Elizabeth J. Cronin of the Ocean County (NJ) Library Wins S.S. Green Award for Best Reference Transaction

[Stephen Coffman]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

16 August 2002

 

 

 

Elizabeth J. Cronin of the Ocean County (NJ) Library Wins S.S. Green Award for
Best Reference Transaction
 

 

Steve Coffman of Library Systems and Services LLC is pleased to announce that
Elizabeth J. Cronin of the Ocean County (NJ) Library – Toms River Branch has
won the second  $500 bimonthly award for the best transcript of a virtual
synchronous reference transaction.  Peggy Cadigan who serves as the Co-Project
Manager of "QandANJ” Virtual Reference Service for the Ocean County (NJ)
Library submitted her transcript for consideration. The award is named in
honor of Samuel Swett Green, the founder of reference services in the United
States and will be presented during the ALA LITA National Forum, Westin
Galleria & Westin Oaks, Houston, Texas, which meets 10-13 October 2002.

 

This transaction was selected by a nine-member panel of distinguished
practitioners and researchers panelists including Marie Radford (Pratt
Institute), Marianne Sweet (SJRLC), James Rettig (University of Richmond),
Tracy Strobel (Clevenet), Ilene Rockman (Editor, Reference Services Review),
Barbara Quint (Editor, Searcher Magazine), and Amy VanScoy (NCSU).  John
Richardson, LSSI's Presidential Scholar, chaired the panel and helped maintain
the single blind review status of the award.

 

In selecting the best electronic transcript of a chat or live and real time
transaction (but not an email transaction), the panel considered relevant
quality factors such as accuracy of the answer, user as well as librarian
satisfaction, and utility of the answer to the user.  In support of their
selection, members said: “the librarian does a good job of shifting gears as
the need hidden within the query becomes clearer. He/she also plays along with
the possible ‘my cousin’ alias the patron uses.”  Yet another says, this
transcript represents a “real problem question exemplifying how important such
services are to people in their daily lives.   Nice sense of confidence that
the librarian can make a better life for their client without breaking a
sweat.  Nice combination of web and print sources.”

 

Look for a copy of the winning transcript soon at
http://www.vrtoolkit.net/Virtual_news.htm 

 

The next deadline is 20 September 2002; and interested submitters should
review the panel's checklist at http://purl.org/net/checklist and then submit
their transcript to http://orca.pwl.com/greenaward/green_submit.html.

 

 

For More Information: 

 

John Richardson,  johnr at lssi.com