HomeRUSA offers funding for reference research

Contact: Barbara Macikas
RUSA
(312) 280-4395
bmacikas@ala.org

For Immediate Release,
March 26, 2008

RUSA offers funding for reference research

CHICAGO—The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is offering a one-time award of $2,000 for a research project in the area of reference and user services.  The application process is open to anyone conducting research in reference. Applications are due May 1.  Applications will be reviewed, and a project selected by RUSA’s Reference Services Section (RSS) Research and Statistics Committee.  The research project selected to receive funding will be announced June 26-July 2 at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.  An article on the winning project will be submitted for consideration in a future issue of the Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), RUSA’s official journal.

The RUSA RSS Research and Statistics Committee hosts the Reference Research Forum, where new research is presented for discussion, at the ALA Annual Conference.  This year’s 15^th anniversary of the Reference Research Forum inspired the idea for one-time awarding of funding for reference research.  “The idea behind this initial funding is to inspire and support research in the broad areas of reference and user services,” said Dr. Anne Moore, chair of the committee.

A report on the research project will be submitted to the 2009 Reference Research Forum. An application form is available on the RUSA web page at www.ala.org/rusa.  For more information on the application process contact Anne Moore at anem@library.umass.edu.