Friday, August 11, 2017

Opening for Associate University Librarian at NJIT



Associate University Librarian for Digital Services at NJIT

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) seeks applications and nominations for the position of Associate University Librarian for Digital Services.

Position Summary:
The Associate University Librarian (AUL) for Digital Services is the chief technology officer for the university libraries. The AUL reports to the University Librarian and has overall responsibility for the management, operations, and direction of technical services, including: collection budget, acquisitions, cataloging, and metadata creation; digital initiatives including digitization projects, preservation, and scholarly communication; and library information systems.

Qualifications Summary:
The ideal candidate must possess an ALA-accredited MLS/MLIS or equivalent degree; a minimum of five years of administrative experience including responsibilities in staff management, technical services, digital and information systems in an academic library, with demonstrated ability to lead, evaluate and direct staff through organizational change. Candidates must also have a track record of demonstrated leadership, strong analytical and decision-making skills, with the capacity to anticipate and adapt to priorities and the changing needs of an academic library.

University Libraries:
The Robert W. Van Houten Library, NJIT’s university library, houses a core collection of print books, group study rooms and has an Information Commons computer lab with more than 120 computer workstations and wireless access throughout the building. The Barbara and Leonard Littman Architecture, Art and Design Library, a branch of the university library, maintains a core collection of architecture, art, and design resources. The Libraries have a staff of 24, who are committed to developing innovations in access services, information literacy, and digital initiatives. The Libraries operate with a budget of $4.4 million and spend over 90% of the materials budget to acquire electronic resources for anytime, anywhere access. The collection comprises over 390,000 volumes with 34 full-text databases, over 55,000 electronic journals, 168,000 ebooks, and 222,000 physical holdings.

Application Procedure:
Apply at https://njit.jobs, posting #0604065.  In addition to a cover letter and vitae, candidates are asked to submit a one-page summary of their vision for an evolving digital and technology strategy to provide 21st century library resources and services in support of 2020 Vision: A Strategic Plan for NJIT.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a candidate is selected. Only candidates of interest will be contacted.

To build a diverse workforce, NJIT encourages applications from individuals with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and women. EEO employer. 

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Random Comments for July

3 of the last 4 research consultations that I gave were to high school students in the summer programs here.  They all seemed to be very enthusiastic about learning how to use information resources.  I was concerned that high school students could not understand the technical details in a journal article.  One student was interested in finding thermodynamic properties of fluorinated compounds.  Another was researching high-temperature superconductors.

This summer we made the transition to version 2 of Libguides.  There was somewhat of a learning curve, but there is more flexibility in the new version.

We are also revising the library's website.  There is some redundancy so some pages should be removed.

Before you know it, classes will resume.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Why Do Students Prefer Google Scholar?

It seems that students love Google Scholar.  Let me relate an incident to you about a chemical engineering student who was referred to me by his professor.  I showed the student how to do his search on a topic related to nanotechnology in Scifinder and Scopus.  After this was completed he told me he had already done the search in Google Scholar.  He said that he attended my seminar last fall when I discussed the subscription-based databases.  I looked into my records and saw that just after the seminar he opened a Scifinder account, but apparently never used it.


Go figure!

Friday, June 16, 2017

Congratulations to David McMillan on Receiving His Doctorate in History


I met David McMillan in February 2001 when he worked as a temporary librarian at NJIT for about 3 months.  Since then he has moved on and has worked at a number of public and college libraries.  In 2009 he started to pursue a doctorate of history at Drew University.  After 8 years of hard work he defended his dissertation today and received his Doctor of Letters degree.

Hearty congratulations to Dave and I wish him well in all his professional endeavors.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Bruce Slutsky's Publication List May 2017

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2017). Authorship Trends of Research Articles Published in Seven Scientific, Technical, Engineering, and Medical (STEM) Library Journals: Analysis of STEM Library Research from 2011–2015. Science & Technology Libraries, 36(2), 114-134


Slutsky, B., & Aytac, S. (2016). Bibliometric Analysis and Comparison of Two STEM LIS Journals: Science & Technology Libraries and Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (2005–2014). Science & Technology Libraries, 35(2), 152-171. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2016.1171191

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2015). Research in Academic Reference Librarianship: Review of the 2008–2012 Published Research. The Reference Librarian, 56(3), 205-215. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/02763877.2014.1002730


Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2014). Published Librarian Research, 2008 through 2012: Analyses and Perspectives. Collaborative Librarianship, 6(4), 147-159.


Slutsky, B., & Aytac, S. (2014). Publication Patterns of Science, Technology, and Medical Librarians: Review of the 2008–2012 Published Research. Science and Technology Libraries, 33(4), 369-382. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2014.952486


Osorio, N. L., Slutsky, Bruce. (2012). A Tribute and BioBibliometric Study of Ellis Mount, the First Editor-in-Chief of Science & Technology Libraries. Science and Technology Libraries, 31(4), 394-411. doi: 10.1080/0194262x.2012.730385

Slutsky, B. (1993). Communicating Science to the Public: An Address to Non-Science Librarians. The Reference Librarian(No. 40), 73-87

Slutsky, B. (1991). The American Chemical Society Career Consultants Program. The Indicator, 72(8), 24
.
Slutsky, B. (1991). A Careers in Chemical Information Workshop. Journal of Chemical Education, 68(1), 43-45.

Slutsky, B. (1991). How to Avoid Science Anxiety Among Science Librarians. Science and Technology Libraries, 12(1), 11-19.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Asksam in the New York Public Libary. In M. Fox (Ed.), Exploring Asksam (pp. 43-58). New York: Future Communications Systems.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Informed Career Choices. Chemical and Engineering News, 68(2), 3.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Other Chemical Information Careers. Chapter One, 4(3), 32.

Slutsky, B. (1989). A Chemical Abstracts Training Seminar for Science Librarians. Science and Technology Libraries, 10(1), 55-76.

Lamb, F. A., Cote, Philip N., Slutsky, Bruce, Vitimberga, Bruno M. (1974). Reduction of 9 - (p-methoxyphenyl)-9-fluorenylacetaldhyde on activated alumina. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 39(18). doi: 10.1021/jo00932a026

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

New Publication

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2017). Authorship Trends of Research Articles Published in Seven Scientific, Technical, Engineering, and Medical (STEM) Library Journals: Analysis of STEM Library Research from 2011–2015. Science & Technology Libraries, 1-21. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2017.1323070

It has not yet been placed in an issue of this journal

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Ann Hoang is Appointed University Librarian at NJIT


Personally, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ann on her appointment to University Librarian at NJIT.  She has been interim University Librarian since the untimely death of Richard Sweeney last May.  She did an excellent job especially since there were several long-term absences of key people over the last year. I was impressed when she attended two of my graduate student seminars in chemical engineering and physics.  I certainly wish her success in her new role.

Below is the announcement made by Provost Fadi Deek:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ann D. Hoang to the position of University Librarian, effective July 1, 2017. She has served as interim University Librarian for the past year.

Ms. Hoang has been serving as the Assistant University Librarian at NJIT since December 2006, where her responsibilities have included initiatives related to open source library management systems with other NJ academic libraries and overall library management. Her emphasis has been on library user satisfaction, systems and technology infrastructure, workflow design analysis, and service and process evaluation. Ms. Hoang is a current member of the American Library Association (ALA), Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) and serves on the LibraryLinkNJ Website Advisory Taskforce.  Ms. Hoang is also an active participant in the Virtual Academic Library Environment of NJ and her contributions to the VALID project were recognized when she received the Technology Innovation Award in 2013.

Ms. Hoang has gained administrative experience in positions of increasing responsibility, from Reference and Materials Delivery Coordinator to Library Supervisor at Rutgers University; from Manager of Information Commons and Library Systems to Associate Director at Brookdale Community College; to Assistant University Librarian, and to interim University Librarian at NJIT. In these positions, she has been actively involved in budget management, library technology development, staff hiring and evaluation and forward-thinking concepts related to the future of academic libraries.

Ms. Hoang earned a master’s degree in Business Administration, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and a bachelor’s degree in Economics, all from Rutgers University.

Please join me in congratulating Ann Hoang as University Librarian.
Thank you,