At various times, the Reference Round Table has published a newsletter to keep members informed about the group.The first Reference Round Table Newsletter was no. 1 (1 August 1968) and consisted of four pages. It was followed by no. 2 (1 February 1969) consisting of two pages. Maxine Johnston, Lamar Tech Library and RRT Chair, distributed these from Lamar Tech only to officers and committee members “to give them background on this year's activities and to let everyone know who is doing what”.

Evelyn Benton issued a one-page RRT Newsletter during her tenure as RRT Chair in 1972/73. It is undated and was printed in red type. It appeared before the 1973 annual conference, probably in January or February 1973, but potentially as early as December 1972. The issue focusses on the upcoming conference meeting, at which Evelyn Benton was planning to give an update on the Copyright Revision Bill. The meeting was to include a continental breakfast. RRT was co-sponsoring a booth with MEDLARS at the conference. Lois Bebout and the RRT Committee on Texas Reference Sources was working on the preliminary list of reference sources on Texas and a request for volunteers was included in the newsletter.

The next newsletter did not appear until Spring 1976. F.Y.I.----Reference Round Table Activities at the T.L.A. Conference, April, 1976 was a one-page mailing advertising the availability of Texas Reference Sources at the TLA booth and announcing upcoming RRT committee meetings and the business meeting and programs scheduled for the 1976 TLA Annual Conference. Lois Bebout, RRT Chair, appears to have been responsible for the production and mailing of F.Y.I.

Another one-page newsletter Reference Round Table News was published October 1977. The one page of five notices was accompanied by a copy of the proposed revision for the RRT bylaws and a postcard ballot with which to vote on their acceptance. At a meeting 22 July 1977 during the TLA Annual Assembly, $250 was budgeted for newsletter expenses. This amount was “to cover the cost of duplicating and mailing copies of the bylaws and a report from the Planning Committee and the cost of mailing a ballot on project priorities and bylaws changes”. The RRT Chairman’s annual report to the TLA President 28 February 1978 mentions the publication of an “informal newsletter” and comments that “response to it was quite favorable; perhaps this idea will be continued if RRT has more to report to its membership than can be handled in a publication such as Added Entries”.

The next RRT newsletter was published in Fall 1979. No copies have been located. The minutes of the Executive Board meeting 3 August 1979 mentions it was scheduled to be produced in late August or September and was to include notice of committee appointments, information on the Executive Board meeting, information on RRT affiliation with the RASD Council of State and Regional Groups, a copy of by-laws with a councilor election section added and an explanation for the change, a notice on Texas Reference Sources (including a change in editorship) and any other appropriate information sent in by members (especially notice of upcoming workshops). Norma J. Reger’s 1979/80 RRT Annual Report mentions publication of a five-page newsletter which was sent to four hundred and ninety-five RRT members, plus approximately twenty-five previous members who had not renewed their 1979 TLA memberships at that time. The newsletter was mailed in the latter part of October.

At the RRT Business Meeting 17 April 1980 during the TLA Annual Conference, a short survey was distributed including a question on options for the frequency of publishing an RRT newsletter. Preferences were for two issues of the newsletter per year: one in the fall and one in the spring before the annual conference. The general purpose of the newsletter was determined to be to announce conference plans, to provide information on what has transpired since the last annual conference, and to cover committee activities. The minutes indicate a fall issue was planned for early October and a spring issue for late February, but no copies of any issues for fall 1980 and spring 1981 have been located.

Minutes for the TLA Council meetings 24-25 July 1981 indicate that RRT notified the Council that a newsletter would be published by the unit. Spring newsletters were published in March 1982, March 1983, and March 1985, but no issue for 1984 and no fall issues for these years appear to have been published. These issues focus on information about the upcoming conference programs and business meetings, information about nominees for officer positions to be voted upon at the business meetings, minutes of meetings, bylaws changes, and committee activities. Responsibility for the 1982 and 1983 newsletters is not clearly identified. They share a common banner and format and each carries a signature of the RRT chair at the time (Dean Covington in 1982 and Linda M. Sellin in 1983). The 1985 issue does not use the banner of the previous two issues and mentions that the RRT Publications Committee chaired by Don Frank was charged with publishing the newsletter. Committee members included Lois Bebout, Lynne Hambric, John Russell, and Charles Smith (ex officio). No newsletter issues for 1986 and 1987 have been located nor are mentioned in existing records for the period and are therefore assumed not to have been published.

The Spring 1988 issue is the next extant installment in the series. It includes a “Report from the Chair”, information about the upcoming conference program, and a slate of nominees for election at the annual business meeting. No mention of responsibility for the newsletter is given.

The October 1988 issue is the first fall issue to be found since the 1980 indication that a fall issue was to be published in addition to the spring issue. Mary Ann Higdon (Texas Tech University) is identified as the editor for 1988/89. The issue includes a “Report from the Chair” and conference program information. It also includes the first mail-in election ballot: to select candidates for the 1989/90 Nominating Committee. In an article on the purpose of the newsletter, Mary Ann Higdon states that the “Reference Round Table Newsletter is to share information with members of the Round Table”. She solicited news items for the next edition, especially announcements of new personnel, job changes, new services at libraries, and brief reviews of new or unusual reference tools.

The March 1989 issue content follows the pattern of prior issues: a “Report from the Chair”, information about the upcoming program and business meeting, and a slate of candidates for election to office at the business meeting. No statement of editorship is made in this issue, but it is assumed Mary Ann Higdon was the editor, based on the notice in the previous issue.

No fall 1989 and spring 1990 issues of the newsletter were published. At the RRT Executive Board meeting 27 July 1990, John C. Hepner (Texas Woman’s University) was selected to edit the Reference Round Table Newsletter. Under his editorship the newsletter began its first extended run of fall and spring issues. The publication also began using RRT Newsletter as its title and was produced using word processing computer software.

Issues for Fall 1990 through May 1994 reflect an expanded scope. Information about conference programs, committee activities, awards, publications, excerpted minutes, and reports from the chair continued to dominate the content, but additional information about relevant activities in other TLA and ALA units also was included. At the 4 April 1990 RRT Business Meeting in Dallas, a bylaws amendment was approved allowing a mail ballot for electing RRT officers and the ballot began appearing as an insert in the fall RRT Newsletter with the October 1991 issue. Lists of RRT officers began to appear regularly. The newsletter also distributed the 1992 membership survey, a volunteer form and an advertisement for the fourth edition of Texas Reference Sources as inserts during this period.

At the 21 April 1994 RRT Executive Committee meeting, Nancy Snauffler (Houston Public Library) and Will Stuivenga (then at Southern Methodist University and shortly thereafter at Amigos Library Services, Inc.) were selected as co-editors of the RRT Newsletter. !n 1995, Ed Erazo was designated as Assistant Editor and his appointment was continued in 1996. He resigned from the position in 1997, but offered to be a contributing editor therafter. Also in 1995, the possibiity of having an elected editor and associate editor was considered but not approved by the Executive Board.

The extended run of the RRT Newsletter continued with the November 1994 issue through the June 1999 issue (delayed due to technical problems). Electronic publishing software was introduced for the layout of the newsletter. Short feature articles by RRT members also began to be included. Consideration of electronic distribution and archiving of the RRT Newsletter began in 1998. The creation of the RRT webpages in 1997 provided a potential venue for posting the newsletter on the internet. Selected items (“articles of more permanent value”) from the Spring 1996 through Fall 1997 issues were posted on the RRT website in HTML format. The Fall 1997 printed issue was erroneously dated "November 1998". Announcements and some news items from the printed copies were eliminated from the web versions. The complete Fall 1998 issue was posted in PDF format on the RRT website, initiating full-image electronic access to the newsletter on the Internet. The June 1999 spring issue was not posted to the RRT website in either format. The June 1999 issue ended an uninterrupted run of the RRT Newsletter.

In 1998, guidelines for the newsletter were drafted by Will Stuivenga and approved 2 April by the Executive Board. The guidelines called for each issue to contain a list of RRT officers, the standard newsletter publishing information with a copyright notice, the URL for the RRT webpages, and a Chair's column. Each issue also could include an Editor's column and articles from contributing editors. The primary focus of the fall issue would be looking forward to the TLA Annual Conference and recapping the Executive Board actions at the prior TLA Annual Assembly. The fall issue would contain the RRT election ballot and candidate information, a call for the Texas Reference Source Award nominations, a call for volunteers for the RRT booth and/or other activities at the annual conference, and an announcement describing the program planned for the next annual conference. The primary purpose of the spring issue would be to review and report on the annual conference. The issue would report actions of the Executive Board and/or membership during the annual conference, contain a call for Lois Bebout Award nominations, an announcement of newly elected officers, and an announcement of any RRT members chosen to participate in Tall Texans. These guidelines assumed a publication of the spring issue after the annual conference, but actual practice often has been to publish the issue before the annual conference, so the guidelines for the spring issue have not always been followed very closely. The fall issue has rarely included a call for RRT booth or conference activity volunteers, primarily because the booth scheduling generally has not been addressed so long before the actual conference date. Contributing editors have never been designated as part of the newsletter staff, so regular articles from them haven't actually been a part of the newsletter. Short feature articles by RRT members have been included.

Consideration of electronic distribution and archiving of the RRT Newsletter began in 1998. At the 12 July 1999 RRT Executive Board meeting, one proposed potential distribution option involved emailing a PDF version of the newsletter in addition to mailing print versions. The PDF version would include a survey for feedback on this option. A concern about how ballots would be handled in a PDF version of the newsletter was raised, but electronic distribution of the ballot was seen as possibly increasing response. A list of email addresses for RRT members would need to be acquired from TLA headquarters for electronic distribution. A trial of this option was authorized but never actually took place due to the loss of Will Stuivenga as editor when he moved to Oregon in September.

No fall 1999 issue of the newsletter was produced. In December 1999, John Hepner was asked to serve as editor of the newsletter again. He agreed to do so and produced a Spring 2000 issue. Because no Fall 1999 issue had been produced, the mail-in ballot for officer elections was included in this issue. This and the Fall 2000 issues of the newsletter were formatted to post on the RRT website in both Word and PDF formats, but delays in updating the website postponed this posting.

Distribution of the newsletter in electronic format continued to be discussed. One potential problem to be overcome was the fact that at least one-fourth of the RRT membership did not have email addresses identified in the TLA membership files. It was hoped that electronic distribution could eliminate print distribution completely. One option being considered to accomplish this was to post the newsletter on the RRT website and send an email message to members giving the URL for the issue. Once again election ballot concerns were addressed. The proposed development of an RRT listserv for members was considered as possibly precluding the need to produce a newsletter altogether. In April 2001, John Hepner acquired a list of email addresses for RRT members from the TLA Office and sent out a questionnaire to everyone on the list requesting preferences for receipt of the newsletter. Options included receiving email notification with a URL for the newsletter in either PDF or HTML formats with or without a paper copy and receiving only a paper copy of the newsletter. The overwhelming response favored receipt of the URL for an electronic copy only.

At the July 2001 RRT Executive Board meeting, it was decided to adopt electronic distribution to all RRT members with email addresses and print distribution only to RRT members without email addresses. Members scheduled for electronic distribution would receive an email notice with links to both a PDF and an HTML version of the newsletter. The notification for the fall issue would highlight the fact that the election ballot was included and could be printed out and mailed.

Also discussed were the publishing schedule and the existing guidelines for the newsletter. It was decided to keep the present publishing schedule of a fall issue and an early spring issue (prior to the annual conference). The existing guidelines for the newsletter were suspended pending revision to reflect the current publishing schedule.

At the 25 April 2002 RRT Executive Board meeting, John Hepner reported that 482 RRT members had opted for email distributiion of the newsletter and that the electronic version was available on the RRT website long before the print version was mailed. Email from RRT members and hit statistics confirmed that the online version of the newsletter was being read.

New guidelines for the RRT Newsletter were presented and approved at the RRT Executive Board meeting during Annual Assembly in July 2002.

Atr the 4 April 2003 RRT Executive Board meeting, John Hepner suggested that during the next Annual Assembly meeting the Board reconsider publishing the newsletter online only. It had been two years since the membership had been surveyed about their preferences for print or electronic distribution. Only 200 copies of each issue currently were being mailed and these required more expensive first-class postage because a minimum of 500 were required to qualify for the TLA bulk rate. At the subsequent meeting, it was decided to continue with the current arrangement.

By the 11 July 2004 Executive Board meeting, John reported that only 25 members were requesting to receive print copies of the newsletter, costing RRT approximately $5 annually for each of the print subscribers. After some discussion, John moved and Mary Crocker seconded that the newsletter be published in both formats for only one year longer and then convert to electronic distribution only. During discussion, Tina Oswald noted that TLA was encouraging units to move to electronic publishing of newsletters. With the adoption of the motion, John agreed to begin notifying the RRT membership about the change.

A notice about the upcoming change was published in the Fall 2004 issue of RRT Newsletter. It noted that the Spring 2005 issue would be the last one distributed in print form. The subsequent Spring 2005 issue included that it was the last one to be distributed to any members in print format.

Beginning with the Fall 2005 issue, the RRT Newsletter became available only electronically on the RRT website. Notice of each issue's availability was announced through the RRT member listserv after each issue was loaded onto the RRT website.

As a TLA 2002 Centennial project, scanned copies converted to PDF format of all existing issues of the newsletter, except those already available in PDF or HTML format, were to have been posted to the RRT website to provide a complete archive of all issues of the newsletter since its inception, with the exception of a few issues for which no print copies had been located. Due to limitations on TLA file space and the inordinate size of the files, it was not possible to post the entire archive at that time. However, issues were rescanned in 2007 - reducing file sizes - and, with the increased storage capacity of the TLA website, the archive was finally mounted, giving members access to the complete file of existing issues.