iSchool alumni Radford, Lankes to launch new book April 5 at Bird Library

Marie L. Radford G’75 and R. David Lankes ’92, G’99 will celebrate the publication of their new book “Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends” (Neal-Schuman, 2010) on Monday, April 5, at 4 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons on the first floor of E.S. Bird Library. Their talk is co-sponsored by Syracuse University Library and its Learning Commons.

Radford will give a talk about what information services will look like in the years ahead. She will discuss the opportunities, challenges and realities that librarians will encounter. She will also address such topics as how librarians can maintain equilibrium amid such rapid change, how emerging technologies will continue to impact reference services, and evolving user demands, especially from the tech-savvy and mercurial Millennial Generation.

Radford is an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Communication & Information. Her research interests are interpersonal communication aspects of reference/information services (both traditional and virtual), nonverbal communication, cultural studies and media stereotypes of librarians. She is the 2010 winner of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award for distinguished contributions to reference librarianship given by the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association.

Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Radford was acting dean of Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science in New York City. She has published numerous books and articles in top library and information science journals and frequently presents at national and international scholarly and professional venues. She is a co-author of the book “Conducting the Reference Interview, 2^nd ed.” (Neal-Schuman, 2009). Her latest book is co-edited with Lankes.

Lankes is library and information science program director at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool), as well as associate professor and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS). The IIS houses several high-profile research efforts, including the Educator’s Reference Desk and projects related to the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library.

Lankes co-founded the award-winning AskERIC project and served as director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. He also founded the Virtual Reference Desk project and served as one of the architects of the Gateway to Education Materials, a standards-based system for describing and finding educational materials on the Internet.

Lankes has authored, co-authored or edited 14 books and written more than 30 book chapters and journal articles and numerous pieces for information professionals. He has been principal investigator on more than $13 million of competitively awarded research grants and has served as a researcher on numerous projects. He has been a keynote speaker around the globe, giving more than 140 presentations at national and international conferences.