Happy Holidays

I wish all readers of this blog a happy and healthy holiday season and new year. The NJIT Library will be open on Christmas Eve from 7:30 AM until 4:45 PM, but will close from December 25th until January 3rd.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by my job-related blog. It will go on hiatus until the NJIT Library reopens on January 4th.

If you are interested you may read my personal journal at http://www.bruceslutsky.com

Information Literacy Skills for students of Environmental Policy

I had asked a professor who teaches EPS 202, Science Technology and the Environment, to send me sample copies of papers that were submitted this past semester. The topics were:

• Wind Energy
• How to Reduce One's Environment Footprint

I did not want to evaluate the quality of the actual paper, but to observe how the students formatted the references. The papers were satisfactory for undergraduates. A few were a little too concise, but did answer the questions. The actual sources used were appropriate but were usually formatted incorrectly. Here are some of the problems that I observed:

• Students cited articles obtained from Science Direct and Scopus as web sites.
• A student cited chapters within a research level monograph as a complete book
• Three students neglected to state the articles he used were retrieved from a database

From examining papers submitted in two classes it appears that students in advanced courses forget what they have learned in the Research Roadmaps taught at the freshman level. I think we need to develop handouts to review the proper way to cite and types of reference used in a research paper.

NJIT Library Holiday Party at Seabra's Rodizio

Last Friday the NJIT Library staff had our annual holiday luncheon. This year we picked Seabra's Rodizio in Newark. Your's truly is enjoying his lunch with Richard Sweeney, University Librarian.

Information Literacy in Environmental Engineering

We teach information literacy skills in the introductory course Humanities 101 with the hope that these skills would be carried over to future courses that students take at NJIT. We are obviously a tech school so nobody comes here to major in English literature, but the information gathering skills obtained in that course should be applied when students write papers in science and engineering courses later in the curriculum. I gave a lecture to ENE 262, Introduction to Environmental Engineering. The students worked in teams to write papers on the following topics:

• Differences between bottled and tap water
• Disinfection of drinking water
• State of the art in landfill design
• Carbon Footprints of Transportation Vehicles
• Reuse of water

When I analyzed the papers for use of information literacy skills, I made the following observations:

• Although I stressed the use of Scopus and Scifinder Scholar when I lectured, the use of these databases seemed to be minimal

• Most students did use web sites instead of peer reviewed journals

• Most of the web sites in the bibliographies were from government agencies.

• One student listed two books in his bibliography that were not found in the NJIT Library catalog. When I checked those books in Worldcat, I found out that they were classified as juvenile literature.

• Several students thought that Science Direct, a database, was the name of a journal

• Most of the citations to web sites were not formatted correctly.

I think these observations will be helpful in revising the Research Roadmaps in the future. We have to teach students the difference between a journal and a database. We also need to handout information reviewing the proper way to cite sources in advanced information literacy classes.

Planning the 2010 New Jersey Chemistry Olympics

Late this afternoon I attended a meeting in the Chemistry Department with Borislaw Bilash and other New Jersey high school chemistry teachers to plan the 2010 Chemistry Olympics which will be held Wednesday May 19 at NJIT. I will again be the judge for the Information Search. This year students will bring a model of a molecule of an antiviral drug on the day of the event. They will also have 25 minutes to use the published literature to get answers to questions posed to them about antivirals. It has been a rewarding experience doing this over the years.

Article in the current issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship

Preparing Science Librarians for Success: An Evaluation of Position Advertisements and Recommendations for Library Science Curricula

http://www.istl.org/09-fall/article1.html

Some points made:

• Only 40% required a subject specific bachelors degree, except 83% of all chemistry positions did


• Only 29% required a 2nd masters degree or PhD (I have observed that to get tenure a librarian must get a 2nd masters degree, thus many entry level librarians are seeking that degree


• There is no consensus in the literature as to whether a science background should be required for a science librarian position.

University Wide Holiday Party Today

Today I attended my 18th university holiday party. A few weeks ago we got a memo from the Vice President of Human Resources advising us that the party would be scaled down this year. We have to understand that since the university budget has been cut in all areas. There was less food this year than there was for earlier parties. It was nice to see people that we don't encounter regularly in our daily work.

Two Meetings at the Dana Library Yesterday

The Newark campus of Rutgers University is literally across the street from NJIT. Yesterday I had two meetings at the Dana Library there. The morning meeting was with the VALE reference services committee. We discussed the results of a survey that was distributed to the member libraries. This was in preparation for a presentation at the annual meeting on January 8th.

In the afternoon the reference librarians at NJIT met with Haipeng Li and Bob Nahory of the Dana staff to discuss a grant proposal for developing a diverse science librarianship program in New Jersey. The proposed program will seek support from the Laura Bush 21st Century Program at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to recurit and prepare 20 science librarians in a new science librarianship certificate program.

When Acronyms Don't Work

Would anybody search Intrenational Business Machines when wanting information about IBM? Likewise does anyone know that NBC stands for the Natioanl Broadcasting Company? Last night a student said he had a problem finding the company profile of the automaker BMW in Business Source Premier. It turns out that this company is listed under the German name Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. So I found out that acronyms don't work all the time.

METRO meeting on ICT Digital Literacy

Today, I attended a meeting at METRO about ICT Literacy in Libraries given by Kathryn Shaughnessy of St. John’s University. ICT is an acronym for information and communication technology. Let me use this journal entry to summarize the notes that I took. Kathy set up the following page for this workshop:

http://delicious.com/tag/metro/tag/metro_ict_literacy

Information literacy (IL) teaches students how to become researchers. However, IL is compounded by changes in technology. We are now in the era of Web 2.0 which allows people to create, publish, and preserve information. Technology has become a communications mode.

There is both a technological and cognitive approach to ICT. Librarians must use the technology which is a subset of IL. We are all challenged by the problem of information overload.

Information literacy for life implies research skills in life long learning.

ICT Literacy is using digital technology, communications tools and/or networks to manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society.

I was amused when Kathy demonstrated ICT Jeopardy which she uses when she teaches at St. Johns.

Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow

While looking for electronic books to add to the NJIT Library catalog I found:

Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow. Ed. Roy Tennant. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com, 2008. N. pag. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. <http://techinlibraries.com/>

In 2003 Anne was the keynote speaker at the VALE annual meeting. The title of her talk was Beyond the Horseless Carriage: Re-professionalizing our work. I remember her saying that the job of a reference librarian should also be professional. Sadly Anne passed away in 2004 at age 69. An obituary may be found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/12/MNLIPOWANN35.DTL

I just read one chapter of this book titled "The Legacy of Anne Lipow" by Karen Schneider. I will try to read the rest of the book over a period of time.

Why do chat reference patrons use such strange handles?

When a library patron approaches the reference desk for assistance he/she does not have to give their name. Most prefer to be anonymous. Likewise, many chat reference patrons just give their first name or pick a handle some of which are quite silly. Today someone gave the handle "Your Eyeballs". At least the topic was sensible - this individual was looking for information on housing in colonial Connecticut. The transcript:


Patron:09:26:46 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Chat Transcript: What was housing like in colonial Connecticut?
Librarian 1:09:26:46 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Note: Patron's screen name: Your eyeballs
Librarian 1:09:27:36 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Librarian 'NJ INSTofTECH Bruce' has joined the session.
Librarian 1:09:28:08 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Hello, this is Bruce from the library at NJIT. Please give me a few minutes to answer your question
Librarian 1:09:30:01 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Here is a site about colonial connecticut in general http://www.usahistory.info/New-England/Connecticut.html
Patron:09:31:38 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
can you find anything about the housing?
Librarian 1:09:32:12 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Here is an article about housing in colonial New England which would include CT. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/4/78.04.03.x.html
Librarian 1:09:34:33 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Here is a short article from the NY Times
Librarian 1:09:34:39 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Dig Gives New View of Colonial Housing. Authors:SUSAN PEARSALL Source:New York Times; 12/24/2000, p9, 0p Document Type:Article Abstract:AN archaeological dig in Andover has found remains of a medieval-style long house, the first one ever discovered in Connecticut. Until now, no long houses like this one, 15 feet wide and 60 feet long, had been found in New England dating from much past 1650; the Andover house was built in 1705. Historians say this long house challenges assumptions about traditional New England housing. ''People think the typical New England house was a hall-and-parlor house with a central chimney, but the archaeological evidence is showing us that we had a wide range of different types of houses, including long houses,'' said Emerson W. Baker, a history professor at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Dr. Baker, an archaeologist, lives in Maine and is familiar with the half-dozen long houses found there.
Librarian 1:09:37:41 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
I found reference to this book `War and Society in Colonial Connecticut,` by Harold E. Selesky which may discuss housing.
Librarian 1:09:39:37 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Here is an article from the ARchitectural Record published in 1915 which may be of interest
Librarian 1:09:39:46 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Colonial architecture in Connecticut ... / Source: Architectural record 1915 Apr., v. 37, p. 360-369 ; 1915 May, p. 445-452 ; 1915 June, p. 547-556 Details: ill. Language: In English. SUBJECT(S) Descriptor: Colonial architecture -- United States -- Connecticut.
Librarian 1:09:40:13 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
You may have to go to your local library and order it through interlibrary loan
Librarian 1:09:41:27 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Are you still there?
Patron:09:42:07 2009/12/03 (GMT-5)
Patron is no longer connected.

I think the article from the Architectural Record answers the question. I always hate it when a chat reference session ends abruptly. You never know if the customer is satisfied.

Impromptu Lecture for Chem E 101

I was on the late shift today and was not scheduled to come in until 1 PM. When I arrived at 12:45 PM there was a voice mail message for me from Professor Reg Tomkins. The guest lecturer for Chemical Engineering 101 had cancelled at the last minute and he needed a speaker for the 5 PM class. The goals of this introductory course are:

An introduction to some simple concepts of chemical engineering
An awareness of careers in chemical engineering
To gain familiarity with departmental policies
A knowledge of ethics and professionalism

There was no information literacy lecture scheduled so it was inserted just a few hours before the class. Many of the students had just taken the Research Roadmaps in their humanities class. So I said that the principles learned there can be applied to finding information in chemistry and chemical engineering. I showed them the web sites that I had developed with selected internet sources in chemicak engineering. I only was given 30 minutes so I had to be very cursory in my coverage. I showed them how to answer the following questions:

Find a schematic for the manufacture of aspirin

Find a reference for the corrosion of steel in sulfuric acid

Find a picture of a twin screw extruder

Find the structure of caffeine

I obviously don't know how much the students will retain. I did say that I was avialble to them in the future if they had questions about library issues.