The Fall 2009 CINF E-News is now available

When I first edited the CINF E-News in 1999 it was only available to members of the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information. I think about 2005 the executive committee of the division decided to make it open access. So if any readers of Bruce at the NJIT Library are interested, it is available at http://www.acscinf.org. I thank all the authors who made contributions to it.

I attended the METRO Annual Meeting Yesterday

Yesterday I attended the METRO annual meeting held at the SUNY College of Optometry l;ocated on 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. I arrived a little early so I walked around the area which was my stomping ground from 1983-90 when I worked at the Science and Technology Division of the New York Public Library. There were certainly many new buildings in the vicinity since I had left NYPL 19 years ago. There was scaffolding around NYPL, so I assumed the facade of the building was being cleaned.

I checked in at 1:30 and took at tour of the Harold Kohn Vision Science Library. Until 2000 the City University of New York Graduate Center was in that building. I organized a careers in chemical information workshop held in that building in November 1989.

The METRO meeting became with welcoming remarks from Executive Director Dottie Hiebing and Dr. David Heath, President of the SUNY College of Optometry. A member of the Staff of State Senator Thomas Duane accepted an award for his advocacy of libraries.

The keynote speaker was John Blyberg, Assistant Director for Innovation and User Experience at the Darien, Ct. Public Library. The title of his talk was Getting Out of the Weeds: Understanding and Managing an Ecology of Information. His Powerpoint of this talk may be viewed at http://slideshare.net/jblyberg.

ASTM Standards Day at the NJIT Library

While I was scheduled at the reference desk this morning, I received 3 questions about ASTM Standards. We have the print not the electronic version. The latter costs more and would have to be renewed every year. 2006 is the latest set of ASTM standards we own. One of the three questions was about a standard that appeared in the 2007 edition. The patron had to order it through interlibrary loan.

Congratulations to 2009 Service Awards Recipients

At 3 PM today there will be a reception recognizing the long time service of NJIT employees who have reched milestone anniversaries. The following library employees will be honored and receive service pins:

• Lucy Velez - 10 years
• Roz Yates - 15 years
• Doreen Mettle - 20 years

Back to Editing the CINF E-News

CINF is the acronym used for the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information. I am the founding editor of the CINF E-News which is an electronic publication of the division which is issued about 6-8 weeks after the ACS National meeting to advise the membership of the lastest activities. I was the editor from 1999-2005. The current editor had some pressing work and personal commitments and couldn't work on the issue, so the Chair of the Division asked me if I could edit the current issue. I am working on it.

Recalling My Library Training

Back when I was in Russell Sage Junior High School (Fall 1961 - Spring 1964) we went to the library once a week. We would get a lesson in how to use the card catalog (no computers in those days) or the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature to find information. I received no library instruction at Forest Hills High School (1964 - 1967), City College of New York (1967-72) and the University of Rhode Island (1972-74). If I had to write a paper, I intuitively had to learn the research techniques. I remember I had to rewrite my bibliography for my MS thesis in chemistry since my references were formatted incorrectly. I did not receive any training in how to use published resources until I enrolled in the Pratt Institute School of Library and Information Science in 1979. Times have certainly changed.

Research Question of the Day

On of the university administrators came into see me today about a research project. The topic was the correlation between social cohesion and urban populations. I showed her how to search this topic in Scopus and PubMed Medline. She showed me some key papers that she had already found on this topic. I demonstrated how to retrieve the papers in Scopus and to then find the papers citing those significant publications.

Statement from an Exemplary Graduate Student

Mr. Patel (not his real name) dropped by the reference desk this evening just to say hello. In all my years as a reference library Patel is easily the most information competent student that I've met. We always frown inwardly when we get the simple and mundane reference or directional question, but when Patel comes around he always has an intelligent question. His major is electrical engineering, but his research topics are on the border of chemistry, solid state physics, and electronics. He is quite adept at searching the major databases and asks questions about the advanced features. Working with him is indeed a pleasure.

Tonight I asked Mr. Patel if he ever took any classes in how to use the databases. He said he had never taken a class given by one of the librarians at NJIT. Think about that. I won't comment any further.

MyMetro Meeting tonight

The meeting tonight was about career development for librarians and seeking continuing education that could help a librarian improve his/her position or find a new one. The convener Rachel King introduced the panelists:

• Ellen Mehling - Queensborough Public Library
• Sheila Sterling - Law Librarian
• Alice Flynn - Program Director of the Palmer School of Library and Information in Manhattan

All three spoke about their job histories. They had to make career moves involutary as almost everyone must do these days. They suggested that librarians reinvent themselves through continuing education. We should build upon skills that we already have. We should be flexible and enthusiastic about learning new skills. It was suggested that people follow job ads to see what skills that employers are seeking.

Reference Question of the Day

A student was looking for information on ethical issues relating to genetically modified food. I was able to find information for her from the following databases:

• Academic Search Premier
• Scopus
• Lexis Nexis
• Omnifile

New Format for this Journal

Please comment if you:

• Like this new format
• Dislike the format
• Are indifferent

I never know the impact of this journal since I rarely get comments

Career Day at NJIT

When I see students in business attire and a crowd around the printer in the information commons it can only mean that today is Career Day organized by Career Development Services. It is always difficult for any graduate to get his/her first professional position, but these are very difficult times. There seems to be some improvement in the economic picture, but every month there are more layoffs announced. Thus hiring must be very slow in almost every industry. So I wish every NJIT graduate well in their search for a position.

More on the H Index

The H index was discussed in this journal before. One particular professor is being considered for tenure and is obviously anxious about it. In yesterday's entry I mentioned that he asked me to compare his H index to his departmental colleagues. Only one full and one distinguished professor had higher values in the Web of Science or Scopus. The values were higher in the Web of Science since its covers more older journals. Today I did a literature search in Academic Search Premier to find articles that documented the use of the H index in evaluating the prestige of scientists. I found several papers that documented that.

If any librarians reading this journal are interested, I can e-mail the pdfs of the good papers. You can reach me at Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu .

Random Thoughts of the Day

1. We are almost finished with the Research Roadmaps given to students of Humanities 101. Only 5 people came to my class today, although there are about 150 students who have not attended. I have classes scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday.

2. I received a phone call from a professor concerned about his cited reference count as he is being evaluated for tenure. A very recent paper of his was cited, but he is concerned that the databases we use (Scopus, Web of Science, and Scifinder Scholar) won't pick it up. He is also concerned that the databases and journals often misspell his name. He asked me to compare his H index with that of colleagues in his department. Cited references are only one criterion that the committee uses in granting or denying tenure. Politics is often a major factor.

3. Many of my previous employers were closed on Columbus Day, but NJIT has always been open. I can't complain since we get Fridays off over the summer. The subways and bus were significantly less crowded making the commute easier.

Congratulations to Professor Kamalesh Sirkar

Yesterday Professor Kamalesh Sirkar, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at NJIT, received the prestigious Excellence in Research Prize and Medal presented by the New Jersey Institute of Technology Board of Overseers. He is an internationally known expert in membrane separations. He holds 25 patents and is the author of 156 refereed articles and 18 book chapters.

Every year I do a search to determine how many publications cite his works. In January 2009 there were 4655 papers citing his work. For more information about Dr. Sirkar please go to http://www.njit.edu/overseersmedal

I certainly offer him a hearty congratulations.

October 7, 2009 Snapshot: One Day in the Life of NJ Libraries

The New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) launched a project called Snapshot: One day in the life of New Jersey Libraries to capture the impact that New Jersey libraries have on their communities on a typical day.

Our adminstrative assistant Lucy Velez took a picture of me teaching a section of the Research Roadmaps.

The Pubget Database is now available through the NJIT Library

Pubget is a search engine for PDFs in the life sciences. It indexes nearly 20 million life science research documents, including those in PubMed®. You search it like you would PubMed or Google Scholar. The difference is Pubget gets you the PDF right away. Pubget solves the problem of full-text document access in life science research. Instead of search results linking to papers, with Pubget's proprietary technology, the search results ARE the papers. Once you find the papers you want, you can save, manage and share them—all online.

The NJIT version is configured to feature journals that are used by the Biomedical Engineering Department. Users may establish an account and customize the list of journals

2 unrelated thoughts of the day - Twitter and Handshake

Twitter was the major topic of the last two library meetings that I have attended. My question concerns the cost/benefit analysis of using Twitter. There is no financial cost to a person or organization who uses Twitter, but time is money. It seems that some people use an extensive amount of time just tweeting away. Has the use of Tweeter improved library service? Can this be justified to management? How many hours a week do librarian tweeters spend doing their thing?

The NJIT Library including myself is involved in the Research Roadmaps. There was one student in this morning's class who seemed especially interested and asked several questions during my lecture. At the end of the lecture he thanked me and shook my hand. I've received some handshakes after long reference transactions, but not after a class.