RUSA award honors outstanding public librarians providing business reference services

Contact: Liz Markel
Marketing Specialist, RUSA/ASCLA
312-280-4398
lmarkel@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release,
April 15, 2010

CHICAGO—Ed Rossman, adult services librarian at the Shaker Heights (Ohio) Public Library, is the 2010 winner of the Public Librarian Support Award, a conference travel award administered by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), for public librarians who provide business reference services.

As the winner of this year’s award, which is sponsored by investment research firm Morningstar, Inc., Rossman will receive $1,000 in travel funds for ALA’s Annual Conference. The award is meant to provide professional development opportunities for a public librarian who has performed outstanding business reference service and is a member of ALA, RUSA and RUSA’s Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS). In selecting this year’s recipient, the award committee highlighted Rossman’s work with SCORE in his community to help start up and struggling local businesses—a valuable source of direct assistance to those that provide the community’s economic base and an excellent example of library programming that has a direct and positive impact on the community. Most recently, Rossman has worked on developing partnerships with SCORE, the Society of Human Resources Management Association and WECO, a local community development financial Institution for a series of programs committed to improving business conditions. He also sponsors a bi-monthly business book club at the library that encourages patrons to read about business topics and discuss how they apply to their lives.

In addition to his successful programs and partnerships, Rossman is also the author of “Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments.” Written as a guide for students and library professionals, Rossman fosters pride in the profession and shows how the library can be a true asset in a community. He also published an article in American Libraries in August of 2003 on a Web site he designed for Lakewood (Ohio) Public Library entitled “More Than Names”, a tribute to Lakewood’s 20th Century fallen war heroes, containing details of more than 300 servicemen. He worked in the Technology Center at Lakewood from 1995-2004 before moving to his current library. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University as well as a Master’s in Communications from Ohio University. Prior to his library career, he worked in broadcasting on-air and as business manager at KVOD-FM in Denver and WENZ-FM in Cleveland.

"During challenging economic times, it's critical that libraries provide the members of their communities with meaningful business and investing programs and resources," said Susan Dziubinski, director of library services for Morningstar. "Mr. Rossman has done just that, and we congratulate him on this award."

Rossman will be honored at the RUSA Awards Ceremony and Reception, scheduled for 4-5:30 p.m., Monday, June 28, in Washington, D.C. as a part of ALA’s Annual Conference events. The exact location of this event will be announced on the RUSA website and at the RUSA Blog in late spring.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on nearly 325,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 19 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in three other countries.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers advisory and resource sharing. RUSA 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.  Not a member, but  interested in discounted registration rates on conference, preconferences and other events? Join, renew or add RUSA to your ALA membership at www.ala.org/membership. Learn more about the association at www.ala.org/rusa.