Random Thoughts at the Start of the Spring Semester

As the spring semester has just begun at the NJIT Library, we are somewhat shorthanded as two of our colleagues are on family leave.  We have been short staffed before and we made it through.  One of my reference colleagues will resign at the end of the month and move on to Baruch College.  We started a search for the permanent position, but the response was small.  We will also start a search for a temporary research and user services librarian.

There is also a search for a permanent University Librarian since the tragic passing of Rich Sweeney.  I am not aware of the status, but I suspect the position will not be filled until the summer.

There is usually a slightly smaller number of students in the spring semester as we have lost more to graduation more than we have gained from new enrollments or transfer students.  Of course, there are so few reference questions.

My first class will be in Chemical Engineering 396.  I only have 70 minutes so it will be impossible to go into depth into the resources that I will discuss.  Also, the professor does not want me to give an assignment to the class.  Thus, it is impossible to do any assessment of information literacy skills.

If everything goes alright, I will retire as a librarian at the end of 2017.  I think after working since 1974,  I need time for rest and relaxation.  

Undergraduate Students in Environmental Engineering Show Poor Information Literacy Skills

For many years I have taught information literacy skills to students in a course called Introduction to Environmental Engineering.  I discuss the various formats of the literature, the scholarly, communication process and the databases that the university provides that cover technical disciplines.  I always describe in detail the peer review process and tell how web sites do not undergo a rigorous evaluation before they are published.  Students are assigned to groups of 3 or 4 and must write a paper on one of these topics:

• BP Oil Spill - Ethics and Safeguards
• Reduction of Greenhouse Gases
• Life Cycle Analysis of Hybrid vs Conventional Batteries
• Bottled Water vs Tap Water
• Landfilling: Municipal and Hazardous Waste
• Arsenic in New Jersey
• Flint Michigan Water Crisis
• Deepwater Horizon Disaster

I asked the professor to give me the papers after the semester so that I can evaluate the information literacy skills. Only 25% of the references cited were from peer review journals.  I guess the student just prefer to use the web sites that they find by searching Google.  Also students made comments in the paper and did not substantiate them with literature references.

It is quite sad that even after getting information literacy training in freshman courses and in this environmental engineering class, students’ writing skills are poor.  Will they ever learn to use peer reviewed journal articles?