91´«Ã½

CHICAGO - The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the 91´«Ã½, offers multiple online professional development opportunities year round that are open to the public. Whether you want to acquire new skills or sharpen your current skills, RUSA's online courses and webinars offer convenient and flexible learning opportunities on both basic and advance topics. Basic topics may include the reference interview and readers' advisory to name a few. For advanced topics we dive into specialty areas such as business reference, genealogy and topics related to prison libraries among others. RUSA members qualify for discounted registration rates including discounts on group registrations. RUSA is pleased to announce our spring 2017 online learning opportunities:

• MARCH
  • ​Tomorrow - 3/7/17 – [Webinar]
    
    Learn about history apps and how to immediately implement those app-based sources into reference and research services. Identify, evaluate and apply app evaluation techniques. Learn how apps can be utilized in the reference interview as well as participate in at least one active learning session using a history-based app on a mobile device.
    
    
  • Thursday - 3/9/17 – [Webinar]
    
    Learn specific online resources for finding library jobs and strategies for landing these jobs including internships, residency, fellowship and volunteerism. You’ll visit some of the websites and provde a bibliographic list of books, websites and journals. The objective of this webinar is for the participants to be able to target library jobs, have a list of printed and electronic resources and to help them with the job searching and applying for library jobs process.
    
    
  • 3/16/17 - [BRASS Webinar Series 2 of 3]
    
    Looking for big datasets for free? The U.S. Federal Government has been providing access to their statistical data for years, even before the internet even existed. Learn about where open data and statistics come from, ways to find and issues on how to keep it coming along with where to join discussions and stay aware of developments.
    
    
  • 3/20/17 - [eCourse]
    
    The idea is to ask participants to think of a genre or subject that they don’t normally read and then immerse themselves in it so that they come away from the experience with the ability to converse with patrons who are seeking books in that area. The Project’s secondary objective is to get participants to play with technology, such as screensharing and ebooks, that is highly relevant to the work of readers’ advisory librarians. This course is suitable for public librarians working in adult or young adult services.
    
    
  • 3/22/17 - [Webinar]
    
    Staffing a reference desk is a wonderful service for patrons when they need it. However, it can monopolize your staff talent and resources between reference interactions. Changes in libraries and patrons’ needs revealed a desire for more flexibility in reference shifts and not being anchored to a desk.
    
    
• APRIL
  • ​4/4/17 - [Webinar]
    
    This webinar will recontextualize library services and infrastructure for a makerspace experience that is consistent for every patron, scalable to any skill level, and integrated into the overall library experience. Specifically, we will cover circulation, reference services, and staffing models.
    
    
  • 4/24/17 [eCourse]
    
    The Library Tech Project is a six-week asynchronous online course, designed to give librarians direct exposure to different types of library-related technology that they may have heard about but have not had the opportunity to use. The emphasis is on experiential learning, where participants handle different devices to see what they do and how they work.
    
    
  • 4/25/17 [Webinar]
    
    Participants in this workshop will engage in discussion about Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s work with the theory of situated learning, its emphasis on social exchanges for providing a context for learning, and how this applies to reference interactions in the library.
    
    
  • 4/27/17 [ Webinar]
    
    Ancestry is often the first resource that genealogy researchers use, but then where should they go? After briefly covering the differences between the library edition of Ancestry and a personal subscription, we discuss the newly renovated HeritageQuest Online

About RUSA

The , a division of the , represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers' advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services and collection materials they need.

Have questions about RUSA’s online learning? Jennifer Cross, Web Services Manager has the answers. Email her today.