Are Library Lectures Effective When Given During Orientation Week?

Today, the new international graduate students broke out into groups based on their major. At 10 AM I spoke to the pharmaceutical engineering students while at 11 AM I met with chemical engineers. For both sessions I had less time than I would like to give a thorough introduction to information sources in their fields. I decided not to use my usual powerpoints and go directly to the library’s web site to demonstrate resources offered by the library.


The students were attentive and seemed to be interested in my lectures. I demonstrated the library catalog, Scopus and Scifinder Scholar. I gave out my business card and told students that I was available for questions at any time in the future. I wonder if a library lecture at an orientation will be effective in the long run. Some of these students are new to the United States and must adapt to a new culture. Using library resources is not the most important thing for them at this time. In my opinion this lecture would have more of an impact if given a few weeks into the semester.

Hiring Student Reference Assistants for the Fall Semester

For several years reference has hired student assistants to screen the questions coming to the help desk. If the patron has a simple bibliographic or directional question, the student worker can answer it. We expect the assistant to refer complex question to the reference librarian on duty. Today we started to interview candidates for the fall semester.


Hiring is never easy at any level. We never know how well the employee will work out and how long he/she will stay on the job. We automatically eliminated applicants who sent a poorly written resume in response to the advertisement. Candidates with experience in a library were given full consideration. Graduate students are usually more mature and more likely to perform. Students are financially dependent on their families and could use money from a part time job to pay for some of their expenses. Since the programs at NJIT are rigorous we are afraid that students will leave a part time job so that they can spend more time on their studies. Let’s hope for the best.

Opening for an E-Resources/Serials Librarian at NJIT

A detailed job description and instructions on how to apply for this position may be found at:

https://blogs.njit.edu/library/2011/08/15/position-announcement-e-resources-serials-librarian/

Tony Stankus Wins an Award From the Special Libraries Association

Congratulations to Tony Stankus for winning the 2011 Distinguished Member Award of the BioMedical & Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association.  Details may be found at http://newswire.uark.edu/article.aspx?id=16334

Comments about Interlibrary Loans

Interlibrary loans (ILL) are essential to any library since it can not satisfy all information needs of all patrons.  Even when I worked at the big New York Public Library  people were always asking for materials that we didn't own.  It is very easy to request an ILL by using an electronic form.  The collection at NJIT is weak since the library did not grow as the research interests of the university expanded.  Several years ago a graduate student in information systems complained that every book she needed had to be ordered from another university.

It bothers me when a patron sends an ILL for an item that the library owns.  Certainly, one make an honest mistake, but most of the time I feel that the patron is just too lazy to check the library's online catalog before submitting a request.  This causes an unnecessary delay in the researcher's having the information needed.  Is it laziness or is the information literacy training not effective?

Looking Ahead to the Fall Semester

Summer session classes have just ended at NJIT. Likewise the pre-college programs are also finished for the season. I feel badly for these youngsters who just may have nothing else to do for the rest of the summer. Hopefully their stay at NJIT was beneficial and perhaps some enroll here in the future. For the next 3 weeks the library usage will be very light. I will be greatly anticipating the beginning of the Fall Semester. Provost Ian Gatley will be launching a learning initiatives program in the Fall. Hopefully students will be able to learn more effectively in groups than they can as individuals. Can these groups stay together over the academic year? Personality problems could arise that may thwart the effective of learning communities. I think they will place a bigger demand on the group study rooms in the library.


For further information, please see:

http://www.njit.edu/provost/initiatives/learning-communities/index.php

http://www.njit.edu/communityconnections/  

The high cost of journals and e-books should not hamper innovation in Sci/Tech

This blog entry will raise questions rather than answer them. A post in the listserv CHMINF-L by Val Tucci of The College of New Jersey made a reference to a letter to the editor In the July 25, 2011 issue of the Chemical and Engineering News written by Wendy Quinn, a librarian at AMRI.  She brings up the rising costs of technical publications in electronic format. She quotes Stewart Lyman, owner and manager of Lyman Biopharma in Seattle who states that scientists at small biotech companies are reading fewer journal articles because of lack of access to them. He continues by saying that the decrease in scientific reading leads to a decrease in innovation.


There is certainly no argument that limited library budgets in academia and industry does impede the access to information. But impeding it in my opinion does not mean preventing the flow of information from going to the creator to someone else who needs it sometime in the future. If a scientist or professor had a subscription to all relevant journals, how much could he or she read? Journal articles by their nature are very detailed and takes much time to read thoroughly.

Almost all publishers provide access to abstracts of journal articles for free on the web. Very often a researcher can understand the research findings in a paper by just reading a summary. Academics can use interlibrary loan and industrial scientists can use the pay per view option to purchase the full text of articles they really need for retrospective research or current awareness.

This problem will not go away since there is no way that publishers will lower their costs. Corporate and Academic libraries must pursue the just in time model of providing information even more. I think that scientists need to be careful about selecting materials that they must read.