Comments on Two Articles About the New York Public Library

There were two recent articles about the New York Public Library. The first one in the Sunday Review of the New York Times is by Edmund Morris, the author of biography of Beethoven, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. I think he is a little too harsh as he describes the “sacking of a palace of culture“. He objects to President Anthony W. Marx’s plan to spend $300 Million to transform the main building to a “palace of presentism.” I do feel that NYPL must move into the future and provide research level journals electronically instead of in print. However, it should preserve its unique collections. The special collections  must never be compromised and not moved from the Schwartman Building. I question if there is enough room in that building for Mid Manhattan and SIBL as stated in the plan.

I don’t know if this analogy is valid, but Yankee Stadium was reconstructed with many of the features of the original ball park. Features like the frieze and Monument Park appear in the new stadium along with amenities such as luxury boxes and restaurants.

This brings me to the second article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on off site storage for researchers. In a small academic library like NJIT, users can just walk up to shelve and pick off the book or periodical they need. NYPL is closed stack necessitating patrons to fill out a call slip and wait for item. I remember my days at NYPL when patrons were so impatient. Some would have an anxiety attack when they would have to wait 20 minutes for their book and direct their anger toward the reference librarian when the item was late. There was always the “fast food” way of thinking by patrons. Right now NYPL has a facility in New Jersey called Recap where less popular materials are housed. Patrons likely have to wait a day for their request. The renovations of the Schwartzman Building would require more materials to be moved there. There is a plan to build more storage capacity there.

I have no conclusions to make. You just can’t please all the people all of the time. A small library can’t provide all the resources its patrons need. When I worked at NYPL people were asking for materials it didn’t own. When you have a large collection, there is only so much space and of course space costs money. Thanks for reading this :)

Unethical Behavior of Journal Editors

I thought that readers of this blog should read this article http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i14/Editors-Coercing-Citations.html that appeared in the April 2, 2012 issue of the Chemical and Engineering News.  An editor does have the right to check the references in a paper.  There may be times when more documentation is needed and a paper must be revised to include more citations.  A journal editor has no right to "pump up" data that will eventually appear in Journal Citation Reports.  I wonder if the publishers are aware if this practice.  The authors of this article are asking scientists to complete a survey to determine how widespread this practice is.  I am interested in seeing the results.  This could be a "scandal" in STEM publishing.

Reference Question of the Day

Today, a student needed information about the corporate culture of Yahoo.  When I searched Business Source Premier using Yahoo as a company I got about 5500 hits.  It was very difficult to pick a second term to combine with the company to find the desired information.  Corporate culture must be experienced from within and thus it would likely be difficult to find publications about it.  Some of the terms I suggested were:

• Corporate Culture (a few hits were retrieved)
• Employees
• Employment
• Management

I did find some relevant articles for the student, but he may have to evaluate a large answer set and pick the ones he feels are relevant.

The Job Outlook for Chemists is Bleak

For this blog entry I am looking back at my former profession as a chemist. An article in a recent issue of the Chemical and Engineering News  states the unemployment rate of American Chemical Society members is 4.6% which is the highest on record. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the unemployment rate for chemists and materials scientists was 6.1% in 2011. These statistics can be misleading since they don’t count underemployment chemists or those so discouraged that they stopped looking.


I feel badly for the NJIT students who work very hard and then must face a very tough job market after graduation. I  recall that after I received my masters degree in chemistry in January 1974, I was unemployed for 4 months. During that period I worked as a clerk in a bank for a temporary employment agency.