The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Feature

  • This Month in the Agenda – September 2001

    Movers and shakers at the Libraries in September 2001. See any names you recognize?

    A lot of things can change in 17 years… but then again, some things never do. What was happening at the dawn of another fall semester for the Libraries in 2001?

    A Fall Greeting… and a New Colleague

    The Summer was not as quiet as usual – we implemented a new look for the Libraries’ home page; authority control was introduced into IRIS; circulation notices will now be sent via e-mail; and Media Services transferred responsibility for smart classrooms and equipment delivery in New Brunswick to the Teaching Excellence Center, and introduced web forms for requests across all campuses.

    …

    We completed a successful recruitment for an AUL for Digital Library Systems and hired Grace Agnew, who will be joining us in January. This is an important position as we examine more closely how the Libraries technical infrastructure is organized and deployed to support the Digital Library Initiative…. We look forward to Grace’s leadership, and her participation in these discussions as we continue to move “aggressively, but intelligently towards the creation of a new library system.”

    Got Training?

    With the arrival of a system-wide Training and Learning Coordinator, Marilyn Wilt, the Libraries need to plan and coordinate on an ongoing basis an effective library human resource development program. With this goal in mind, Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services Samson Soong convened a new Training and Learning Advisory Committee…. Members thus far include Ann Montanaro, Ned Richards, Gracemary Smulewitz, and Julie Still.

    The Agenda 23, no. 18 (September 16, 2001)

  • Latino New Jersey History Project

    New Jersey has a remarkably diverse, though largely understudied, Latino population.  In 2016, according to the American Community Survey, people who identify as Hispanic or Latino were estimated to number over 1.7 million making them nearly 20 percent of all New Jersey residents.  Yet we know very little about their roots. Who are the Garden State’s Latinos? What is their history? This summer, seven Rutgers undergraduates and history Ph.D. student Carie Rael worked with Lilia Fernandez, Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Latino & Caribbean Studies and History, to find out as part of the Latino New Jersey History Project.  Their goal was to research, document, and record the history of New Jersey’s diverse Latino populations. Along the way, they received important assistance on digital tools and platforms from New Brunswick Libraries personnel Stacey Carton, Jan Reinhardt, and Francesca Giannetti.

    The students used a variety of sources and methods. They gathered census data, for example, to produce maps and tables enumerating Latinos throughout the state, its counties, and its main cities and towns. Some were surprised at what they learned. While we might expect Newark, Elizabeth, and Paterson to have large Latino enclaves, few realized that New Brunswick is 56 percent Hispanic and West New York is 78 percent Hispanic (both as of 2016).  The town of Bridgeton in South Jersey has one of the largest concentrations of Mexican immigrants in the state. Census data revealed unexpected trends and unlikely settlement destinations.

    Hudson county map

    With training from Francesca Giannetti, digital humanities librarian, students learned how to create thematic maps in Social Explorer and multimedia narratives integrating images, text, and multimedia embeds in ArcGIS’s Story Maps.  They learned about theories of place and space in spatial narratives, as well as elements of data and visual literacy through the strategic exploration of Social Explorer’s data sources, spatial geometries, and visualization types. Through the students’ mapmaking efforts, they were able to trace demographic changes over time, settlement patterns, and the migration stories of individuals and entire communities.

    Aguada

    Students also visited the Puerto Rican Community Archives (PRCA) at the Newark Public Library to learn about how the PRCA has collected more than one hundred oral histories over the past two decades and has gathered many archives and records of New Jersey’s Puerto Rican communities.

    Perhaps the most exciting part of the summer was completing oral histories with local residents. Shaun Illingworth and Kathryn Rizzi of the Rutgers Oral History Archives (ROHA) provided training and guidance on ethical and practical considerations in conducting oral histories.  After extensive training, background research, and preparation, students went out and recorded oral history interviews with various Latino residents and community leaders. Some were able to interview members of their own communities, while others interviewed important figures like Board of Governors member and Rutgers alum Martin Perez, or Irving Linares, the publisher of a Spanish language newspaper in Newark for the past 40 years.

    Since the group created audio or video recordings of their oral histories, they also benefited from basic video editing training at the Douglass Media Library with Stacey Carton. Students attended a workshop that focused on Adobe Premiere video editing software (available at the Fordham spaces in Douglass Library), but also covered topics relating to storytelling, project organization, and the history of editing. They later utilized the Fordham spaces to continue working on their projects.  Jan Reinhart provided support with audiovisual equipment as well.  Using their video training, two groups of students were able to produce short videos—one on the history of New Brunswick and another on the Latino populations of Union City.  These will be posted online, along with the oral histories and map projects, so they can be made available to public audiences.

    The students and Professor Fernandez learned a great deal about New Jersey’s rich history. They discovered that the state’s sizeable Latino population is relatively recent, having grown mostly since the mid-1980s through migration waves that brought Mexicans, South Americans, Central Americans, and Dominicans to the Garden State. In 1970, for example, the census counted only 135,656 people of “Spanish origin” (what today we generally refer to as “Latinos” or “Hispanics”), compared to the 1.5 million the census counted in 2010. The largest subgroups, as of that year, include Puerto Ricans (27% of all Latinos), Mexicans (14%), Dominicans (13%), Spaniards (7.7%), Colombians (6.5%), and Ecuadorians (6.5%). Today, one in five Jersey residents identifies with some type of Hispanic or Latino ancestry.

    The project team included Amy Castillo (Criminology and Latino and Caribbean Studies ’20), Tania Mota (Journalism and Media Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies ’20), Aracely Ortega (Sociology and Africana Studies ’20), Aziel Rosado (Mathematics and Latino and Caribbean Studies ’20), Kevin Rosero (History and Political Science ’19), Laura Sandoval (Sociology ’20), and Luz Sandoval (History and Public Health ’19).

    Their work is beginning to be shared online. The following are links to individual projects built using the Story Maps platform.

    Mota, Tania. “Mexican Settlement in New Jersey.”

    Rael, Carie. “Latinx of Hudson County, New Jersey.”

    Rosado, Aziel. “Puerto Ricans in New Jersey: A Grandfather’s Story.”

    Rosero, Kevin. “A Grandmother’s Journey.”

    Sandoval, Laura. “Latino History of New Brunswick.”

    Professor Fernandez plans to continue the Latino New Jersey History Project in the future to keep exploring and documenting the diverse and varied origins of the state’s Hispanic communities. The maps, oral histories, and other digital humanities elements will help make this history accessible to audiences beyond the university and beyond the state.

    Lilia Fernandez, Stacey Carton, and Francesca Giannetti

  • New Brunswick Libraries Acquire “The Big Book”

    Alcoholics Anonymous bookThe New Brunswick Libraries have acquired a first edition of “The Big Book,” the popular name for Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, written by the A.A. founder, Bill Wilson (or Bill W).

    Since it was first published in 1939, in an edition of 4,650 copies, “The Big Book” has sold over 30 million copies, making it one of the best-selling regularly updated books of all time. The Library of Congress named it one of the 88 “Books that Shaped America.” The fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous, took its name from the book’s title.

    The Rutgers copy of “The Big Book,” so called for the thickness of the paper in the original edition, was probably the one reviewed by E.M. Jellinek through a project, also launched in 1939, funded by a Carnegie Corporation grant that essentially birthed the field of alcohol studies. As Jellinek reflected in a piece written for AA Today,

    One day that year, I found on my desk a book with a yellow and red dust cover. Its title was Alcoholics Anonymous. With a sigh, picked it up and said to myself: “some more crank stuff.” But I hardly read a few pages when I realized that I had one of the precious gems before me.

    After the Center of Alcohol Studies (CAS) moved from Yale to Rutgers in 1962, the book became part of the McCarthy Collection, named after Raymond McCarthy, the director of education and training at CAS. The annotations are believed to be in his hand.

    An unassuming trade book bound in red cloth, “The Big Book” hardly resembles the “precious gem” it is. From across the room, it might be mistaken for a copy of Webster’s Desk Dictionary. However, due to its historical significance, copies of the first edition regularly sell for five and even six figures. For comparison,  a copy of Webster’s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language,  a first ed. of Webster’s first dictionary (1806), is priced at $4,063, a Babylonian clay tablet from Syria, ca. 1600-1500 BC, which provides a list of fish used for teaching purposes, is valued at $1,500-$2,500 and a Coptic-Greek glossary, written on vellum in Egypt in the sixth or seventh century, likely intended for use by a professional scribe in the civil service, is estimated at between $12,000 and $18,000. Moreover, the profound emotion “The Big Book” stirs in the A.A. fellowship surpasses the admiration of even the most devoted logophile.

    William Bejarano, former senior information specialist at CAS, recalls preparing for the center’s annual Summer School of Addiction Studies, which traditionally included an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. “John,” who was running the meeting, asked if the rumor that the center owned a copy of “The Big Book” was true, and if he might see it.

    “We were taken aback by his response — jaw agape, he treated the item almost as a sacred text, going so far as to kiss the cover and speak in hushed tones.”

    After being cataloged and preserved in a conservation housing, “The Big Book” will safely repose in Special Collections and University Archives, along with The King James Bible, and the editio princeps of Homer.

    Michael Joseph, Judit Ward

    Further reading:

    Bejarano, W., & Ward, J. (2015). AA and the Center of Alcohol Studies: Our story. SALIS News, 35(3), 10-12.

    Bejarano, W., 2015. CAS Archives: A First Edition of the AA “Big Book”. CAS Information Services Newsletter, 9(3) 6-10.

    Ward, J. H., Bejarano, W. & Allred, N. (2016). Reading for Recovery (R4R): Bibliotherapy for addictions. Substance Abuse Library and Information Studies, 3, 50-69.

  • Government Documents Repatriation Project

    Puerto Rican government documentAlexander Library’s collection of uncatalogued government documents from Puerto Rico has found a new home… in Puerto Rico. Along with a small amount of related material from the equivalent collection at the Library of Science & Medicine, similar groups of documents from states like Louisiana and Hawaii have also been offered to libraries in those states. I conceived of this repatriation project in response to the natural disasters that have affected libraries across the United States and its territories.

    Jane Canfield, a librarian at Puerto Rico’s Biblioteca Encarnación Valdés at Pontificia Universidad Católica, was the first name that came to mind when the project was considered. Canfield has given multiple presentations to the government documents community about the damages and conditions in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Her response to the initial contact about the project was enthusiastic, and she ultimately accepted all of the items that were offered. Ranging from a 1905 edition of the Register of Porto Rico to a 1990 Bibliografia fitopatologica Puertorriquena, 1878-1989, 178 individual items were sent.

    Louisiana government documentHurricane Katrina, the floods of 2016, and other storms made Louisiana the first candidate in the continental United States to be considered for the project. A list of material from Louisiana and New Orleans was shared with a librarian at the University of New Orleans (UNO), who in turn shared it with other Louisiana libraries. While not all of the documents found a new home, more than 78% of the publications were requested and subsequently sent to UNO for dissemination. The University of New Orleans, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Loyola University, Nicholls State University, and the State Library of Louisiana were all able to fill gaps in their collections.

    A final response from the library at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, which suffered major damage in a 2004 flood, is forthcoming. Additional states, including Texas and Florida, may be considered when time permits.

    Although the original source of the documents may be lost to history, many were likely obtained via mailing lists or gift and exchange programs. Returning them to their points of origin is a small effort to assist in the rebuilding of collections damaged by hurricanes, floods, and other disasters.

    Special thanks go to Tom Glynn for reviewing the historical material before it was offered; to Elena Schneider, and others in the Shipping & Receiving department, who investigated shipping options, packed the boxes, and delivered the materials to the university department that handles US postal mail; and to Dee Magnoni, who graciously agreed to fund the shipping costs.

    The forgotten collection of state documents is a little less forgotten. The hope is that we run out of disasters before we run out of documents.

  • Reflections on ALA 2018

    As I’m sure you’re all aware, the annual American Library Association conference was held last month in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rutgers was well represented, with plenty of posters and presentations being delivered by folks from the Libraries (check out our Faculty & Staff News page for more details). I reached out to our colleagues for their takeaways from the conference—here’s what they had to say.

    • poster presentation
      Tara Maharjan (l.) and Megan Lotts (r.) presented on using a button maker for outreach to students. Credit: Megan Lotts.

    Katie Anderson: I had the opportunity to learn more about ACRL’s Signature Initiative on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) during the ACRL Leadership meeting. Everyone is encouraged to take this quick poll (open until July 13, 2018) for feedback on priorities. Along with the many business meetings for my section (Anthropology and Sociology Section), a highlight of the conference was a program addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion in academic libraries. Three panelists presented an engaging and thought-provoking program to a packed room entitled “When to Speak Up, When to Listen: Allyship, Race, and Communication in the Academic Library”.

    Megan Lotts: What I enjoyed most about our poster session was learning more about what’s happening at other libraries, as well as sharing what we are up to at Rutgers. I also met a woman who is on a design team in Newark, I think within the libraries, and she was excited to take home a Rutgers button, so she could wear it to her next meeting. Kind of warmed my heart, total cheese, but true story. It was also great presenting at the same time as Jordan. I learned more about my RU colleague’s work, and we got to take pictures of each other!

    Christie Lutz: It’s tough to beat the food and architecture (and heat) in New Orleans, but at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) conference I had a great experience presenting on the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive and chatting with people about music scenes and special collections. And I conducted some inadvertent collection development—I met a conference attendee from the University of Delaware who is married to a former Court Tavern bouncer, and she texted him right away about my presentation and it looks like he’ll be donating! I attended some thought-provoking sessions as well, in particular on challenges and new ways of thinking in archival collection management, and challenges and opportunities in working with underrepresented communities in developing their own archives.

    Tara Maharjan: What I took away from the conference was that a lot of people stopped by and mentioned that their institutions already had a button maker, but were not really using it.  People were surprised that we were using it to promote collections, talk about copyright, collaborate with departments, as well as a fun tool to engage with students. I also learned that I apparently talk with my hands in a lot of photos!

    Lily Todorinova: I am the incoming chair of the Emerging Technologies Section (ETS), which is part of the ALA Reference & User Services Association. As part of my section, I attended an interesting session regarding formal vs. informal project management, how to make a decision matrix, as well as “rightsizing” projects. It was super useful.

    Zara Wilkinson: My co-authors and I presented at the Library Research Round Table (LRRT) Research Forum. The forum had a total of four presentations, so we got to hear about a group of diverse research projects, from first generation college students’ experiences using the library to the resources and repertoire knowledge catalogers rely on in their day-to-day work. I enjoyed the breadth of topics and methodologies, especially in the context of our own project, which examined academic librarians’ experiences with research and their successful development of research skills and confidence.

  • Introducing the Rutgers Health Sciences Libraries on Social Media

    Facebook page
    The @RutgersHSL Facebook page.

    Matthew Bridgeman and Sarah Jewell are leading the teams behind the new Facebook and Instagram pages representing the Rutgers Health Sciences Libraries. Matthew Bridgeman, an information and education librarian at Robert Wood Johnson, has both professional and personal experiences with Instagram. He began the Instagram account at Middlesex County College. In two years he grew the library’s presence and even had a post shared by the New York Public Library. The NYPL also has a great article on creating Instagram posts to be engaging called 20 Ways to Make People Fall in Love with your Instagram. He sees Instagram as a way to begin a discussion with students and faculty with creative photography.

    Sarah Jewell, an information and education librarian at the George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences, primarily has experience doing social media for organizations outside the professional sphere. In the past, she has volunteered to do Facebook, Instagram, and WordPress work with writing and meditation-based organizations. “I see social media as a great vehicle for expressing passion about important work,” Sarah says. “When you express enthusiasm through this media, it is contagious, and it gets others excited about the work to be done.”

    Instagram
    The @RutgersHSL Instagram page.

    Some resources that Sarah uses to guide her social media efforts include the Rutgers Libraries Social Media Resources (which she helped create) and Young and Rossmann’s book titled Using Social Media to Build Library Communities. As the Rutgers Health Sciences Libraries staff is just getting the Facebook and Instagram accounts off the ground, she has been reaching out to her regular contacts to spread the word about the new way to communicate with the libraries. She was thrilled to see the Rutgers School of Public Health post on both Facebook and Instagram a promotion of the Rutgers Health Sciences Libraries pages.

    The primary goals of the Facebook and Instagram accounts are to promote library resources, services, and events to the Rutgers University community and to engage with the students, faculty, and staff of the seven schools under RBHS. The new Rutgers Health Sciences Libraries Facebook and Instagram accounts are off to a running start. The accounts’ plans are to keep a constant scheduled flow of content celebrating the students, faculty, and libraries from the schools of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. If you have not already followed them, connect with them now as they begin this adventure.

    Matthew Bridgeman and Sarah Jewell

  • This Month in the Agenda – July 1997

    Twenty-one years ago, all hands were on deck as the Libraries were gearing up for the implementation of a new library system. Sound familiar? Here’s a snapshot of the Agenda from July 1997.

    With a Little Love from Our Friends
    Agenda July 1997
    Merit awards for 1997. See any names you recognize?

    Below are some notes we recently received from members of the Friends of the Rutgers University Libraries. We thought you might like to see them too!

    Letter #1

    Yesterday (Sunday, May 25th) I walked in the rain to the Alexander Library. Absolutely everything was closed – the caravans at the bus stop, the food shop further up, clearly all the teaching buildings. I met not one person on College Avenue.

    But the library was open, and there were people going in and out, using it.

    We get a publication from the Library of the University of Michigan, which announces the library to be the center of the university. Truly, I believe yours is, and truly I thank you for acting as though it is!

    Letter #2

    I have been a Friend of the Library for several years….

    I continue to actively use several branches of the Library on a regular basis. I have been particularly impressed with the caliber of the reference librarians at the Dana Library. It has been a satisfying association for me.

    Thank you for your assistance.

    The Agenda 19, no. 13 (July 6, 1997)

    LIS Teams, Assemble!

    We have had a wonderful response to the several calls for people to become involved with the training program for the new LIS coming later this summer. Nearly seventy people from all over the library system have volunteered to participate in some aspect of the training program.

    We have compiled all the information from the completed “LIS Training Committee Questionnaires” returned to us by the volunteers and have worked with each of the LIS Implementation Chairs to place volunteers into the training teams for the Circulation/Reserves, Cataloging and OPAC modules. The remaining teams, Acquisitions/Fiscal Control and Serials Control, will be announced shortly.

    Based on volunteer’s questionnaire responses, each team will be divided into smaller working groups to write documentation, develop scripts, test scenarios, conduct sessions and assist trainees at the computers.

    The Agenda 19, no. 13 (July 6, 1997)

    Connie Abroad

    Partially funded by “Chun Hui Plan,” a government grant from China, Connie Wu at LSM went to China for a lecture tour in June. She and four presenters from other universities and information companies visited three top ranking universities in China: Fudan University, Zhejiang University and Hangzhou University. Connie presented three topics: (1) Internet Overview and Its Applications and Resources; (2) Electronic Publishing and Its Impacts; and (3) Challenges to Librarianship. More than 400 academic and public library directors and librarians from several provinces attended these workshops. Since her presentations interested the audience Connie has already received several invitations for next year’s lectures after she came back.

    The Agenda 19, no. 14 (July 20, 1997)

  • Sunsetting the Library Catalog Committee

    LCC wordle
    The LCC began as the Public Access Committee when the Libraries were planning to implement the new Unicorn library information system from Sirsi in 1997.

    With the implementation of Alma and Primo, the Rutgers University Libraries bid a fond farewell to the Library Catalog Committee. Recent LCC “emeriti” are: Stephanie Bartz (New Brunswick Libraries, chair), Natalie Borisovets (Rutgers–Newark/Dana), Melissa De Fino (Central Technical Services), Joseph Deodato (Shared User Services), John Maxymuk (Rutgers–Camden/Robeson), Bob Warwick (Integrated Information Systems, retired), and Yini Zhu (Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences/Smith).

    The committee began as the Public Access Committee (shortened to PAC) when the Libraries were planning to implement the new Unicorn library information system (LIS) from Sirsi in 1997, which replaced an aging Geac catalog and Innovative (III) acquisitions system. At that time, “PAC” was one of several subcommittees of the LIS Committee tasked with implementing the new system.

    The first meeting of the Public Access Committee was held in April 1997. Although the name of the chair was not recorded in the meeting minutes, in attendance were the following.

    • Emily Fabiano, Alexander Library
    • Harriet Hemmasi, Cataloging
    • Rhonda Marker, Cataloging
    • Tracey Meyer, Database Management
    • Pat Piermatti, Library of Science & Medicine
    • Bob Warwick, Systems Department
    • Mark Witteman, Systems Department (Unicorn systems administrator)

    By fall 1998, Ann Scholz-Crane (Robeson Library) was chair of the group and it was Ann who asked Sam McDonald to place PAC meeting notes on the web. Minutes from October 1998 through the final meeting in July 2017 were made available in Staff Resources.

    In 2000, the committee was revitalized and reconstituted under Harriet Hemmasi, then acting associate university librarian for Technical & Automated Services. It became the IRIS Public Access Committee (IPAC). A new charge was issued and new members were added. Just two years later, in 2002, the charge was once again revised as the committee was moved from technical services to public services under the aegis of Jeanne Boyle, associate university librarian for Public Services & Communications.

    The final major transition for the committee took place in 2011, when the Libraries discontinued the name “IRIS” for the library catalog. The committee, which had been under the leadership of Stephanie Bartz since 2005, received a revised charge and changed its name to Library Catalog Committee.

    During its long tenure and multiple transitions, there have been many, many others who have served on this committee. Thank you, each one!

    Stephanie Bartz and Rhonda Marker

  • Milestone Celebrations for Rutgers University Libraries Staff (2018)

    Back in April, we acknowledged the Libraries faculty who are celebrating milestone employment anniversaries in 2018. Today, we celebrate staff who have reached their own milestones. Congratulations to you all and thank you for all you do for the Libraries!

    10 Jonathan Embres (Robeson Library)

    Jennifer Holland (Collection Development and Management)

    Kim Kaiser (Technical and Automated Services)

    Maria Kostic (New Brunswick Libraries)

    Erica Parin (Libraries HR)

    Ed Smith (Technical and Automated Services)

    Katrina Zwaaf (Technical and Automated Services)
    20 Teodoro Oblad (Smith Library)

    Suzanne Posluszny (Technical and Automated Services)

    Yini Zhu (Smith Library)
    30 Caroline Foote (Dana Library)

    Dorothy Grauer (Dana Library)

    Susan Killough (Technical and Automated Services)

     

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  • This Month in the Agenda: May 1999

    Coming Full Circle
    newsletter
    The Agenda, May 2, 1999.

    As many of you know, a group called the Web Advisory Committee (WAC) has been working to redesign the Rutgers University Libraries’ website…. The Rutgers Libraries’ web pages provide information about library collections, services, and personnel and facilitate communication and work among library faculty and staff. The redesign of our website will produce the flexibility we need to accommodate our current and future digital library and give our users an information tool that is more intuitive to use. Specifically, WAC expects the new website to provide important new features such as the following: 1) better integration with the university’s recommended “look & feel” for websites, resulting in a shorter learning curve, 2) improved and more intuitive navigation, and 3) new sources such as the “Digital Library Projects” and “Friends and Supporters” pages.

    The Agenda 21, no. 9 (May 2, 1999)

    Destined for Success

    We are pleased to report that Fernanda Perrone of Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA) has been awarded an undergraduate research fellow from the Vice President for Undergraduate Education’s Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellows Program.

    The Undergraduate Research Fellow, Carlos J. Ron, will work with Fernanda on the “Documenting Inter-American Cooperation Project” and specifically on the Frances Grant Papers, which include the archives of the Inter-American Association for Democracy and Freedom and the Pan-American Woman’s Association.

    The Agenda 21, no. 9 (May 2, 1999)

    Lending a Hand

    Libraries Essay Contest #3 Winner
    Student Category

    This semester I am working on my Senior thesis. I had never really spoken to a Librarian at Dana and was, at first, a bit reluctant because they always seem so busy. I decided to approach the reference desk with a question on obtaining an obscure government pamphlet that was going to be helpful in writing my paper. Their pleasant attitude hit me like a tidal wave of fresh air. Two big smiles greeted me and I immediately felt very comfortable. I was so pleasantly surprised!

    I am used to living in a society where everyone is in a rush and not many people sincerely want to help. The Rutgers Librarians that helped me, that day, were quite the opposite. They showed great eagerness to help me and that’s something I really appreciate.

    The Agenda 21, no. 10 (May 16, 1999)

    Have a Reservation?

    The Electronic Reserves Working Group is happy to announce that RUL will start to provide electronic access to some documents on reserve this summer….. We will begin by providing electronic access to photocopies of sample exams, overheads, syllabi, problem sets, and lecture notes submitted by instructors for Reserves. Documents will be scanned on the Minolta PS 3000 in the Copy Center in New Brunswick, set up on the library’s web server, and delivered as Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files in the Reserve module of IRIS. All Rutgers libraries will participate in the electronic reserve services….. Some libraries may scan and process documents for electronic reserves on-site in the future.

    The Agenda 21, no. 11 (May 30, 1999)