Random Thoughts of the Day

I must admit that this blog has not been very active lately.  I just haven’t had any innovative librarian thoughts recently.  I have been busy planning the ACS on Campus event which will happen next Wednesday December 5.  I am hoping for a good turnout with no technical glitches.

I started to think about the next meeting of the METROScience Librarians SIG.  I will have a roundtable discussion on how to devise a pricing model that is fair to publishers and their customers.  I am mulling over whether I should invite a publisher to hear the suggestions of librarians.  There is an excellent article in the November 12 issue of the Chemical and Engineering News. 

Joe Mercuri joined the reference staff at the NJIT Library this week.  Joe and I have two things in common.

• We both worked at Schering-Plough, but not at the same time
• We are both big fans of the New York Mets.

It is always an adjustment when starting a new job.  All of the reference librarians are helping Joe make that transition.

There are just a few more weeks left in the semester.  It is a shame that a week of classes were lost due to Hurricane Sandy.

Summary of the STELLA Unconference held at Brooklyn College

Last Friday I attended the STELLA (Science Technology Engineering Leaders in Action) Unconference at Brooklyn College.  The participants came for all over the country.  In a traditional conference the program is arranged in advance and is very much structured.  The program for an unconference  is arranged the morning of the gathering.

Amy Buckland, the eScholarship, ePublishing & Digitization Coordinator at McGill University Library, was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, but had to cancel since her flight to NYC was cancelled.  Instead the organizers should videos of 3 talks from Ted Conferences.

The problem with any conference is that one can be only at one place at a time.   There were two sessions on Friday and two on Saturday:

• Active learning ideas
• e-Books & Patron
• Future of Sci/Tech Libraries
• Technology Talk
• Conducting, interpreting and acting on user surveys
• Usage statistics, lies and damned lies
• Data Curation: What is a science librarian’s role and how do we guide our institutions to a sensible plan
• Marketing and outreach ideas
• Refworks, Mendeley and Zotero
• Open Access and Scholarly Communication
• Bibliometrics, Altmetrics, what measures do you want? Merged with Author Disambiguation, ORCID, Authorea
• Wikipedia, education, & libraries
• Collecting, Using & Teaching Standards

 The meeting notes may be found at http://stellagroup.wordpress.com/meeting-notes/

I thank the organizers:

Jill Cirasella

Meg Smith

Jeffra Diane Bussman

Neil Dazet

Joe Kraus

Please Register for the ACS on Campus Event on Wednesday December 5 at NJIT

Dedicated to helping students, post-docs, and faculty advance their careers, ACS on Campus brings leaders in the fields of chemistry, science communication, publishing, research, and career planning to university campuses.  The New Jersey Institute of Technology will host ACS on Campus on Wednesday, December 5 from 12:00 pm – 5:30 pm at the Guttenberg Information Technology Center (GITC), Room 3710.  Graduate students, post-docs, undergraduates and faculty are invited to learn about topics such as the basics and ethics of scholarly publishing, SciFinder® and preparing an effective resume.  Free lunch will also be provided for all registered attendees.  Register now for the event on the ACS on Campus website.

Please visit the website for location and speaker information as well as additional details.  The event is free, but registration is required in order to attend.  Questions can be sent to acsoncampus@acs.org. 

We look forward to seeing you on campus!

Links

Event page: http://acsoncampus.acs.org/events/newark-nj/

Registration: http://acsoncampus.acs.org/event/?ee=32

Lunch and registration will be from 12:00 - 12:30

Welcome and opening remarks from 12:30 - 1:00

Please keep in mind there will be 3 Modules

1:00 - 2:30 - Basics in Scholarly Publishing: From the Editors Themselves and Ethics in Scholarly Communication: What You Need to Know

2:30 – 3:15 pm The SciFinder® Advantage for Your Career

3:30 – 5:30 pm Working in Industry: Preparing a Resume

You may attend any or all of the three modules.

For further information please contact  Bruce Slutsky at slutsky@njit.edu or 973-642-4950

Morning of October 30 - No Power at NJIT

When I turned on the TV this morning Governor Christie said that 95% of Newark had no power.  As of now NJIT is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday.  I was able to access the University Home Page but the library home page was down at 8:15 AM.  I could also not access the NJIT e-mail.

I am sure that the NJIT Department of Public Safety will make an announcement about the status of NJIT on Wednesday.

This is my personal blog and I am not making an official announcement of the university.

Information Literacy - Just 15 minutes of Fame

Tomorrow for the first time I will be teaching to a class in the Information Systems Department.  The specific course is IS350 – Computers, Society and Ethics.  The students have to choose one of 6 topics to debate:

1    1.      That the Total Information Awareness program be authorized and funded by Congress
2.       Should the United States implement a Smart National ID Card?
3.       Should Congress authorize states to allow voting in elections via the Internet
4.       Should systems such as APACHE (Acute Physiology Age and Chronic Health Evaluation) be installed in all large hospitals in the U.S.
5.       Should consumers be explicitly informed of the existence of a “black box” in a newly purchased car and be given the option of having it removed or disabled prior to purchase or any time thereafter.
6.       Should companies be forced to implement green techniques by means of regulatory procedures.

Here is the problem.  I am only given 15 minutes to address the class on how to find information to answer these questions.  I’ll have to do my best and invite the students to speak to me or other librarians if they have questions.

What to Worry About When Planning a Professional Meeting

I just received some posters from the American Chemical Society to begin to promote the ACS on Campus event forDecember 5.  At this point it is just a preliminary announcement to keep the date open.  There are always worries when planning a professional meeting:

·         The biggest one is how many people will come.  This of course is very difficult to predict.  When I plan events for the METRO Science Librarians SIG the attendance ranged from 6 to 30.  There is always an excuse for people not coming.

·         The second worry is the weather.  December 5 is likely too early for a major snowstorm.  In any event, I expect most of the attendees will be from NJIT or Rutgers-Newark

·         One of the speakers can’t make it at the last minute.

My late Dad always told me to take things one day at a time.  I also read that in the Dale Carnegie book.  Don’t Worry Be Happy!

Some Random Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning

I did not mind working yesterday which was Columbus Day.  I can't complain since we get Fridays off during the summer and the week off between Christmas and New Years.  The public transportation in New York and New Jersey was on a regular weekday schedule.

Students in Chemical Engineering 396 completed their assignment to use technical databases to find relevant articles.  I had time to grade only 2 papers, but I perused through the others and noted that although students were given the choice to use either Scopus or Scifinder Scholar, only 1 out of 20 used Scifinder.  During the lecture I discussed both equally and considered the advantages and disadvantages of both.  I really think that students did not want to set up an account for Scifinder and remember another username and password.  They preferred to follow the path of least resistance and searched Scopus.  Chemical Abstracts Service is very protective of their database, and just do not want anyone to walk up to a public computer in an academic library to search Scifinder.

I am home this morning since I am working on the late shift.  The number of substantial reference transactions at the desk continues to decline.  Last Tuesday nobody approached the reference desk between 5 PM and 7 PM.  Oh well.