Catherine Ross

Selected Publications

Articles
- Refereed Journals
Books
Other Publications
- Papers Presented
- Sundry Publications

Articles

Refereed Journals

1996: Reading series books: what readers say about it. School Library Media Quarterly (Spring) : 165-171.
1995: If they read Nancy Drew, so what?: Series book readers talk back. Library and Information Science Research 17, (3) : 201-236. Recipient of the 1995 Jesse Shera Award for Research.
1994: Best Practices: an analysis of the best (and worst) in 52 public library reference transactions. Public Libraries (September/October) : 261-266. [with Patricia Dewdney]
1994: Flying a light aircraft: Reference service evaluation from a user's viewpoint. RQ 34, (2) : 217-230. Winner of the 1994 ALISE Research paper Competition. Winner of the 1996 Reference Service Press Award for the most outstanding article published in RQ during the preceding two years. [with Patricia Dewdney]
1991: Readers' Advisory Service: New Directions. RQ 30, (4) : 503-518.
1987: Metaphors of Reading. The Journal of Library History, Philosophy, and Comparative Librarianship 22, (2) : 147-163. Reprinted in Library Literature: The Best of 1987, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1988, 190-206.

Books

Authored

1996: Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. Squares: Shapes in Math, Science and Nature. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1996. [Non-fiction book for children, 64 pages] Winner of the 1996 Science Writers of Canada Award for best science book written for children in Canada (A Journalism in Society Award). Translated into Danish (Forlaget Thorup), Italian (Societa Editoriale Libraria), and Chinese (Yuan T. Lee Foundation).
1994: Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. Triangles: Shapes in Math, Science and Nature. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1994. [Non-fiction book for children, 64 pages] Short-listed for the 1994 Science Writers of Canada Award for best science book written for children in Canada (A Journalism in Society Award). Translated into Danish (Forlaget Thorup), Italian (Societa Editoriale Libraria), and Chinese (Yuan T. Lee Foundation).
1992: Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. A Double Life: A Biography of Alice Munro. Toronto: Toronto: ECW Press, 1992. Excerpted in Quill and Quire, February 1992. Excerpted in Books in Canada, April 1992, pp. 16-21. Basis for a CBC interview on the program The Canadian Experience, aired July 19, 1992. Selected by the National Library as one of 21 Canadian books to be published in large print in 1994 as part of the National Library's Large Print Publishing Program. Available on cassette tape from the CNIB (RC 14139), narrated by Mary James.
1989: Ross, Catherine Sheldrick and Patricia Dewdney. Communicating Professionally. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1989. Second edition 1998.

Edited

1984: Recovering Canada's First Novelist: Proceedings from the John Richardson Conference. 1984 Erin, Ontario: Porcupine's Quill, Inc.

Chapters in books/ published conference proceedings:

1998: Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. "Finding without Seeking: What readers say about the role of pleasure-reading as a source of information." Presented at the Information Seeking in Context 2 (ISIC2) conference in Sheffield, UK, August 12-15, 1998. Conference Proceedings edited by Tom Wilson in press.; Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. "Making choices: What readers say about choosing books to read for pleasure" in Elaine G. Toms et al, eds, Information Science at the Dawn of the Next Millennium: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science. Ottawa: CAIS, 3-5 June, 1998. 107-124. An expanded version can be found in a theme issue on readers and readers advisory edited by Bill Katz for Acquisitions Librarian (forthcoming).

Contributions

1994: Readers Reading L.M. Montgomery. In Harvesting Thistles: The Textual Garden of L.M. Montgomery, Rubio, Mary H. Ed. Guelph: Canadian Children's Literature Press: 23-35.
1991: Biocritical introduction, Clark Blaise. In The Clark Blaise Papers. Calgary: University of Calgary Press: xiii-xxxi.

Other Publications

Papers Presented

1995: If they read Nancy Drew, so what?: Series book readers talk back. At American Library Association Conference, June, 1995, Chicago, IL.
1994: Readers Reading L.M. Montgomery. At L.M. Montgomery and her Works: An International Symposium, June, 1994, Charlottetown, PEI.
1994: Flying a light aircraft: Reference service evaluation from a user's viewpoint. ALISE Research Paper Award. At ALISE Conference, February, 1994, Los Angeles, CA.

Sundry

Articles

1986: Reference Interviewing Skills: Twelve Common Questions. Public Libraries: 7-9. Reprinted in Show-Me Libraries (June): 12-17. Reprinted in Bill Katz, ed. Reference and Information Services: A Reader for the Nineties 4th ed. (Metuchen: NJ and London: Scarecrow Press, 1991): 291-298.
1986: How to find out what people really want to know. The Reference Librarian, 16 (Winter 1986): 19-30. Also published in Reference Services Today: From Interview to Burnout, edited by Bill Katz and Ruth A. Fraley (New York: The Haworth Press, 1987).

Reviews

1996: A New Biography of Isabella Valancy Crawford. [Review of Elizabeth McNeill Galvin's Isabella Valancy Crawford: We Scarcely Knew Her] Canadian Poetry, 38: 148-152.
1994: Passing the Rereading Test: Some Recent Picture Books. [Review article on nine children's books] Canadian Children's Literature, 76: 80-84.
1993: Lucy and John [Review of Elizabeth Rollins Epperly's The Fragrance of Sweet-grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance and Michael Hurley's The Borders of Nightmare: The Fiction of John Richardson.] Canadian Literature, (Spring): 153-155.
1992: Taking Sides [Review of W.J. Keith's A Sense of Style and B. Rosporich's Dance of the Sexes: Art and Gender in Alice Munro's Fiction] Canadian Literature, (Spring): 216-218.
1991: [Review of Harriet Hawkin's Classics of Trash] Library Quarterly, (April): 240-241.

Television Scripts

1993: Lives of Girls and Women. A 28.5 minute script for the "Introduction to Literature" series, written and presented by Gedalof and Ross and filmed by TVO. Sold to and aired by educational TV in Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia since September 1994.

Catherine Ross