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2002 RUSA President's Program

The Reference Interview: Connecting In-Person and in Cyberspace

Program Description

RUSA President's Program at the 2002 ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta The Reference Interview: Connecting In-Person and in Cyberspace
Sheraton, Capitol North and Center
Monday, June 17, 2-4 p.m.

Reference interviews are now conducted in person on the telephone via email and through live chat on the World Wide Web. What elements remain constant in all forums and what must change as we move through the spectrum of communication channels? Explore this topic with our speakers and a reaction panel of researchers and practitioners.

View the Selective Bibliography for this program.

Speakers

• Catherine L. Ross - Professor and Dean, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario in London
  Catherine Ross teaches reference courses in the MLIS program.  Her co-authored book Conducting the Reference Interview is being released by Neal-Schuman in summer 2002.
• Jana Ronan - Interactive Reference Coordinator for RefeXpress, the chat reference service of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
  Jana Ronan is an active member of the Library Instruction Round Table and RUSA MARS.  As the coordinator for RefeXpress, Jana manages the 56-hour a week real-time reference service, including administrating, scheduling, and training of the 30 librarians and professional staff that provide online users with answers.  She also works with users at the Humanities & Social Sciences reference desk and teaches research skills to incoming freshmen.

Reaction Panel

• M. Kathleen Kern - Assistant Reference Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  Kathleen Kern has previously worked in the libraries at Iowa State University, the Center for Research Libraries and in various businesses.  Her primary research interests are in the areas of reference assessment and the transfer of knowledge within library organizations.
• Dr. Marie L. Radford - Acting Dean, School of Information and Library Science, Pratt Institute
  Marie L. Radford holds a Ph.D. in Communication, Information Studies & Library Science from Rutgers University and an MSLS from Syracuse University.  She has written and presented extensively on the topics of interpersonal communication aspects of reference service, evaluation of e-resources/Web-based resources, cultural studies, and media stereotypes of librarians.  Her book, The Reference Encounter: Interpersonal Communication in the Academic Library, was published by ACRL/ALA in the "Publications in Librarianship" series in 1999.  Her newest book, Web Research: Selection, Evaluation, and Citing, was just published by Allyn & Bacon in 2002.  She is active in the American Library Association and is currently Chair Elect of the Library Research Roundtable and a member of the RUSA/MOUSS Publications Committee.
• David Tyckoson - Head of Reference, Henry Madden Library, California State University-Fresno
  Dave has been a reference librarian for over 20 years.  He has written several articles about reference service and the reference interview.  Dave was the Chair of the ALA/RUSA Committee that developed the Behavioral Guidelines for Reference Librarians and is also developing a web course on the reference interview that will be offered through ALA.

2002 RUSA President's Program Committee members:

• Carol Tobin, University of North Carolina
• Kathleen Kluegel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Gary Cornwell, University of Florida
• Judith Smith, Johns Hopkins University
• Richenda Wilkinson, D-Q University