Random Thoughts at the End of the Semester

It is reading day today which means that there are no classes as exams begin tomorrow.  There are plenty of student in the library, but none of them are approaching the reference desk.  The decline in reference transactions is continuing.  In my opinion there are two reasons for this:

1. Student at a tech school are savvy enough to learn how to use the technical databases by themselves.
2. Students are so in love with Google that they think if a Google search is negative, they think the result just doesn’t exist and will not even think of another approach.  I guess the concept of Googling to find information is so ingrained in our popular culture that it makes its way to academia.

This past semester I made appointments to see 3 research groups in the chemical engineering department to discuss informally the resources and services of the library.  I feel that these encounters were moderately successful as some students did ask questions that they would not have if they were attending a traditional lecture for graduate students.

This endeavor did not work as well for civil engineering students as I held two voluntary sessions where a total of 3 students came.  I will have to try to do a tradition lecture next semester.  I will have to try the informal approach with graduate students in chemistry and physics in the spring.

The number of postings in this blog has declined dramatically as well.  I used to discuss interesting reference questions, but there have been so few of them.

I wish the readers of Bruce The Librarian a happy holiday season and new year.

Idea on How to Stop Students from Procrastinating

For many years I have taught a class to environmental engineering students who are assigned to write a descriptive paper.  Some of the topics were:

1.       Reduction of Greenhouse Gases; innovative regulatory approaches, such as incentive-based mechanisms, to achieve reductions fairly and efficiently

2.       Nanomaterials for drinking water treatment

3.       Approaches for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

4.       Performance of innovative policy approaches, including economic incentives, and voluntary programs for reducing pollution

5.       Combined Sewer Overflows;  current conditions, regulations and plans

6.       Life cycle analysis of hybrid, battery vs. conventional vehicles

I usually give my library lecture in week 3 or 4 of the semester while the paper is not due until the very end of the term.  This gives students about 10 weeks to do the assignment which is certainly ample time.  Inevitably they will procrastinate and wait until the last minute.  When I read the papers student will likely cite more web sites than peer reviewed articles even after my lecture emphasized searching databases to find articles.

I propose that my lecture be moved to later in the semester for two reasons:

1.       A 5 week deadline may create a sense of urgency forcing the students to immediately work on their assignment and not procrastinate.

2.       If they start their assignment shortly after the library lecture they will remember to search for articles.  Otherwise they will likely revert to their old habits and Google away.

We’ll try it out next semester and see if my theory works.

Meeting Graduate Students in Small Groups

As I mentioned here a few months ago, I wanted to meet with small groups of graduate students to see if I could elicit some questions or feedback.  After doing it with three groups of chemical engineering graduate students I would say it was somewhat successful.   It was my experience that students in large lecture halls are reluctant to ask questions.  Some of the questions and comments were:

• What happens when I am asked for password or a credit card when I try to download a journal article?
• How do I get an account for Scifnder?
• How can I recommend the library subscribe to certain journals not now available?
• How do I update to the latest version of EndNote?

Random Thoughts at the Middle of the Semester

It is just past the second half of the semester so just to keep this blog alive I think I’ll put down some random thoughts.

I met with a group of 6 Kam Sirkar’s graduate students a few weeks ago as a follow up to the formal training session that I gave at the beginning of the semester to chemical engineering graduate students.  My meeting didn’t start out well as one student remarked, didn’t you speak to us a few weeks ago.  I explained that I wanted an informal session where students could feel free to ask questions.  After a while the students opened up.  I have another session scheduled with Ed Dreizin’s students in a few weeks.

I am grateful that for this semester at least I am finished doing cited reference searches for the Provost’s Office.  Candidates for Distinguished Professor have very long lists of publications and it is a very tedious procedure to get statistics for Scopus, Web of Science, and Scifinder.  Since NJIT does not subscribe to the Web of Science it we have to go across the street to the Dana Library at Rutgers-Newark to do the search.

We just had a successful meeting about Systematic Reviews at the METRO Science Librarians SIG.  We had a turnout of about 30 which was just about the biggest in the 15 years that I have convened the group.

We are trying to make a push for an institutional repository at NJIT.  I am disappointed that one is not in place as we are a research university.  I am also going to have institutional repositories as the theme of the next METRO meeting.

NJIT Math Professor Bruce Bukiet Makes the New York Times

Bruce Bukiet makes predictions of the baseball standings before the season begins every spring.  There was a nice article about him in the New York Times saying how his predictions for this season were very wrong.  He predicted the Washington Nationals would win the NL East with 99 victories while the Mets would be in second place with 88 wins.  The Mets won 90 games but finished 7 games ahead of the Nationals.

Bruce obviously can not predict injuries that will occur during the season and could not anticipate the trades the Sandy Alderson made at the trade deadline.

Let's Go Mets!!

Requiring Students to Take Notes During a Lecture

It is always difficult to get students to pay attention during my lectures describing information resources in the technical disciplines.  In this hi tech era it is quite common to observe students on their smart phones while I am lecturing.  There is a graduate seminar series in the chemical engineering department which features outside speakers discussing their research.  Once a year I speak to this group about information resources in chemical engineering that the library provides.  The professor who coordinates the seminars requires that the students take notes which he collects after the lecture.

This certainly requires that the students pay attention, but I still notice one with her cell phone.  I am interested in seeing the notes that the students took.  I also asked the professor to return the notes to the student so they can refer to them in the future.

Should Reference Librarians Look Down Upon the Use of Web Sites in Writing Papers?

Over the last week I have examined some undergraduate papers in environmental and chemical engineering that were submitted within the last 3 years.  I am evaluating the writing and information literacy skills of the papers.  I observe that the majority of the references in the bibliographies are web sites.  This is disappointing since I spent much time in class demonstrating the databases to them.  Students seem to be content on using Google to find the information they need. 

On the positive side they do use reputable databases and find the information to answer their research question.  The papers they write are usually very good.  I keep wondering “If you can’t beat them, join them.”  Perhaps more time in class should be devoted to evaluating web pages using the CRAAP test.  CRAAP is the acronym for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.

Trying to Meet With Graduate Students in Small Groups

For many years I have taught information literacy skills to graduate student as part of a departmental seminar.  Since most of these seminars are large, students may get lost in the crowd.  They may feel embarrassed about asking questions and thus refrain from doing so.  I thought that in this forthcoming semester I will meet with graduate students in small groups and avoid lecturing them.  Instead I will ask them about their research interests and demonstrate the databases by answering their specific questions.  Let’s see if it works.

The Odds are 200-1 That I Won't Win This Award

Every year the American Library Association hold a competition for the I Love My Librarian Award.  Today my boss Richard Sweeney said he was going to nominate me for this award.  He will ask several of my patrons to give supporting statements.

Over the past 7 years 70 librarians have won this award but there were 14,000 nominations.  Thus, the odds are 200-1 against me.  It would be a big honor to get this award, but I am not optimistic.

Publications of Bruce Slutsky as of June 2015

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2015). Research in Academic Reference Librarianship: Review of the 2008–2012 Published Research. The Reference Librarian, 56(3), 205-215. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/02763877.2014.1002730

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2014). Published Librarian Research, 2008 through 2012: Analyses and Perspectives. Collaboartive Librarianship, 6(4), 147-159.

Slutsky, B., & Aytac, S. (2014). Publication Patterns of Science, Technology, and Medical Librarians: Review of the 2008–2012 Published Research. Science and Technology Libraries, 33(4), 369-382. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2014.952486

Osorio, N. L., Slutsky, Bruce. (2012). A Tribute and BioBibliometric Study of Ellis Mount, the First Editor-in-Chief of Science & Technology Libraries. Science and Technology Libraries, 31(4), 394-411. doi: 10.1080/0194262x.2012.730385

Slutsky, B. (1993). Communicating Science to the Public: An Address to Non-Science Librarians. The Reference Librarian(No. 40), 73-87

Slutsky, B. (1991). The American Chemical Society Career Consultants Program. The Indicator, 72(8), 24
.
Slutsky, B. (1991). A Careers in Chemical Information Workshop. Journal of Chemical Education, 68(1), 43-45.

Slutsky, B. (1991). How to Avoid Science Anxiety Among Sience Librarians. Science and Technology Libraries, 12(1), 11-19.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Asksam in the New York Public Libary. In M. Fox (Ed.), Exploring Asksam (pp. 43-58). New York: Future Communications Systems.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Informed Career Choices. Chemical and Engineering News, 68(2), 3.

Slutsky, B. (1990). Other Chemical Information Careers. Chapter One, 4(3), 32.

Slutsky, B. (1989). A Chemical Abstracts Training Seminar for Science Librarians. Science and Technology Libraries, 10(1), 55-76.

Lamb, F. A., Cote, Philip N., Slutsky, Bruce, Vitimberga, Bruno M. (1974). Reduction of 9 - (p-methoxyphenyl)-9-fluorenylacetaldhyde on activated alumina. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 39(18). doi: 10.1021/jo00932a026

Remembering Robert Massie of Chemical Abstracts Service

I found out today that Robert Massie, the former president of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), passed away at age 66.  I discovered this from Bill Town’s posting on Facebook.  Bob was the first businessman to lead this prestigious chemistry publisher affiliated with the American Chemical Society (ACS) as his predecessors were chemists.   CAS certainly had grown by leaps and bounds during Bob’s tenure as more publications became electronic.  Scifinder, a discover application to search the CAS database, is my favorite resource in the NJIT library.  I have been quite satisfied with the service that I received from the people at CAS through my career as chemical information professional.  This is a reflection of Bob’s leadership.

Every year Bob would speak to the members of the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information (CINF) to advise them of enhancements to CAS products.  He always came to the social functions to mingle with his customers.  It must have been in the late 1990s when he approached me and we talked very briefly that he was born in Queens, but did not stay there very long.  Our chat was brief as he wanted to meet as many people as he could in a short period of time.

My condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.

Obituary in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch

Anecdote on the last day of the semester

Final exams are over and the grades must be in by the end of the day.  The library is quiet and the only action is student moving out of the dormitories.  Early in the afternoon two older gentlemen approached the reference desk asking for information on how to build a robot.  They were obviously not students or faculty here.  They said they just came from the Newark Public Library where they just found one book which was not sufficient.  I did a search in the library catalog for such books and brought them to the TJ 211 sections.  After 10 minutes, they came back and said those books were too old.  I did a quick search of the periodicals database and thought those articles were too specialized for them.

I proceeded to show them how to search Google. I said that they didn't have to come here to search it, that they could do it at home.  After all, in this day and age everyone has internet access.  He said we live in a homeless shelter and don't have internet access there.  I then brought them to a computer in the information commons and some time later they found a web site that was a good starting point for them.

How are they going to obtain the materials to build a robot if they are homeless?  This was the first time in a long time that anyone from the outside asked for reference assistance.  These two gentleman were very polite and appreciative of my help.  At least I had a reference transaction.

Its time for a staycation.  I need to rest at home and "recharge my batteries."

Some Random Thoughts Near the End of the Semester

I likely will sound like a broken record, but I would like to keep this blog going although it is down to about one posting a month.  The trend in declining reference questions is continuing, but this evening I had a few.  As it is near the dn of the semester students are working on completing their assignments befor final exams begin.

It is also frustrating as the rate of students handing in their assignments for the Research Roadmaps is still very low.  I still must assume that students must pay more attention to their technical courses.  Freshmen can not succeed as a scientist or engineer if they don't master calculus and their other pre-engineering classes.  Humanities course are important in providing a well rounded education, but in a technical school they are not foundations for future studies.

METRO Science Librarians SIG Meeting Will be A Research Forum Wednesday April 22 at 1:30 PM

The next METRO Science Librarians SIG meeting will be Wednesday April 22 from 1:30 - 3:30 at METRO Headquarters 57 East 11th Street 4th Floor in Manhattan.  The speakers will be:

Publishing Patterns of Science, Technology and Medical Librarians: Review of the 2008-2012 Published Literature – Bruce Slutsky (NJIT) and Selenay Aytac (LIU Post)

Scholarly Productivity of Long Island Educational Institutions: Using Web of Science and Scopus – Selenay Aytac (LIU Post)  and Clara Tran (SUNY Stony Brook)

Sprouting STEMs: Science Librarianship Internships for Undergraduates

Matthew Harrick and Lee Ann Fullington Brooklyn College Library and Courtney Walsh Stevens Institute of Technology

The Buck Stops Here: Assessing the Value of E-book Subscriptions at the Columbia University Libraries

Krystie Klahn and Melissa Goertzen of the Science and Engineering Division of Columbia University Libraries

Register at http://metro.org/events/612/

For further information contact Bruce Slutsky

New Publication

Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2014). Published Librarian Research, 2008 through 2012: Analyses and Perspectives. Collaborative Librarianship, 6(4), 147-169.

This is article is open access.  It may be retrieved at 

http://collaborativelibrarianship.org/index.php/jocl/issue/current

Another Frustrating Experience in Information Literacy

For many years I have taught a one hour lecture on how to find physical and thermodynamic properties of chemical substances.  I even remember back in the 1990s taking a book truck with me holding print data compilations.  Obviously, times have changed an all the resources demonstrated are electronic.

This morning I received an e-mail from the professor stating that he had the flu and would not come in.  He did notify the class to come to the training room in the library for the lecture.  Only 7 of the 14 students enrolled in that class showed up.  What is exasperating is that the students cut a class in their major.  I guess the "substitute teacher mentality" has reared its ugly head again.  At least the students who came appeared to be attentive.

How a Chemistry Librarian Aced a Difficult Poetry Reference Question

Today I answered the first poetry reference question I received in my career.  We received the following question via e-mail.  I am changing the requester’s name to protect his privacy.

 My name is "Arnold Grunt". I am in search of a very old poem I wrote in 1989. I won Honorable Mention in the 12th Annual NJ Poetry Contest. I would be a great delight to see it once again. The name of the poem is "The Once And Forever Friend".

I really hope you can locate it, Would mean the world to me. Thank you very much either way. 

The obvious thing to do in this day and age is to Google the name of the poem.  The next step is the Google the author’s name and poems.  The next approach was to Google New Jersey Poetry Contest.  These approaches were unsuccessful.

I began to wonder why this person would contact the NJIT Library since our collection is primarily geared toward scientific and engineering resources.

Just for the heck of it I searched our library’s catalog using the keywords poetry and New Jersey.  I found the following book series:

The best student poetry in New Jersey.  We had volumes from 1979-1990.  I looked in the 1989 volume and sure enough the poem was there.  I scanned the page and sent it to the requester who was in the 5th grade in 1989. 

It turns out that the volumes were edited by the late Herman Estrin who put was Professor of English at NJIT.  Apparently this person remembered the competition was at NJIT back in 1989 and thought to contact the school 25 years later to find his poem.

Hey!  I am a chemistry librarian.

Random Thoughts at the Beginning of the Spring Semester

I believe more and more that reference is dead.  I think the database publishers have created products that are easy to use, thus students do not need assistance from reference librarians. At the beginning of the semester students are not asking questions about textbooks. I guess they all know the library does not carry required textbooks. Let’s face it, reference is dead.  I am glad that I am approaching retirement.  I wish I could look for another profession, but nobody would hire me at my age.

My computer did not have internet access all day.  I had to go to the information commons a few times to respond to important e-mails.  The man from the telecommunications department figured out the problem, has to shut the internet access to the entire building after midnight.  Things should be back to normal tomorrow.

Best of Luck to Jason Kucsma

Today I attended the Annual Meeting of New York Metropolitan Library Council (METRO).  it was announced that Jason Kucsma has resigned as Executive Director to return to his native Ohio.  He will become Deputy Director of the Toledo Public Library.

I mentioned in this journal in October 2011 that Jason was internally promoted to Executive Director.  Since 2000 I have been the convener of the METRO Science Librarians SIG and have worked with many people at METRO.  It has been my pleasure to work with Jason and his staff since he came to METRO in 2008 and became Executive Director in 2011.

I certainly wish him all the best in his new position in Toledo.  I am sure he will do well there.  He will be sorely missed by his colleages in NYC.

Please read this article by Davis Erin Anderson about Jason.