RUSA Reference Services Section RSS Services to Adults Midwinter 2008 Meeting Minutes

Midwinter 2008 Meeting Minutes


RSS/Services To Adults


ALA Midwinter Meeting


Philadelphia PA


January 12, 2008

Members Present: Jeffrey Kempe, Janet O’Keefe, Patricia Randle, Wendy Girven, Beth Roberts

Recap of 2007 Annual:


2007 DC Program follow-up “Future Friends” outreach to future library friends (teens- 30’s)

  • Well attended, standing room only
  • Discussion of giving this program at PLA-- possibility
  • Can we put the presentation up on the Web?
  • Archive of minutes, presentations, etc. Contact someone about putting these up? (contact Web services)

Programming ideas:


When is nice to nice? (disengaging the “chatty” patron)

  • Phone
  • In person
  • Virtually
  • Possibly do in joint with ethics committee?
  • Engaging, but not too engaging (at the detriment of other patrons)
  • Patrons with mental illness or mental developmental disabilities
  • Free for All—newly published book to check out

2009 Annual? Make a proposal soon?

Should we do a publication or an online program? Maybe this would be a good future plan.

Committee Charge? There is another committee to work with older adults. Who are we looking at exactly? What about boomers? Are we programming for them at all? Boomers seem to be neglected because we may already assume they come to the librarian. Many of the groups are focused on helping on helping seniors and children.

Many still view libraries as books only? Marketing?

Our focus is very broad, so maybe this program can focus on an “all- ages” .

Should we re-write our charge? Clarify our purpose? Ad an age range? Check on what the older adults committee says for age?

Create a guideline? Have discussion on a blog, list-serv, or a wiki? To help make the guidelines.

Recruitment for the future? Currently we have some from academia, public, and gov’t….We should try to recruit more public librarians.


Who has an interest in staying on the committee? Pat, Jeff

Deborah Vanpetten, Valdosta State University ( Chair of Ethics Committee) --- discussion and brainstorming

  • Not a social worker
  • Public librarians are paid by tax dollars
  • What about mentally ill patrons
  • Some is service issue, some is ethical issues
  • Anita Anderstaat— see what the feeling is (lots of experience)
  • This program would cover academic, public, etc… broad base

What about a pre-conference? Invite a social worker, have a session on mental illness and a session on just general “problem” patrons… the committee feels it should be a program because it has such a broad appeal.. maybe we could develop guidelines to cover this specific topic.

Previous program, It was a panel of 4 (from three institutions)… Deborah’s contact, someone with experience in both?, This seems to be a good format. Look into existing programs with mentally ill patrons?

What do we need to have by annual 2008??

  • Scheduling and funding?
  • Program proposal?

How do we communicate with our committee members who are not here?

Annual 2009 is in Chicago July 9-15th. Look for speakers that are close to this area?

Virtual members… we can have more. Janet might go virtual?


Virtual meetings through ALA communities? Get more brainstorming? Meeting in March online???

What about getting things up on the website? Pat would like to put things up on the website. We should talk to the web advisory committee. Let’s ask them what we can do

Beth found the conference proposal form… day and time, target audience, estimated size, title and group sponsoring, possible program tracks (user services and outreach), do we plan to produce a publication (yes, guidelines)? Beth needs to check on APPROVAL through RSS, estimated program costs. .. there might be a set amount of for getting non-librarian speakers, tentative program description

Beth will draft the description and send it out the committee by March 15th. Virtual meeting to discuss, send out minutes, get input from group and communicate with committee members who couldn’t attend…Proposal is officially due in May, but can be extended to Annual. (previous program was at 3 30pm and held about 250)

Joan Durrance has written a book on reference… if she is available. She’s from Michigan.

Andrew Whitis from Web Advisory Committee… getting away from text.. podcasts, visuals, documents

What is in place for virtual groups? Chat feature?

Janet has public broadcasting experience

Website is a place to communicate charge, current roster, store minutes, a place to store documents, presentations, etc. Send our updates
vac11@cornell.edu, Virginia Cole.

Rusa wiki is linked from RUSA main page… Donovan Vicha is leaving us..

We want to link the basic page to us.

Face2Face Consulting in Chicago…
www.face2facetraining.com

Meeting adjourned at 10 :00 am.