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Contact: Liz Markel
RUSA Marketing Specialist
(312) 280-4398
lmarkel@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
August 5, 2008

RUSA announces online continuing education offerings

CHICAGO—The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) will offer the following professional development opportunities this fall:

Genealogy 101, Sept. 1 – Oct. 11
This new course is designed for reference staff with little to no experience in genealogy. Using a case study to frame the coursework, participants will learn about tools and techniques they can use to confidently assist patrons with family history research. A review of archival material, print reference tools and online sources is included in the curriculum. Jack Simpson, curator of Local and Family History at the Newberry Library in Chicago and co-creator of ChicagoAncestors.org, will teach the course.

Business Reference 101, Oct. 13 – Nov. 7
Appropriate for librarians and library staff of all types who wish to acquire business reference expertise, Business Reference 101 will demystify such topics as SIC, NAICS codes, ROI and 10k’s. Students will also have access to such proprietary business reference databases as Standard & Poor’s Net Advantage and Thomson/Gale’s Business & Company Resource Center. This consistently sold-out course will be taught by Celia Ross, chair of RUSA’s Brass section and an experienced facilitator and practitioner in the business reference field.

Reference Interview, Oct. 13 – Nov. 21
This comprehensive course covers such reference interview topics  as cultivating an approachable reference environment, successful questioning and listening techniques and appropriate follow-up methods. Staff of all levels at all types of libraries will find this content, presented in a multi-media format, helpful in their day-to-day engagement with library patrons. Instructor David Tyckoson, associate dean at the Henry Madden Library, Cal State—Fresno, and immediate past-president of RUSA, has an extensive resume in the field and was awarded the 2005 Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award for distinguished contribution to reference librarianship.

Marketing Basics for Libraries, first class of five on Sept. 25, 11am-12pm CST
Marketing Basics meets for five weekly sessions that cover marketing basics, including marketing planning and marketing research. The final product of the course will be a marketing plan that individuals will create based on their own library environment/needs. Allie Carr, outreach program coordinator at the Social Sciences & Humanities Library at the University of California, San Diego, and Elisabeth Leonard, adjunct instructor at San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science, will team teach the course.

All courses will be administered using Moodle, an online course management tool. Online learning offers flexibility for busy professional schedules and facilitates interaction between instructors and students with weekly assignments, discussion boards and chat sessions.

Online registration is now open for all of these opportunities, with significant cost savings for RUSA members. Visit http://www.ala.org/rusa/prodevelopment for more information.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association (http://www.ala.org/), is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need.