2009 Midwinter Meeting

Committee: Marketing and Public Relations for Reference Services




Section: RSS




Chairperson: Kate Silton




Date: 1/24/09




Members Present: Silton (Chair), Ann Brown, Simmona Simmons-Hodo, and Meghan Sitar




Members Absent: Monica Fusich, Ed Garcia, Melinda Gottesman, Debbie Katz, Colleen Lougen (virtual), Maud Mundava, Carol Reichardt.




Visitors: Maira Liriana, Sarah Lawton, Jaclyn Bedoya




Objectives: Discuss work related to the new definition of reference and decide on future direction of committee.




Summary: The committee decided that we needed more guidance from the RSS board regarding goals and objectives for marketing the new definition of reference. While the committee would be happy to collaborate with other RSS committees and discussion groups on projects related to the new definition of reference, we'd like to continue helping reference librarians share ideas for marketing reference services in general. We discussed creating a virtual "swap and shop" of materials and projects related to the marketing of reference services. We would pair this virtual project with a discussion forum at Midwinter 2010.




We also brainstormed thoughts about future workshops, such as finding images to use in promotional materials. We also revisited the idea of a preconference focused on marketing reference services.




Evaluation: We effectively completed our objectives, although we only had input from four committee members.




Problems: Many of our committee members were unable to attend Midwinter because of funding issues. This will probably continue to be a problem in the future.




Recommendations: None.