The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Articles

  • QuickSearch Logo

    quicksearch logo
    Help us select the new QuickSearch logo! Click the image to take the survey.

    Hello all –

    I know I said we’d return to Frameworks this month, but events of the day (or month) have once again intervened. As we’ve seen from recent communications from the ExLibris Implementation Team, we are moving ahead full steam toward the June 1 go live date. I know many of you are preparing for the technical freeze and helping to communicate these changes to our users, but I write today with a different purpose.

    We recently announced that the name of our search interface will be QuickSearch, and I am writing today to invite you to help us with the selection of a graphic to build recognition and visibility for our new service.

    We want your input. You know your users and the Rutgers community – what they

    like and dislike and what works for them.

    We want to use this visual on our website and in marketing materials, so it has to be eye-catching and work in multiple formats. It will be used alongside messaging that emphasizes that QuickSearch allows users to search across our collections with greater efficiency, accuracy, and relevancy. With the help of the ExLibris Implementation Team, we have managed to whittle the options down to a top 7. We need your help to get this down to the final graphic.

    So, with that in mind, please let us know:

    • What would be most appealing to Rutgers faculty and students?
    • What communicates the excitement of QuickSearch most clearly to you?
    • Which graphic most clearly matches your vision of what QuickSearch does?

    Conversely, let us know:

    • What visuals simply don’t work in your opinion?
    • Which ones aren’t clear or don’t match the function of QuickSearch?
    • Is there anything confusing about the graphics? Would you mix and match any elements of the graphics to create a new graphic?
    • Or do you have a completely new concept you would like to share?

    Please click here to let us know what you think of our leading QuickSearch graphics so far. We are in a time crunch, so please get your comments in by Tuesday, May 8 at 5 p.m.

    Thanks in advance! We’ll announce the QuickSearch graphic next Wednesday!

    if you prefer to email your comments, please send them to me or Jessica Pellien.

     

  • What’s Happening around Rutgers? May 2018

    Opening Day at the Rutgers Gardens Farm Market is May 4.
    Rutgers Gardens Farm Market

    Friday, May 4, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
    Rutgers–New Brunswick

    Opening day of the farmers market. Stop by for the fun including the Lettuce Festival and cooking demonstration. See which of your favorite vendors are back and who is new. Click here for more information.

    BOS
    The Black Organization of Students Celebrates their 50th anniversary on May 5.
    Kick Off Celebration: Reflections on the Founding of BOS

    Saturday, May 5, 5 – 9 p.m.
    Paul Robeson Campus Center – Essex Room
    Rutgers–Newark

    The Black Organization of Students Alumni Association (BOSAA) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Organization of Students (BOS) with a dinner and awards ceremony. Alumni, students, and friends are invited to join in an evening of acknowledging the sisterly and brotherly love, respect, and struggles that the pioneers of diversity demonstrated during the late 1967-1968 historic event. Click here for more information.

    tour
    Learn about battlefield preservation with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities on May 5.
    History Preservation Workshop: Battlefield Preservation

    Saturday, May 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
    Historical Society of Princeton and Princeton Battlefield State Park

    “Landscapes of Conflict: Battlefield Preservation” will examine national, state, county, and municipal efforts at recognizing and preserving America’s fields of conflict. The day will include a morning of presentations from historians, archaeologists, and county planners and an afternoon battlefield tour. Part of the Continuing Education Program of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers University–Camden.

    meditation
    Practice mindfulness meditation at free noontime workshops across Rutgers–New Brunswick
    Mindfulness Meditation

    Tuesday, May 8, noon – 1 p.m.
    Busch Student Center

    Wednesday, May 9, noon – 1 p.m.
    Student Activities Center

    Thursday, May 10, noon – 1 p.m.
    Douglass Student Center

    Rutgers–New Brunswick

    Mindfulness is the art of being a compassionate observer of your own experience. Meditation practice helps us to achieve mindfulness and reduce stress. All are welcome – faculty, staff, and students. No previous experience required. Click here for more information.

    photograph
    The Shadows of Houses is on display at the Paul Robeson Galleries through May 26.
    The Shadows of Houses

    Through Saturday, May 26
    Paul Robeson Galleries
    Rutgers–Newark

    The Shadows of Houses is a three-person show featuring black and white photographs from Terry Boddie, Shakia Lewis, and Cesar Melgar. The title of exhibition is taken from Newark native Amiri Baraka’s poem “Legacy,” a mediation on history and home. Melgar’s street photography cast a sharp eye on the inhabitants and city of Newark. Click here for more information.

    Dougls Lowy, MD, deputy director of the National Cancer Institute.
    2018 Annual Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey

    Thursday, May 24, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
    College Ave Student Center
    Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

    Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research host a forum for clinicians, researchers, faculty and students to learn about the latest in cancer research and treatment. Click here for more information.

     

     

  • Ex Libris Implementation Project Update – May 2018

    ExLibris graphicMigration Milestones 

    The implementation project continued to move forward as scheduled in April. We submitted the final migration form and link resolver form to Ex Libris. To address issues encountered during the Alma/Primo testing, we have been having weekly functional calls with Ex Libris and communicating with them constantly via the project’s Basecamp site. The Data Migration and System Integration Working Group has also been working hard on the third-party integration issues. The extract of Sirsi data for the final data load to Alma will start on May 5.  

    QuickSearch Announcements and News Page 

    Primo will be known as QuickSearch to the Rutgers community after we go live on June 1. In her recent messages to the university and RUL communities, Krisellen announced the release date of QuickSearch (June 1) and its impact on students and faculty. The Libraries also created a QuickSearch news page for the public. Please use the news page as a resource to answer user inquiries. Students and faculty can also submit questions or comments about QuickSearch directly to reference@rutgers.libanswers.com.  

    Upcoming Service Changes 

    In her message to RUL everyone, Krisellen also highlighted the following service changes that are coming up:  

    • Acquisitions: There will be a freeze of acquisitions and cataloging activities (except reserve purchases) between May 5 and June 1. Normal acquisitions functions will resume after June 1, but we will prioritize the purchase of course reserves and faculty requests. The process of allocating funds for selector-initiated acquisitions will resume in the fall, which is in line with previous years. 
    • Reserves: Starting May 5, we will have a special process in place to accept and place reserve orders, but we anticipate the turnaround time will be longer than usual. Reserves that are placed after May 5 will not transfer automatically to Alma and will be manually transferred after June 1. Additional summer programs like EOF may be similarly affected. 
    • Circulation and ILL: From May 29 to May 31, we will transition to an Alma offline client for circulation. This step is necessary to populate Alma with existing circulation data prior to launch. Users will not experience down time, but during this three-day period, Access Services staff will stop using Sirsi and instead work with the Alma client. On June 1, the data from the offline client will be merged back into Alma, so there will be no data loss and everything will be synced. This will also impact Interlibrary Loan, as there will be potential delays and interruptions in processing loans and borrows of physical items. More information on these workflows and training opportunities will be available soon. 

    These temporary or short-term service changes are necessary for the successful implementation of Alma and Primo. We thank all the library faculty and staff for the help to minimize disruption.  

    Primo Training Schedule 

    Discovery Services Librarian Joseph Deodato recently announced a Primo/QuickSearch training schedule (see following) for public services librarians and staff. Many library faculty and staff have registered to attend the training sessions. Even though the registration is now closed, Joseph welcomes colleagues who did not register to attend any of the sessions. Please contact Joseph if you have any questions.  

    Primo Training Schedule (as of April 25, 2018) 

    Date  Location  Time 
    May 1  Dana Electronic Classroom II  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
    May 2*  Robeson Electronic Classroom  2 p.m.. – 4 p.m.
    May 4*  Alexander SCC Lecture Hall  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
    May 8  RWJ Electronic Classroom  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
    May 9  Dana Electronic Classroom II  10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
    May 11  Smith Electronic Classroom I  10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
    May 15*  Carr Conference Room  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
    May 18  Alexander Pane Room  10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

    *indicates a new session or change of location 

    Submitted by Tao Yang and Abbey DiPaolo.

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – May 2018

    Honoring a Great-Great Legacy
    Chantel Harris at the ceremony honoring her great-great grandmother, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, who founded the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
    Chantel Harris (l.) at the ceremony honoring her great-great grandmother, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, who founded the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

    Chantel Harris, library associate and student coordinator at the Paul Robeson Library, Rutgers–Camden, was a special guest at the ceremonial dedication and unveiling of a school bench at Charles Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri, in honor of her great-great-grandmother, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle. Lyle was the originator and founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA). Chantel received a proclamation from the mayor of St. Louis, as well as a resolution from the Board of Aldermen naming April 5, 2018 “Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Day.”

    Lyle graduated from Sumner High School in 1904 and founded AKA in 1908 at Howard University. Chantel is pictured with the sorority’s international president, Dr. Dorothy Buckhanan Wilson, central regional director Kathy Walker-Steele, and members of the Board of Directors.

    The USPS is considering an Ethel Hedgeman Lyle 2019-2020 USPS Forever Postage Stamp.

    You can read more here.

    Jazz Ambassadors Premieres on PBS May 4 
    men at acropolis
    IJS founder Marshall Stearns and Quincy Jones at the Acropolis.

    A new PBS documentary featuring archival material from the Institute of Jazz Studies is slated to premiere at 10 p.m. on Friday, May 4. Here’s a quick synopsis from PBS.org:

    “The Cold War and civil rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their racially diverse band members faced a painful dilemma: How could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?”

    Congratulations to Tad Hershorn, Adriana Cuervo, and all of our IJS colleagues who contributed to this project. We can’t wait to see the premiere!

    Special Collections News Roundup
    children's book
    Helene van Rossum’s new children’s book is titled “The Best Mom in the Universe.”

    Lots of great news coming out of Special Collections and University Archives lately:

    • The finding aid for the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive is now live. The collection continues to grow, and the finding aid will be updated periodically.
    • Speaking of which, the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive has a brand new Facebook page! Be sure to head over and give them a like.
    • A new finding aid is also available for the New Brunswick Vertical File in the Sinclair New Jersey collection. This collection of primarily printed material documents a vast array of aspects of New Brunswick history, mostly between 1935 and 1960 and arranged by subject. Special thanks go to School of Communication & Information graduate student Louise Lobello for her work on the finding aid.
    • The latest children’s picture book by public services and outreach archivist Helene van Rossum has just been published. Written in Dutch, it’s titled The Best Mom in the Universe. Check it out (along with her other children’s books) over on Helene’s blog.
    Busting Students’ Stress
    flyer
    New Stressbusters flyer templates are available from the Communications Department.

    It’s finals week, which of course means that #STRESSBUSTERS are back at libraries across Rutgers–New Brunswick. But Rutgers–Camden is joining in the fun this semester, too, with the first-ever pet therapy session at Paul Robeson Library slated for Friday, May 4. Good luck to our colleagues at Robeson! Hopefully this is the beginning of a long and successful tradition.

    Are you planning your own stress-relieving finals activities? The Communications Department has created new flyer templates to help promote your events. Check them out here: T:\CENTRAL\Templates\Signage Templates\stressbusters\word templates

     

  • 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)

  • Communicators Network Social Media Panel

    Last month, I attended a panel discussion hosted by the Rutgers Communicators Network titled Social Media – Industry and Platform Trends for Owned and Paid Content. You can check out a recording of the event below:

    While some of the discussion may not be directly applicable for units with limited or nonexistent budgets for social media advertising, here are some of my broader takeaways for social media at the Libraries:

    • Developing a voice and building relationships. Ultimately, social media needs to be social. Developing a friendly and authentic voice can help us seem more approachable and available, and allow us to cultivate a sense of community around our accounts. Attending to this may, in the long run, prove more effective for our strategy than the successful implementation of any given campaign. We might even get a research question or two out of it!
    • Leveraging influencers. While there may not be many opportunities for us to develop formalized, paid partnerships with influencers such as those discussed in the panel (see here for an example of one of Mary Chayko’s students advertising for a hair product), we should still think about creatively leveraging user-generated content in our approach to social media. We also have a unique resource—namely, expertise—at our disposal. Is there a way for us to position our librarians and their research as influencers in the broader academic community on social media?
    • Understanding your audience and goals. As with any form of communication, understanding your audience is a key to success. Who are you trying to reach, and where are they likely to hang out online? What are the actions you ultimately want them to take? What would return on social media investment look like for your unit? Identifying the answers to these questions can help make your effort worthwhile.
    • Benchmarking. You may be interested in reading RivalIQ’s 2018 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, which was discussed during the event. It has some useful information on best practices and trends in social media for higher education.

    Do you have your own ideas for how we can improve social media at the Libraries? Feel free to reach out and let me know.

  • Rutgers Day 2018

    Rutgers Day was last weekend and, by all accounts, it was another tremendous success. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped pull these great activities off! If you missed out on the fun, enjoy this collection of sights from our different locations.

    • group photo
      The theme of the RBHS booth this year was “Fishing for Quality Health Information.” Credit: Yingting Zhang.

  • Simplifying Routine Digital Projects

    poster
    The Digital Projects Template Working Group presented an interim report poster at the last State of the Libraries.

    Digital projects have been an integral part of the services that Rutgers University Libraries have provided over the past decade. Making some of our resources available online adds to the discovery and accessibility of those holdings, providing a valuable service to our patrons. The digitization of physical items also provides an additional layer of preservation, protecting the original item from additional wear, while ensuring the content lives on.

    In light of this, the Digital Projects Template Working Group was formed in September 2017 to streamline and simplify the process for individual units, empowering them with the knowledge to embark on their own routine digital projects as their resources permit.  We’ve worked hard during this time to document what types of items and collections make up a potential “routine” project; provide technical information on file formats and digitization standards; offer up minimum required descriptive metadata; and provide recommendations on rights statements. With this simplification documentation, we hope that there will be less of a bottleneck for routine digitization projects.

    While the Digital Projects Template Working Group has completed their work, we realize that libraries also need guidance about the process to begin carrying out this work. Cabinet determined that a group will develop a workflow for routine digital projects.  That effort is already under discussion.

    Central units will provide support for these routine digital projects in the areas of digital preservation assessment, accessibility, and search portal and website creation. Shared User Services can consult with directors and project managers to answer questions about whether a digital project is routine, or perhaps more complex. We encourage everyone to visit our website and review the recommended guidelines for digital projects.

  • Founded in 1766: An Exhibit and an Event Celebrating the Archives of the Medical Society of New Jersey

    • Bob Vietrogoski receives a plaque commemorating the donation from MSNJ president Christopher Gribbin.

    In 2016, Rutgers University was not the only major New Jersey institution celebrating its 250th anniversary. On July 23, 1766, at Duff’s Tavern in New Brunswick, a group of physicians met and formed the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ). The MSNJ is America’s oldest state medical society, and indeed, is America’s oldest professional society.

    The George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences, Rutgers University Libraries, is pleased to announce that the MSNJ has donated its 20th- and early 21st-century records to Smith Library’s Special Collections in the History of Medicine. The donation consists of 52 archival boxes of records, and 85 volumes of MSNJ Board of Trustees minutes from 1931 to 2005. These valuable historical records will be preserved and made available to MSNJ administrators, members, and officers; Rutgers University students and faculty; historians of medicine; and local and family historians.

    Special Collections already holds a nearly complete run of MSNJ journal publications from 1848 to 2005, as well as substantial archival holdings of its constituent Bergen, Burlington, Essex, Hudson, Monmouth, Passaic, and Warren County Medical Societies, and the records of the Medical Society of New Jersey Alliance (formerly the Women’s Auxiliary).

    An exhibit of materials from this accession was curated by Bob Vietrogoski, with the help of Nancy Blankenhorn, medical student Stephanie Yuen, and Tim Corlis and his preservation team. On display are a selection of artifacts related to the 200th and 250th anniversaries of the MSNJ; Board of Trustees minutes discussing physicians joining the military during World War II, plans for a New Jersey medical school in 1952, the introduction of the polio vaccine in 1955, and the discouragement of smoking in hospitals in 1967; photographs from two issues of New Jersey Medicine on the history of New Jersey’s pioneering women physicians; and meeting posters from the Essex County Medical Society from 1954 to 1979 concerning the perpetual topic of “New Legislation Affecting the Medical Profession.”

    The exhibit opening on April 19 was attended by MSNJ administrators including its past, present, and future presidents; members of the Medical History Society of New Jersey; Rutgers New Jersey Medical School faculty and students; and Rutgers librarians. At this reception, MSNJ President Christopher Gribbin presented Special Collections librarian Bob Vietrogoski with a plaque commemorating the MSNJ archival donation. This donation brings together Rutgers and the MSNJ, two New Jersey institutions founded in 1766.

  • Fighting Hate while Preserving Freedom: A Best Practices Forum

    panelists at table
    A recording of the President’s Symposium is available here.

    My research on social media and admitted overuse of Twitter has taken me on an interesting, and at times disturbing path in the past two years. While exploring the use of social media by the performance artists LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner (specifically their durational artwork HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, which has been attacked both physically and virtually by internet trolls and neo-Nazis), I came across some sinister corners of the internet where hate groups communicate, organize and work to harass those they hate. Social media apps such as Twitter and Facebook are in the news daily with stories involving free speech, harassment, “fake news” and the spread of propaganda. These problems with social media are not new, their anonymous nature has provided many with outlets to spread misinformation and vitriol and engage in harassing behavior in the past. What does seem to be newer is how the online hate is bubbling up and presenting itself in the real world in many forms from hate speech, marches, and graffiti to acts of physical violence. The President’s Symposium dedicated an entire day to discussions on both physical and virtual acts of hate with suggestions on how those of us in the Rutgers community might address them.

    The President’s Symposium featured a number of different speakers and panelists. These speakers included Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Deborah T. Porits, former Chief of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, law professors, law enforcement professionals, lawyers, criminal justice professors, criminal justice students, a representative from the ADL, and Gurbrir S. Grewal, the Attorney General of New Jersey (who announced that bias crimes can now be reported online here: http://www.nj.gov/oag/bias/). All of the speakers provided a wealth of expertise and information along with their valuable insight into the state of incidents of hate locally, nationally, and worldwide. A highlight was the talk by Rabbi Francine Roston who spoke of the attacks on herself, her family, and her congregation in Whitefish, Montana by that town’s infamous resident Richard Spencer, self-proclaimed founder of the alt-right, and Andrew Anglin, head of the Daily Stormer. Her detailed and emotionally charged description of the online harassment and intimidation is an excellent way to understand the more sinister side of social media and misinformation. The story of how quickly false information spread through the online hate groups is important in informing us in libraries just how crucial information literacy skills are in this present state of “fake news”, digital disinformation, and propaganda. Several speakers emphasized the importance of fighting hate with information, presenting facts to counter “fake news,” calling out misinformation when it is observed and being diligent in monitoring the marketplace of ideas. These of course are all things that library professionals have been doing for some time and will continue to do; however, the content of the symposium further emphasizes the importance of information sharing and instruction in the specifically targeted fight against hate. I highly recommend reviewing the agenda and watching some of the content, especially the talk by Rabbi Francine Roston to enhance an understanding of the nature of hate and bias and how it can be countered.

    Agenda: https://president.rutgers.edu/fighting-hate-while-preserving-freedom-best-practices-forum

    Livestream of the symposium: https://livestream.com/rutgersitv/FightingHate

    Rabbi Francine Roston’s talk: https://livestream.com/rutgersitv/FightingHate/videos/172404110