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Contact: Eileen Hardy
RUSA Marketing Specialist
(312) 280-4398
ehardy@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
May 12, 2008

Susan J. Beck RUSA President 2009-2010

CHICAGO—Susan J. Beck is the new president-elect of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).  She will begin her term as president-elect in July 2008 and will assume the presidency in 2009-2010.

“I am honored to have been elected the next RUSA President and I want to thank everyone for their support. Throughout my career, my participation in RUSA has helped me do what I like best -- be a good reference librarian,” said Beck. “I am excited by the challenges presented by this opportunity and delighted to make a positive contribution to a profession I love! As reference librarians, we find, interpret, create and translate information for our users, but our ultimate goal is simply to help people find the information they need. For my 11th birthday, I received a copy of the World Almanac ---I have been hooked ever since!”

Beck is the head of Public Services, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Camden (N.J.) and previously served as visiting professor with the university’s School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.

As an active member of RUSA, Beck served on the Planning & Finance Committee, several award committees, as chair of the Reference Services Section (RSS), and on Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) and Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) committees.

Beck has served as chair of the Assessment Committee for the Virtual Academic Library Environment (VALE) of New Jersey and visiting program officer of the New Measures Initiative for the Association of Research Libraries, Washington, D.C.

Beck has a bachelor’s degree in education, political science and history from Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, (Ky.), a master’s degree in political science from Miami University, Oxford (Ohio), and a master’s degree in library science from Kent State University Kent, (Ohio).

RUSA is the leading association of reference and user services professionals.  Its more than 5,000 members work in academic, public and research libraries and for corporations and non-profit associations.