RIG Newsletter
Winter, 2004

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WLA Reference Interest Group Newsletter 

Greetings from RIG! This is RIG newsletter number 2 in our series. Anne Bingham, the RIG steering committee and I have been busy preparing for the WLA/PNLA August 2004 conference while doing some RIG housekeeping, like updating our by-laws. Here's what's happening:

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By-Laws Ballot: RIG has rewritten its by-laws. They are short and sweet. Now we need to ratify them! You should have received yours in the mail. Please please please take the time to vote and mail in your vote! We want and need to hear from all of you. If RIG can pass these by-laws it's the last paper vote we'll need---next time we can vote by email. I will be posting by-laws when we load the newsletter online next week.

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Conference flash: The big news is that all 6 of RIG's conference proposals (including a pre-conference proposal) submitted last September to WLA have been accepted for the August conference in Wenatchee! Based on your input at the WLA conference last April, the following presentations are a go:

Virtual Reference 101
Presented by Buff Hirko of the Washington State Library, and Mary Ross and Daria Cal of Seattle Public Library. The afternoon session covers all the basics of providing reference virtually in real time, including trends and marketing.

These gals are also presenting RIG's Going Virtual: thinking about chat reference as a pre-conference session. This session is for those decision-makers considering digital reference services in libraries.

Legal Research for Non-Law Librarians: basic strategies (Part I)
Presented by Cheryl Rae Nyberg and Peggy Jarrett of University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library. This session will cover types of legal authority (laws, cases, regulations, etc.) and guidance on doing legal reference for those of us who don't know a jurisdiction from jurisprudence.

Part II, Legal Research for Non-law Librarians: free Internet sources reviews all the best websites for conducting state and U.S. legal research--using free websites.

The e-Gov Boom Years: big yields for patrons and Librarians presented by Cass Hartnett of UW, Marilyn Von Seggern of the Washington State Library, Lily Wait, University of Idaho, and Robin Haun-Mohamed of the U.S. Government Printing Office. The U.S. government is one of the largest sources of Deep Web data all available for free to patrons. These amazing speakers will highlight significant government Internet resources for statistics, regulations, and geospatial data.

Consumer Health: assisting patrons to find the help they need Presented by Gail Kouame of UW/Pacific NW Regional Medical Library/National Library of Medicine. This session is a response to those of you who wanted training on how to better assist patrons in negotiating consumer health information.

(Lastly) Researching Northwest History with Walt Crowley will be presented by the journalist and founder of History Ink/HistoryLink, the nationally recognized database of our region's history. Walt will talk about the unknown and the unsung of the Northwest and share insights with librarians who continue to answer genealogy, history, and homework questions along these lines.

Thank you to all RIG members for helping us put together these awesome programs. We are working on getting contracts signed and volunteers lined up. If any of you would like to help host our speakers at their presentations, please contact us. And of course, we definitely hope to see you all at the conference August!

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RIG Elections are coming up for next 2004-2005 if you can believe it. Ballots will go out at the end of February for your consideration. If you are a member of RIG and would consider serving the reference community in some official capacity, now is your moment! Please contact either Anne Bingham <abingham@u.washington.edu> or myself at <charas@highline.edu>. We have some wonderful iSchool students who are making RIG an increasingly dynamic Interest Group. Look for the (email) ? ballot for RIG officers in late February.

Speaking of the iSchool, Shireen Deboo put out the call for a RIG student representative, and for new RIG student members. Lisa Euster from the iSchool is our new student rep! Lisa will be advocating for WLA and RIG at the UW. Thank you and welcome, Lisa and to all the students who expressed interest in joining RIG. As far as we're concerned the more the merrier.

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The RIG Steering Committee met last Tuesday, January 27 in Seattle. It was our second live meeting since the conference. Present were Co-Chairs Anne Bingham and yours truly, iSchool members Shireen Deboo and Secretary Ginny Rabago, as well as Listserv Coordinator Andy Wickens from KCLS. Agenda items included sending out the Bylaws ballot (see above), RIG volunteers for the PLA conference in February, upcoming RIG elections (yikes, end of March already), and of course the WLA/PNLA 2004 conference presentations. See Ginny's minutes below.

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Finally, PLA is coming to Seattle and RIG members will be doing their part and volunteering at the WLA booth. Come on down and visit us if you have a moment! We'd love to touch bases.

Thank you and if I haven't welcomed you yet, Welcome to RIG! We will email you as usual with RIG updates. Concerns Questions Rants Raves? Please be in touch:

Catherine Haras
Co-Chair, 2003-2004
charas@highline.edu

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The Reference Interest Group (RIG) is an interest group of the Washington Library Association.  The purpose of the list is to share information regarding WLA RIG and professional information that would interest members of WLA RIG.