Passing of Professor Bruno Vittimberga of the University of Rhode Island

I just found out that Bruno Vittimberga who was my research adviser at the University of Rhode Island (URI) passed away on July 24 at age 82.  As an undergraduate chemistry student at CCNY I did a research project in organic photochemistry.  When I read a brochure from the URI Chemistry Department I noted that Dr. Vittimberga also did research in that area and I would like to study under him.  I remember in December 1971 he phoned my home to tell me I was accepted to the masters program.

During Christmas week I took the bus up to URI to meet with him to discuss his research.  To make a long story short, I picked a project not related to photochemistry.  My masters thesis was titled "The Reaction of Aldehydes on Activated Alumina."  I also remember the other people in his research group:

• Dave Welch
• Richard Goerner
• Phil Cote
• Fred Lamb

My condolences to his family

Obituary

Some Thoughts about Google Scholar

I was reading through the current issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship and found this excellent article about Google Scholar

Gray, J. E., Hamilton, M. C., Hauser, A., Janz, M. M., Peters, J. P., & Taggart, F. (Summer 2012). Scholarish: Google Scholar and its Value to the Sciences. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. doi:10.5062/F4MK69T9

Firstly, I should note that all of the authors are graduate students at the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University.  I must commend them and Brian Winterman who helped them through the research process.  I was very impressed by the thoroughness of this research on a very timely topic.  I would like to make comments about some of the remarks in this paper and then make some of my own. 

·         The authors stated they tried unsuccessfully to obtain information from Google on inclusion guidelines and methods and approaches of the company.  No information was provided on what sources are crawled for indexing, how citation information is gathered, or what if any business partnerships exist between Google and publishers.  Certainly publishers such as Elsevier, Chemical Abstracts Service, Thomson-Reuters and many others are responsive to librarians who are their customers.  Just what is Google’s motivation for producing Scholar?

·         When I do cited reference searches for faculty, I only use Web of Science, Scopus, and Scifinder Scholar.  Faculty often report that the numbers in Google Scholar are higher.  When they are up for promotion or tenure they “fight” for every cited reference.  We tell them that Google Scholar often includes non peer-reviewed sources which inflate their total.

·         I never mention Google Scholar when teaching classes.  I feel that I must teach students to search the databases that are paid for by NJIT.  I wonder if any libraries cut databases and told their patrons to search Google Scholar.

·         The authors state that Google Scholar uniquely retrieved items served to fill research gaps and demonstrated its value to find information on obscure topics.

·         On the negative side Google Scholar ranks its results using the complex algorithms of a search engine and does not provide a thesaurus or a way to sort the results.

·         The authors provide  a lengthy bibliography or articles that compare Google Scholar to bibliographic databases by commercial publishers.

I highly suggest reading this article especially since it is open access.

The Role of the Library in the International Students Orientation

International students are often dazed and confused when they come to an American campus for the first time.  Most are likely in the United States for the first time and are facing culture shock.  The Office of International Students at NJIT does a fantastic job of orientating students to their new academic environment.  The students hear many speakers about residence life, health services, campus security, banking, and living in Newark.  Yesterday, I represented the library at the orientation.  I was intentionally very brief in my remarks.  I said that it takes time to become proficient in using the multitude of  information resources that they will use in their academic work.  I briefly demonstrated the library home page and its links to the databases and the research guides that the reference staff published.  I certainly hope that the new students benefited by my short lecture.  In the future the students will receive more in depth training.

Opening for a Science/Engineering Librarian at NJIT

Position Announcement: Technical Reference Librarian

The Robert W. Van Houten Library at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) seeks a Technical Reference and Liaison Librarian.  Engineering or other significant STEM expertise is required.  Work includes collaboration, reference, information literacy, instruction and assessment, collection development and user satisfaction for several academic departments. This librarian also performs literature searching and citation analyses, creates course guides and tutorials, etc.   The position reports to the Director of Reference.

To apply for the position please refer to the complete job description including preferred qualifications and essential characteristics. Apply online through the NJIT employment system.

Apply Online Now!

The Dog Days of August are Here

The dog days of August are the slowest in academic libraries.  Summer session is over while the pre-college programs are ending today.  I am still working on weeding the collection.  It was so sad to see so many old books in astronomy, physics, and chemistry.   In recent years there was so little money to purchase new books. Today I started looking at the medical related books in the “R” section of the stacks.  I was glad to see that the majority of the books were newer and still relevant since the NJIT programs in the life sciences are relatively new.

I spent some time this summer tweaking some of my Powerpoints for my information literacy classes in the future.  I have a chemical engineering class scheduled on the first day of classes.

Time passes very quickly.  Before you know it all the students will return and we will be busier in the library.

Passing of 4 NJIT Professors

Recently, I heard of the passing of 4 NJIT Professors.  I knew each of them casually, but their losses affects the entire community.

Ernest Geskin was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

• Obituary

Joseph Kitutcza was a  special lecturer in the Chemical Engineering Department

• Obituary

Leon Buteau  who retired some years back was Professor of Physics.  I believe he was Acting Dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts.

• Obituary

 Manish Bhattacharjee was Professor of Mathematics

• Obituary
• His research interests

My condolences to their families.