Cindy Kaag is new RUSA president

Contact: Cathleen Bourdon


312-280-4395

For Immediate Release


September 2002

Cindy Kaag is new RUSA president

Cindy Kaag, head, science libraries, Washington State University, is the new president of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). She assumed office in July.

"I plan to focus on two main themes this year: the realities of frontline reference today, which will be the focus of my President's Program in Toronto, and the assessment and evaluation of the services we provide our users," Kaag stated.

Kaag served as head of the Fischer Agricultural Sciences Library, and the George Brain Education Library, both at Washington State University. She also served as the head of collection development, acting head of interlibrary loan and reference and a collection development coordinator and reference librarian at Washington State University.

An active RUSA member, Kaag served as chair of the RUSA Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES). She chaired a number of CODES committees, including the Collection Evaluation Committee, the Collection Development Education Committee and the Section Program Committee.

Kaag is the author of "Scientific Research and Science in Yellowstone National Park," an online searchable database of nearly 11,000 annotated citations covering published and unpublished materials dealing with all areas of science in Yellowstone. She also is the author of "Collection Development for Distance Education: Points to Ponder," to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Library and Information Services for Distance Learning.

Kaag has a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin.

RUSA is the ALA division devoted to supporting the delivery of reference/information services to all groups and of general library services to adults. Its 5,000 members represent all types of libraries.