(asexto14@utk.edu) for posting.

Laura Friesen, lflynn@umflint.edu
Chair, 2017-2018

Library Services for an Aging Population

We are encouraging librarians who have an interest in services for older adults to take a look at
the Guidelines for Library Services with 60+ Audience: Best Practices. Revised guidelines were
approved by RUSA Board in September 2017. The companion publication, Keys to Engaging
Older Adults @ your library, has also been updated.

Committee meeting participants at midwinter offered ideas and recommendations to build
awareness about the committee. In addition participants shared successful program ideas to
engage older adults. The discussion and exchange of ideas illustrated the importance of serving
older adults especially now as many communities have significant older adult populations.
The committee is sponsoring a program ALA Annual: A New Frontier-Training Older Adults for
the Latest Gadgets. It will be held on Saturday, June 23rd from 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. at Morial
Convention Center in Room 290. Program panelists include Taina Evans, Brooklyn Public
Library; Roger Goldblatt, Federal Communications Commission; Allan Kleiman, Montville
Township Library; Nann Hilyard, Retired Members Round Table; and Fatima Perkins, Chair,
Library Services to an Aging Population. Thus far, sixty-four individuals have registered for the
program.

Chair, Fatima Perkins, will pass the baton to incoming chair Taina Evans during the annual
meeting.

Join us at the RUSA/RSS All Committee Meeting. We’re calling all librarians who enjoy planning
and conducting programs for older adults to join us. We need your expertise, skills, and talents.
We are looking forward to recruiting new members.

Fatima Perkins, FPerkins@psa10a.org
Chair, 2017-2018

Research & Statistics Committee

The Research and Statistics Committee is currently working on the reference research
bibliography for 2017 and planning the final details for our program at ALA Annual. The
program details are:

New Discoveries in Reference: The 24th Annual Reference Research Forum on Saturday, June
23rd from 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Morial Convention Center, Room 289.
The speakers are:

• Reframing Reference through Participatory Visual Methods
Eamon Tewell, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Long Island University, Brooklyn
• Reference on Demand: Testing an ‘Uber Reference’ Service in an Academic
Library
Brian D. Moss, Reference Services Manager, University of Kansas Libraries
• You Didn’t Say ‘Hola’: What Happens When the Reference Script Is Altered
Julie Marie Frye, Education Library Head, Indiana University
Maria Hasler Barker, Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University
Full details can be found here.

David Ward, dh-ward@illinois.edu
Joseph Yue, contact.jyue@gmail.com
Co-Chairs, 2017-2018

RSS Virtual Reference Services Committee

The RSS Virtual Reference Services Committee reminds the RSS membership that the Virtual
Reference Companion (VRC), a set of web pages containing text and links about aspects of
virtual reference, is scheduled for retirement/deletion. We would like to thank all RSS/ETS
members for their thoughtful contributions to this resource over the years.

While the committee is not holding a separate discussion meeting in New Orleans (please
attend the RSS section discussion, Sound Bites: Current Conversations about Reference
Services), we will be meeting to brainstorm activities, topics, and formats for the coming year.

We hope interested individuals will join us at the RSS All Committee meeting on Sunday, June
24th at 8:30 a.m. (See the ALA Annual Scheduler for location details.)

Karen Reiman-Sendi, karsendl@umich.edu
Chair, 2017-2018

Services for Job Seeking Patrons Committee

Our year was full of bumps. We knew early on that our chances of getting space for a
discussion forum at Midwinter were slim, based on new RUSA/ ALA conference planning so we
instead submitted a program for a webinar. That request went unanswered for several months
until we got a hold of the new executive director (thanks Jessica and thanks Cynthia for helping
us out!). In that intervening time, we received a sort of last minute invite to propose a discussion
group, which we declined since we had no planning time.

Once we heard the ok from Jessica re: a webinar, we began planning, only to find out our
committee is on hiatus for next year. We are scattering to other RUSA/ RSS committees and
we’ll see what becomes of Services for Job Seeking Patrons in 2019 – 2020.

Rachel M. Minkin, minkinr@lib.msu.edu
Chair 2017-2018