The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Articles

  • Celebrating the Launch of Our New Website

    Last week, we celebrated a day 18 months in the making—the launch of our new website! 

    As of 7 o’clock last Wednesday, anyone who visits libraries.rutgers.edu will be brought to our redesigned website. In case you missed it, here is a video highlighting some of the new features that users can now take advantage of (with special thanks to graduate assistant Natalie Lau for the narration): 

    It is so exciting for me to see how far this project has come. From our early sessions sorting cards or post-its and sketching personas, to the many phases of user research and testing, to the shiny new product you see here today, it has been an amazing process to be a part of. I know it will take some getting used to for everyone involved—both our users as well as our faculty and staff—but I think we’ve created a site that’s very special and something we all should be proud of. 

    As Consuella mentioned in her email, there are so many people to thank for helping this project come to fruition. Of course, this includes the project team—Doug Allen, Antonio Barrera, Amy Kimura, John Powell, Jonathan Torres, Sonia Yaco, and Yini Zhu—and especially the local representatives, who have had the difficult task of communicating with their units about a website that was constantly changing and growing. (This was such a fun and productive group to be a part of, and I will miss all of our pre-meeting shenanigans with the fancy Zoom filters!) It also includes the AULs and AVP—Judy Cohn, Regina Koury, Dee Magnoni, and Rhonda Marker—as well as their local teams, who have all had to prioritize this project despite so many other competing demands on their time. Last but certainly not least, thanks to the technical team who have dedicated many hours of development work to the site after it was handed off to us by NewCity—Eva Chan, Jie Geng, Dave Hoover, and Sam McDonald. 

    To that, I would like to add my personal thanks to the following people: 

    • Amy Kimura, without whose Herculean effort creating content, coordinating working groups, and liaising with NewCity this project would simply not have been possible; 
    • Antonio Barrera, whose project management and development expertise shone throughout this project, especially as he bridged the gap between the development teams at the Libraries and NewCity; 
    • Abbey DiPaolo, who was a constant champion for the project and always pushed us to make the website the best it could be, even when there were tough decisions to be made; 
    • Kris Maloney, whose vision for a better web presence for the Libraries inspired this project from the beginning; and 
    • Consuella Askew, who seamlessly took over the reins in the late phases and led our way to the finish line.  

    Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and many other cooks have contributed to this particular kitchen. But it has been one of the highlights of my professional career to have been a part of this project with this outstanding team, and I’m grateful to have played a small part in getting it to where it is today. That said, I know there is plenty more work to be done, and I am looking forward to continuing our efforts to make the Libraries’ website the best it can be for our users. 

    As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about the new site—whether yours or a patron’s—please direct them to webservices@libraries.rutgers.edu. You can also learn more about the site and the redesign project by visiting the Web Redesign Project Team’s staff resources page.  

  • South Asian Open Archive (SAOA)

    SAOA logoThe New Brunswick Libraries have partnered with South Asian Studies Program (SASP) in the School of Arts and Sciences, New Brunswick to acquire a membership for the South Asian Open Archive (SAOA) database.

    SAOA is a part of the South Asian Materials Project of the Center for Research Libraries and uses the versatile search interface of JSTOR. The collections in this open archive are curated and include a variety of materials including books, census data, journals, magazines, newspapers, and documents in the areas of literature, women & gender, social structure, and economic and social history. Over 26 languages are represented in these collections including South Asian languages such as Assamese, Awadhi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Braj, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Latin, Malayalam, Marathi, Marwari, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala; Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Documents in English and other languages such as German, Italian, French, Japanese, Persian and Arabic are also available. This database is now also accessible via the libraries’ list of Indexes and Databases.

    The partnership was made possible through SASP’s Chakra Fund and New Brunswick Libraries Collections. Please contact triveni.kuchi@rutgers.edu for more information.

  • PRL Undergraduate Research Award Winners

    This spring the Paul Robeson Library launched the Undergraduate Research Award, a new initiative designed to recognize and celebrate excellence in original undergraduate research. Undergraduate students from all schools at Rutgers University–Camden were invited to submit research papers or other research projects completed between spring 2020 and spring 2021. Applications were required to include a completed project, a bibliography, and a reflective essay describing the search strategy employed and how sources were evaluated.

    An evaluation committee of both teaching and library faculty reviewed each application, looking for those that made use of a range of library resources, collections, and services and showed evidence of critical thinking, originality, and creativity. Five winning papers were selected. Each winner received a cash prize and certificate, an invitation to include their paper in a digital collection, and recognition at a virtual event held on May 24, 2021.

    First Place

    Second Place

    Honorable Mentions

     

    Samantha Kannegiser & Zara Wilkinson

  • Keeping Your Information Safe

    A phishing attempt is one of the common types of cybersecurity threats we face daily. Anyone with an email account is a target for phishing scammers. The primary goal of phishing is to trick you into providing your credentials such as passwords or other sensitive information. In other cases, scammers may impersonate someone you know and try to convince you to purchase gift cards, asking you to provide the card number. Scammers and hackers are consistently finding new ways to make their messages more convincing, making even the most careful among us a victim by clicking on a link, opening an attachment, or simply responding to a message. Because these actions can have dire consequences, it is important to remain vigilant, use common sense, and understand the best practices that can keep your information safe.

    To combat phishing attempts, the OIT has created a website, Phish Bowl, consisting of helpful tips to identify and avoid phishing scams, including links to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alerts page, and the SANS Institute’s Security Awareness Tip of the Day. Also included on the Phish Bowl page are a series of brief and entertaining YouTube videos on topics such as passwords, data handling, computer theft, phishing, and ransomware, and more. In just a few minutes per video, you can raise your awareness of crucial security best practices. For more information on how to identify and report phishing messages, please see https://agenda.libraries.rutgers.edu/iis-updates-january-2021/#phishing.

    You are the first line of defense. If you receive a suspicious message, please forward it with Message Details to support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu immediately. We will review your message and report it to OIT, if necessary.

    To further increase security, Rutgers has already required Duo two-step login for Rutgers Connect. Since it has been required for Rutgers Connect logins, cybercriminals have not gained access to a single Rutgers Connect account. Starting on July 1, Duo will be required for all websites and services accessed through Rutgers’ Central Authentication System (CAS) from on campus and off campus, including Box, Canvas, myRutgers, Webex, Zoom, and many others.

    If you have concerns or questions about phishing or the additional Duo requirements, send an email to support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu.

  • E-ZBorrow Transitioning to ReShare

    ReShare, the new platform for managing E-ZBorrow requests, is now in the final stage of implementation. ReShare will provide our patrons with consortial discovery, offering real-time availability. Additionally, ReShare supports batch processing which will allow staff to process multiple requests quickly.

    In the coming weeks we will be adding configurations, creating staff user accounts, and training staff on processing requests in ReShare. Staff at all PALCI partner libraries will be spending the first two weeks of July working with test requests and fine-tuning the process. PALCI is anticipating this testing phase to be completed by  mid-July, at which point all partner libraries would enable patron discovery and go live on the new platform on the same day.

    Relais, the platform we currently use, will remain available for the completion of current requests until August 31. Requests will not be migrated to the new platform. Patrons who have used the E-ZBorrow service in the past two years will receive a notification with instructions on how to export a list of their requests. The first of these notifications will be sent on July 7 and two reminders will be sent before the August 31 deadline.

    More information about Project ReShare can be found here.

  • Turning the Page: The Next Chapter of Rutgers University Libraries

    I want to take one last opportunity to thank you all for making me feel so welcome at my first State of the Libraries meeting as your University Librarian. Though we were again unable to meet face-to-face as is our tradition, I appreciated the level of participation and engagement that you all brought to the meeting despite what was a very lengthy and packed agenda.

    If you were not able to attend, please do take some time to review the State of the Libraries staff resources site. There you will find a recording of the entire event as well as links to all the presentations that were offered.

    That said, I thought it would be important to review once more the takeaways from my listening sessions with colleagues across the Libraries, as they are the pillars that are going to inform my work in the months ahead:

    • Improve communications. Increasing transparency for decision making at all levels in the organization and improving the flow of internal and external communications.
    • Change organizational culture. Breaking down our organizational hierarchies and rebuilding trust within. It also involves creating a culture of recognition within the Libraries, where we celebrate our faculty and staff’s successes and provide opportunities for upward mobility.
    • Enhance organizational clarity. Creating a unifying mission for the Libraries, one that emphasizes the notion of “one Library” and will center the Libraries within President Holloway’s vision for the university.

    As we discovered during our word cloud exercise at State of the Libraries, there are a wide variety of reasons why our faculty and staff decided to come to work at Rutgers University Libraries, ranging from the promise of lifelong learning to the opportunity to work with our diverse students and faculty. Whatever those reasons may be, it’s my goal to bring us together, to chart our path forward, and move us in a unified and purposeful direction. I hope you will join me in the weeks and months to come as we work toward shared understanding and move the organization toward more common goals.

    To that end, please save the date of Wednesday, July 28 for our continuing work with the Center for Organizational Leadership and its Excellence in Higher Education Framework, Community Conversations: Focused and Facilitated Conversations with Colleagues from across Rutgers Libraries regarding Organizational Strengths and Areas for Potential Improvement. There are two identical sessions scheduled, one from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. and the other from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m. Please feel free to attend whichever works best for your schedule.

    As Dr. Moghe said in his address to us at State of the Libraries, “Nothing represents the university coming together as vividly as the Libraries coming together.” I look forward to working with you all as we embark on this work of coming together and as we turn the page to start our next chapter so that we may better serve the entire Rutgers community.

  • Promoting OAT at Rutgers–Camden

    During a Library Student Advisory Board meeting in the fall, student members discussed the difficulty their peers experience paying for required textbooks. To learn more, we invited Zara Wilkinson to talk to us about the library’s Open & Affordable Textbooks (OAT) program. This inspired board members Oriana Holmes-Price, Grace Latini, and Erika Pitsker to plan a faculty panel event to promote the OAT program to the rest of the student body. They invited Zara Wilkinson, librarian for the OAT program, Dr. Jamie Dunaev, Assistant Teaching Professor in Psychology, Dr. Nancy Cresse, Clinical Assistant Professor in Nursing, and Dr. Bethany Welch, Lecturer in Urban Studies to discuss their experiences with the OAT program and their philosophy towards open educational resources more generally. After diligent effort on the part of the Board members, we held the panel, Open & Affordable Textbooks: Faculty and Student Perspectives, on April 6th. Faculty, staff, and students in Camden attended and learned about the importance and impact of open and affordable textbooks and the library’s efforts to support students and faculty through the OAT program. Many students expressed interest in taking an OAT course and helping to expand the program to additional courses and departments. The Paul Robeson Library Student Advisory Board plans to continue championing the Open & Affordable Textbooks program.   

    Additionally, the Rutgers-Camden Student Government Association has voiced its support for the OAT Program through ongoing dialogues with librarians Zara Wilkinson and John Powell. The executive board of the SGA has brainstormed a variety of collaborative initiatives, including the development of a university-wide portal of course materials developed because of the OAT program and a form where students can submit recommendations for OAT or submit classes which they had to drop due to additional costs from textbooks or access codes.  

  • Introducing Our New Chancellor of Rutgers–Camden

    I am delighted to announce that the Board of Governors has confirmed the appointment of Dr. Antonio D. Tillis as Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Tillis, a scholar of Latin American Literature with an Afro-Hispanic emphasis, has served for the past four years as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston Downtown (UHD), and in July 2020 was appointed as interim president of UHD.

    In addition to his scholarly accomplishments, Antonio D. Tillis has been a visionary and effective administrative leader. Among other achievements at UHD, Dr. Tillis has established new programs and grant funds for faculty development and research, created a postdoctoral fellowship program, instituted a professional development award for staff, launched a center for Arab studies, enhanced undergraduate advising, and provided funding to hire additional underrepresented tenure-track faculty. As interim president, he established a presidential task force on diversity and worked with city authorities to create new student internships in Houston.

    Prior to his arrival in Houston, Dr. Tillis served as dean of the College of Charleston’s School of Languages, Culture and World Affairs for three years. From 2009 to 2014, he chaired the African and African American Studies program at Dartmouth College. And while on the faculty at Purdue University from 2000 to 2009, Dr. Tillis was director of Study Abroad, then director of undergraduate and graduate studies, and then the inaugural director of Purdue’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program.

    Antonio D. Tillis earned his bachelor’s degree in Spanish at Vanderbilt University, his master’s in Spanish Literature at Howard University, and his doctorate in Latin American Literature (Afro-Hispanic Emphasis) at the University of Missouri at Columbia. In his scholarship, Dr. Tillis has authored or edited several books, most recently co-authoring The Afro-Hispanic Reader and Anthology in 2018. Earlier titles include The Trayvon Martin in ‘US’: An American Tragedy (2015) and Critical Perspectives in Afro-Latin American Literature (2013). He is also co-editor of the book series Black Diasporic Worlds: Origins and Evolutions from New World Slaving. For more details, see the news story here.

    Dr. Tillis is the right leader for Rutgers University-Camden, which is well-positioned to build on its successes, including its continued commitment to students of all backgrounds and its growing research impact. I’m thrilled that we found such a talented person to serve as chancellor, and I want to thank all the members of the search committee, led by Executive Vice President Prabhas Moghe and Professor Jane Siegel, for their diligence and thoughtful consideration of a very strong pool of candidates.

    I am extremely grateful to Margaret Marsh, one of our university’s greatest citizens, for answering the call last year to step in once again as Interim Chancellor and providing strong and steady leadership over the past year. We couldn’t have been better served, especially at such a difficult time in our institution’s and nation’s history, and I thank her on behalf of the entire Rutgers community.

    As noted earlier, Dr. Tillis will begin his tenure July 1. I am deeply impressed by his experience and expertise and inspired by his passion and excitement about leading the Rutgers–Camden community. I know he is eager to meet the members of our community in the coming weeks and months as public health guidelines allow. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Tillis to Rutgers.

    Sincerely,
    Jonathan Holloway
    President and University Professor

  • Update on the Basie Collection

    The Institute of Jazz Studies has been working diligently to inventory the Basie family papers as part of the project funded by a $433,500 Save America’s Treasures Grant, awarded to the Institute in late 2020.  Ben Houtman started in his position as Project Coordinator in January 2021 and quickly facilitated the safe transport of the collection to Dana Library for the inventory.  After the inventory is complete, the Institute will send unstable and damaged artifacts and archival materials from the collection to a team of conservators for treatment.  Finally, with support from a $23,500 New Jersey Historical Commission grant, the Institute will arrange and describe the archival materials in the collection to open it for use in 2022.

    14k gold money clip, inscribed from Jerry Lewis to the “Count”
    Hohner soprano melodica
    Photo album page
    Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award to Count Basie

  • Rutgers Connect Recent Changes and Enhancements

    OIT has announced some recent changes and enhancements in Rutgers Connect. We’ve highlighted and described some of them here. Some are already available, while others are currently rolling out to all Microsoft users. Please do not hesitate to contact IIS at support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu if you have questions or comments about these new or enhanced features, or anything in Rutgers Connect.

     Outlook on the web (OWA): Update in Accessing Mail, Calendar, People, and To Do

    Microsoft is rolling out a newly designed app bar on the left side of the folder pane that will change how users access Mail, Calendar, People, and To Do. The app bar will make it easier to launch Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote on the web directly from Outlook on the web.

    OneDrive: 250GB Upload Capability 

    Microsoft is raising the upload file size limit of its OneDrive file storage service from 100GB to 250GB. This improvement will allow users to upload files of up to 250GB into OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint. Please keep in mind that factors such as bandwidth, location, and network capacity may impact large uploads.

    Microsoft Word: Text Predictions

    Microsoft has begun rolling out a new text prediction feature to speed up the writing of documents written in English. Word will highlight grayed-out predictions when users are writing a document. Suggestions can be accepted using the Tab key or rejected by hitting Escape or continuing to type. The new text predictions feature will be enabled by default but can be disabled if desired. The feature reduces spelling and grammar errors and learns over time to give the best recommendations based on your writing style. Text predictions were previously made available in Outlook on the web where it can also be disabled if desired.

    Microsoft Word: Modern Comments

    Modern Comments, first introduced in the mobile and Web versions of Word, have been improved based on feedback and are now available in Word for Windows and Word for Mac. Enhancements include improved keyboard shortcuts and @mention notifications and will start rolling out to Windows and Mac users in April. Modern Comments offer enriched collaboration coupled with the ability to assign and resolve comments and respond to @mention notifications via email.

    Microsoft Teams: History Menu

    Microsoft has introduced a history menu in the Microsoft Teams desktop clients that displays a user’s recently visited locations. By hovering over the backward and forward navigation buttons at the top of the Teams client, users will be able to see recently visited locations in Microsoft Teams. The history menu makes it easier to navigate to previous locations, such as nested tabs and documents.

    Teams Meetings: Participants Increased

    Microsoft is increasing the limit of participants and chat size in interactive meetings from 300 to 1,000.

    Microsoft Teams: New File Sharing Experience

    Microsoft is updating the file sharing and access control experience in Microsoft Teams to align with the existing functionality across the other Microsoft 365 applications. When users share a file from within Teams (desktop/web), they will have the option to create sharing links that provide access to people with existing access, people within your organization, and specific people. Before users share a file in a chat and channels, they will be notified if recipients don’t have permission to view the file. The user can change permissions before they share the file (if they have permission to do so). The default file sharing setting for Teams will remain the same and will continue to reflect default permissions in SharePoint, as the two work together.