Reference and User Services Association
A division of the American Library Association
50 E. Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 280-4398
(800) 545-2433 x4398
Fax (312) 280-5273
http://www.ala.org/rusa
Reference and User Services Association Board of Directors
2012 Midwinter Meeting, Dallas TX
Draft Minutes
Session I, Saturday, January 21, 2012, 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Dallas Convention Center (DCC) - D161
PRESENT: Wayne Bivens-Tatum, Chris LeBeau, Kathleen Kern, Carolyn Larson, Dianna McKellar, Alesia McManus, Mary
Popp, Amber Prentiss, Doris Ann Sweet, Janice Schultz, Liane Taylor, Barry Trott, Patrick Wall, Heather Weltin, Gary
White (president), J. Linda Williams, Diane Zabel, M. Kathleen Kern, Mary Parker
Guests: Emily Kornak (2012 RUSA Spectrum Scholar), Emily Hamstra, (RUSA Emerging Leader), Joe Thompson, Kate
Kosturski , David Atkins
Staff: Susan Horning (executive director), Andrea Hill (web manager), Liz Markel, (marketing and programs manager).
Excused: Judith Solberg
CALLED TO ORDER: 1:30 PM by Gary White
INTRODUCTIONS:
Gary introduced RUSA Emerging Leader, Emily Anne Hamstra and Spectrum Intern, Emily Kornak; also introduced were
former Board member Joe Thompson, along with Kate Kosturski, chair of the RUSA Structure Task Force.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Liane reminded attendees of the RUSA Social that evening at the Adolphus Hotel from 6-8 PM, and Gary highlighted the
RUSA Midwinter Book and Media Award Reception at 5PM on Sunday afternoon at the Fairmont Hotel.
AGENDA: Agenda approved
Town Hall Meeting.
Gary announced the beginning of the Town Hall Meeting with the opening of the 5 chat rooms at 1:35 PM and invited all
RUSA members to share comments, suggestions and concerns with the Board. Among the comments:
Make action on loss of access to government information a RUSA priority
Alesia, who is also the owner of the "Save the US Statistical Abstract!" Facebook site, called the Board's attention
to the lively discussion at the RUSA/CODES Reference Publishing Discussion Forum on “Life after the Statistical
Abstract,” held earlier in the day, which produced numerous ideas that could be translated into RUSA and ALA
action items in response to the taking down of government information in general (another recent example being
the National Biological Information Infrastructure database, nbii.gov, which is also being curtailed due to lack of
funding.) Although vendors may bring out products to partially cover the loss of information, this will not
completely replace the free access offered by the government sites. Alesia indicated that she is considering
creating a web page as an extension of the Facebook page containing additional information and ways to take
action. She also suggested RUSA might partner with GODORT and the ALA Committee on Legislation. Alesia also
indicated that she will create a Connect group on this topic.
Challenges to leadership and participation
Several members called attention to the challenges RUSA faces in recruiting strong leadership and active
members, given the current economic climate in which lack of funding makes it more difficult for members to
travel or to pay for online training courses, while reductions in staff at home institutions result in people having
more responsibilities at their jobs and less time to devote to outside organizations such as RUSA.
Suggestions for ameliorating the situation included:
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Review RUSA process committees to see how the work of the organization might be streamlined
Make the organization “more nimble” by making it easier to form interest groups, which would allow
members to bring forward their ideas more easily, an effort which MARS is currently pursuing which might
serve as a model for RUSA.
Do a better job of promoting the organization – Susan noted in this connection that Cognotes will for the
first time feature the RUSA Book and Media Awards on the front page of the Monday edition.
Offer a discounted membership for those joining multiple Divisions (e.g. YALSA and RUSA, PLA and RUSA,
etc.). From subsequent discussion, it appears that ALA permits this, and all the Division needs to do is to
submit a request to the ALA Executive Board (which must be renewed periodically).
Offer some free content/events to RUSA members as a benefit of membership. In terms of training,
RUSA is competing with vendors who are increasingly offering customers free training and webinars.
Providing more free offerings would serve as good publicity for the Division, and the good will it would
generate would more than offset the loss in revenue. – Suggestions included charging for attending a live
webinar, but later making the archived recording available to members for free; and offering, in lieu of a
standard preconference, a “free” workshop offsite such as STARS has done, with vendor sponsorship to
offset costs to participants. Although such offsite events lack official ALA support for publicity and
registration, they give members a sense of receiving value for their membership fee.
Website issues
Some members expressed ongoing concern about the website. While the recent conversion to the Drupal Content
Management System holds out promise of improvement, members are still encountering outdated content and
bad links. Because of questions about responsibility for technical issues versus content on the website, Susan
will set up a phone call with Amber and Andrea to discuss website issues further. Going on to note that Sections
and Division committees have an important role to play in updating content, Susan observed that the RUSA site
includes thousands of individual pages, and she asked for everyone’s help in reporting problems with the web site
to her and Andrea, who has an excellent track record of correcting problems once they are reported.
Content ideas for new RUSA blog
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Emily Hamstra, current RUSA Emerging Leader, asked people to send her ideas for content for a new blog to
complement the existing blog (which is used primarily by staff - and those invited by staff- to provide information
on RUSA programs and activities).
Policies/Procedures for Section emails to the entire Section
In response to a concern about the difficulty and expense of emailing all members of the Section to inform them
of a current development or seek their feedback on an issue, Susan reported that the Division is now paying a
single rate/year for as many inquiries of the membership database as needed, rather than incurring a separate
charge each time an inquiry is made, as was the case in the past; hence, there is no longer a charge to Sections for
obtaining a complete list of their membership. All a Section chair needs to do is to ask the RUSA office for the list,
which can then be shared with anyone in the Section who needs to see the list to conduct Section/RUSA business.
Provide training/more accessible information to Chairs and members of Awards Committees
Committee manuals relating to this topic are out of date and not easily accessible.
RUSA Bylaws
In response to a comment that the RUSA Bylaws on the web site appear outdated, Barry indicated that some
updating has already been done, but apparently the latest version has not yet been loaded onto the web site.
Big Think
Gary thanked all participants in the Town Hall, including those on chat and the chat monitors. He then opened the Big
Think discussion by Board members, asking for members’ ideas for the future of RUSA to be used in formulating the
strategic plan which will be further discussed at the virtual Board conference call tentatively scheduled for March.
Comments focused on:
RUSA Structure
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Take into consideration ideas generated by the review of ALA structure by Division Vice-Presidents.
Include some of the specific suggestions from the RUSA Structure Task Force in the Strategic Plan.
Address the problem of overlapping committees. Are there too many committees? Is the procedure for
sunsetting inactive committees too time-consuming and cumbersome? (Barry noted that each Section can
set its own rules for ending committees so the process does not inherently have to be difficult, but
Sections should follow whatever rules they have put in place.)
Consider greater reliance on task forces or create interest groups that can be created and disbanded
easily.
RUSA Program Offerings
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Make an effort to gather more feedback to determine if the programs we are offering meet members’
needs.
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General
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Look at “sacred cows” – what things do we do, just because we’ve always done them.
Focus less on “process.”
Potential Carnegie Grant
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Susan announced that ALA has been asked to submit a proposal to the Carnegie Corporation for a
$300,000 3-year grant for a book prize ($100,000 per year), which would be shared by RUSA and BookList.
One fiction and one non-fiction title would be picked every year. Assuming ALA receives the grant, if we
can meet the 2012 deadline (January 22 unless extended), then the first awards would be given this year. If
that’s not possible, then annual 2013 would be the first year the awards would be given. Susan observed
that the publicity that would be generated in connection with these prizes could serve as a powerful
recruiting tool for the Division.
RUSA Structure Task Force Report and Recommendations – Kate Kosturski, Chair DISCUSSION - #B1201
Kate reviewed the charge and Recommendations of the Task Force:
Charge
In addition to reviewing the recommendations of the RUSA Electronic Participation taskforce, the Task Force
was asked to go beyond looking at electronic participation and make recommendations for structural changes
that RUSA can implement that can help to:
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Increase membership
Better meet member needs and interests
Facilitate member participation
Make the best use of RUSA committee and Board meeting time
Recommendations
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Attract more non-academic librarians to RUSA –
She noted that ½ of the members do not come from the academic community. The TF recommends
developing a Value Proposition Statement (i.e. a statement of the reasons why someone should belong to
RUSA), including RUSA goals, mission, and testimonials from members from all types of libraries.
- Provide suggestions and guidelines for Divisions and Committees to transition from in-person to virtual
meetings
Among the areas that should be addressed: conferencing tools needed; member access to resources (For
example, depending on individual circumstances, some members may not have access to personal
computers while other may not be permitted to use employer provided computers); timing of virtual
meetings to best accommodate members in different time zones; and the special responsibilities and
commitment required of the Chair and the participants to ensure successful meetings in a virtual
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environment.
- Build and maintain support resources on the RUSA Website/ALA Connect to foster electronic participation
The RUSA Web Page and Connect, which are already in place, can be used to provide information about
such resources. However, there are still improvements to be made to the website.
- Explore joint programming and other collaborative efforts with other ALA divisions and roundtables
Many ALA groups, as detailed in the Task Force report, have expressed an interest in collaborating with
RUSA on programming or other projects.
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Increase efficiencies and eliminate duplication across RUSA divisions
Carrying out this task falls outside the scope of the RUSA Structure Task Force, but might be undertaken as
an Emerging Leaders Project, by a separate Task force, the RUSA Board, heads of committees, and/or the
RUSA Organization & Planning Committee
For further amplification of these recommendations, Kate referred Board members to the full Task Force report,
which details 18 questions that the TF believes RUSA should address. If Board members have additional questions
about the report, Kate urged them to contact her directly.
On behalf of the Board, Gary thanked Kate and the Task Force members for their hard work and timely report.
ALA Executive Board Liaison, RUSA representative, visit – J. Linda Williams
The Presidential Task Force on School Libraries urges all ALA members and friends to sign the White House petition
initiated by Carl Harvey, 2011-2012 AASL president, at http://wh.gov/WGD to ensure that every child in America has
access to an effective school library program. For the petition to be reviewed by the White House, 25,000 signatures
are needed by February 4. The site requires petitioners to create an account and sign-in; members are urged to be
persistent if they encounter technical difficulties during this process.
The newly formed ALA Working Group on Digital Content and Libraries is working with publishers and vendors that
have been unwilling to offer e-books to libraries to increase awareness of the needs of libraries, exploring how
various licensing models and alternatives may or may not meet these needs. A new ALA blog, “E-Content,” authored
by Christopher Harris, launched in early October, to help communicate the work of the group.
Membership issues: Attendance at MidWinter was down. ALA membership overall is also down by 2%. ALA is
scheduling a virtual membership meeting for June 5th.
As a reminder in this election year, given its tax exempt status, ALA does not endorse political candidates. Members
should be mindful should they write or speak in favor of a candidate that they must do so as individuals, not as
representatives of ALA.
ALA Publishing has acquired Neal-Shuman Publishers, which will continue publishing under its own name. The
acquisition is intended to serve as a new revenue stream for the association.
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Linda will email a more extensive document to the RUSA Board covering additional issues discussed by the ALA
Executive Board.
She concluded by asking the Board if there were issues which she should take back to the Executive Board, which led
to a brief exchange regarding the necessity of continuing to hold the MidWinter meeting. It was pointed out that
Midwinter meeting venues have been reserved through at least 2017, and cancelling would cost the association
money. Members also expressed support for the idea of alternating meeting locations between the east and west
coast insofar as possible. Board members also asked about the idea floated earlier in the Big Think about the
possibility of offering a discount for membership in multiple Divisions. Linda indicated that this is possible if the
Division submits a written proposal for approval by the ALA Executive Board, although the Division would have to
renew the arrangement periodically.
She urged Board members to contact her at any time if they have questions or concerns. Gary thanked Linda for her
service.
Action items**
- EXECUTIVE SESSION: RUSQ Editor Selection – DISCUSSION AND ACTION – Diane Zabel, Chair, RUSQ Editor
Selection Committee
After reviewing the qualifications of the candidates for the position, each of whom brought strengths to the position,
the RUSQ Editor Selection Committee recommended to the Board the selection of Barry Trott as the new RUSQ
editor. Barry will become the editor designate in February and gradually take over the editorial duties over the next
few months.
Motion to approve the RUSQ Editor Section Committee Recommendation: Approved
Dianne will let the Board know when the appointment can be officially announced. Gary thanked Dianne and the
Committee for their efforts.
- New BRASS Award – DISCUSSION AND ACTION – Chris LeBeau, Chair, BRASS –Document #B1202
Business Expert Press will sponsor a $1,250.00 cash award for each of the next three years to support attendance
to the ALA Annual Conference to be given to an academic librarian who is new to the field of business librarianship
and wants to make a career as a business librarian.
Motion to approve the BRASS Business Expert Press Award for Academic Librarians: Approved
Highlights of Management Report— Hornung – Document #B1203: (moved from Monday to the Saturday agenda)
Financial Report, 1st Qtr FY2011
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Dues are down slightly, but are still on target.
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Revenue is slightly under target, primarily because of the elimination of advertising revenue for RUSQ, but
lower costs of production for the digital journal should offset this.
Online Continuing Education courses are doing very well.
Expenses are under target
Membership & Marketing
Membership statistics:
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Year to date membership statistics as of November 2011 indicate RUSA is about 7% behind where it was in
November 2010, with a 4.7% increase in dropped members and a 54% decrease in reinstatements.
However, new memberships increased 11.8%.
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The transition of Reference and User Services Quarterly to digital may explain some of the
increase in YTD drop rates and the decrease in reinstatement rates
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There was a good response last year to the reinstatement message campaign, which is scheduled to be
repeated this year after MidWinter, which may help to improve the reinstatement number.
Online Courses:
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The Business Reference course is being revamped and will be offered again later in 2012.
The new MARS screencasting webinar has proved to be very popular. Since some registrants are groups,
registration figures do not fully reflect the total number of members who have taken part in the webinar.
Programming
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Because Annual Conference program planning process has been confusing, a group has been set up in
Connect with information on FAQ's, deadlines, forms, procedures, etc., which has helped to address this
issue.
SmartInvesting@your library /grant – B1204
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In March 2011 FINRA extended the grant for two additional years. Sixty-four grants totaling over $4 million
dollars have been given, benefiting over 700 library facilities which together serve over 25 million people.
Institutions benefiting from the grants have ranged in size from the Camden Maine Public Library serving
just over 5,000 people to the Brooklyn Public Library and the Los Angeles Public Library serving populations
of over 2 million and 4 million respectively.
ALA consultant Kit Keller did an evaluation of the project, which found among other things that the FINRA
grants have led to the creation of "core financial resources and a cadre of experts and potential
trainers/mentors equipped to expand the program to libraries nationwide."
Libraries interested in receiving an invitation to apply for the grant can review the Frequently Asked
Questions Page for the Grant or contact the Project Director, Margaret Monsour (mmonsour@ala.org)
for more information.
Website
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There were some problems with the migration of the RUSA website from the Collage
Management System (CMS) to the Drupal CMS in November 2011, with not all content migrating
successfully. Much content has now been restored and staff continue to work on locating
additional missing content.
RUSA Section webmasters were offered a Drupal training session, and a virtual meeting of this
group will be set up after MidWinter to address ongoing concerns.
Publications
- RUSQ made a smooth transition to digital format last summer. ALA Subscription services is requiring
that institutions having multiple locations have separate institution subscription rates.
Virtual meetings
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A five room subscription to Blackboard Collaborate has been purchased.
Policies and procedures, including those for use of an external calendaring tool to manage
scheduling, will be worked out in the next few months;
MARS has agreed to work with interested members from the Task Force on Remote Technology
to produce a webinar on how to use BlackBoard
New Member Power Point
3:30 p.m.
Will be added to the RUSA web site after MidWinter, and further personalized with photographs
and testimonials as they are obtained for the Just-Ask campaign.
It was not possible to arrange to do headshots at MidWinter. They will be scheduled for Annual.
Meeting adjourned
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Reference and User Services Association Board of Directors
2012 Midwinter Meeting, Dallas TX
Draft Minutes
Session II: Monday, January 23, 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Dallas Convention Center (DCC) - D161
PRESENT: Wayne Bivens-Tatum , Chris LeBeau, Kathleen Kern, Carolyn Larson, Dianna McKellar, Alesia McManus, Mary
Popp, Amber Prentiss, Judith Solberg, Doris Ann Sweet, Janice Schultz, Liane Taylor, Barry Trott, Patrick Wall, Heather
Weltin, Gary White (president), Diane Zabel, M. Kathleen Kern,
Guests: Emily Kornak (2012 RUSA Spectrum Scholar), Emily Hamstra, (RUSA Emerging Leader), Joseph Thompson, Daniel
Windham (MLSIS Student UNC at Greensboro)
Staff: Susan Horning (executive director), Andrea Hill (web manager), Liz Markel, (marketing and programs manager).
CALLED TO ORDER: 1:30 PM by Gary White
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Gary extended his thanks to Liane Taylor for the successful Social and to Sharron Smith (Chair, CODES Reading List
Committee) and Liz Markel for their work on the Book and Media Awards event, which, Liz noted, was written up in
Monday's Cognotes.
GROUP PHOTOGRAPH
SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF SWOT ANALYSIS OF RUSA FROM SECTIONS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS – DISCUSSION
In the interest of time, Gary asked Section representatives to briefly summarize the opportunities that they had
identified from their Section SWOT analyses (which will be particularly pertinent to the Section’s strategic planning).
The full SWOT analyses should be emailed to Gary, who will distribute to the Board.
STARS
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Develop new marketing strategies (e.g., offer free passes to Conference exhibits as PR)
Start publicizing Conference events early (e.g. begin publicizing Anaheim events now).
Sections need representation at the events of related organizations (For example, STARS needs more
representation at meetings of other resource sharing organizations. Maybe have a STARS program at these
gatherings – or just bring brochures.)
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MARS
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Offer greater opportunities for virtual participation both through committee membership and through more
continuing education opportunities
Offer a variety of collaborative technologies and presentation tools to allow for greater virtual participation
Increase opportunities for Conference presentations to be recorded and quickly made available online
Offer more no/low cost programming
Ensure website content is current and organized so that it is more easily navigated
Set up networking opportunities between conferences
Sponsor “unconference” opportunities within the regular ALA conference
Offer free or discounted ALA/RUSA membership to selected speakers for a period of time (e.g. 1 year) to
encourage their involvement in ALA and RUSA.
Increase opportunities for collaborations across committees, sections, divisions, and non-ALA organizations
CODES
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Sponsor a library school student to come to the conference
Offer more webinars and educational opportunities
Increase RUSA resources and dedicated staff time available to the Sections
BRASS
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Offer more webinars
Take advantage of the new Drupal Content Management System to showcase Section and Division activities
Anticipate and respond more quickly to members' concerns
HISTORY
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More interaction with other Sections
Use the Internet to make Sections more active between conferences
Look at the structure of RUSA and make revisions where necessary
RSS
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Learn from what other divisions are doing in terms of online programming.
Emphasize wide spectrum of libraries (e.g. public, academic, government, special) represented in RUSA when
marketing the Division.
Highlight the value of reference services in publicity efforts.
Target outreach efforts to RUSA's large potential membership, which includes many public service/reference
librarians who are articulate, passionate, and highly skilled.
Partner with other library organizations.
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Move quickly to explore and offer more opportunities for virtual programming, meetings, etc. With
Blackboard, the Division can move beyond traditional webinars and offer drop-in forums, as well as
committee meetings.
Make use of expertise among the membership to provide professional growth opportunities
Find more opportunities for partnering with other Divisions, Sections, Committees, and Round Tables.
Individual Comments
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Make recruitment of recently graduated and soon-to-graduate librarians a priority
o Might consider working with ALCTS, when marketing to this group, as ALCTS also has members from
many types of libraries
o Target marketing to library school students in the Anaheim area
o Low/No cost webinars particularly important to this group
o Need to be mindful of the academic calendar when reaching out to library school students
o Offer conference registration plus a set sum to be applied to travel, housing, etc
Interact with Sections, etc. beyond RUSA.
o STARS program planning committees which include members from other Divisions could be a model
for other Sections of RUSA
o RSS/YALSA are considering joint interest groups
o Need to be mindful that there are no administrative barriers when setting up such groups
o Offer joint programming with other ALA groups in which each group actively contributes to
developing the program – this would be a new model that goes beyond traditional co-sponsorship in
name only
 Topics of interest to GODORT or various aspects of E-books or might lend themselves to this
approach
COUNCIL ACTIONS – KERN, DIVISION COUNCILOR
With the exception of the endorsement of the work of the Working Group on Digital Content and Libraries, there
were no substantive issues relating to RUSA to report at this time.
DISCUSSION OF PRESIDENT'S REPORT – White, #B1205
In answer to a question about the current status of the Just-Ask campaign, Gary indicated that the initial meeting will
take place shortly. A Chair has yet to be identified for the group.
DISCUSSION OF DIVISION OFFICERS' MEETING WITH THE ALA EXECUTIVE BOARD – White, Popp, Trott
Highlights of the meeting included reports from ALA officers:
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ALA President Molly Raphael discussed her two main initiatives: an advocacy initiative, "Why Libraries Matter:
Empowering Community Voices," offering tools and ideas to librarians to increase support for libraries within their
communities, and her diversity leadership initiative, “Empowering Diverse Voices." The latter included a
“Champion Connections” event held at Midwinter 2012, at which selected new and emerging leaders were given
an opportunity to meet with past ALA presidents and other leaders within the organization and a Leadership
Video Series, a series of video segments featuring established leaders from the profession.
Jim Neal, ALA treasurer, noted that revenue streams continue to be a challenge. He specifically mentioned
Continuing Education online courses, increased publishing, a new emphasis on fundraising and private giving, and
the acquisition of Neal Schuman as sources for increased revenue.
Maureen Sullivan, ALA President Elect, also stressed the importance of continuing the advocacy initiatives begun
before her. To this end, she announced that ALA will convene a summit in early Fall 2012, which will bring
together leaders from outside the library field including representatives from government, education, and cultural
organizations to develop an action agenda to educate and demonstrate the value of libraries to various
communities. She also indicated that she is working with Harvard Graduate School on a 2 ½ day leadership
institute planned for the fall of 2012, Leadership in the Digital Age, that will focus on providing library
administrators and managers with the skills to meet the challenges of the Digital Age. In addition, she announced
she will be forming a group to look at the structure of ALA, and how it might be re-envisioned to make the
organization more effective and better equipped to meet today's needs. In part, the discussion will be framed
around the question, "If ALA did not exist, how would you create such an organization?"
Executive Director, Keith Fiels also spoke about transforming libraries. He is working to put together a web site
with resources on this subject. If anyone knows of resources that RUSA has that should be listed on this site, they
should let Susan know.
During small group discussions, attendees discussed moving the Fall Leadership meeting to a virtual format.
However, the consensus was that in spite of the cost, the in-person event results in valuable networking and team
building which would be lost in a virtual environment. It was also noted that these meetings are more effective if
there is a targeted topic with follow-through.
DISCUSSION OF FY2012 PRELIIMINARY BUDGET – BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR, MARY POPP, DOCUMENT #B1206
The ALA Deadline for the corrected preliminary budget is February 2nd. However, the final budget is not approved
until Annual. The RUSA reserve fund as of the August 31, 2011, close totaled $601,411. Based on both ALA
recommendations for reserve funds and on RUSA's stricter requirements regarding these funds (which mandate that
Division maintain a reserve equal to 50% of the average expenditures over the most recent three fiscal years - which
equals $205,675), the Division is in a very good position with regard to its reserve funds. Mary urged the Board to
look at ways we can use some of these funds to work for the membership, including ways that will:
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Make the organization more attractive to non-academic librarians
Increase participation by public libraries
Increase visibility of RUSA in ALA
Increase valuable programming and provide resources for members who cannot attend conferences
Increase opportunities to participate virtually
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With regard to the President's Program for 2013, she would like to move the program time from Monday to Saturday
afternoon, a time when most members are still here, and make it a program that will inspire them and leave them
with "something to think about." She is also considering possibly streaming the program and would like to offer
other related activities such as an essay contest open to members on the program theme with the winning paper(s)
being published online, perhaps in a special edition of RUSQ, along with a portal that will allow for follow-up
interactive activities and ongoing impact. Members expressed support for the proposals including the essay
competition and the publishing opportunity it would give winners.
Mary also proposed using some of the reserve funds to fund a pilot program in conjunction with the Blackboard
Collaborate project to provide long distance access for those who cannot use Blackboard for whatever reason (e.g.
physical limitations, or security policies of some libraries) to enable such individuals to call in with the cost being
absorbed by RUSA rather than the individual member.
In further discussion, Board members suggested additional uses for some of the reserve funds, including:
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Make RUSA's webinar offerings more accessible to members. Suggestions for doing this included:
o Offering subsidized (reduced price) webinars for members
o Offering some free webinars for members, particularly in view of the fact that they have already paid
for membership.
o Allowing people to attend one free webinar, then get a discount on future webinars if s/he join within
a certain amount of time
o Offering live webinars at cost, but offer the recorded versions free to members after a month
Provide funds for training opportunities
o Creating 5 minute "how-to" segments on YouTube
Provide more RUSA support for research –
o Might fold into the Reference Research Forum sponsored by the Research and Statistics Committee
of the Reference Services Section
o However, need to phrase carefully, because such an emphasis might be at odds with the goal of
broadening RUSA's appeal to non-academic librarians. However, it was pointed out that the subjects
of research could include topics related to non-academic and public libraries, and members from
those communities might be interested in the results of such research without conducting the
research themselves.
Provide funding/recognition to a library for a particular program which could be scaled
Make it easier for new members to find out about opportunities in RUSA
o In addition to the New Member Power Point, it might be possible to create a wizard that would ask
prospective members what they are interested in, then, based on their answers, direct them to
appropriate opportunities within the Division
ACTION ITEMS
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Revised STARS Guidelines: Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management – DISCUSSION AND
ACTION – Larayne Dallas, Chair, Standards and Guidelines Committee – Document #B1207
Larayne noted that in Section 2.4, the word “agreement” was inadvertently omitted.
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In response to a question about the need for Section 5.4 (“The manager should advocate that library schools
offer courses in resource sharing to better prepare graduates who enter this field.”), Larayne indicated that
STARS feels strongly that this provision is needed to raise awareness of the importance of this activity.
Motion to approve the STARS Guidelines: Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management:
Approved
In answer to a follow-up question about publicity, Board members indicated the approved guidelines would be
widely announced through such means as the RUSA Update, RUSQ, and the RUSA blog; Sections were also
encouraged to inform their membership though their normal Section communication channels.
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Resource Development Committee Charge – DISCUSSION AND ACTION – All – Document #B1208
Gary noted that the proposed charge had been discussed at the Executive Committee meeting on Friday, Jan
20, 2012.
Motion to approve the Resource Development Committee Charge: Approved
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New History Award, entitled RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AWARD – DISCUSSION AND ACTION – Janice
Schultz, HS Chair, – Document #B1209
Noting that the award was spearheaded by Agnes Widder, formerly Chair of the History Section, Janice
stressed the need for the award, noting that there are few opportunities for history librarians to receive
financial funding for research. The award winner, who needs to be a MLS degreed librarian from an ALA
accredited school/program, does not need to be a member of RUSA or the History Section to apply, but must
join both by the time the grant is awarded.
In response to questions, Janice indicated that the award will be funded by Gale for 3 years.
A motion was made to amend the award document to include the official Gale company name and the word
History in the title and to add information about the source of funding for the award in the description of the
award.
Motion to approve the History Award as amended: Approved
OTHER BUSINESS
In response to a question about Board meeting times at Annual 2012, Board members were told the
information would be posted shortly. [Dates/Times for Board I (06/23/2012 - 1:30pm - 3:30pm) and Board II
(06/25/2012 - 4:00pm - 5:30pm) were subsequently added to Connect.]
Gary again thanked Board members and committee/task force chairs and their members for their work over
the last few months, in particular citing Liane Taylor (RUSA/ASCLA Web Conferencing Task Force), Diane Zabel,
(RUSQ Editor Selection Committee), and Kate Kosturski (RUSA Structure Task Force).
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MEETING ADJOURNED: 3:20 PM
Rev. 3-27-12 (2)/SH
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