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.