I did not mind working yesterday which was Columbus Day. I can't complain since we get Fridays off during the summer and the week off between Christmas and New Years. The public transportation in New York and New Jersey was on a regular weekday schedule.
Students in Chemical Engineering 396 completed their assignment to use technical databases to find relevant articles. I had time to grade only 2 papers, but I perused through the others and noted that although students were given the choice to use either Scopus or Scifinder Scholar, only 1 out of 20 used Scifinder. During the lecture I discussed both equally and considered the advantages and disadvantages of both. I really think that students did not want to set up an account for Scifinder and remember another username and password. They preferred to follow the path of least resistance and searched Scopus. Chemical Abstracts Service is very protective of their database, and just do not want anyone to walk up to a public computer in an academic library to search Scifinder.
I am home this morning since I am working on the late shift. The number of substantial reference transactions at the desk continues to decline. Last Tuesday nobody approached the reference desk between 5 PM and 7 PM. Oh well.
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