Carole A. Larson and Laura K. Dickson are the 1995 recipients of the Reference Service Press Award presented by the Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD).
The award, $1,000 and a plaque donated by Reference Service Press Inc., is given to the author(s) of the most outstanding article published in RQ, the official journal of RASD, during the preceding two volume years. Dickson and Larson received the award for an article titled "Developing Behavioral Reference Desk Performance Standards" (RQ, volume 33, number 3, Spring, 1994, pages 349-57). Want to read this award-winning article online? Click here.
"Carole Larson and Laura Dickson have developed a model set of behavioral-based library reference standards based on objective, observable criteria," said Glenda Neely, chair of the RASD Reference Service Press Award Committee. "Desk service was strengthened and enhanced in a test using these standards. They should be posted at every library reference desk."
Larson has served as social sciences reference librarian and associate professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; campus librarian at the Instructional Resource Center, Elkhorn Valley Campus of the Metropolitan Technical Committee College in Omaha, and instructional services librarian-Reference at Kearney (Neb.) State College. She has a bachelor's degree in sociology from Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., a master's degree in elementary education from Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., a master's degree in Asian studies from the University of Oregon, Eugene, and a master's degree in librarianship from the University of Denver.
Dickson has worked as supervisor of interlibrary loan and chair of the Reference/Interlibrary Loan Department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, and a Master's degree in library science from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Source: American Library Association press release, May, 1995.
