Weeding Project for the Summer

The New York Public Library where I worked from 1983-90 was a library of record, thus nothing could be discarded.  Whenever possible older books and periodicals were preserved.  The NJIT Library supports research and coursework.  This summer I am working on an organized weeding project. We need to make room in the stacks since they are getting tight. A student worker is perusing the stacks in my subject areas of responsibility.  She is removing duplicates of older materials and books that are in poor physical condition. 

2011 New Jersey Chemistry Olympics

I can not remember the exact year that I started the information search for the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics, but it was likely in the late 1990s.  At that point in time the information search was an event devoted to finding chemical information on the internet.  I remember working with Professor Fadi Deek as a judge in the GITC Building.  At the end of today's even I spoke with Fadi who is now the Dean of the  College of Science and Liberal Arts.  Since that time this event was combined with the molecular modelling event.

The students bring in a modle of a top selling pharmaceutical which is evaluated for the:

• Complexity of the model
• Accuracy of the bond angles
• Accuracy of bond lengths
• Accuracy of the size of the atoms
• Aesthetics of the model

The second part entails searching the internet to answer questions about Lipitor which is the top selling drug.  the scores are added up,   This year Riverdell High School won the event.  I congratulate Carrie Jacobus and her students.  I also thank the following who assisted in the event:

• Professor Kathleen Gilbert
• Frank Houlihan
• Megha Thakkar
• Madhuleena Bhadra

There is a total of 10 events which are described at http://sites.google.com/site/njchemistryolympics/home

Each team picks up points for their placement in each event.  Riverdell High School also won the prize for the entire event.  There are really no losers here.  Each student learns by participating and collaborating with their fellow students.  It is certainly nice to win an event, but the experience is quite valuable.

All the students, advisors and sponsors should be commended.  Special recognition should be give to Borislaw Bilash who is stepping down after 14 years as Director of the Olympics.  It certainly has been a pleasure to work with him all these years.  Natalie Macke of Pascack Hills High School will succeed him.

I am already looking forward to next year.

QANDANJ gets a new lease on life

Here are excerpts from an e-mail sent by Cheryl O'Connor, the Executive Director of LibraryLinkNJ, The New Jersey Library Cooperative.

Last week, the LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board received and unanimously approved a contract extension from the New Jersey State Library for QandANJ @ $50,000. This contract extension will commence July 1, 2011 and will allow us to continue the service into September.


Based on input from participants at the NJLA Reference Section meeting on May 13, the service will remain 24/7 during the contract extension.

New Jersey Library Association Reference Section Chair, Michael Maziekien, shared by email on Saturday that he anticipates “that the NJLA Executive Board will be appointing a task force to assess our immediate plans for virtual reference in New Jersey.”

I have mixed feelings about chat reference as I have expressed in this journal.  Traffic during the summer is low anyway.  It gives individuals who may be afraid to approach a reference librarian in person a venue to ask questions.  Some patrons do expect too much of the librarian and cut off the chat if the question can not be answered immediately.  My biggest gripe is that too many patrons think they have reached their local librarian and ask a question that can not be answered by someone from another institution.

NJIT users of Scifinder Scholar are finally moving to the Web

I received my monthly statistics from Scifinder Scholar.  I was pleased to see the percentage of users using the client version has dropped considerably from March to April.

March - 41.3% used the client version
April -   24.6% used the client version

I think they have finally gotten the message that it goes away June 30 whether they like it or not.  By reading some listservs for chemistry librarians I have found out that some universities have already taken away the client version.

How do you subdivide an inadequate budget for journals and databases?

It is very hard to answer that question especially since budgets for library resources are going down while the prices are increasing, often at a rate higher than inflation.  It seems that no matter what formula is used to compile a budget, somebody will be agrieved by the process.  Even a very large library can never please all its users.  When I worked for the Science and Technology Division of the New York Public Library from 1983-90, people were always asking for materials that we didn't own.

For many years at NJIT each department has been given 50 points to allocate to databases so that they may be prioritized.  On the surface this seems to be fair, but a large department has the same number of votes as a smaller one.  It is like the United States Senate where California and Alaska have the same number of votes.  How can a research university with doctoral programs ever think of cancelling IEEE Explore or Scifinder Scholar?  If the budget is cut further in the future, some core resources just may have to go.

Compiling the journals but by department is complicated.  Each department is given a dollar allocation based on the number of students, faculty and research dollars.  Every year each department must submit a prioritized list of journals.  Titles near the bottom of the list will not be ordered.  However, very often departments are not charged for a title since it is part of a journal package or part of an aggregator database.

I don't have an answer for this.  We have to try to please most of the people most of the time.

It's Nice to See Librarians Acknowledged by a Book's Author

Authors usually place acknowledgements in the front or back of a book.  He/she mentions the people who provide invaluable help in writing the book.  The author usually lists the people who were interviewed for the book.  A few days ago I picked up the following book at the public library:

Rosengren, John. Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid: The Year That Changed Baseball Forever. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks, 2008. Print.

I will quote directly for the author's acknowedgements:

"A special thank you to the entire staff of the Minneapolis Public Library, with its generous baseball collection.  You tutored me in the new technology, replaced the toner in the cartridge, and led me through the stacks with unflagging patience and kindness.  I appreciate that."

Perhaps this small paragraph be included in library school textbooks.  It's nice to be appreciated.