Wednesday, December 22, 2010

NJIT Library Holiday Lunch Today

Most of the staff came to the holiday luncheon at the Rio Rodizio in Newark.  We had gone to this restaurant several times in the past when it was known as Seabras.  Apparently it was sold and the new owners changed the name.  Everyone enjoyed themselves as we got away from the office for a few hours.

Tomorrow is the last day before the break.  It will likely be very slow in the library.  So this will be my last journal entry of the year.  I wish all reader of this journal whether you come by for a few seconds or stay to read about my library expereinces a happy and healthy holiday season and new year.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Today's Adventures in Chat Reference

Question #1

Chat Transcript: Why were the middle colonies the most successful
Librarian 1:
09:16:41 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Note: Patron's screen name: john
Librarian 1:
09:17:45 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Librarian 'NJ INSTofTECH Bruce' has joined the session.
Librarian 1:
09:18:16 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Hi, I'm Bruce Slutsky, a librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Your library and my library are part of a nationwide cooperative of libraries that staff this service. I'm reading your question now.
Librarian 1:
09:18:37 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) John, have you done any research on this already?
Patron:
09:18:47 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) no
Librarian 1:
09:19:04 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Please give me a few minutes
Librarian 1:
09:19:32 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) I need a clairification, successful in what regard?
Librarian 1:
09:19:39 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) clarification
Patron:
09:20:03 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) what does that mean
Librarian 1:
09:20:36 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) What do you mean when you say successful? Is it in colonization, economics or what?
Patron:
09:20:59 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) both
Librarian 1:
09:21:14 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Please give me a few minutes
Patron:
09:21:57 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) thanks
Librarian 1:
09:22:32 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/13colonies2.htm Is this web site at the reight level for you?
Patron:
09:23:46 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) yes
Librarian 1:
09:24:24 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Here is another site http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/pke/phillips/colonies/middlecolonies.htm
Librarian 1:
09:25:28 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=684
Patron:
09:26:04 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) thanks
Librarian 1:
09:26:10 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Here is one more site http://www.radford.edu/~rvshelton/Middle.htm
Patron:
09:27:21 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) thanks that should be good for now. bye
Patron:
09:27:29 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Patron ended chat session.
Librarian 1:
09:28:21 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Note: Set Resolution: Answered

Question #2

Patron:
09:50:02 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Chat Transcript: Some examples of art that are either for or against the government ?
Librarian 1:
09:50:02 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Note: Patron's screen name: Hanna
Librarian 1:
09:50:33 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Librarian 'NJ INSTofTECH Bruce' has joined the session.
Librarian 1:
09:50:46 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Hi, I'm Bruce Slutsky, a librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Your library and my library are part of a nationwide cooperative of libraries that staff this service. I'm reading your question now.
Librarian 1:
09:51:15 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Hanna - does this have to be the United States government or any government?
Patron:
09:53:17 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) any government
Librarian 1:
09:53:42 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Please give me a few minutes. I'll check Art Index
Patron:
09:54:18 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) preferable u.s. government, it would be easier to discuss
Patron:
09:54:27 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) okay !
Librarian 1:
09:56:06 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) ARe you looking for articles or web sites?
Patron:
09:58:02 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) pictures
Patron:
09:58:07 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) web sites
Librarian 1:
10:01:09 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Try this for starters http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/anti-government/framed+prints
Librarian 1:
10:01:39 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211507/pablo_picassos_guernica_the_most_powerful.html?cat=7
Librarian 1:
10:02:07 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.antiwarart.co.uk/
Librarian 1:
10:03:43 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Zimbabwe-Government-Bans-Offensive-Paintings-101803193.html
Patron:
10:04:35 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) this is great !
Patron:
10:04:43 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) would you be able to find soething on our government?
Librarian 1:
10:04:53 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Here is a book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Political-Theory-Painting-Reynolds-Hazlitt/dp/0300063555/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292857454&sr=1-4
Patron:
10:04:53 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) that way, i can further elaborate on its topic
Librarian 1:
10:07:21 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/political+satire/all
Librarian 1:
10:08:03 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) http://www.suite101.com/content/jackson-pollocks-drip-paintings-in-context-a151464
Librarian 1:
10:08:47 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) My shift at QANDANJ is over. I hope I have been helpful to you. If you still need more assistance, please loginto the chat service again.
Librarian 1:
10:09:04 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) HAve a happy and healthy holiday seasson and new year
Patron:
10:10:33 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) thank you
Patron:
10:10:35 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) you too !
Librarian 1:
10:14:02 2010/12/20 (GMT-5) Librarian ended chat session.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Some Thoughts at the End of the Fall Semester

The semester just ended at NJIT. All of a sudden the campus is empty with just some diligent graduate students using the library. Many international students do not return to their native countries and find the intersession period a fruitful time to do their research. We even get one or two complaints that the library will be closed from December 24 – January 2.

I have now worked at the NJIT library for 37 semesters plus summers. We don’t keep reference statistics but anecdotally the number of transactions at the traditional reference desk plummeted this semester. There has been a downward trend over recent years, but the interactions at the desk were very low. Most of my “business” is from people who know me or are referred by faculty. It may mean that researchers are learning to use databases by themselves. The statistics for Scifinder Scholar show 800-1000 searchers per month, but so few ask me for assistance. My statistics for this database indicates that approximately half the searches are done using the desktop version which will cease at the end of June 2011. I keep advising people of this and encouraging them to move to the web version, but inevitably people will ask me “What happened to Scifinder” when they can’t access the client version next July.

From now until the beginning of the spring semester I will spend time catching up on some low priority projects. I will go to the VALE annual meeting on June 5th and the METRO Science Librarians SIG on January 10.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Starting to Plan for the 2011 New Jersey Chemistry Olympics

Last evening I had a meeting with Borislaw Bilash and others from NJIT and local high schools to start planning the event from May 18, 2011.  The official web site at http://sites.google.com/site/njchemistryolympics/home is still under construction, but will be revised in January 2011.  We discussed several events that will be held.  As usual I will be leading Event #7 Information Search and Molecular Model Building.  The theme this year will be Top-Selling Pharmaceuticals.  I found the list in the 2010 Healthcare Business Market Research Handbook.  The teams participating in this event will have to construct a model of one of six molecules that I selected from that list.  In the second part of the event they will have to answer questions from the Internet or a list of databases about the drug compounds.  I am sure that the event will be a rewarding experience as it has been in the past.

Friday, December 3, 2010

A Comment on Journal Pricing

I would like to make some comments based on what I have read in this article Paying by the Pound for Journals. I do feel that the new digital pricing model called “value based pricing” as practiced by American Chemical Society Publications is not fair since it applies only to corporate and governmental agencies. Pricing for academic institutions is based on historical usage, size and Carnegie classification. Certainly prices of journals are high for customers in both the profit and not for profits areas. Under the value-based pricing model, the Society charges subscribers according to how many times articles are downloaded from a particular journal.


When an article is downloaded, we assume the researcher reads the article completely. But this is not the only way that journals are being used. Many scientists and engineers use journal primarily for current awareness. They only need to peruse through journals and read only titles and abstracts to keep abreast of developments in their field. Thus, measuring journal usage only by the number of downloads is likely not accurate.


I suggest that the American Chemical Society drop “value based pricing” for government and corporate customers and develop a new pricing algorithm comparable to that used for academics and not base it on downloads.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Finally Created a Delicious Bookmark of Web Sites

My list of bookmarks on my work computer is cluttered to say the least especially since I have both work and  leisure related sites.   I don't use many of these sites, while others are likely dead.  This list of  bookmarks http://www.delicious.com/bruceslutsky will be my NJIT sites only.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Library Comment on 60 Minutes Tonight

Scott Pelley was interviewing retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens as they entered the court's library.  The justice remarked that the library was empty.  Nobody uses it anymore.  Everyone uses the Internet.

Sounds familiar doesn't it.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Science Librarian Opening at Rutgers-Newark

I thought my readers may be interested in this opening at the Dana Library at Rutgers-Newark
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*TITLE*: *Reference/Instruction Librarian - Sciences, ** APP. 187*


* *John Cotton Dana Library


*DESCRIPTION/RESPONSIBILITIES*: The Rutgers University Libraries seek an experienced, innovative, energetic, and service-oriented librarian to fill the position of Science Librarian in the John Cotton Dana Library on the Newark Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Reporting to the Assistant Chancellor and Director of John Cotton Dana Library and under the direction of the Head of Public Services, the Science Librarian joins a team of library faculty committed to providing first-rate public services to a diverse academic community. The Science Librarian is expected to participate in the full range of reference services, providing general and specialized reference and research assistance locally and, through Rutgers’virtual reference services, University-wide. This position includes collection development and faculty liaison responsibilities, in collaboration with one other science librarian, for a range of science subject areas, including undergraduate and graduate programs in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Neurosciences, and Physics. As a participant in a dynamic and pro-active user education program, the Science Librarian should be prepared to develop and offer user-centered, subject-specific instruction sessions, and to develop Web-based and/or Learning Management System subject-specific courseware. The Science Librarian is also expected to participate in the first-year information literacy program, and engage in outreach to and collaboration with organizations such as the Newark Museum and the Newark Public Library.

This is a tenure track appointment and as a member of a university-wide faculty, the Science Librarian is expected to routinely participate in university-wide initiatives, committees, and task forces, and to demonstrate commitment to continual professional development through scholarly research relevant to areas of responsibility including publications, presentations, and participation and leadership in the work of relevant professional associations.


*QUALIFICATIONS*: *Required:* ALA accredited Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Degree in a science discipline, or strong science reference experience. Experience in reference services and collection development in an academic, special, or large public library setting. Skill in collaboration and the ability to work in a team environment. Demonstrated ability to work with diverse students and colleagues. Strong service orientation and understanding of user needs. Awareness of national issues and trends in science librarianship, and the ability and desire to meet tenure and promotion requirements.


*SALARY*: Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Interviews will begin immediately.


*STATUS/BENEFITS**:* Faculty status, calendar year appointment, retirement plans, life/health insurance, prescription drug, dental and vision plans, tuition remission, one month vacation.


LIBRARY PROFILE*: The Rutgers University Libraries (RUL), comprised of libraries on the University’s Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark Campuses, all reporting to the Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, operate as a unified library system with coordinated public services, technical services, and collection development. The Libraries have a staff of 304, a budget of $21 million, and holdings numbering more than

3.6 million volumes. Rutgers University Libraries are a member of ARL, CRL, Lyrasis, Metro, NERL, and VALE, and use SirsiDynix and OCLC as their primary bibliographic utilities. Rutgers University is a member of the Association of American Universities. The Newark Campus of Rutgers University is a doctoral-degree granting research institution that is a leading education and research center. Classified as a Carnegie Research Intensive institution, Rutgers-Newark offers 14 doctoral programs: American studies, applied physics, biology, chemistry, criminal justice, environmental sciences, global affairs, integrative neuroscience, management, mathematical sciences, nursing, psychology, public administration, and urban systems, and is the most diverse campus in the country. For more information go to the RUL website: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu and to learn about the Dana Library and Newark Campus go to: http://library.newark.rutgers.edu. Rutgers is an ADVANCE institution, committed to increase diversity and the participation and advancement of women in the STEM disciplines.



* *



*TO APPLY: REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS WILL BEGIN IMMEDIATELY AND CONTINUE UNTIL THE POSITION IS FILLED. SUBMIT RESUME, COVER LETTER, AND NAMES OF THREE REFERENCES TO: * *Sandra Troy (APP. 187)*, University Libraries Human Resources Manager, Rutgers University Libraries, 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1163, email: rulhr@rulmail.rutgers.edu, FAX:

732-932-7637

Friday, November 19, 2010

I contributed to the XCITR Project Today

XCITR is an acronym for Explore Chemical Information Teaching Resources.  It is an international depository for resources used to teach chemical information.  XCITR is a collaborative project between the Computer-Information-Chemistry (CIC) Division of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Division of Chemical Information (CINF) of the American Chemical Society (ACS). XCITR is hosted by FIZ Chemie Berlin, Germany.

Today I added the Libguides that I developed for:
  • General Introduction to the literature of chemistry, chemical engineering and environmental science
  • How to find physical and thermodynamic properties of chemical substances
Hopefully this repository will be successful in reaching students, faculty and librarians.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Rock Stars and Libraries

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in my personal journal, but I felt that the "L word" should never appear in the latter.  A lengthy book review of  Life by Keith Richards  written by Liz Phair appeared in the Sunday New York Times yesterday.  Let me quote "In the early publicity for "Life" it ws revealed that Richards harbored an ambition to be a librarian, and that he once considered getting "professional training" in the Dewey Decimal System to cope with his home library.  I should do something about the books that I have purchased over the years, but I would use the LC system.

Anyway, perhaps my readers here may not know that I worked at the Science and Technology division of NYPL from 1983-1990.  Back then it was located in the Central Research Building at 5th Avenue and 42nd Streer before it became SIBL at Madison Avenue and 34th Street.  Billy Joel gave a press conference there announcing his tour of the USSR in the 1980s>  Keith Richards tour promoting his book began and ended at NYPL.

Anyway several biographies of Bob Dylan stated that he was a regular patron of the Jewish Division of NYPL in the early 1960s when he first came to NYC.  That was not noted in the biopic I'm Not There.  If you want to read about Dylan, please go to Bruce's Journal and there are hundreds of entries.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Remember to Check Your Junk Email Folder

I very rarely check my junk e-mail folder at work since I presume that everything there is just spam.  I estimate that I immediately delete at least 80% of my work e-mail and 90% of my personal e-mail since I can see from the header that it is just advertisements.  This afternoon I looked at my junk e-mail and found an assignment that a chemical engineering student sent to me last week.  I just don't understand how it got there, but in the future I will quickly peruse that folder before I delete it.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tony Stankus will Speak to the Science Librarians SIG on January 10th

I am pleased to announce that Tony Stankus will speak to the METRO Science Librarians SIG on Monday January 10, 2011 at 1:30 PM.  His topic will be "The Future of Open Access Publishing".  Tony will speak to the group via Skype or web conferencing software.

I must use this blog to vent a little.  A person has the right to decline an invitation to a professional or social function, but it should be done tactfully.  Completely ignoring an invitation is somewhat disrespectful.  I had two such experiences recently.

Thanks

Friday, November 5, 2010

Trying to Make Information Literacy Relevant

We can never make students enjoy library lectures.  Many students are obviously inattentive while I give my lectures.  There are both high and low tech ways of not paying attention.  Some are looking at their textbooks while others are playing with their smart phones.

I always start my lectures saying that the scientific and technical literature is a tool that they will use when they become practicing professionals.  Database searching is a skill that takes time to learn.  Hopefully by the time they graduate they have developed enough proficiency to be able to properly use literature resources in their daily work.  All professionals should read the technical literature in their specialty to keep abreast of new developments in their field and to be aware of the activities of their competitors.  When encountered with a problem in the lab or the plant, they should know to consult the literature before time and money on the job is wasted.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Tony Stankus to Speak to the METRO Science Librarians SIG

I received some really great news today.  Tony Stankus, a prolific writer in Sci/Tech librarianship has agreed to speak to the METRO Science Librarians SIG.  He will speak to the group remotely from the University of Arkansas.  The title and date of the talk will be announced.  Stay tuned.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Why do some students rush to do an assignment while other procrastinate?

I finally gave my class to chemical engineering students yesterday.  I gave it in a computer lab so I observed students doing other work on their computers while I lectured.  I stressed that databases like Scifinder Scholar and Scopus are very fast but can't evaluate the data retrieved.  The researcher must take the time to read the abstract to see if the paper answers their question. 

When I gave the assignment I suggested to the students that they should execute the search while they are in class since the training passwords were valid for just one day.  I said they should retrieve a relative large answer set and take them home and take the time to evaluate them.  5 of the 13 students completed the assignment and sent me the results that afternoon even though they had a week to complete it.  Some of my thoughts:
  • The students found the assignment too easy
  • They were just disinterested and wanted to get it over with ASAP
  • Other students just procrastinate
When I grade the assignments I will see if there is any difference in the grades between the "eager beavers" and procrastinators.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

I will finally give my lecture to chemical engineering students today

I was originally scheduled to give this lecture on September 30, but it had to be changed 4 times on account of j--- d--- .  Anyway, this lecture consists of 3 parts:
  1. Introduction to the literature of chemical engineering and chemistry
  2. Scifinder Scholar and Chemical Abstracts
  3. Scopus and other database relevent to chemical engineers
The students will then be given an assignment where they will have to use Scifinder Scholar or Scopus to answer one of the following questions:

• Liquid hold-up in packed columns (or towers) for any of the following packing types: Jaeger rings, tri-packs, Novalox saddles, pall rings


• Heat transfer coefficients for a flat plate exchanger

• A model for particle elutriation from a fluidized bed of particles

• Model for rotary kiln drier (dryer)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

10th Anniversary of METRO Science Librarians SIG

As I stated below one of my disappointments about my recently concluded jury duty ordeal was that I missed the METRO Science Librarians SIG meeting on October 15.  I never thought my jury service would last so long.  I was going to announce the 10th Anniversary of the SIG.  We've had some interesting speakers  over the years and I have met some top notch people.  I would like to thank Suzanne Fedunok of NYU who has since retired from letting me use the Bobst Library for the planning meeting in 2000.  I also thank Claudia Lascar of CCNY who gave the idea of affilliating with METRO.  I also thank the current and past staff members of METRO who have been just wonderful in their support of the SIG:
  • Dottie Hiebing
  • Jason Kucsma
  • Tom Nielsen
  • Joan Napolitano
  • Linda Braun
  • Susan Salomone
I thank anybody who came to meetings either once or regularly over these 10 years.  I am aware that some of the regulars relocated to other parts of the country for new positions.  I certainly plan to keep the SIG going.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Thank you Jason LaPorte of Chemical Abstracts Service

Throughout my 30+ years as an information professional I have always been pleased with the service that I received from Chemical Abstracts Service.  I asked Jason LaPorte for training passwords for students in a chemical engineering class.  Due to my jury duty ordeal, I had to change the date of my class 5 times and had to ask Jason to activate the passwords on different dates. Thanks Jason.

Jury Duty is over!!

Some readers of this blog may be following this story.  If you want further details, please read the entry in my personal journal . I would to thank my colleagues in the NJIT Library for being their understanding during this ordeal:
  • Heather Huey
  • Haymwantee Singh
  • Davida Scharf
  • Richard Sweeney
I would like to also thank Professor Robert Barat of the Chemical Engineering Department at NJIT.  I had to change the date of an information class to his students five times.

I scheduled a meeting for the METRO Science Librarians SIG for October 15 thinking my jury service would be over long before that.  I couldn't attend a meeting that I organized.  I thank Tom Nielsen of METRO for pinch hitting for me.

I do feel that all citizens should serve on a jury to learn about the criminal justice system.  However my recent experience was extremely inconvenient to me and my colleagues at NJIT.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

How to Create and Maintain on Online Presence

Today I went to METRO to attend a seminar by noted library expert Ellyssa Kroski titled How to Create & Manage Your Online Presence.  I certainly have used many social networking sites in my personal and professional life, but there is always more to learn on how to take advantage of the services available.  Hopefully, they become useful and not a waste of time.

She set up a wiki so that the attendees can refer to the notes any time in the future.  Some of the points covered were:

  • Professional Websites
  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Flavors.me
The last two resources are new for me so I will have to spend some time at home seeing how they can be used.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

More Adventures in Chat Reference

Don't you just love it when the patron changes his question during a chat reference session?  Check out this question:

Chat Transcript: Do you have information regarding strategic marketing in Hollywood?
Librarian 1:
15:21:20 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Note: Patron's screen name: -
Librarian 1:
15:22:15 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Librarian 'NJ INSTofTECH Bruce' has joined the session.
Librarian 1:
15:22:32 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Hi, I'm Bruce Slutsky, a librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Your library and my library are part of a nationwide cooperative of libraries that staff this service. I'm reading your question now.
Librarian 1:
15:22:54 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Are you looking for web sites or articles on this topic?
Librarian 1:
15:25:27 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Are you still on the line?
Patron:
15:25:29 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Actually, it might be more advantageous to focus on the advertising industry.
Librarian 1:
15:26:14 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Please give me a few minutes. It would be helpful if you sent me an e-mail address. Many databases offer the capability of sending article to an e-mail
Patron:
15:26:17 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Do you know if there is database that compiles traditional 30 second tv commercials ?
Librarian 1:
15:27:37 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) You can try this database http://www.clipland.com/ or you can do a search in Youtube on television commericals
Patron:
15:27:41 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) During the 1980s, he was spokesman for American Express, reminding cardholders "Don't leave home without it".
Librarian 1:
15:27:56 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) That is Karl Malden
Patron:
15:31:23 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Do you know if American Express receives royalties from The Oscar winning film ' A Streetcar Named Desire?
Librarian 1:
15:33:25 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Please be specific on what you want. You are shooting one question after another at me. What question do you want me to answer?
Patron:
15:34:48 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) I would like to find a comprehensive dtabase that analyzes 'media' information.
Librarian 1:
15:35:07 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Please give me a few minutes
Librarian 1:
15:37:19 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Please check this site http://www.vocus.com/content/prmediadb.asp
Librarian 1:
15:38:23 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Here is another database http://us.cision.com/media-database/media-database-overview.asp
Librarian 1:
15:39:53 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Here is another one http://www.mediadatabasesolutions.com/index.htm
Librarian 1:
15:40:34 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) this is the internet movie database http://www.imdb.com
Librarian 1:
15:42:21 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) May I suggest that you take some time to analyze the information that I sent you. If you need more assistance, you can log into this chat service again.
Librarian 1:
15:42:37 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Librarian ended chat session.
Librarian 1:
15:42:41 2010/10/12 (GMT-5) Note: Set Resolution: Answered

Monday, October 11, 2010

Back at Work for 3 days

The latest on the jury duty is that we won't have to return until Thursday since the court in closed on Columbus Day and the judge has other tasks to do on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was able to answer most of my e-mail queries at home.  From 10 until 11:30 I gave my class to environmental engineering students.  Since the professor was in the room while I lectured, they were attentive.  Here are some of the topics assigned:

1. Green and sustainable technologies for construction materials
2. Green and sustainable technologies for pavement operations
3. Carbon Footprints of Transportation Vehicles; alternative manufacturing and fuels
4. Carbon Footprints of Construction Materials; alternatives
5. Nanoparticles in Personal Care Products; Types, characteristics, problems
6. Recycling of Wastewater
7. Superfund program; current status
8. Bottled Water vs. Tap Water; comparing regulatory requirements and quality

I demonstrated Scopus and Environment Complete, an Ebscohost database.

I also performed a cited reference search for a professor who is applying for tenure.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Jury Duty Update

I hope regular readers of this blog haven't abandoned me since I haven't posted recently.  I am still on jury duty.  Today we heard the last two witnesses for the defense.  It was just before lunch so the judge let us go home.  He said that the case would resume next Thursday since Monday is a holiday and he had to take care of other business on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Finally on Thursday there will be final arguments by the attorneys and the judge will instruct the jurors on how to judge the case.  The case and my inconvenience will have moved into a 5th week.

For more details, please see my personal journal.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Trying to get some work done during jury duty

It is relatively easy to work at home in this Internet era.  I obviously can't sit at the reference desk and answer questions from students but I was able to spend time answering e-mail queries.  I also composed and edited a few Libguides that we will publish at the beginning of the Spring semester.

On Sunday there was an article in the New York Times about jury duty. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/nyregion/03critic.html?ref=city_critic)

The author ask for comments. Mine was published at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/nyregion/03critic.html

Monday, October 4, 2010

Still on Jury Duty

For the last 3 weeks I have been on and off with jury duty. It is a real nuisance, but I have to do my civic duty.  If it is Monday, it is off to the court house.  Hopefully, this civil case will be settled out of court so that I can return to work.  I am scheduled to give a class to chemical engineering students on Thursday.  If you want to read my daily rants about the jury duty process, please see my personal journal.  We'll have to take things one day at a time.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Internet outages at NJIT Tuesday and Wednesday

I had a reprieve from jury duty on Tuesday to find a major internet outage at NJIT.  As of 7 AM today services were not restored.  We were able to access the internet outside of NJIT, e-mail, the Highlander Pipeline, Moodle and other services were not available.  I could not enter grades for the quiz given to Math 225 students.  We had to go through the "back door" to show students how to get to the databases.  I am on the late shift at NJIT today and don't have to be at work until 12 noon.  Hopefully, the system will be rectified by then.  We don't realize how dependant we are on the internet until we can't accesss it.

I thank the IT people at NJIT for putting extra hours into rectifying this problem.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Information Literacy and the Substitute Teacher

I was asked by a professor of biomedical engineering to give a library lecture to a class in biomedical computing.  It was a 300 level course, so I assume that the students were juniors.  The professor was away at a professional meeting and asked me to give the lecture.  The graduate teaching assistant told me that students were advised in advance that the professor would not be in.  Remember how we liked it when a substitute teacher came to our elementary school classes?  It was party time.

There were 28 students registered for the class, but only about half showed up.  I gave my standard lecture to biomedical engineering students as posted on http://library.njit.edu/researchhelpdesk/subjectguides/Biomedical.php .  During my lecture 3 students walked out.  I observed that other students were inattentive.  I guess Friday afternoon didn't help.

It was very disappointing to see that students were not interested in learning about databases that cover their field of interest. We put effort into preparing these lectures and is just disappointing that students are not interested.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

NJIT will keep the Desktop Version of Scifinder Scholar until June 30, 2011

About 3 weeks ago I polled NJIT users of Scifinder Scholar to see if they wanted to keep the desktop version until June 30 when Chemical Abstracts Service would discontinue it.  To be fair I did not vote to leave the choice to my users.  I was hoping that they would want to transition to the web version earlier.  Only 15 of the 300 people who registered for a Scifinder account bothered to vote.  I must assume that most used the database very infrequently or just were indifferent.  9 out of the 15 voted to keep the desktop version as soon as possible.  I am disappointed since they don't want to take advantage of the useful features that Chemical Abstracts introduced to the web version.

Monday, September 20, 2010

I am on jury duty

This blog has been a little slow because I have been on jury duty.  It is a nuisance, but we must all do our civic duty.  Even doctors, firemen, lawyers, and police officers must report.  No matter when you are called it is always at an inconvenient time, so you may as well do it and be finished for a least 6 years.  Please see my personal journal if you want to read the details of my adventures at the court house.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Impromptu Information Literacy Session

It has always been difficult to teach information literacy in the biomedical engineering program since there never been enough time or the proper place for it. In the past I was allowed to give a 15 minute lecture in Fundamentals of Engineering Design (FED 101) given to freshman. Today, on very short notice, I gave my short lecture to a large group on how to find information on sustainability in the field of biomedical engineering. These students were taking Humanities 101, but had not yet taken the Research Roadmaps where we teach them the fundamentals of how to find information from the NJIT databases.

I briefly discussed the peer review process as it applies to manuscripts being accepted for publication by a technical journal. I then explained how these articles can be searched in databases and used Scopus as an example since it is multidisciplinary. I showed them how to construct a search using terminology related to sustainability. I demonstrated the capability of sorting by relevance. Their assignment is to find just one paper with the abstract that explicitly considered sustainability in biomedical engineering or a closely related field.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

18th Anniversary at NJIT

I am not going to repeat what I wrote last year. This past year has been a little tough since a colleague resigned and we were not allowed to fill the position. I became liaison to physics and to the biological sciences as a result. When the going get tough, the tough get going to quote a 1980s hit by Billy Ocean. Perhaps I should quote a song by Paul Simon "Still Crazy after All These years."

Friday, September 10, 2010

Some New Thoughts on the Textbook Issue

Let's say a library can afford to purchase every textbook and add to the collection when new editions are being published. Is the library properly serving its students? I think not.

A student must have access to a required textbook 24/7. Let's say a student is relying on the library for his calculus textbook. He may have to travel from home to get to the library. He then comes to the reserve desk and finds out that someone has checked it out and must wait a few hours to get it.

I understand students' pain when they see the price of their textbook. Last week a student told me that she is waiting for her book from Amazon.com where she bought since their prices were less than the bookstore. I think that students, faculty and librarians must fight back:

1. The open source textbook movement should accelerate.
2. Faculty should put pressue on publishers not to change the editions. Does freshman level chemistry, calculus, or physics change over the years? The publishers create new editions to dry up the used textbook market. It seems that the problem sets in textbooks change in newer editions.
3. Faculty must ensure that the textbook is used extensively. I have heard students complain that they have to buy the book, but it is hardly used.
4. Perhaps students can form a study group and split the cost of the textbook.
5. This semester the NJIT bookstore is renting textbook reducing the cost by 50%

My major disappointment is that students have to come to the reference desk to ask if the library has their textbook. All students must know how to look up a book in the library. If they can't do that they have flunked Information Literacy 101.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Chemical Information Literacy Doubleheader Today

For many years I have taught the physical chemistry class how to find physical properties of chemical substances. The professor scheduled me for September 15th, but I have on call jury duty for that week so she pushed it ahead to today at 1 PM. Meanwhile I already scheduled my general how to find chemical information to graduate students at 11:30, so I had back to back classes. Well, when the going gets tough the tough get going.

Graduate students are always more attention during a lecture on information sources. Most of the students were new to NJIT. The problem was that the laptop provided to me by the department did not have wi-fi capabilities so I could not demonstrate any web sites or databases. I was able to use my Powerpoint presentation, but had to walk students through the steps to get to the databases. I gave a relatively long talk on Chemical Abstracts and how it evolved into Scifinder Scholar. I was given training passwords from Chemical Abstracts Service that I gave to the students to use until the end of the day. At least for today students searching the database wouldn't have to worry about being shut out by the user seats being used. A showed students how they could set up their own accounts for Scifinder Scholar.

Undergraduates are usually less attentive. At least the professor let me use her laptop with wi-fi capability to demonstrate the various web sites where students could look for physical and thermodynamic properties of chemical substances. If readers are interested, they can access the list of resources at http://library.njit.edu/researchhelpdesk/subjectguides/phys-prop.php

When I arrived back in the library two of the graduate students stopped me to say that they had problems setting up an account. It simply that they just neglected to verifying their new account at their NJIT e-mail address. I am glad that the students were willing to learn to use Scifinder very shortly after the lecture.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Time Management is so important

I remember when I taught Freshman Seminar at NJIT there was a class devoted to time management skills. I observe that many of my colleagues lack those skills that we try to teach entering students. Very often they don't prepare their lessons until the last minute and are unprepared when they meet their classes. I always remember Professor Kingsfield (played by John Houseman) of the TV series the Paper Chase who always scolded his law students when they were unprepared.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Survey sent to NJIT Users of Scifinder Scholar

Chemical Abstract Service has announced that on June 30, 2011 the client version of Scifinder Scholar will be discontinued. Below is the announcement made by Craig W. Stephens, Vice Present of Sales:

“Due to increasing popularity and new development of the web version of SciFinder, CAS is announcing the discontinuation of the client version of SciFinder on June 30, 2011 for all U.S. and Canadian academic institutions. On this date, all seats at these institutions will access the web version only. Please note that any institution may choose to discontinue access to the client version at any time. “

I am asking for feedback from NJIT users:

Should we wait until June 30, 2011 or should NJIT discontinue the client version on December 31, 2010? The latter option will give users 4 months to make the transition.

There are many useful features in the web version not in the client. However, it is often a nuisance to remember a user name and password to access the web. There are several steps involved to get into the web version. There are several “how to guides” at http://www.cas.org/support/academic/sf/htg/index.html


Please vote in this survey. I will accept responses until Monday September 20. Thank you very much for participating.

Over the past several months about 40% of the Scifinder usage has been for the client version. I am trying to be fair to everyone.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Some Thoughts on the First Day of Classes at NJIT

This is the beginning of the Fall semester at NJIT, but it is only August 30. The temperature is expected to hit 90 degrees every day this week and Labor Day is next Monday, When I was a college student classes didn't begin until the second week in September. For many years now colleges begin earlier so the semester and final exams are over before the Christmas break.

For 3 1/2 months the campus was almost empty, but today it was bustling. There was a pancake breakfast outside this morning to start this academic year. Time moves forward.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Finding my High School Chemistry Textbook

In January I reported in this blog how an alumnus was interested in finding his college chemistry textbook that he used in the 195os at the Newark College of Engineering (forerunner to NJIT). Using a little detective work, I was able to find it for him in the stacks. Some weeks ago we received a shipment of several boxes of books donated by a retired professor of Biomedical Engineering. We catalog books that are appropriate and give to students duplicates or outdated materials. In one of the boxes I found:

Pimentel, George C, and Aubrey L. McClellan. Chemistry: An Experimental Science. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1963
It turns out that I used that book all those years ago as a sophomore at Forest Hills High School. I guess I should keep it as a "souvenir". :)

Chemical Abstracts Service announces that it will discontinue the Client Version of Scifinder Scholar

On June 24 I discussed the issue of allocating seats for Scifinder Scholar. A user of the web version complained that she couldn't access the one seat since I still gave my second seat to the client. Statistics provided by CAS showed that about 40% of NJIT searchers use the client. Last night I recieved this announcement from Craig W. Stephens of CAS:

"Due to increasing popularity and new development of the web version of SciFinder, CAS is announcing the discontinuation of the client version of SciFinder on June 30, 2011 for all U.S. and Canadian academic institutions. On this date, all seats at these institutions will access the web version only. Please note that any institution may choose to discontinue access to the client version at any time. "

I agree with this move to web only access. People very often are comfortable doing the same thing for years and are resistant to change. The web version provides many useful enhancements. CAS is giving customers 9 months to make the transition. I will make this announcement and repeat it in the months to come. But, inevitably next July I will get frantic calls complaining that the client doesn't work.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Reference Question of the Day

Since the library is slow over the summer, I finally got a challenging reference question today.

What are the social effects of computer security. I showed the student IEEE Explore, Scopus, and the ACM Digital Library. Here are a couple of good citations:

Rabinovitch, E.; , "Staying Protected from "Social Engineering"," Communications Magazine, IEEE , vol.45, no.9, pp.20-21, September 2007

Meister, E.; Biermann, E.; , "Implementation of a Socially Engineered Worm to Increase Information Security Awareness," Broadband Communications, Information Technology & Biomedical Applications, 2008 Third International Conference on , vol., no., pp.343-350, 23-26 Nov. 2008

I am looking for speakers for the METRO Science Librarians SIG Meeting on October 15

The next meeting of the METRO Science and Medical Librarians SIG is Friday October 15 from 1:30-4:30 at METRO Headquarters, 57 East 11th Street – 4th floor, New York, NY. This meeting will be a research forum. I am inviting people to make short presentations about current projects or innovations in their libraries. Please contact me if you would like to make a presentation.

Please check out our new web site at http://libguides.metro.org/Science_Librarians

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids

On July 26th I wrote a blog entry titled Administrative Glut about an article in the Education Life section of the New York Times. It was a preview of this book:

Dreifus, Claudia, and Andrew Hacker. Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids, and What We Can Do About It. New York: Times Books, 2010.

About a day later Claudia Dreifus commented on my entry. I even made friends with her on Facebook. Since I work for a university, I just had to buy the book. I wasn’t going to wait to get it from a library. :) It is not my objective to provide a thorough book review. One such review may be found at http://tinyurl.com/25vfj6s

I always use a personal approach in my journal entries. ( I really don’t like the term blog)

All universities including NJIT have characteristics of a business. They make money from tuition dollars, the government, and grants. They obvious spend money and owe it to students to do it responsibly. I am going to think in terms of a cost benefit relationship.

NJIT was not at all mentioned in this book. Our university has an office of communications that provides information to the public of the positive attributes of NJIT. None of their efforts reached Dreifus or Hacker. We are just not a household name. But on the other hand on page 105 the authors cited a few engineering schools for abysmal teaching:


  • Stevens Institute of Technology

  • RPI

  • Georgia Tech

  • Illinois Institute of Technology

  • Cal Tech



I know some very fine teachers at NJIT who put that responsibility ahead of research. One of the major themes of the book is that faculty are more concerned about research and publishing.

I tend to disagree with a statement on page 106 saying that engineering should be only a graduate offering. True, many undergraduate engineers change majors early in their college career. I think it may because they fall in love with the word “engineer” and don’t know what the profession entails. All engineers must have rigorous background in the sciences, thus the curriculum is often 5 years. Many students need more than that time frame.

As a librarian I am given a budget to purchase books. I must use those funds carefully to acquire books that support the curriculum at NJIT. No librarian wants to purchase books that will just sit on the shelf for years. I am also glad that my position is not tenure track, as many academic library positions are. This way I do not have to worry about publishing and can be more concerned about providing resources and teaching students how to use them.

I highly recommend that anyone working for a university read this book. University administration owe it to the students, faculty, staff, alumni, government, and grant funding organizations to spend money responsibly.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thinking ahead to the textbook questions that will come when classes resume

I have discussed the problem of students looking for their textbooks in the library. It is inevitable that this will start when classes resume. I have compiled a list issues involved with this textbook issue:


1. Always take the student to the terminal and show them how to look up a book.

2. Say “I am sorry, but as a matter of policy the library does not collect textbooks required for courses. Your professor feels that it is in your best interest to own the book."

3. Student will say “ I just can’t afford the $150 for the book.” Librarian should say that the cost of the textbook is part of the cost of your education.

4. Beginning this semester the NJIT bookstore will rent textbooks. This will obviously lower the cost.

5. The student will ask I need the textbook for a certain course. Now you can go to http://www.njit.edu/registrar and look up the course and the section. There is now a link to the NJIT bookstore which will give the title of the book.

6. Students will often say the bookstore is out of stock or that they ordered the book online and it hasn’t arrived.

7. Very often the library will have an older edition of the textbook in circulation or on reserve. Publishers issue new editions to dry up the used textbook market.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Achieving Organization 2.0 - A Talk by Meredith Farkas at METRO

Today I attended a talk titled Achieving Organization 2.0 by Meredith Farkas of Norwich University. She was named a Mover and Shaker by Library Journal for innovative uses of technology to benefit the profession and in 2009 was honored with the LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. The aim of the talk was show how Web 2.0 tools can benefit library users.
Some of the points that she made:

• All sites must be maintained to be useful. Orphan sites are never automatically deleted.
• These sites should not be the pet project of a librarian. Several people should be involved in authoring and maintaining sites.
• Librarians should have a schedule for maintaining blogs
• There must be time allowed for Web 2.0 initiatives. Creativity takes time
• We must know our users and their needs
• We must be aware of the tools that our population uses
• The library should partner with other organizations on campus in authoring and maintaining a wiki.

The Powerpoint for her presentation may be found at http:/meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Is it Necessary to Staff the Reference Desk During Summer and Intersessions?

Obviously less people use an academic library during the summer and intersession. Is it really necessary to staff it? Today I was at the desk from 10 AM until 1 PM. Here were my transactions:
  1. Through a reference chat a student asked what is his textbook for a course he'll be taking in the Fall.
  2. A student had a problem accessing information through the Highlander Pipeline. I let him use the reference phone to speak to the computing services help desk.
  3. A student asked for a penci.

I highly suggest that a sign be placed directing students to the Circulation Desk. The clerk can refer a real reference question to a librarian who is in his/her office during the reference shift.

I actually heard that at Rider University there is a plate at the reference desk with the name and phone extesnion of the librarian on duty.

Reference librarians can be more productive working in their offices and coming out when their is a quesion that requires a professional to answer it.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

More Planning for the Library Unconference at Rutgers Newark

I met with Ann Watkins and Natalie Borisovets of the Dana Library to discuss the 2011 library unconference.
  • The tentative date is Friday March 18, 2011- this may have to be changed since the Columbia University Reference Services Symposium is the same date
  • The working title is No Frills: A Library Unconference. The meeting would not have a theme. It will not be limited to academic librarians
  • Since there may be ethical issues involved, we don't want to have a corporate sponsor. Thus there will have to be a charge for the conference.
  • Ann is checking into some local caterers and into chair rentals.
  • We are going to meet sometime later in August to check out the space at the Rutgers Law School
  • I will check to see if there is any planning done for the Columbia University Reference Symposium in March. We don't want the two conferences to cover the same ground

Friday, July 30, 2010

Third Hand Held Librarians Conference July 28-29

I attended the Third Handheld Librarians Conference which was held online. Such a conference saves money since there are no travel expenses incurred. I took a lot of notes and will have to spend time reviewing them. The presentations were archived, so I can view them again and also view some of the talks that I missed. I will have to write a more detailed entry on this later in the week.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Best of Luck to Flora Grabowska

I received an e-mail yesterday from Flora Grabowska saying that she is leaving her position as Science Librarian with Vassar College to relocate to Fairbanks, Alaska to become librarian at the Keith B. Mather Library at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska. I become acquainted with Flora through the METRO Science Librarians SIG. She was certainly an asset to this group.

I certainly wish Flora well in her new position. It is certainly been a hot summer in the northeast, but Flora will not have to worry about that in her new location. :)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Passing of a Former Colleague - Reynaldo G Alejandro

I very often wonder what happened to former friends and colleagues years after we have gone our separate ways. It has become easier to do this in recent years using search engines and social networking tools. I very often think back to my days at the Science and Technology Division of the New York Public Library where I worked from 1983-1990. It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since I have left that fine institution which is one of the world's largest research libraries. Within the past few weeks I encountered former NYPL colleague Susan Gormley at a METRO meeting and Jackie LaValle at a concert at Flushing Town Hall.

Just a few minutes ago I Googled Reynaldo G. Alejandro and sadly discovered that he passed away last year. (http://filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/08/alejandro-reynaldo-g-1941-2009.html) If I remember correctly Reynaldo worked at the Science and Technology Division with me from 1986-89. He was a very talented individual. He wrote several Phillippine cookbooks. He actively promoted the menu and cookery collections at NYPL. He also worked at the Dance collection and at the Donnell Library of NYPL. I hadn't been in touch with him since I left NYPL in 1990. I remember he phoned me back then to congratulate me as a was appointed Science Librarian at St. Johns University.

My belated condolences to his family.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Administrative Glut

Although I am on staycation for one more day, I am writing an entry for my professional blog. I was sitting on a park bench this afternoon as I read the Education Life section of the Sunday New York Times. An article titled Administrative Glut by Andrew Hacker and Gloria Dreifus piqued my interest. Let me quote the second paragraph of this article:

Williams’s (College in Massachusetts) annual report to the Department of Education reveals that of 1,017 total employees, 720, or over 70 percent, are doing something other than teaching. Among them are 84 coaches, 73 fund-raisers, a 42-member information-technology crew and a staff of 29 at its art museum. The college also has a “spouse/partner employment counselor” and a “queer life coordinator.”

Are all these positions necessary?


Question - are librarians considered administrators? We are directly involved in the educational process. Are library staffs being cut unnecessarily?

In any organization, a certain amount of administration is necessary. I have heard that at NJIT and other colleges adjunct professors who obviously teach are not being retained increasing the load for regular faculty. No organization enjoys letting people go, but I hope that colleges and universities are evaluating non-essential administrators when making cuts.

This essay is adapted from the following book to be published in August 2010:

Dreifus, Claudia, and Andrew Hacker. Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids, and What We Can Do About It. New York: Times Books, 2010.

I think I should read this book when it becomes available. I think that all colleges must spend money responsibly especially in this era of tight budgets.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

A difficult reference question

I need to find some materials for my research, but I can't. Could you please give me some help? The materials I need is the production volume of pharmaceuticals (Rx and OTC) by classes, steroids, pesticides, plastics and Personal Care Product (Sunblocks, soaps...) in the U.S. Thank you very much.

I did check Business Source Premier, Lexis-Nexis, and the Frost and Sullivan Reports without success. I suspected that this information may be held in a private report such as IBISWorld.

I sent a message to the Chemical Information listserv to see if any colleagues had any ideas. A science librarian from Case Western Reserve confirmed that IBISWorld which is very expensive has this information.

If anyone reading this blog has any suggestions, please contact me at slutsky@adm.njit.edu

Thanks for any assistance.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A somewhat disappointing experience

We spend much time at NJIT teaching students how to search the technical databases to support their research. Publishers construct databases so that they are easy for nonspecialists to search. If a student can search these databases, we can expect the faculty to use them as well.

A chemistry professor requested that I do a search in Scifinder Scholar for her. It did not require a complicated search strategy. I did it and passed along the search results. It was disappointing to me that the professor could not take the time to learn the basics of searching Scifinder Scholar.

The type of question that I like is when a person tells me that they have searched the database and could not find the information they need. They are checking with me to see if they missed something or just did not use the optimal search strategy.

I guess I am just venting on a Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Online Social Networking Sites for Scholars

Today I found out about a few social networking sites for academics. I set up accounts with the following services:

Academia.edu
ResearchGate.net

I am in the process of adding data to my profiles. It will take time to develop proficiency in using these sites. I didn't become a Facebook expert overnight :)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Trying to convince my colleagues to adopt Libguides

I sent a long memo to my colleagues describing my training at METRO last week. I gave everyone my username and password for the trail and hope they will see the advantages of Libguides and adopt them for the NJIT Library. The cost is not prohbitive, but in this era of tight budgets, we have to be careful about spending money on services that are not essential.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Class on Libguides at METRO

METRO holds classes regularly covering different aspects of librarianship. Today's class titled 'Using LibGuides To Deliver Dynamic Library Content Online' was given by Mazen Khoury of Springshare. I attended this meeting since I have heard so much anecdtally about Libguides and seriously want to use them in the NJIT Library.

Most of the participants were librarians at institutions that already have implemented Libguides. There always is a learning curve when a new product is used. Mazen set everyone up with an account on http://demo.libguides.com and showed how a libguide can be constructed. There is a web site http://community.libguides.com where people can see what libraries have done with their libguides.

I found the session quite useful. I hope that in this period of constrained budgets we can afford to purchase this system.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

What is the future of academic libraries?

My boss brought the following article to my attention:

"2010 top ten trends in academic libraries: A review of the current literature." College & Research Libraries News 71.6 (2010): 286-92. OmniFile Full Text Mega. Web. 6 July 2010.

One of the points made in the article which I will quote:
"The definition of the library will change as physical space is repurposed and virtual space expands."

Much of the second and third floors of the NJIT Library is occupied by bound volumes of journals. The use of these materials is diminishing each year. Students made requests for group study rooms during the exam periods. Very often they must be turned away. I suggest that much of the bound periodicals be place in storage to create space for more group study rooms.

A much higher percentage of our resources are now available online, so there is less need to store physical resources. Faculty do encourage students to work together as teams, so I think we should allocate more space for group study. To quote the article again:

"The concept of Library as Place is still important to students, researchers, and faculty members. Some libraries have added writing, tutoring, and media centers to provide multiple academic support service in one convenient location.'

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Reference Renaissance

While reading the library literature recent I found references to the following book:

Radford, Marie L, and R D. Lankes. Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2010

Based on my recent experiences as a reference librarian, I felt I had to obtain this book. It can be a real drag to sit at the reference desk for hours and get few if any real intellectual interactions. It is actually proceedings from a conference sponsored by the Bibliographic Center for Research of Aurora, Colorado and the Reference and User Services Association, a division of ALA.

I will make a few notes based on reading part I.

R. David Lankes, Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse and one of the editors said that the best days of reference are ahead, not behind. Reference librarians must become change agents and build bridges out to the community and identify innovation.

Carla Stoffle of the University of Arizona says that we must embed the library where the customer is.

Marie L. Radford of Rutgers University another editor states that cognitive and behavioral skills are important to today's reference expert.

Perhaps as I read further into this book, I'll post more comments.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Handheld Librarian Online Conference July 28-29

Registration is open for the Third Handheld Librarian Conference to be held July 28-29. Presenters include:
  • Joe Murphy
  • Lisa Carlucci Thomas
  • Chad Marin
  • Nicole Hennig
  • David Lee King

Registration is $69 for one person and $99 for a group at one terminal. It would seem to be a "no brainer" to have several people come to one site and attend the conference. I posted on the VALE listserv that I am willing to host this at NJIT. This was the people could split the cost.

I haven't heard from anyone after about 4 hours, but I will give it some time. If anyone is interested they may contact me at Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu .

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Trying to Be King Solomon in Allocating Seats for Scifinder Scholar

In April 2009 I reported in this journal that many users of Scifinder Scholar still preferred the client version after I agressively promoted the newer web versions with many new features. I thought I had solved the problem by splitting my two seats between the two versions.

A few days ago I received a complaint from a professor who was blocked from accessing the web version. She felt it was time to abandon the client version and devote both seats to the web. In order to accommodate her, I changed the allocation for a 16 hour period. I also said that at the start of the Fall semester, I would run a survey to see if there was still interest in the client version. My statistics over the past year indicate that 40% still use the client version of Scholar.

Here is a message that I sent to that professor:

When NJIT obtained access to the web version of Scifinder Scholar, I promoted it and encouraged users to make a transition to it from the client version which we used since 1999. I encouraged NJIT researchers to use the features that are only available on the web version. I received complaints after I had turned off the client version, A poll of the users indicated that close to half still wanted to use the older client version. At that point I allocated one seat for the web and one for the client.

I always emphasize when I teach users how to search Scifinder Scholar that there is a limitation on simultaneous users. Every month I receive a list of new NJIT accounts. I send them the following suggestions:

You are receiving this email since you registered for the web version of Scifinder Scholar in May. I would like to make a few suggestions on using this powerful database:

Please also download the software for the client version. Since we have 1 user for the web and 1 for the client, you can search the client if the web is busy.
I suggest you evaluate the answer sets when you are offline to allow others to use the database.
Likewise, please read full articles after you have logged off Scifinder.
Many chemistry related searches can be done in Scopus if Scifinder is busy

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about Scifinder Scholar or any NJIT Library issues

There is a 10 minute timeout for users of the web version of Scifinder Scholar.

Attached is a chart summarizing the NJIT use of Scifinder Scholar over the past year. 59.1% used the web version while 40.8% preferred the client. Although users of the client are in the minority, it is still a substantial amount.

I will do a survey of Scifinder users in the Fall to gauge the interest in retaining the client version.

Thanks for your feedback

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Coping with E-mail overload


I returned to work today after being away from NJIT for 10 calendar days. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to sift through my e-mail. Perhaps 15 out of the 300 e-mails that I received during my vacation were of any value. I really think that e-mail is of worthless as an advertising medium. I delete anything where the e-mail header indicates a sales pitch is being made. I do set my listserv settings for no mail during my vacations, so that helps. Once a thread is started on a listserv, everyone has to get his two cents in on the subject.

I remember back in the early 1990s when I started using e-mail, I would smile everytime I received one. Times have changed.

Friday, June 11, 2010

NJIT is closed on Fridays during the summer

For several years NJIT has closed on Fridays during the summer. There are no classes scheduled on Fridays and the university administration claims that $200,000 is saved in energy costs. A few people are skeptical about this savings and feel that research productivity declines when there is a 4 day week. I am not complaining.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Book Review from the New York Times

On the way home from work this afternoon I found a review of:

Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print

in the New York Times Book Review.

Carr argues that we are sabatoging ourselves, trading away the seriousness of sustained attention for the sustained superficiality of the Internet. He insists the negative side effects of the Internet outweigh its efficiencies. He even wrote an article in the Atlantic Monthly titled "Is Google Making us stupid?"

Jonah Lehrer the reviewer states "What Carr neglects to mention, however, is that the preponderance of scientific evidence suggests that the Internet and related technologies are actually good for the mind"

I will have to read the Atlantic Monthly article and get a hold of the book. A book review is successful when it inspires readers to obtain the book.

This is certainly a controversial topic. Students today learn differently from their parents. I think the Internet induces people to think in a "hypertext sense" rather than the linear method of a generation ago.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Trying to Use Google Books

A very conscientious graduate student was trying to use Google Books to try to read publications that he can not access any other way. It does provide the full text of books whose copyright has expired. Thus librarians can suggest that students use it to obtain older literature. Today, the student was trying to find books on Raman spectroscopy. He was frustrated since the books that he needed only allowed certain pages to be viewed. The help page made the following statement:

Many of the books you can preview on Google Books are still in copyright, and are displayed with the permission of publishers and authors. You can browse these "limited preview" titles just as you would in a bookstore, but you won't be able to see more pages than the copyright holder has made available.

When you've accessed the maximum number of pages allowed for a book, any remaining pages will be omitted from your preview. You can order full copies of any book using the "Get this book" links to the side of the preview page

Publishers provide the preview to try to sell their books. The student felt that random pages from each book were offered as samples.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

In Ink on a Flyleaf, Forever Yours

This article written by Peter Khoury appeared in Sunday's New York Times Week in Review section. He acknowledges the popularity of reading books on electronic device such as the iPad, Kindle, and Nook. He does say that a book's value will increase if it is signed or inscribed by a noted author. E-books preserve the intellectual content of the publication, but the sentimental value of the book as an artifact will be lost.

Teaching to a class of Environmental Engineering Students

In all my years at NJIT I can only remember a few times that I gave a library lecture in the summer. Courses given in a short session are very intense and very often there is just not a chance to teach information seeking skills. All civil engineering majors at NJIT are required to take ENE 262, an introduction to environmental engineering. The Powerpoint for my standard lecture for this course may be found at http://library.njit.edu/docs/ENE262_Summer2010.ppt

The topics for the assignment are:

Lead in Paint - Nature of the problem, environmental/health implications, applicable regulations and ways to address the situation

Offshore Oil Drilling - Nature of the problem, environmental/health implications and ways to address the situation (This is certainly a timely topic)

“Organic”, or “Natural”, or “Green” Pesticides – What they are, how they are produced, costs, and the environmental benefits.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Hopefully a Library Unconference at Rutgers Newark in March 2011

Yesterday, I met with two colleagues at the Dana Library of Rutgers-Newark and discussed the possibility of holding a library unconference there. I discussed many of the points covered in:

Lawson, Steve. Library Camps and Unconferences. [S.l.]: Facet Publishing, 2010.

They seemed to be receptive to the idea and will discuss it with their director. We did feel that the date would be in March 2011 during the spring break week. It would have to be at a time when there is minimal activity on campus. It is too late to plan something for the summer and there is a large meeting of New Jersey academic librarians (VALE) in January.

Let's hope we can pull this off.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Report from the NJIT Library Retreat on Friday May 21

On Friday May 21, the NJIT Library had its annual staff retreat in the Campus Center with Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University, as the speaker. We were joined by about 10 colleagues from other New Jersey academic libraries.

Steven spoke on design thinking as it can be applied to designing a future-proof library. His talk was based on several of his publications on this topic. We received copies of:

Design Thinking. By: Bell, Steven J.. American Libraries, Jan/Feb2008, Vol. 39 Issue 1/2, p44-49, 6p

'Design Thinking' and Higher Education http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/03/02/bell


Some of the points that were made during the talk:

--The IDEO method of design thinking in five steps
--The user experience can be improved through a design process.
--We can design a future-proof library by using a design thinking approach to make it happen.


There are strategies that academic can use to keep their libraries thriving and relevant in times of turbulent change. I am thinking about the reference function and how the number of transactions have diminished greatly over recent years. How can we revitalize reference and show management that we are still relevant?

In the afternoon the NJIT library staff had a meeting to discuss:

--The results of recent focus groups to assess how we can improve our services to users
--How can we link library goals to the NJIT goals as outline in the strategic plan for 2010-15.
--We were joined by Ian Gatley, the new Provost at NJIT. He was concerned about issues that we presented to him and hope that he will be supportive of the library’s role in the university’s strategic plan.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Why Some Conferences are not worthwhile

A very well known library organization held a free web conference today on mobile computing in libraries. It was scheduled from 1 - 4 PM, but I left the conference about 2:15. It was poor for the following reasons:

1. Mobile computing in general was discussed. If library aspects were considered at all, it was done after I left.
2. Most of what was discussed in the first hour was now general knowledge. What is the sense of going to a conference if new facts are not presented.
3. The first presenter was from a predominant telecommunications company who told the audience that his organization will be offering the first 4G network later this year. His competitors will not be able to get to 4G for another year. In essence this talk was a sales pitch.

At least I didn't have to pay for registration or travel.

New Jersey Chemistry Olympics 2010

Yesterday the 25th New Jersey Chemistry Olympics was held at NJIT with 16 high schools participating. Most of the schools were represented by 2 teams.

I have run the Information Search at least since the late 1990s. (I really should remember the exact year). Students in this event were required to bring a model of a molecule of a antiviral drug to be evaluated for accuracy and aesthetics of the model. Students were given a set of questions about antivirals where they had to find the answers from the Internet. They could either use Google of a list of databases that I provided. For this event:

1st Place - Riverdell Team B
2nd Place - Tenafly Team A
3rd Place - South Brunswick Team A

For the entire olympics Bergenfield High School was the winner. Congratulations to Coach Ara Kahyaoglu and his students.

Congratulations for all the students who particpated. There were no losers at this olympics.

Web site for the event is at http://sites.google.com/site/njchemistryolympics/home

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Returning to work tomorow

For the last two days this blog has received zero hits. I will be returning to work tomorrow for the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics. I will have a detailed report on it later in the week. I should have enough people helping me out for the information search. The issue is always that I have to complete the grading in a very short time frame. It is hard to grade while the students are still in the computer lab. More later.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Starting Staycation Tomorrow

I have scheduled 4 days away from the NJIT library. Since we get 20 vacation days and 3 personal days, I feel I should take them when the reference desk is slow. There are two days of final exams left, but there is very little demand for reference service. I will return on Wednesday May 19 for the Chemistry Olympics. I will have a detailed entry of it next week.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Planning a Library Unconference - First Hurdle

I had a nice conversation yesterday with Stephen Francoeur of Baruch College who helped organize a library camp in 2007. He highly suggested that there be no registration fees. The first thing would be to find a place for it. I thought of possibly having this at NJIT. I checked with the events coordinator here who said if outsiders come to a conference, there would have to be a charge. This would have to be paid by the attendees or the NJIT Library. In this era of bad budgets there is no way the NJIT Library could pay for this. Would people from NYC come to Newark for a conference?

I will have to ask around to see if a university would be willing to offer space for free. I am guessing that about 100 people would attend such a conference. If anyone can help out, please contact me at Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu .

Thanks

Friday, May 7, 2010

Presentations by Chemical Engineering Students

In ChE 472 students are given a term long assignment to report of the design of a plant to manufacture monoclonal antibodies. I attended the presentations by 3 of the groups last night.

All of them were excellent since they understood the principles involved in designing a plant to manufacture monoclonal antibodies. The grading rubrics were quite detailed. I did see an attribute called “demonstrated use to find information”. I did not see any references to usage of the journal literature in their design process. There were photos of certain plant equipment, but none stated where they obtained the photo. Perhaps students did use the journal literature, but did not document it. This is a disappointment to me since these students were given an exercise earlier in the semester to use Scifinder Scholar and Scopus to find information about monoclonal antibodies.

I suggest that in the future students be required to find some of the information they need through a database search and document that in their presentation? The major aim of our in promoting information literacy is to teach students how to properly use the journal literature in their projects.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Thinking about an Unconference in NYC later in 2010

I attended library camps or unconferences in 2007 (Baruch College) and 2009 (Brooklyn College). These events unscripted as the program for these meetings is arranged at the beginning. There is a list of recent unconferences at http://liswiki.org/wiki/Library_Camp . These events have been popular in Australia and Canada

I am interested in organizing an event for late 2010 in NYC. If anyone wants to serve on an organizing committee, they may contact me at Bruce.Slutsky@njit.edu . One of the major issues that has to be resolved is should there be a specific theme or should "anything go." Some possibilities are:

  • Web 2.0 initiatives - what works and what does not
  • Library Careers
  • Information Literacy
  • Coping with budget cuts
  • Virtual Reference
  • The Future of Libraries
  • Staff Development

Don't hesitate to contact me.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Report from the Upstate Downstate New York Science Librarians Meeting of April 26

I took notes at the meeting on Monday. If anyone wants the Powerpoint Presentations, please e-mail me at Bruce.Slutsky@adm.njit.edu . I would like to thank Jason Kucsma and Tom Neilsen of METRO and Heidi Webb of Syracuse University with helping me plan this meeting.

The Joint Upstate Downstate New York Science Librarians meeting was held April 26, 2010 at METRO headquarters in Manhattan. The theme of the meeting was Trends in Sci-Tech Publishing. The upstate librarians attended via web conferencing.

The first speaker was Elizabeth Perill of Elsevier. She discussed:

Quick historic introduction of Elsevier
STM publishing – an overview
Publishing cycle and key Investments
Innovation
How Investments & Innovations result in meeting the key needs

Some of the points she made were:

• 26% of journal articles published globally are from Elsevier
• Elsevier has 9 million article published with 300,000 added every year
• It publishes 18 new journals each year
• The electronic submission of journals is twice as fast as before
• Some new innovations include:
o Inline Multimedia Playback
o The first generation of smart applications to enhance discoverability

She mentioned SciVal Spotlight which provides a complete picture of an institution’s research strength and SciVal funding which allows universities to better compete for funding and increase grant income.

She cited statistics saying that:

• There has been significant increases in research productivity since 1999
• Elsevier continues to provide improvement in values for money
• There has been dramatic increases in access levels since 1999

The positive trajectory in STM publishing since the E-Revolution began in 1999 should continue.

Elsevier publications have been archived in the Royal Library of the Netherlands, Portico, and Clockss.

She concluded by saying:


“Innovation is in our DNA and has resulted in new ways to present content, to find or deliver content”

The second speaker was Allan Barnett of the Institute of Physics Publishing. He stated:


IOP Currently publish 65 journals, over half with partnerships of other learned society publishers



It provides 14,000 peer reviewed articles per annum; Includes Turpion and AAS.

In 2009, over 15% of our journals with Impact Factor over 5, and 20% over 3.

Majority of our titles, offer free access to all new content for 30 days from online publication.

Physicsweb.org and Nanotechweb.org are two specialist portals that it provides.

Some of its innovations were being:


First STM publisher to provide all its content online; now with comprehensive journal archive;

First STM publisher to provide z39.50 compliance;

First STM publisher to offer forward citing;

It has 350,000 articles and over 550,000 preprint articles.

Performance Indicators 1995-2009


  • Online full-text downloads, in excess of 8 million;

  • Journals published grown x 2 times industry rate;

  • Papers published grown at x 6 times industry rate;

  • Citation performance grown at x 3 times industry rate;

  • 25% increase in impact factor since 2000.



The third speaker was Kristen Fitzpatrick, the IEEE University Partnership Program Manager. Her talk was based on content, context and community.

Content:

She explained that IEEE publications covered all areas of technology including aerospace, information technology, semiconductors, circuits, biomedical engineering, computing, and wireless broadband. The society is publishing 5 new journals this year.

The collaborative content of IEEE Explore includes:

• IET Journals, Conferences and seminar digest
• More than 250,000 AIP/AVS documents from 5 top applied physics publications
• IBM Journal of Research and Development
• 400 + Wiley/IEEE books

She mentioned web sites including:

IEEE Smart Grid

Emerging Technologies Portal

IEEE TV

http://Tryengineering.org

Context

The new interface for IEEExplore was discussed. A useful feature is suggested search terms suggested by the user community.

IEEE has entered the realm of mobile computing which did not need to be a clone of the full site. They developed new imaginative apps around their core offerings.

The mobile services are available at http://m.ieeexplore.ieee.org

A question and answer period followed. The three publishers were sensitive to the budgetary problems of their customers. They were all willing to hear suggestions.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Memorial Service for William Spillers at NJIT on Wednesday May 5

I am posting an announcement made by Interim Provost Donald Sebastian

There will be a memorial service for Dr. William Spillers on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Ballroom B, following the NJIT faculty meeting. The Spillers family has requested that donations in Bill’s memory be made to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength charity (http://www.networkofstrength.org/information).

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Learning the Advanced Features of a Database

We all have our comfort zones as we search databases. We are familiar with the basic commands and operations, but are reluctant to explore more advanced features. I have used Science Direct at the NJIT library for many years. Today I met with the Product Manager and Human Factors Engineer from Elsevier to discuss new enhancements for Science Direct.

I explained that I rarely used that database for subject searching. If the Serials Solutions Database provided by the NJIT Library says that we have an Elsevier journal, it will direct the user to the exact article within Science Direct. I pointed out that I use Scopus for subject searching. There is a link within the Scopus bibliographic record that points the user to the full-text which would be in Science Direct if the journal is published by Elsevier.

Today, I was able to familiarize myself with these special features of Science Direct:

  • Download Manager – one may download more than one PDF at a time and specifying the naming convention of the file.

  • Related articles of the one retrieved.

  • Features of the HTML format of articles
    --Ability to extract the figures and tables and display them externally
    --Extraction of relevant terms from the article
    --Linking of reference in the bibliography.


It was a very fruitful discussion since I can now teach these features to my patrons.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Passing of Professor William Spillers

We were just notified of the sudden passing of William Spillers, Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at NJIT. I have known Bill since I came to NJIT in 1992. He will be sorely missed by the NJIT community.

Colleagues and students of Bill’s who wish to leave a public message of condolence or share a favorite memory are encouraged to do so at http://rememberingbillspillers.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

User Survey vs Focus Group - Which is Better?

It is important to elicit feedback from library customers to determine the degree of satisfaction. No service organization can please all its users all of the time, but they must constantly strive to improve. We must build on our strengths and work on weaknesses. However, we must know where there is dissatisfaction before we know how to make adjustments.

It is beyond the scope of this blog entry to discuss in detail focus groups and user surveys. I refer my readers to these sites:

The difficulty in arranging focus groups is that students are very reluctant to come even when offered compensation and a free lunch. We are asking them to give up an hour of their time. Perhaps they feel that what they say would not change a situation. We can also attribute this to apathy. Even a successful focus group only has about 10 participants. Such a small sample can never give representative feedback. I feel that a focus group works best when evaluating a product rather than a service.

A user survey is not perfect, but it at least reaches more people. It should be designed to take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. It should be more than just multiple choice questions and allow users to make comments. As an inducement to participate, an award (gift certificate to the bookstore) should be offered to one person in a lottery.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Design Thinking and Libraries

Today we were informed that Steven Bell of Temple University will be the speaker at our staff retreat on May 21. 5 years ago Steven was the speaker at our retreat held at New Jersey City University when he spoke about blended librarians. Rich Sweeney distributed a list of his publications concerning innovation and design in relation to libraries. The following paper was of interest to me:

Bell, Steven J. "Design Thinking." American Libraries 39.1/2 (2008): 44-49. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 9 Apr. 2010.

I will quote two sentences from this paper:

"What can librarians do to create experiences that are memorable? That's where design thinking may help by providing a framework for identifying problems that prevent the delivery of great user experiences."

I was thinking about how over recent years the gate count of the NJIT library has dropped as enrollment has increased. There are legitimate reasons for this:
  1. The student center was greatly expanded providing more study spaces
  2. There are large lounges in the Honors College and Biomedical Engineering Department both located in Fenster Hall
  3. Since the price of laptops has decreased, more students have them and don't need to use the computers in the information commons as they once did.

What service does the library provide which is not available anywhere else on campus?

  • Group Study Rooms

During exam periods, it is almost impossible to get one. How can the Robert Van Houten Library provide more group study rooms to attract more people to the library?

Bound periodicals which take up most of the space on the second and third floors are now used minimally. I would love to see most of the bound periodicals consolidated so that the entire third floor can be devoted to those rooms of various sizes. I would insist that the bound periodicals be placed in a storage area that is readily accessible for users.

Problem - Design innovations cost money which is very scarce these days.

  1. We would need space and compact shelving for these lesser used bound periodicals
  2. There would be construction costs entailed with creating new group study rooms.

When I first came to NJIT Joel Bloom told us "We are as good as our weakest point." For all these years lack of funding has thwarted much of the strategic planning in the library.

Just my thoughts on a Friday afternoon.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Judy Cohn of UMDNJ to speak on NJIT about Open Access Publications

Thursday, April 8th, 4:00 - 5:30
Room 112 Eberhardt
University Workshop Series - Spring 2010
Revitalizing Your Academic Experience
"Spiraling Costs of Scholarly Journals & the Future of Open Access Publications; What Can a Faculty Member Do?"
Judy Cohn
Associate VP for Scholarly Information
University Librarian
UMDNJ

Monday, April 5, 2010

How Much Time Should Librarians Spend at Professional Meetings?

It is important for all professionals to keep abreast of developments in their respective specialties. We can do that by taking advanced courses or attending professional meetings that can last from one hour to several days. Since information technologies are changing so rapidly, it is especially important for librarians to know what is going on. Time spent at meetings takes us away from our daily responsibilities to our customers. We must always remember that the tuition dollars spent by students pay our salaries.

I am Facebook friends with colleagues at many universities. I have observed that a few of them always seem to be traveling to a meeting or at a conference. I must assume that their supervisors approve of this, but if they spend an excessive amount of time at a meeting, they are letting their daily responsibilities slide. Universities usually pay for their people to attend meetings. Costs for travel, food, and registration, can really add up.

In the past I have gone to one major meeting (for me the American Chemical Society National Meeting) and several short local ones in the course of a year. In the past year I have had to use my own funds for most of it since the travel budget at NJIT has been tight.

I am asking my colleagues who are reading this their opinion on how much time is appropriate for librarians to spend at professional meetings.