For Fall 2018, we will have new marketing materials for QuickSearch. While our summer campaign was designed to raise awareness of the name of our search engine, this campaign will highlight the breadth of our collection and what QuickSearch enables users to do.
The tag line is One Search Box, Millions of Resources. The images suggest the breadth of our resources and how they can be used for discovery and research. The search box terms also incorporate a soft approach to introducing advanced search technique using Boolean terms.
This campaign is designed to be flexible — it will be used on posters, postcards, bookmarks, and social media. It also allows us to tailor the messaging to different disciplines. In addition to these materials, we will also have some new promotional items to distribute — pens, highlighters, and maybe even flashlights.
We also hope you will send along additional suggestions for imagery that we should use for different disciplines. Matt Badessa and Mary Ann Koruth have contributed to this design and we owe a big thank you to Sarah Jewell for recommending the astronomy/universe image which helped us to conceptualize this campaign.
Kayo Denda and Fernanda Perrone have coauthored, with Mary Hawkesworth, The Douglass Century: Transformation of the Women’s College at Rutgers University. This book is part of the centennial celebrations planned at the University and is published by Rutgers University Press. Read a nice article from NJ.com about the book.
An opening reception was held for New Jersey First: The Life and Legacy of Senator Frank R. Lautenberg on February 21.
Attendees explored the new Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit in the SCUA Gallery.
Dr. Krisellen Maloney welcomes attendees to the final briefing of the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
Rita Mitjans, Chief Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for ADP, gives remarks about the collection and acknowledges Lautenberg scholarship recipients.
Ellen Lautenberg spoke on behalf of the Lautenberg family, describing how important it was to the Senator that his papers end up at Rutgers University because it is the state university of New Jersey.
Krisellen Maloney looks on as Ellen Lautenberg speaks.
(l. to r.) Ronald Becker and Francine Newsome Pfeiffer RC’95 at the final briefing for the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
Attendees view the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit prior to the event
(l. to r.) Bonnie Lautenberg and Robert Cumins at the final briefing for the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
Bonnie Lautenberg at the final briefing for the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
(l. to r.) Stephanie Crawford, Flora Boros, Tara Maharjan and Timothy Corlis RC’81 at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
Senator Lautenberg campaign buttons for attendees at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
Guests chat at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
(l. to r.) UNKNOWN and Lois Lautenberg at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
(l. to r.) Sheridan Sayles and Nan Morgart at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
Live music entertainment provided by Mason Gross School of the Arts music students at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception
Guests arrive and talk about the Lautenberg Papers exhibit opening reception
Attendees at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers reception listen to remarks
Members of the ADP group at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
The Lautenberg family at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Papers exhibit
William Ayala looks at the Senator Frank Lautenberg exhibit
On February 21, the Libraries welcomed Senator Lautenberg’s family, friends, and colleagues to a special exhibit opening for New Jersey First: The Life and Legacy of Frank R. Lautenberg. The event was held in the reference room of Alexander Library and attendees could tour the exhibit in the downstairs gallery. Hosted in partnership with the Rutgers Foundation and Rutgers University Federal Relations, the event was appropriately celebratory and sentimental with Ellen Lautenberg remarking that her father “was very proud of Rutgers as a university. It was important to him that his papers were here at this university because it is the university of New Jersey and he really was a kid from New Jersey. I am glad that we were really able to see the project through.”
While the focus of this event was the launch of the exhibit, Lautenberg also expressed gratitude for the work that has gone into the papers project, thanking archivist Sheridan Sayles among others and noting, “He would really be very gratified that the collection is here. It looks amazing. So much hard work has gone into this. It will allow people to not just see some of the items that were associated with his service but also to do their research to get ahold of all the papers. It is really quite amazing what is now available to people for his almost thirty years in the Senate.”
Rita Mitjans, Chief Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for ADP, spoke about the role of giving at ADP and the importance of supporting projects like the Lautenberg Papers. She also acknowledged the many Lautenberg scholarship recipients in the room, noting that the senator believed in the power of education to change lives.
Lots of new marketing materials available on the communications department website this month. Let us know if you have any other ideas for things that would be useful:
These flyer templates are available to local units to help promote their upcoming events and exhibits. The templates are available in Word and Powerpoint, so they require no special software. We’ve tried to provide enough options and variations to allow some personalization and tailoring for specific locations and events. If you would like me to conduct any training on how to use these materials, please let us know. We also welcome any feedback and/or requests for variants of these templates.
With the recent changes in how group study rooms are reserved, we have updated the signage templates with new QR codes. These are now available for libraries that are using the libcal service. If you have group study rooms that don’t use the libcal reservation system or other types of spaces that need signage, let us know. Scroll down on the Signage Templates page to find the new group study room signs.
Materials for Library Liaisons
There is a new section on the communications page for Project Outreach Materials. RASE-WG has provided materials for library liaisons who are doing outreach for the following projects. You can download presentations, flyers, and information sheets:
“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a space where people from the Libraries could post notices for one another if they have an item for sale or are selling Girl Scout Cookies or are playing a local gig with their band?” Yes– this would be great. Introducing the Rutgers University Libraries Bulletin Board. This is an open space where you can post any type of notice you would like to share with your colleagues. Thanks for the suggestion, Dee Magnoni!
This bulletin board is powered by Padlet. If you want to create a post, click on the + sign in the lower right of the bulletin board. You can create a Padlet account for free OR you can post anonymously (in which case, I’d recommend including your name at the bottom of the post so people know who the post is from).
You can access this bulletin board directly at https://padlet.com/rulibraries/bulletin (bookmark it!) or via the sidebar menu on The Agenda.
Last November, the Libraries participated in Giving Tuesday at Rutgers University. This is an annual event that follows the consumer traditions of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, to encourage individuals to support their favorite non-profits and charities.
This year, Rutgers University received $174,483.19 in Giving Tuesday donations and we are happy to announce that the Libraries received over $6,500 in donations from 18 donors. This is excellent and actually places us 8th at the university overall in terms of total dollars raised. This outcome shows we are are supported and valued by our users and colleagues. These funds will help us do a lot of good at the Libraries.
Giving Tuesday is far from a solo or even a departmental effort. We owe many thank yous — thank yous to colleagues who made donations in support of the Libraries and thank yous to faculty and staff who shared our Giving Day initiative and promoted it via your communications channels. This type of success is a group effort, and it is not possible without your help!
The Communications Department shared our new website at the State of the Libraries poster session. We have been actively updating the site with more resources and materials that may be of use to you. Our most recent additions are:
Sample of the brochures available via the Communications Department.
Here you can find resources and tips and tricks for using social media at the Libraries. The social media guidelines, process for requesting a new social media account, and the social media manual are stored here. But you can also find information about joining the Libraries’ social media list serv (useful if you are managing any library social media account) and our social media directory. Eventually, I hope to move the social media directory to a more visible, public site as part of a refresh of the news and communications sites on the Libraries’ website. In the meantime, if you have a social media account that is not listed here, please let us know.
This retractable banner is available for your events.
New Retractable Banner
We placed an order for a new retractable banner and this is available for loan if you need it. For more information on this and to see other items we have available for event support, please visit Loanable Equipment A/V and Events.
Project Outreach Materials
You can find project outreach materials for both ORCID and Open and Affordable Textbooks Program. Here you will find PDF copies of promotional brochures, powerpoint presentations for faculty outreach, and more. If you have other projects for which this type of resource center would be useful, let us know.
This month, I just want to express my gratitude once again to everyone who helped make State of the Libraries so special. From the major events committee to the poster presenters to those of you in the audience–our colleagues are what make this a great event. For 2017, we experimented with the format of the event in several ways, introducing new elements while also retaining what makes this such a special event. In a significant departure, we invited an external speaker to visit us and discuss unconscious bias works and what we can do to mitigate its influence in the Libraries. Calvin Lai’s presentation was as entertaining as it was informative, and it is my sincerest hope that it helps us to better appreciate and accommodate diversity and inclusion in what we do.
I hope everyone who attended had a chance to tour the always-popular poster session. It is fitting that at the close of the year, we get to survey the many great activities and initiatives underway at the Libraries. From Libraries-wide initiatives like ORCID and the Open and Affordable Textbook Program to the exhibits program at Robeson and the enhanced coin scanning project from the Digital Humanities Lab–these posters are a reminder of the positive impact we have on the university and the work of the Libraries. For those who were unable to attend or did not make it around to see all the posters, the communications team has recorded short videos with the presenters that can be viewed on YouTube (see below). Also, a special note of thanks to Dee Magnoni and James Hartstein who provided professional quality printing for the posters. They looked great!
There will be much more to say in the coming months, but for now, I want to wish you all a happy New Year! We have so much to look forward to in 2018.
The entire Ex Libris Implementation Team attended the State of the Libraries on December 6 and appreciated the opportunity to engage library faculty and staff there. We thank everyone who came to our table and talked to us about the project. Congratulations again to those lucky winners of prizes!
This project update focuses on the major progress made in December. In our previous update, we described the three stages of implementing Alma and Primo–Define, Build, and Deploy. For the Libraries’ Implementation Team, the numerous tasks in those three stages generally fall into two categories: working on data migration and system integration in tandem with Ex Libris and developing two-way communication channels and training opportunities for the library (and eventually university) community. We are pleased to report that significant progress has been made on both fronts in December.
Project Website
In early December, we unveiled a new website for the Ex Libris Implementation Project, at http://exlibris.libraries.rutgers.edu. As the information hub for the project, the website includes the following pages:
About – Introduction to the project, benefits to the Libraries, and impact on library workers
Teams – Membership of the project team and responsibilities of the working groups
Timeline – Major milestones from the planning to the formal launch on June 1, 2018
Resources – Basic training resources, research & case studies, and team meeting minutes
FAQ – Answers to questions such as what is Alma and what is Primo
Contact – An online form for library faculty and staff to send questions and comments to the project team
The site will grow significantly in scope and detail as the project progresses and more information becomes available. Please remember to check back from time to time to see what is new or use the contact form for questions and comments. We thank everyone who made this site possible, including members of the Implementation Team (especially Joseph Deodato and Chad Mills), Jessica Pellien, and the Web Team of IIS.
Migration Forms
As of this writing, the Implementation Team and several working groups are working tirelessly on completing the forms for Symphony (SIRSI) to Alma and EBSCO to Primo migrations. These lengthy forms define the test data load and take a lot of time and care to fill out. Our immediate objective is to turn in the forms on December 22 for our Ex Libris partners to review during the university’s holiday break. To meet this deadline, lately the Implementation Team has been meeting twice or three times a week on the forms. Some team members work late in the office and others take work home. We have also actively sought the input from colleagues in Access, Collection, and Technical Services, in addition to consulting with Ex Libris.
The process of completing the migration forms exemplifies the spirit of teamwork. Besides two point persons for the forms—Chris Sterback and Gracemary Smulewitz, all the other team members have contributed time, energy, and expertise to the process. It is such an uplifting feeling to see colleagues from different departments of the Libraries working selflessly toward a common goal. We look forward to reporting new accomplishments from this wonderful team of colleagues in 2018.
This week, Rutgers University Libraries and other New Brunswick institutions will welcome a delegation from Japan as part of the New Brunswick Sister Cities project. Fernanda Perrone is vice president of the group and has invited the delegation to visit Alexander Library and will give a presentation related to the Griffis Collection. The Global Experience Team is sponsoring refreshments after the presentation. If you are interested in learning more about this event, please contact Fernanda.
Seems like a good time to revisit this terrific video:
Sister Cities Project Press Release:
One hundred and fifty years ago, a young samurai from the province of Echizen (today Fukui prefecture) in the far west of Japan came to New Brunswick with the goal of entering Rutgers College. Kusakabe Taro arrived fired with the desire to “fulfill my duty to the Imperial realm by clarifying the defects in the relations between us Japanese and the foreigners in the light of the international law of all nations and universal principles.” Ranked number one in his class, Kusakabe became the first Japanese to graduate from Rutgers College, the first to become a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and, along with Niijima Jo at Amherst, the first to graduate from an American college. Tragically, Kusakabe died of tuberculosis on April 13, 1870, only weeks before commencement. He is buried in the Willow Grove Cemetery in New Brunswick along with seven other young Japanese. The following year, Kusakabe’s friend and classmate William Elliot Griffis traveled to Fukui to introduce Western-style educational methods into the local school system. Griffis would spend four years in Japan and a lifetime writing, teaching, and collecting information about Japan. His collection was bequeathed to the Rutgers University Libraries in 1928.
Indeed Rutgers was an important destination for international students from Japan during the nineteenth century. Many of those who studied at Rutgers returned to Japan to become leaders in education, industry, and commerce. Although the last of this early group of Japanese students attended Rutgers in the 1920s, the relationship between the university and Fukui was re-discovered in the late 1950s by Rutgers administrator and professor of political science Ardath Burks. Working closely with the city of New Brunswick, programs and exchanges were initiated, and the William Elliot Griffis collection was organized and made available to the public. Rutgers and Fukui Universities became sister universities in 1981, and in 1982 New Brunswick and Fukui became sister cities. As well as the 150th anniversary of Kusakabe’s arrival, 2017 marks the 35th anniversary of the sister cities relationship.
From October 4 to 7, New Brunswick will welcome a large delegation from the city of Fukui including the mayor and members of the City Council, members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and members of the Fukui International Citizens Association. Among the events planned are a Buddhist ceremony at Kusakabe’s grave on Thursday, October 5 and a lecture on “Kusakabe and His Friends,” which will held at Alexander Library on Friday, October 6. The delegation will also visit the Zimmerli Art Museum and the new Johnson and Johnson Museum and be entertained by the Rutgers Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, Rutgers Community Affairs, and Rutgers University Libraries at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. The Fukui Junior Chamber of Commerce will accompany two middle-school students who have written the best essays of the year about Kusakabe Taro. These children will have a chance to visit the New Brunswick Middle School and meet with their contemporaries there.
In November 2017, New Brunswick mayor James Cahill will lead a delegation from New Brunswick to visit Fukui.
Kayo Denda and Fernanda Perrone have coauthored, with Mary Hawkesworth, The Douglass Century: Transformation of the Women’s College at Rutgers University. This book is part of the centennial celebrations planned at the University and is published by Rutgers University Press. 
