The Federal Government Shutdown and Library Services

Tomorrow I will be teaching a class on how to find physical and thermodynamic properties of chemical substances.  One of the resources that I demonstrate is the NIST Webbook.  To my dismay I found out that this site is not working due to the federal government shutdown.  Today a student approached me with an environmental question.  To my surprise the EPA's main website was functioning.

Go figure.

The Next METRO Science Librarians SIG meeting will be Monday November 4

The next meeting of the METRO Science Librarians SIG will take place on Monday November 4 at 1:30 PM at METRO Headquarters at 57 East 11^th Street – 4^th floor in Manhattan.  The Program will be:

How to Find Chemical Information from Scifinder and other Sources.  The speaker will be Daniel Reasoner from Chemical Abstracts Service.  This session is suited for science and medical librarians without an educational background in chemistry.

Visit http://metro.org/events/426/ for more information and registration.

For this meeting there will be a nominal $5.00 registration fee that may be paid in advance or at the door.

For further information please contact:

Bruce Slutsky

Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu

Teaching Students of Organic Chemistry How to Find Information on Chemical Substances

For the first time in all my years at NJIT I taught students of organic chemistry how to use information resources.  I am really going boing to my roots in getting into the profession of science librarianship.  When I worked as a laboratory chemist I used the printed Chemical Abstracts to look up preparations of target molecules.  I didn’t use online databases until I worked as an information scientist in the pharmaceutical industry in 1979.  Obviously, information technology has changed quite a bit since then.

The professor only allowed me 40 minutes to do my lecture.  The students were instructed to look at my Libguide in chemistry and chemical engineering (http://researchguides.njit.edu/chemistry) before the class.  I did not use my standard powerpoint, but suggested that the students view it after my lecture.  I started out by covering the nature of a scientific journal and the peer review process.  The students will be assigned a molecule and be required to find an article on either preparation or isolation from a natural source.  They must also find an article on general properties and one on biological properties.

With that thought in mind, I brought the Merck Index and had students pick out two substances at random that I would use for demonstration purposes.  I demonstrated:

• Scifinder
• Scopus
• Pubchem
• Chemspider
• Wikipedia

I showed them how to find information on those substances from those 5 sources.  At the end of the lecture there were no questions.  I hope I succeeded.

Some Thoughts Before the New Academic Year Starts

August is almost over as we are thinking about the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester at NJIT.  There is a Greek Village and a new Honors College Dormitory opening the semester.  Students started to move in yesterday.   The Central King Building is in the process of being renovated.  The student body is growing with new programs throughout the various colleges within NJIT.

There were some changes in the library this summer as we completed the inventory project.  Many outdated and damaged books were removed from the collection.  We also moved the reference collection from to the second floor where current periodicals were once housed.  There are now so few periodicals received in paper.

The new students seem to be getting younger, but they are the same age.  I am getting older.  We’ll get the same old directional questions, but there was a time (21 years ago already) when I was new to NJIT and did not know my way around.  I do sense that the number of reference questions will continue to decline.  In my opinion the reference desk should be closed as a public service point with the circulation staff directing appropriate questions to the librarians in their offices.

Time moves forward as nothing stays the same

The New York City Department of Education Does Not Value Librarians

I am commenting on this article that appeared in the WallStreet Journal  that was also reported last night on New York 1 News.  It is quite sad that the New York City Department of Education does not value librarians.  The article reports that there are only 333 certified librarians in city schools down from 399 only four years ago and not all of them are working as librarians. 17 librarians are employed as substitute teachers instead of being laid off.  Schools with 700 or more students must have a full-time librarian, while middle or high schools with 100 – 300 students are required to have a part-time librarian.  However, the Department of Education is asking the state to waive those requirements stating advances in technology are making it harder to retain librarians.

I guess that even early on students use Google and Wikipedia and are not aware of more sophisticated research and fact finding techniques.  I also surmise that print and electronic resources are inadequate in high schools as they often are in universities.

I recall in the early 1960s at JHS 190 Queens we had one period a week when we visited the school library.  The librarian taught us to use the card catalog and the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature.  Back in elementary school, we would occasionally walk over to the local branch of the Queensborough Public Library (QBL).  I never used the Forest Hills High School library as I would take the subway to the main branch of QBL in Jamaica to do my assignments.

In the future, will university administrators take the same attitude as the NYC Department of Education toward librarians?  I certainly hope not.

My Favorite NJIT Student is Moving On

After 6 years as a doctoral student my favorite student is finally moving on from NJIT.  Since I would rather not reveal his name on a public web site I will refer to him as Mr. Patel.  He was a student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering although his research was in the physics of quantum/nano-scale phenomena.  Throughout his time at NJIT he actively sought me out for advice on how to use information resources to support his research.  Although Mr. Patel never attended an information literacy lecture, he is the most information competent individual I have encountered in all my years as a librarian.  He knew to use the databases and not to “Google” to find information.

After his doctoral thesis defense, he approached for advice on how to look for a professional position.  I wish he had started looking earlier, but in the long run things worked out for him.  When a brief search for an industrial position failed, I suggested he pursue a post-doctoral fellowship.  With great pleasure, I wrote letters of recommendation for him.  I am pleased to say that he accepted a post doc at the College of Nanoscience and Engineering at SUNY Albany.  I obviously wish him well as he assumes this position and certainly hope he does not fall into the “post doc” trap and just moves from one temporary position to another.

In my 21 years at NJIT I have seen thousands of students come and go.  Most of them never needed the services of a reference librarian.  I will sorely miss Mr. Patel as he moves forward in life.

The New York Public Library is Being Sued to Stop Renovations

An organization called Advocates for Justice is suing the New York Public Library to stop renovations at the famous building at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.   This organization accuses the library of violating its charter and the state’s Constitution by dismantling seven floors of stacks and removing books from the site.

In my opinion NYPL is doing the right thing by moving into the future and not staying in the past.  Libraries are no longer a depository for printed resources.  When I worked at the Science and Technology Division from 1983-1990 I observed layers of dust on miles and miles of stacks implying that much material had not been used in decades.

NYPL is certainly not discarding any volumes as they will be moved to a remote storage facility and may be accessed by interested researchers.  This renovation plan will be a benefit for all library users and in the long run will also help NYPL save money.