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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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