Presenters at Professional Meetings Must Have Good Public Speaking Skills

Over the course of my career I have been to many professional meetings and heard numerous presentations on topics from A to Z in chemistry or library science.  Speakers likely know their topic very well, but must communicate properly to their audience.  Last Friday I attended the New York Chapter of the ACRL’s annual meeting at Baruch College.  The theme was money and power in relation to libraries.  Several speakers were terrible as they read their talks and spoke very rapidly.  It was impossible to absorb much of what they said. 

The organizers of this symposium asked for feedback and I mentioned this.  My suggestion is that large professional societies offer workshops on public speaking.

Open Position for a Research & User Services Librarian at NJIT

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) seeks applications and nominations for the position of Research & User Services Librarian at the Van Houten Library. The ideal candidate should be an experienced researcher with excellent communication, teaching, and technology skills.  The successful candidate will be delivering services to students and faculty in STEM disciplines.

Position Summary:

The position reports to the Director of Reference and assists, advises, and instructs users in accessing and using information in all formats including direct and indirect service to users.  The incumbent provides high quality services, responsive to user needs by carefully analyzing information sources and services.  The Librarian serves as a liaison to designated academic departments and other administrative units supporting resource discovery, evaluation and access, research, instruction and assessment.  This position requires independence and collaboration within and beyond the library to achieve excellent user satisfaction.

Summary of Qualifications:

Candidate must possess an ALA accredited MLS or MLIS degree in Library or Information Science, a bachelor’s or second master’s degree in a STEM discipline.  Selected candidate must become a New Jersey resident within 365 days of appointment.  

Application Procedure:

Interested candidates are encouraged to visit https://njit.jobs and search for posting #0603696 where a detailed position description and qualifications are posted. Candidates may apply online at the same site with a cover letter, cv/resume, and a copy of an article, paper, or report written solely by the candidate.

To build a diverse workforce, NJIT encourages applications from individuals with disabilities, minorities, veterans and women. EEO employer.

NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102-­‐1982

Random thoughts for November

It is now the middle of November as we are about ¾ of the way through the semester.  I am sorry to say that there is more of the same.  The number of walk up reference questions is next to nothing.  Once in a great while we’ll have a busy day at the desk.  I am more upset about the few people who come in and ask for me specifically.  This semester I have only answered three questions that required my chemistry background.

I am serving on a committee to make recommendations to remodel the library which was built in 1992.  So much space is occupied by print books and periodicals that are hardly used.  We need to open up those areas for more study spaces.  It puzzles me to see students in the cafeteria studying while not eating while the atmosphere in the library is more conducive to studying.  This committee visited libraries at Hudson County Community College and NYU-Poly to see how their libraries are configured.

We are searching for a new university librarian to fill the vacancy caused by the untimely death of Richard Sweeney.  I hope that the best possible candidate is appointed.

That’s all for now.

Random Thoughts for October

It is impossible to assess the effectiveness of a "library lecture" to graduate students.  I always say that they should follow-up and search the various databases that I discuss before they actually need them.  I was disappointed to see that only 12 people signed up for a Scifinder account during September.  I wonder if people avoid searching it since they don't want to be bothered with opening up an account and remembering a username and password.

The position of University Librarian was announced and posted on the Human Resources web site.  The Provost also announced the members of a search committee.  Recruitments in academia usually are lengthy, so I don't expect someone to be appointed for several months.

The Architecture Library coordinator announced her resignation after two years at that position.  For personal reasons she wanted to return to her native Michigan.  We all wish her all the best.

Today is My 24th Anniversary of Working at the NJIT Library

It was 24 years ago today that I started at the NJIT Library.  Certainly so much has changed over the years.   There were only a few staff computers while none were available to students in the library.  There were only dumb terminals to search the library’s online catalog.  We only had two CD-ROM databases back then:

• Applied Science and Technology Index
• Proquest Business Database

Email was very primitive as we used the Tesla computer which was a VMS/VAX.  The internet was in its infancy as there was only a text based browser to search the nascent World Wide Web.

The NJIT campus has expanded dramatically over these 24 years with more academic buildings, dormitories and a much larger student body.  Some faculty and staff sadly passed away over the years while others retired or moved on to other positions.

Life goes on and in the years to come there will be more technological change and growth of the campus.

Assignments Must Be Given After a Lecture on the Use of Information Resources

For several years I have taught a class in how to find information in chemical engineering.   At one time I was given 3 class sessions to do the class which included:

• An Overview
• Chemical Abstracts and Scifinder
• Scopus and other resources.

This semester I was limited to 70 minutes.  Thus I really had to rush through many of the concepts.  At the beginning I invited the students to come see me if they had any questions about the information resources discussed in class.  I also said they can’t learn to search the databases, by just listening to me and they should take some time after class to experiment with the databases.

In previous semesters when I taught this class, I was able to give an assignment for students to search Scifinder and Scopus to find relevant articles on several topics.  They were graded on how the retrieved information answered the search question and if they formatted the bibliographic information properly.  They were also required to determine if the retrieved article was in our library’s collection.

The professor no longer allows me to give this assignment.  She says the students have a big workload for this course and cannot be over overburdened.  I do give out search questions for the students to do voluntarily, but I doubt they will do them.

If there is no assignment, can this training be effectual?  Will they take the information literacy lecture seriously?  As usual, I observed students inattentive by looking at their smartphones and otherwise appearing disinterested.

What can I do?

The NJIT Library Will Not Be the Same as Maria and Yacie are Retiring

Maria and Yacie with Bruce looking on

 Last Friday we held a retirement luncheon for Maria and Yacie at Luigi's Italian Restaurant in Newark.  Maria retired at the end of May, but we had to postpone her party due to the tragic death of our university librarian.  Yacie will leave at the end of August.

They were both the best circulation clerks and will be sorely missed by the library staff and our patrons.  I wish them all the happiness in retirement.

METRO is Moving to the Far West Side

I found out last week that after 26 years at the same location METRO will be moving to a larger space at 11^th Avenue and 45^th Street.  I found out the details while I was at a meeting of SIG conveners but the official announcement may be found at http://metro.org/articles/a-new-home-for-the-metropolitan-new-york-library-council/ .

METRO wants to augment their services to the library community and needs a larger space to do so.  Only one event at a time can be accommodated at the East1th Street location, but the new space can accommodate 2 or 3 simultaneous events.  The owner of the East11^th Street building wants to renovate, thus if METRO stayed noise would likely disrupt the lectures.

I have enjoyed the professional relationship that I have with the METRO staff since I started the Science and Medical Librarians SIG in 2000.  I will miss coming to the Union Square area and browsing in Best Buy or the Strand bookstore.  It was also nice being convenient to the subway station there.  It will be a long walk from the Times Square station or I could take the M42 bus.

I certainly wish METRO well in their future endeavors on the far west side.



Random Comments for July

I went over to the Rutgers-Dana Library yesterday to do a cited reference search on Web of Science.  In the hour or so that I was there I observed 3 walkup reference questions and 1 phone call.  At NJIT over the summer, we are lucky to get one reference transaction a day.  I don't understand the difference.


Best wishes to my Rutgers colleague Bonnie Fong who is expecting a girl at the end of August.


Tomorrow I am going over to METRO to meet the other conveners of special interest groups.

Ann Hoang is Appointed Interim University Librarian at NJIT

Below is the announcement from Provost Fadi Deek

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ann D. Hoang to the position of Interim University Librarian, effective July 1, 2016.

Ms. Hoang has been serving as the Assistant University Librarian at NJIT since December 2006, where her responsibilities have included initiatives related to open source library management systems with other NJ academic libraries and overall library management. Her emphasis has been on library user satisfaction, systems and technology infrastructure, workflow design analysis, and service and process evaluation. Ms. Hoang is a current member of the American Library Association (ALA), Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) and she serves on the LibraryLinkNJ Website Advisory Taskforce.  Ms. Hoang is also an active participant in the Virtual Academic Library Environment of NJ and her contributions to this initiative were recognized when she received the Technology Innovation Award in 2013.

Ms. Hoang has gained administrative experience in positions of increasing responsibility, from Reference and Materials Delivery Coordinator to Library Supervisor at Rutgers University; from Manager of Information Commons and Library Systems to Associate Director at Brookdale Community College; to Assistant University Librarian, and now to Interim University Librarian at NJIT. In these positions, she has been actively involved in budget management, library technology development, staff hiring and evaluation, and forward-thinking concepts related to the future of academic libraries.

Ms. Hoang earned a master’s degree in Business Administration, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and a bachelor’s degree in Economics, all from Rutgers University.

Please join me in congratulating Ann Hoang as Interim University Librarian.

Thank you,
Fadi

I certainly wish Ann all the best in her new position.

Publications of Bruce Slutsky as of June 2016

Slutsky, B., & Aytac, S. (2016). Bibliometric Analysis and Comparison of Two STEM LIS Journals: Science & Technology Libraries and Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (2005–2014). Science & Technology Libraries, 35(2), 152-171. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2016.1171191

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

Best Wishes to Maria Denaro on Her Retirement

After 25 years of dedicated service to NJIT Maria Denaro is retiring.  Everyone appreciates the fine workthat she did behind the circulation desk all those years.  She must have worked with thousands of students, faculty and staff.  I think she is a little young to retire, but the decision was hers to leave at this time.

I certainly wish her all the best and now she'll have all the time she needs for her leisure time activities.  She will be sorely missed.

Remembering Richard Sweeney for His Kindness

Today I tried to get to work a little early as it was the day of the Chemistry Olympics at NJIT. When I got to the library I observed some commotion by the circulation staff, but I couldn't pay attention to it as I was in a hurry to get to the competition. I started out as usual but at 9:30 I got an email from Davida saying that Rich Sweeney was hit by a car as he was crossing the street after parking his car. He was hurt very badly and was taken to the hospital. About two hours later Cindy Wos from the chemical engineering department came in to say that he died from the injuries he sustained in the accident.

Just after lunch I returned to the library as the staff huddled together comforting each other. President Joel Bloom and Provost Fadi Deek came by to comfort the staff and brought a few people from the counseling center.

I must remember Richard Sweeney for the kindness he should the staff over the 20 years he was University Librarian. Just after he assumed the position he invited the entire library staff to his home for a barbeque. It always a tradition for him to take people out to lunch for their birthdays. Sometimes it would be in a group while other times he would take one person out. He was especially kind to me in September 1997 when he went out of his way to attend my father's funeral. On several occasions he went to funerals of family members of staff. He always liked to make small talk with me about the New York Mets.

He will be certainly be missed by the entire NJIT and library communities. My sincere condolences to his family.

To quote radio personality Harry Harrison “Every day should be unwrapped like a precious gift.”

Chemist Bill Skawinski is Retiring

Today there was a very nice retirement party in the Chemistry Department for Bill Skawinski.  I wrote a nice entry about Bill in this blog in 2008.  I have known him for all the years I have worked at NJIT and I must say that it was a pleasure.  I taught a class to his honors section of organic chemistry on how to find toxicological information on substances.  He will be sorely missed.

New Publication

"Bibliometric Analysis and Comparison of Two STEM LIS Journals: Science & Technology Libraries and Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (2005–2014)" has been published on Taylor & Francis Online. It is available at:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0194262X.2016.1171191.

Random Thoughts for April

It is near the end of April as we approach the end of the spring semester.  My major complaint is that the situation is same old same old.  We still get so few walk up reference transactions, yet I read on librarian listservs that other libraries report many questions even in the evening hours.  My theory is that NJIT students are “tech savvy” and can navigate through online databases with minimal assistance.  I am more upset that students majoring in chemistry and related disciplines rarely ask for more me.  Years ago I had regular consultations with graduate students and faculty.

This semester I taught a share of the research roadmaps which are given to freshman taking a required humanities course.  As in previous semesters most students don’t hand in their assignments on time, while some don’t even bother.  What can we do?

20 months until I retire at the end of 2017.

Satellite Meeting of STELLA Librarians Unconference at NYU Bobst Library on May 20

Some time ago the 2016 STELLA Unconference was announced for May 20-21 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. STELLA is an acronym for Science, Technology, and Engineering Library Leaders in Action.

The METRO Science and Medical Librarians SIG is holding a satellite event at the NYU Bobst Library (Room 619) On Friday May 20 from 12:15 PM – 5:00 PM.  Since the METRO offices are closed on Fridays, I had to find another location.  I thank Kara Whatley of NYU Libraries for allowing METRO to use their facility for this event.

Here is the schedule:

12:15-1:15pm

Planning Session

1:15-2:30pm

Breakout Session 1

2:30-2:45pm

Break

2:45-4:00pm

Breakout Session 2

4:00-5:00pm

60 minute wrap-up and report back from sessions

We will be communicating with the people in North Carolina through Skype.

Please register at  http://metro.org/events/745/

METRO Science Librarians SIG Meeting Wednesday April 27

The next METRO Science and Medical Librarians SIG meeting will be:

Wednesday April 27 1:30 PM at METRO Headquarters

57 East 11th Street - 4th Floor

It will be a research forum with the following speakers:

•       Esther Jackson – New York Botanical Garden - Survey of institutions that offer plant information services to the public.

•       Clara Tran and Jennifer Lyon – Stony Brook University - Faculty Use of Author Identifiers and Researcher Networking Tools

•       Danielle Aloia and Robin Naughton -New York Academy of Medicine - Share #GreyLit: Using Social Media to Communicate Grey Literature. 

•       John Carey and Ajatshatru Pathak – Reference Mode Preferences: A Survey of Students at Hunter College and Queensborough Community College.

•       Robin Wright (Lehman College) and Latrina Keith  (Albert Einstein  College of Medicine) - Wearable Technology: If the Tech Fits, Wear It

 An Outreach Project funded by an NN/LM MAR grant to teach medication safety to K-2 students Shelly Warwick, Touro College

Register at http://metro.org/events/735/

Random Thoughts for March

It was very disappointing early this week when only 3 physic graduate students came to a seminar that I offered about using the resources of the library.  The professor who coordinated the meeting even ordered pizza and soft drinks, but nobody seemed to be interested.  My guess is that this was not the best time of the semester for such training.  I will try to do it early in the Fall semester when students are more receptive to learning new skills.

Yesterday a representative from Chemical Abstracts came to give demonstrations of Scifinder in the lobby of Tiernan Hall home of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments.  A fair number of students and faculty passed by and were able to see a search question answered.  An adjunct member of the chemical engineering department stopped by and spoke to me about giving a lecture to her plant design class.  The assignment is to design a cyclohexane production plant from benzene hydrogenation.  I spent some time today preparing a lecture for next Monday.

Best news of the month. - Our paper was accepted in Science and Technology Libraries!

Bibliometric Analysis and Comparison of Two STEM LIS Journals: Science & Technology Libraries and Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (2005-2014)

Bruce Slutsky New Jersey Institute of Technology Robert Van Houten Library Newark, NJ 07102 bruce.slutsky@njit.edu

Selenay Aytac Long Island University 720 Northern Blvd Brookville, NY 11548 selenay.aytac@liu.edu

We even got kudos from Tony Stankus, the editor.

Remembering Leon Goodman Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rhode Island

I was reading a recent issue of the Chemical & Engineering News and found out that Leon Goodman, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rhode Island (URI) passed away last September at age 94.  When I was a graduate student of chemistry at URI (1972-74), he was Chair of the Department.  He was the second person I met there when I visited in December 1971 just before enrolling.  I fondly remember how he made me comfortable when I first arrived.  It was a big adjustment for me as I came from a big city to rural southern Rhode Island.  His door was always open to students and faculty who needed to talk to him.  He invited students and faculty to his home to socialize.

I kept in touch with him for several years after I graduated.  I last saw him in September 1978 when I told him I was going to pursue a career in chemical information.

He was blessed with a very long life.  My belated condolences to his family and friends.

Detailed obituary

Random Thoughts For February

I haven’t written in this blog for over a month now so I thought it is time for some random comments.

Last night I gave a class to some mechanical engineering students taking a class in physical metallurgy.  I only talked for about 15 minutes as I pointed out some resources such as ASTM Standards, MatWeb, the ASM handbook and others.  The plan was for me to stay in the class for about an hour to be available to answer questions.  I observe that the students were searching Google and the Wikipedia for information.  A few were searching Scopus which I did discuss.  Again, I am being cynical, but I keep wondering if lecturing to students really does any good.

A chemistry professor is interviewing candidates for a faculty position.  He is showing the candidates the library and has brought them to meet with me very briefly.  A few days ago one candidate was wearing jeans.  You would think that someone with a doctorate would be smart enough to wear a suit for a job interview.

Submitted a Paper To Science & Technology Libraries for Review

Yesterday I submitted a manuscript to be evaluated for publication in Science & Technology Libraries.  Selena and I worked on this project for about 8 months.  I had to work on researching and writing the paper intermittently.   I certainly understand the need for librarians to take a research leave to work on a project.  We can only wait to see if the paper will be accepted.  My intuition says it will be with some revisions.  If I was required to publish to attain tenure, I would likely be anxious at this point.   Hopefully within a month or so I will be able to announce on this blog that the article was accepted for publication.  My intuition says that it will be after some minor revisions suggested by the reviewers are made.

Teaching Information Resources to Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Students

For several years I have taught to undergraduate students of Che 396 which is described as a capstone chemical engineering laboratory course.  I really have to cover a lot of ground in an hour and a half.  I give my standard lectures on how to find information in chemical engineering.  I include discussions on Scifinder and Scopus.  The bad news was that students did not ask any questions.  Does that imply they are disinterested?  The good news was nobody walked out.  The professor did not want to give an assignment, so I gave out some search questions for them to work on during the last 20 minutes of the class.  The good news was that the students were not averse to doing this task during class hours.  In this case information literacy assessment is impossible.

The Spring Semester Begins Today

Since it is the day after Martin Luther King Day, it means that it is the first day of classes for the Spring Semester.  It will be my 48^th semester as a technical reference librarian at NJIT.  There are slightly less students in the spring as the school has lost more to graduation than it has to students transferring in. Since almost all students are returning, there are fewer directional questions.  I am sure there will be textbook questions as students get sticker shock when they see the prices at the bookstore.  Of course they try to save money by checking it out of the library.  My first reference question of the semester was “how do I get access to Scifinder?”  Life goes on.