April 2024 Online Learning with RUSA

CHICAGO —The American Library Association- Reference and User Services Division (RUSA), offers an outstanding combination of repeat and new courses/webinars. Check out our list of upcoming programming below:

Reference Interview 101

Six-week asynchronous course starting on April 1, 2024

Reference Interview is a comprehensive six-week course focusing on the methods of evaluating reference service, behavioral aspects of reference service, and the different types of questions that can be used to help patrons identify what they need. Using images and text, this in-depth educational approach covers everything from the approachability of the librarian to how to follow-up with a patron. Scheduled chat sessions will model interviewing techniques using sample dialogues.

The instructor, Dave Tyckoson, has almost 40 years of experience in academic libraries. Prior to retirement, he was the reference librarian at the Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno. Past positions include serving as Head of the Reference Department at SUNY-Albany, Reference Librarian at Iowa State University, and Science Librarian at Miami University (Ohio). Tyckoson has also taught in the Graduate Library schools at SUNY-Albany and the University of Illinois.

Project Management in Libraries

Four-week asynchronous starting on April 29, 2024

During this four-week asynchronous course, participants will review the skills and experiences needed to be exemplary project managers in a library organization. Interactive and dynamic activities such as discussions, reading assignments, and class exercises will accompany each week's lectures. The four-part topical tour of project management will culminate with a final project management principles. The course is self-paced.

The instructor, Debra Lucas-Alfieri, was the Head of Reference, Public Services, Interlibrary Loan, and Instruction at D’Youville University in Buffalo, NY from 2002-2022, leaving with distinction at retirement.  She is the author of Marketing the 21st Century Library: The Time is Now, published by Chandos, an imprint of Elsevier.  She has also published academic journal articles in Collaborative Librarianship, the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve, and the Journal of Library and Information Science. She has co-authored and published articles in the nursing and pharmaceutical field.  Her book chapters appear in Middle Management in Academic and Public Libraries, and the 21st Century Handbook of Anthropology.  Additionally, she served as an editor for the Journal of Library Innovation. Dozens of encyclopedia articles appear in the Encyclopedia of Power, the Encyclopedia of Time, the Encyclopedia of Anthropology, and the 20th Century Encyclopedia of Pop Culture.  

Don’t see a topic that interest you, check out our full listings here or submit a proposal form here.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), 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. Learn more at www.rusaupdate.org.