Next METRO Science Librarian SIG Meeting on Special Projects for Data Librarians Thursday December 11 1:30 PM

The Next Meeting will be:

Thursday December 11, 1:30 PM at METRO Headquarters:

57  East 11th Street - 4th Floor
New York, NY

There will be two presentations focused on special projects for data librarians in academia:

1.  New York University librarians Samantha Guss, Him Mistry, and Andrew Battista will discuss Spatial Data Repository at NYU. They'll focus on the genesis of this project, as well as the infrastructure, considerations, and future plans for their repository

2. Minglu Wang and Bonnie Fong from Rutgers University will discuss their initiative to provide mandatory data management training for graduate students of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department.

To register http://metro.org/events/register/571/pre/

For further information, please contact Bruce Slutsky

More Frustrations With Information Literacy

Many times the professor does not come to the information literacy training session.  Sometimes an excuse is given, but often the professor doesn't come in and doesn't give a reason.  How can we expect the students to be interested, when their professor is not.

When I give a class to students of freshman English, I generally lecture for 40 minutes or so and then give the students time to work on their projects.  If the professor is not there, the students leave.  When the regular teacher stays, the students either do work for other classes or surf the web for fun.

A few months ago I gave a class for physics graduate student with the professor who coordinates the seminars in the room.  This individual constantly sends me e-mail asking if the library has specific items.  Certainly a faculty member should know the basics of locating materials in the library.  Even after this training this person still e-mails me with basic questions.  I guess he just doesn't want to be bothered.

Random Comments About Information Literacy in the Fall 2014 Semester

I haven’t written much for this blog so here goes with some random comments about teaching information literacy.

I still feel the “substitute teacher mentality” with students and information literacy.  Back in our elementary school days it was party time when a substitute teacher came in.  I think many students see a librarian coming to their class as an outsider and don’t take the lecture seriously.

Today I taught my class in how to find physical and thermodynamic properties of chemical substances.  A student sitting right in front of me was actually sleeping during the lecture.  I could understand if he was in the back, but isn’t it insulting when he dozed off right in front of the teacher.

A few weeks ago I taught a class to some graduate students in physics.  The professor had coffee and cake for the students.  During the talk nobody asked questions, but several students approached me after the talk while eating.  I guess they prefer to ask their questions privately.