This month, What Exit? from Special Collections and University Archives featured two long forgotten New Jersey heroes, using materials from the Rutgers College War Service Bureau and the Terradell Family Papers.
Excerpt:
Portrait of Theodore Rosen. Undated, ca. 1926.
With a growing number of Rutgers men in Uncle Sam’s olive drab, Earl Reed Silvers (RC 1913) established the Rutgers College War Service Bureau (RCWSB) in August 1917 to keep the 800 men in service up to date with frequent news of the college and each other. “As far as can be ascertained, no college or university in the United States kept in such close touch with her alumni and undergraduates in the army or navy,” reflected Silvers, “nor has any college the mass of material, war letters and relics, which were sent to old Rutgers by her appreciative sons.”
Counted among the alumni who corresponded with Silvers and the RCWSB was Theodore “Theo” Rosen (1895-1940), Rutgers College Class of 1916, who served as First Lieutenant in the 315th Infantry, 79th Division.
Creeping and crawling toward the German line in search of a machine gun nest on the early morning of November 4, 1918, Rosen found himself in the path of fire. One bullet rendered his right arm useless; the other tore through his left cheek, filling his mouth with blood and taking out seven teeth. The 23-year-old would lose the top of his left thumb, break his left wrist, have his right arm amputated, and suffer impaired hearing and vision before the onslaught was over. He only recovered consciousness as a P.O.W. on the operating table at Longwy, where he remained prisoner for the eight days before the Armistice in November 1918.
The University is recognizing faculty and staff who are celebrating a decade increment of employment at Rutgers. We are delighted to announce that 14 of our colleagues were included in the festivities and hope you join us in congratulating them on these accomplishments:
Rutgers Day this year was a huge success thanks to the efforts of all the local committees. Each location put their own spin on the day’s events as you can see in the photos below. Whether they were strutting the red carpet in Camden, fishing for health with RBHS, learning about WWI with New Brunswick, building robots in Piscataway, or discovering jazz in Newark, our visitors were treated to spectacle, activities, and fun!
Thank you to all the committee chairs and members who made this awesome day possible in five locations across four cities! This is one of the biggest events in which the Libraries participate and it requires a lot of hands on deck. If you didn’t participate this year, please consider volunteering to help out next time.
If you like the photos here, there are more on our photo server (T:\CENTRAL\PHOTOS AND MEDIA\Event Photos\Rutgers Day\Rutgers Day 2017\).
The Voorhees Mall location highlighted the WWI Centennial and the new SCUA exhibit.
The Libraries booths were popular with long lines of people waiting to spin the prize wheel.
Our fantastic submission to the R Garden.
The even-popular prize wheel!
Our 3D printer was on display and printing Rutgers dog tags.
A video display presented information from the exhibit.
Robeson laid out the red carpet for Rutgers-Camden!
Button-making was a popular craft.
Also along for the day? the Nilsa I. Cruz-Perez Downtown Branch of the Camden County Library System.
Who doesn’t love face-painting?
Bart Everts adds a line to a community poem.
The theatre curtains on their selfie-station kick it up a notch.
The librarians raffled off some great themed prizes.
That’s a wrap on Camden!
On Busch campus, the health sciences libraries invited people to “fish” for good health information.
Which explains why Pam Hargwood and Peggy Drekker are posing with a fishing pole!
A fabulous selfie backdrop — remember what it looks like because you’ll see it somewhere else too 🙂
Fishing! This was a “catch and release” program – kids could pick a prize.
Lots of goodies to give away — the crowds were huge!
Making healthy food choices..
The new RBHS prize wheel was put into action.
We also partnered with the math department on a satellite New Brunswick location for Rutgers Day.
Gee – that looks familiar… This photo booth had a twist.
The Libraries printed instant photos for guests in our selfie station.
Building robots….
Out of tiny little robot pieces.
The librarians took a turn in the selfie station, too.
A beautiful day on the plaza and lots of great info about the Libraries and recent events to share!
The red Libraries backpacks were handy giveaway items.
Can you spy the Libraries backpack in this photo?
Dana Library raffled off some prints of photos taken by Tad Hershorn.
How to create a calendar appointment from an email message
With so many events publicized via distribution lists like RUL_Everyone and other University-wide lists, it may be difficult to keep track of meetings, webinars, training sessions, speakers, and other events you might wish to attend. The best way to make sure you do not miss these opportunities is to add them as appointments on your Rutgers Connect calendar.
It is very easy to create an appointment on your Rutgers Connect (OWA or Outlook) calendar without having to retype the details from the email message. We have prepared step-by-step instructions to show you how.
If you have questions, or need assistance with Rutgers Connect, please contact IIS via email at support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu, or by phone at 848-445-5896, option 7.
Tracey Meyer, Information Specialist, Integrated Information Systems
In recent months, we have spent a lot of time talking about organizational changes and the advantages of breaking down silos. This month, I want to discuss a shining example of what we accomplish when we work together—the outcome of our FY2018 budget request.
As noted in the meeting minutes for cabinet on April 11, we recently received our FY18 permanent budget allocation and there is a lot of good news to share. Overall our budget is increasing, even if the increases are small. There are, of course, also some disappointments, so let’s delve into the specifics.
Let’s start with the very good news: we received a commitment of $500,000 to purchase Elsevier backfiles. This is a major collections purchase—possibly the largest in the Libraries’ history—and it required a lot of effort from Tao Yang, Gracemary Smulewitz, Abbey DiPaolo, and others to make it happen. Having these backfiles will dramatically expand our support for the university’s academic programs and bring us in line with our Big Ten peers.
Each year, at minimum we ask for two budget items: funds to cover inflation for subscriptions to journals and databases and funding to cover negotiated salary increases. These items are areas where we have annual contractual increases in expenses. When our expenses increase in these areas and our budget does not, we must find other places to cut. The difficult problem is that both the contractual salary increases and inflation are ongoing, so we have to cut an ongoing expense. Here, we got a mixed response.
We finally received funding for inflation. This is good news for us and even better news for our faculty and students. As you know, the costs of journal and database subscriptions go up each year, but in previous years, we have had to accommodate these increases within our existing budget. With inflation costs covered, we won’t have to have to cut existing subscriptions in order to cover the higher ongoing costs. We have new ongoing funding to cover the higher costs for materials.
Unfortunately, we did not get funds to cover salary increases. This means that we will have to permanently use funding from some open positions. The total number of positions that will be affected is small with most having been open for a long time. The good news is that we remain committed to supporting salary increases for the excellent faculty and staff that we have, even if we have a small reduction in the number of employees.
Lastly, a surprise! In addition to our requests to cover expenses, we also ask for additional funding to cover new services in the libraries. We limit these requests to items where the campus administrations have indicated support. This year we asked for funding for archives in Dana Libraries. Initially, we were disappointed to learn that our funding request was denied. However, we just received a revised budget from Rutgers University-Newark and they have decided to fund a full-time archivist and the renovations necessary to create an archive space. In addition, they are providing $100,000 to purchase new furniture for Dana Library
This reversal is the result of the work of Consuella Askew and many of the faculty and staff in Newark in developing strong local relationships and an understanding of local needs, as well as their conscientious and creative use of earlier funds. The RU-N administration is committed to building an archive in Newark. Consuella recognized the need and was able to make a case for archives being in the library rather than in a separate unit. The resources that will come to Dana to create an archive will relieve some of the pressure that we have across the university for stewarding this important content. However, in order to benefit, all of the units with special collections must work together to create infrastructure that supports the broader system. I expect that this will be one of the priorities that come from our planning this year.
Our initial budget request was deliberately targeted on items that would bring a demonstrable improvement or impact to our constituents. And as we continue to shift our priorities and strategies toward addressing the unique local needs of our libraries, it becomes more important than ever for us to find ways to work together to build common, reusable infrastructure that has noticeable benefits for our campuses.
As the nexus of a dynamic university in the midst of transforming and reinventing its brand, Dana Library/Institute of Jazz Studies is poised to move into its next iteration. Our goal is to become a user-centered library that can nimbly respond to our users’ continually changing needs in innovative ways. The Dana Library/IJS faculty and staff embarked on a six-month process in order to identify our priorities and objectives needed to achieve this goal. The resulting document, Framework for Change: Vision and Goals for the John Cotton Dana Library Rutgers University–Newark, provides readers with a high-level view of our path to success.
We began our work in spring 2016 by identifying three high priority focus areas–services, collections and space. These focus areas supported not only the Rutgers University Libraries priorities, but also the Rutgers University–Newark Strategic Plan. Each priority area was given individual attention and consideration by a dedicated group of Dana faculty and staff who volunteered to compile and consider available data about the area, add their valuable expertise on the area topic, and provide recommendations for how we can enhance these areas to better meet the needs of our users in the 21st century. The resulting compilation of this work led to a 30+ page document which detailed specific services enhancements, space needs, and collection management activities. This document will serve as our road map for next several years.
The Framework for Change document presents a broad overview of the detailed steps necessary for us to achieve success. This document will be used as an advocacy tool for our local university administrators and could also be used as a fundraising tool for donors. No matter how this document might be used externally, Dana Library has charted its course and is ready to embark on a journey to success!
The New Brunswick Libraries announced their schedule of #Stressbusters events for the spring exam period. Highlights include a photo booth at the Math/Physics Library, button making at the Art Library, and pet therapy sessions at Alexander, Douglass, Kilmer, and LSM.
MARAC Spring 2017 was held April 20–22 in Newark.
Don’t despair if you happened to miss out on the recent Mid Atlantic Regional Archives Conference in Newark, as Tara Maharjan put together a comprehensive Storify of the event (titled Adaptable Archives: Redefine, Repurpose, and Renew) that’s the next best thing to having been there in person.
Several new exhibits opened across the Libraries this past month:
At Paul Robeson Library, There’s a Run in My Tights: Classic Comic Book Covers from the Golden Age and Beyond is on display through May 4. This display, which opened in advance of the 2017 Camden Comic Con, highlights superheroes such as Bat Girl, Aquaman, Luke Cage and the X-Men, as well as villains like Cat Woman and misunderstood monsters like Werewolf By Night.
A group exhibition of works by students in the Women, Gender, and Creativity House of Douglass Residential College is on display now at Douglass Library. Students in this community explore topics of gender, sexuality, identity, creativity, perception, and visual communication of women in the arts. The exhibition highlights the self-portraits, sculptures, video performances, and written works produced by the student artists during the course of the academic year. It closes on May 1, so be sure to check this one out while you can.
Finally, many new resources were announced in April:
The Andrew Hill Collection at the Institute of Jazz Studies contains the papers, music, and audiovisual recordings of acclaimed pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator Andrew Hill (1931–2007). The collection was processed as part of the 2016 Jazz Archives Fellows residency.
Attitude Check (vol. 1 no. 1, 1969) via Independent Voices.
JAMAevidence provides guides to the systematic consideration of validity, importance, and applicability of problems and outcomes in health care. It consists of three textbooks, user tools, and forms useful to the critical appraisal process. See more in our deep dive.
Academic Video Online Premium provides access to over 50,000 videos from reputable producers such as BBC and PBS, mostly on the subjects of social sciences, American history/American studies, music and performing arts, science and engineering, and health sciences.
Independent Voices is a full-text database of alternative press periodicals published in the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century. It includes publications like Aegis (1978-87), Death Ship Times (Fat Albert’s) (1972-74), The Feminist Voice (1971-72), Meatball (1969-71), Off Our Backs (1970-76), The People’s Voice (1980-1983), San Francisco Good Times (1969-72), Up from the Bottom (1971-74), Where It’s At (1968-70), the Yardbird Reader (1972-76), and Zeitgeist (1965-69), among dozens of others.
Back in November, we reported on the preliminary Rutgers Giving Day results and the news was good. Now the final numbers from the Rutgers Foundation are in, and we are proud to say that the news is even better!
Our initial goal was to roughly double our number of donors from the inaugural Rutgers Giving Day and reach 50 donors this year, but we wound up seeing an outpouring of support that greatly exceeded expectations—thanks in no small part to your support.
According to the final reports, the Libraries raised a total of $16,544.22 with gifts from 172 donors—a 647% increase in the number of donors and an 829% increase in the total amount of funds raised over the previous year. These numbers include the early give phase, the day-of-phase, and the challenge money leaderboard.
The leaderboard was used to determine how $80,000 in challenge money would be awarded across the university ($20,000 each for Rutgers–Camden, Rutgers–Newark, Rutgers–New Brunswick, and RBHS). A unit’s standing on the leaderboard was based on the number of individual donors for that unit during the day-of phase compared to the total number of donors for its “parent institution.” So, in other words, if there were 100 gifts total to Rutgers–Camden and Robeson Library received 10 gifts, it would receive a bonus 10% of the $20,000 in challenge money, or $2,000. Here’s how the leaderboard numbers broke down:
Unit
Total distinct donors
Total dollars
Percentage of “parent institution” leaderboard donors
Challenge money awarded (of $20,000)
Robeson Library
9
$170.00
1.66%
$331.49
Dana Library
19
$1,433.08
2.61%
$521.26
Institute of Jazz Studies
2
$65.00
0.27%
$54.87
New Brunswick Libraries
95
$11,609.99
3.21%
$641.46
RBHS Libraries
6
$300.00
0.78%
$156.05
As you can see, we have much to be proud of. Many thanks to everyone who went out of their way to set up a donation station, make support sheets available to their patrons, or give a gift of their own to support the Libraries. Our tagline for this year’s campaign was “We can do great things together,” and you’ve all made it abundantly clear that there is real meaning behind those words. Thank you!
Rutgers University Libraries are cosponsoring two high-profile events in New Brunswick this month:
Alice Aycock: Selected Works Douglass Dean’s Colloquia: Conversations
In partnership with Jacquelyn Litt, dean of Douglass Residential College, the Libraries are delighted to welcome Rutgers alumna Alice Aycock to the Douglass Dean’s Colloquia: Conversations with Extraordinary Women on April 6, 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the Kathleen W. Ludwig Global Village Living Learning Center. RSVP here.
Joy Reid “Truth and Consequences: What We Know and Why It Matters” Senator Wynona Lipman Chair in Women’s Political Leadership
The Libraries are proud to partner with the Center for American Women and Politics and others to welcome Joy Reid, national correspondent and host of AM Joy on MSNBC to Rutgers University-New Brunswick on April 4 at 7 p.m. at the Douglass Student Center. RSVP is required. See website for details.
Two WWI-themed exhibits opened last month:
Camden, World War I & the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Robeson Library
This exhibit relates the history of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short), an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the United States Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns.
“Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken!”: New Jersey in the Great War at SCUA in Alexander Library
This exhibit focuses on the individual experiences of these Jersey doughboys and servicewomen who bravely went “Over There,” and the families and neighbors who remained behind, “Over Here.” The exhibit includes loans of 29th “Blue and Gray” Division artifacts and souvenirs from the National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey, wartime medical supplies from the Johnson & Johnson Archives, and postcards from the Special Collections of the George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.
Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries – Vol 68(2) now available
The second part of the Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries’ special issue on the 250th anniversary of Rutgers University is now available. Entitled “From the Revolutionary War to the 21st Century,” this issue completes the discussion of Rutgers’ early history begun in “The Life and Times of Henry Rutgers” and turns its focus to the present day. David Fowler contributes the second and third installations of “Benevolent Patriot: The Life and Times of Henry Rutgers,” the most comprehensive biographical investigation of the university’s namesake to date. Additional articles explore the early history of Livingston College and the history of the Rutgers University Police Department from its roots as a parking authority to its current status as a professional law enforcement agency.
WWI Poetry Reading – April 18
Mary Ann Koruth designed beautiful broadsides like this for the exhibit.
Michael Joseph is planning a WWI poetry reading event for April 18 to complement the themes and poetry included in the “Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken!”. If you are interested in attending or participating in the event, please check in with Michael.
The worlds of scholarly grants and publication are changing rapidly in response to new technology and shifts in funding. Fortunately, the Libraries have resources to help scholars meet the demands of these new landscapes. This month, Smith Library’s Roberta Fitzpatrick Bronson offers a crash course on two services that are particularly timely and useful for researchers/scholars. Follow the links below for the who/what/where/why/how of using bioPreprints and GrantForward.
The NIH recently announced that it will now accept (and encourage) researchers to include preprints in applications for funding:
“The NIH encourages investigators to use interim research products, such as preprints, to speed the dissemination and enhance the rigor of their work. This notice clarifies reporting instructions to allow investigators to cite their interim research products and claim them as products of NIH funding.”
So, we may see an uptick in interest in how to use and find preprints. bioPreprints allows users to search several preprint databases and to solicit and respond to feedback from their peers. It is focused primarily on STEM areas of study.
In the coming years, it will be more important than ever for researchers to find outside sources of funding, and it is entirely likely that competition for these funding sources will grow. GrantForward can make this process quite a bit simpler for Rutgers researchers. Traditionally, they would have to search multiple databases to find all applicable federal, state, and local grants. GrantForward offers a leg up by simplifying this process into a single comprehensive search of more than 25,000 funding opportunities. Users can set up a user profile and request that GrantForward automatically run searches and send them results, too. Read more from Roberta on how to access and use this resource.
Back in November, we reported on the preliminary Rutgers Giving Day results and the news was good. Now the final numbers from the Rutgers Foundation are in, and we are proud to say that the news is even better!
The worlds of scholarly grants and publication are changing rapidly in response to new technology and shifts in funding. Fortunately, the Libraries have resources to help scholars meet the demands of these new landscapes. This month, Smith Library’s Roberta Fitzpatrick Bronson offers a crash course on two services that are particularly timely and useful for researchers/scholars. Follow the links below for the who/what/where/why/how of using bioPreprints and GrantForward.