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.

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.