After 6 years as a doctoral student my favorite student is
finally moving on from NJIT. Since I
would rather not reveal his name on a public web site I will refer to him as Mr.
Patel. He was a student in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering although his research was in
the physics of quantum/nano-scale
phenomena. Throughout his time at
NJIT he actively sought me out for advice on how to use information resources
to support his research. Although Mr.
Patel never attended an information literacy lecture, he is the most
information competent individual I have encountered in all my years as a
librarian. He knew to use the databases
and not to “Google” to find information.
After his
doctoral thesis defense, he approached for advice on how to look for a
professional position. I wish he had
started looking earlier, but in the long run things worked out for him. When a brief search for an industrial
position failed, I suggested he pursue a post-doctoral fellowship. With great pleasure, I wrote letters of
recommendation for him. I am pleased to
say that he accepted a post doc at the College of Nanoscience and Engineering
at SUNY Albany. I obviously wish him
well as he assumes this position and certainly hope he does not fall into the “post
doc” trap and just moves from one temporary position to another.
In my 21 years at
NJIT I have seen thousands of students come and go. Most of them never needed the services of a
reference librarian. I will sorely miss
Mr. Patel as he moves forward in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment