The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Staff News

  • Creating Homemade PPE

    I would like to share my experience during these difficult days of our quarantine to fight against COVID-19.

    While all of us are working from home, the medical staff are on the front line fighting the virus while lacking the PPEs. This became a great concern in my family, when my daughter called me three weeks ago, and asked if I could make some masks and head covers for her husband, who is a doctor, and also her doctor friends who are taking care of COVID-19 patients.

    She did some research how to make safe cloth masks for medical staff to place over the N95 masks to make them last longer. Pretty quickly, we figured out how to make them out of cotton fabric and flannel while using different filters. I used any item possible at home: T-shirts, cotton sheets, cotton tablecloths, bags, baby wipes, laundry softeners, vacuum cleaner filters. I also made head covers out of shower curtains while sending her all transparent plastic available at home so she could use it to make face shields, helped by her friend who made parts of them by 3D printing. She was able to make 30 face shields.

    My daughter and I also started a campaign on social media, asking people to make masks and sharing the instructions, suggesting they donate them to the community. The social media network in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey was able to make 350 masks and donated them to hospitals and friends. My daughter, who is also a doctor, for about a month never stopped raising awareness on social media that everyone needs to wear a mask when we go out.

    I shared my experience with the Smith Library access services staff and shared guidelines about how to make masks. I will continue to make cloth masks and head covers until the pandemic is over. Doing something good for the community helps me release the stress and be happy that I can do my little part to fight the pandemic.

    How to Sew a Medical Face Mask

    Materials

    • 2 pieces of 100% cotton fabric that measure about 7 inches by 9 inches—cotton T-shirts, dish towels and pillowcases are good options (make sure all fabric is washed and dry)
    • 2 pieces of cotton fabric that measure about 1.5 inches by 40 inches for the mask’s strap (in a pinch, you can use something like shoelaces, elastic 6 inch long or ribbon)
    • A ruler, sewing pins, a pair of scissors, thread, an iron and a sewing machine.

    Video Tutorials

    Instructions

    Step 1: Sew the two main rectangle pieces together with the “right” sides of the fabric—the side you want to see—facing each other. Sew almost all the way around the rectangles, leaving a small gap (a few inches) open on the long side.

    Step 2: Turn the rectangle right-side-out by reaching into the gap you left open and pulling the fabric through. Now your edges are on the inside and you have a neatly sewn two-sided rectangle. At the gap you left open, just tuck the edges inside for now; you’ll sew it closed later.

    Step 3: Make three evenly spaced pleats along both 7-inch sides of the fabric, making sure to keep all of your tucks facing in the same direction, and pin in place. One way to do this is by marking the spacing with pins: place one about 1.5 inches down the short side of the fabric; add the next 1 inch down from that, then the third ½ inch down from that, and keep alternating between 1 and ½ inches until you’ve used all six pins. To create the pleats, just bring the first pin down to meet the second, the third to meet the fourth, and the fifth to meet the sixth. Repeat on the other side.

    Step 4: Once the pleats are pinned, stitch all the way around the perimeter of the rectangle. This will sew the pleats into place and also close the gap you had left open in Step 1.

    Step 5: If you’re using a strip of fabric for your strap, fold and iron it in half lengthwise and then fold and iron the raw edges in. Find the centers of your straps and the centers of the long sides of your mask, and match them. Pin the straps in place along the long edges of the mask, so there is a strap on the top of the mask and one on the bottom, with equally long pieces coming out to the sides. If you’re using a strip of fabric, pin it so it’s wrapped around the edge of the rectangle.

    Step 6: Sew the strap to the mask by stitching all the way down each strap, catching the edges of the mask as you pass. (If you are using a strap that did not require folding, you can opt instead to stitch around the perimeter of the rectangle one more time.)

     

  • United We Stand against COVID-19

    Photo credit: New York Times.

    Since March 17, a few residents in Warren, Watchung, Green Brook, and Long Hills and I have organized a donation campaign and raised a total of $31,214.60 from the local Chinese American community to donate PPEs to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital and St. Peter’s Hospital in New Brunswick, Overlook Hospital in Summit, Somerset Medical Group in Somerset, and Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, as well as local EMT, police, and fire fighter units.

    I have worked many nights trying to allocate PPE resources in the United States. I used my online search skills and technical background to perform the due diligence process and verified all PPE sources for quality and safety based on ASTM standards and CDC/FDA guidelines. Up to April 6, the following PPEs have been purchased and sent to the above organizations:

    • 1,200 N95 masks
    • 1,400 KN95 masks
    • 8,800 surgical masks
    • 1,014 DuPont protection gowns
    • 472 3M safety googles
    • 6,400 gloves
    • 20 big boxes of wipes
    • 8 big bottles of hand sanitizer

    A few news media including the New York Times, Echoes-Sentinel, Bitpush News, and other local community newspapers have interviewed me and published articles about the effort.

    Editor’s note: Kudos to Connie on this amazing and inspiring work!!

     

     

  • My Trip to Speak at Carnegie Mellon-Qatar

    • Megan Lotts (r.) and her Carnegie Mellon collaborators.

    On February 1, 2020, I boarded a plane with bags full of LEGO as well as Rutgers University Libraries coloring books, zines, and library swag.  My final destination was Doha, Qatar to visit one of Carnegie Mellon’s satellite campuses. I was invited to Doha as the Carnegie Mellon-Qatar (CM-Q) Glorianna St Clair Distinguished Lecture in 21st Century Librarianship and gave a presentation titled “The Engaged Librarian: Fostering a Culture of Creativity and Play in Libraries.” This presentation was based off my previous work on makerspaces, active learning, and play in libraries, as well as new research from my latest book project on creativity for the American Libraries Association, forthcoming in 2021.

    While in Doha, I had the opportunity to collaborate on a zine and LEGO workshop for the CM-Q campus with Jill Chisnell, Dom Jebbia (both from Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh), and director of the CM-Q Library Teresa MacGregor. These events were attended by students, faculty, and staff members of the CM-Q campus as well as a few members from the Georgetown University-Qatar community.

    Another exciting part of my trip was the opportunity to present my research on LEGO and active learning at the Qatar National Library (QNL).  This library, recently built by architect Rem Koolhaus, is jaw dropping. Having a soft spot for Koolhaus since reading his well-known text Delirious New York, I immediately fell in love with this elegant sculpture which houses unusual furniture, futuristic technology, and an elevator known as the “people mover,” which is similar to a ride one might find at Disney World in the 1980s.  Beyond the stunning architecture was a variety of unique spaces and resources that cater to the needs of the local Qatar communities, including a large children’s space, a music room, makerspaces, a beautiful café, an impressive auditorium, and more.

    Although there were many interesting cultural experiences while visiting Qatar, including buying goods at the Souq, the Materials Library at Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar, and trying beef bacon, I was awestruck by the architecture including the QNL (Rem Koolhaus) and the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by world-renowned architect IM Pei. But perhaps most interesting was the architecture of “the Pearl,” an artificial island built on one of Qatar’s former major pearl diving sites. It’s not surprising that this stunning, futuristic, almost unreal structure houses some of the most modern neighborhoods in town. Fortunately, I was able to experience this space in person at a monthly community-building party hosted by Mike Trick, dean of CM-Q.

    If you have questions about this trip or my research, please contact me at megan.lotts@rutgers.edu or learn more about me at meganlotts.com.

     

  • Special Collections Librarians Take the Reins of NJSAA

    New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance logoFounded in 1992, the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance (NJSAA) is a 501c3 educational organization promoting research and teaching in the multidisciplinary field of New Jersey studies. The NJSAA’s approximately 100 members include teachers (primary school through college), historians, geographers, museum and historical organization personnel, archivists, and librarians. Membership is open to anyone interested in the study of New Jersey, and membership dues are $5 annually. (Yes, $5.)

    The NJSAA regularly meets four times a year in Alexander Library’s Pane Room to hold business meetings, present awards, and hear presentations in New Jersey studies. Meetings are open to all.

    Among its central activities, the NJSAA recognizes notable work in New Jersey studies by presenting awards in the following categories:

    Starting on September 1, 2018, three Rutgers University special collections librarians will be assuming leadership roles in NJSAA for three-year terms. The incoming chair is Bob Vietrogoski, the special collections librarian for the history of medicine at George F. Smith Library in Newark. He currently serves as chair of the NJSAA’s Roger McDonough Librarianship Award. As chair, he is succeeding Maxine Lurie, professor emerita of history at Seton Hall University. Dr. Lurie is a co-founder of NJSAA and has served as chair or co-chair since NJSAA’s founding 26 years ago. She is the author and editor of several award-winning works in New Jersey studies, including New Jersey: A History of the Garden State (2012), and the Encyclopedia of New Jersey (2004).

    The incoming secretary is Christie Lutz, New Jersey regional studies librarian and head of public services for Special Collections and University Archives at Alexander Library in New Brunswick. She has been acting secretary for the past year, and is succeeding Marc Mappen, the former executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission and a historian whose books include There’s More to New Jersey Than the Sopranos (2009) and Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation (2013).

    The incoming membership chair is Tara Maharjan, processing archivist for Special Collections and University Archives at Alexander Library. She currently serves as the NJSAA’s webmaster. As membership chair, she is succeeding Karl Niederer, the former director, state archivist, and chief records administrator in the former state Division of Archives and Records Management, and current coordinator of outreach and strategic partnerships at the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office.

    The next NJSAA meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 in the Pane Room. The business meeting will begin at 3pm, and at 4:15pm, William Kroth, president of the Sterling Hill Mine Museum in Sussex County, will speak on the “Great Zinc Mines of Sussex County” and will have samples on hand to view.

    For more information about the NJSAA, see its website here, along with News of NJSAA’s recent activities and its Calendar of Events. The NJSAA is also on Facebook, and “likes” are strongly encouraged.

  • Glenn Sandberg Retiring After 30 Years

    ILL staff
    Glenn with ILL staffers Mary Belasco (l.) and Lilly Miller (r.) in 2005.

    Glenn Sandberg will retire on August 1, 2018, after 30 years of service to the university. His last day in the office is June 1.

    Glenn’s career at the Libraries began in 1988, when he was hired as the supervisor of the Media Department within the Laurie Music Library (now part of the Douglass Library) in New Brunswick. He became the supervisor of Access Services at the Library of Science and Medicine in Piscataway in 1999. Among his many contributions to the Libraries, Glenn has the distinction of having created “The place to go, when you need to know!”—a slogan for the Libraries he developed as a member of the Marketing/PR Team.

    promo photo
    Glenn poses for a promotional photo in 2007.

    Since 2004, Glenn has been the supervisor of Interlibrary Loan Services. Beginning his tenure in ILL at about the same time as the start of the E-ZBorrow service, Glenn is proud of the role he has played in bolstering Rutgers’ standing within the E-ZBorrow community. After Rutgers joined the CIC (now BTAA) in 2013, Glenn contributed to the adoption of the UBorrow service. In the last three years, Glenn has helped ensure the successful implementation of several major improvements to ILL services, including removal of copyright fees charged to ILL users, adoption of ReprintsDesk as an alternative article delivery service, and further integration into the Get it @ R service. Glenn also contributed his knowledge of ILL services to the ongoing implementation of Alma and Primo.

    glenn with slogan
    Glenn shows off the Libraries slogan he coined in 2008.

    Glenn has deep ties with the university. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in German and music and received his doctoral degree in German from Rutgers University in 1995. He taught in the German Department as an adjunct faculty in New Brunswick from 1994 to 1997 and worked as a manager at the Rutgers University Foundation from 2001 to 2004.

    Glenn served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1988 and received a certificate in Czech from the Defense Language Institute in 1985. Last, but not least, Glenn is a talented musician—he received a master’s degree in trumpet from the Julliard School in 1983.

    Please join us in thanking Glenn for his decades-long service to the Libraries and wishing him all the best in his new adventure!

  • 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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  • Win a copy of The Douglass Century

    cover for The Douglass CenturyKayo Denda and Fernanda Perrone have coauthored, with Mary Hawkesworth, The Douglass Century: Transformation of the Women’s College at Rutgers University. This book is part of the centennial celebrations planned at the University and is published by Rutgers University Press. Read a nice article from NJ.com about the book.

    Then enter to win a copy using the options below.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

  • Retirement and YOU!

    Retirement and YOU!

    A new year is approaching! If you are thinking about retirement and what is involved in the process you should check out the important on-line links below that offer key information to help you prepare.

    ABP Retirement: Welcome to the Alternate Benefit Program Retirement Seminar Presentation [PDF].

    PERS Retirement: Welcome to the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Retirement Seminar Presentation [PDF].

    Additionally, UHR offers seminars to both ABP and PERS members contemplating retirement.  If you are interested in attending a seminar, please check the Learning and Development Course Registration System under Employee Benefit and Work-Life Programs managed by University Human Resources.

    Please note: Employees will need to submit an intent to retire letter to their supervisors to advise of the effective date of retirement once they have fully committed to retire.

     

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  • Tom Frusciano Receives McDonough Award

    Tom Frusciano accepts the 2017 Roger McDonough Librarianship Award from Bob Vietrogoski.

    On October 24, at a meeting of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, the 2017 Roger McDonough Librarianship Award was presented to Thomas J. Frusciano, the university archivist of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This award is named for Roger H. McDonough, New Jersey state librarian from 1947 to 1975. Beginning in 2002, the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, together with the New Jersey Historical Commission, Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference-New Jersey Caucus, and the New Jersey Library Association History & Preservation Section, has given this award annually to a librarian, archivist, or manuscript curator for excellence in service to the New Jersey history research community and/or the general public.

    A New Jersey native, Tom Frusciano is a tenured member of the library staff at Rutgers University Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives. He began his professional career as an archivist at Educational Testing Services in Princeton. He then became the first professionally trained university archivist at New York University, and later coauthored New York University and the City: An Illustrated History. At Rutgers since 1989, Frusciano has written or edited histories of the presidents of Rutgers, Douglass College, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, among many other subjects. In recent years, he played an integral role in the 2016 Rutgers 250th celebration, library exhibit, and commemorative historical volume entitled Rutgers: A 250th Anniversary Portrait. Starting in 2015, he also served on the Rutgers Committee on Enslaved and Disenfranchised Populations, which produced the report Scarlet and Black. This committee’s important work has led to the new naming of James Dickson Carr Library (formerly Kilmer Library), now named in honor of Rutgers’ first African American graduate.

    Beyond Rutgers, Frusciano has long been professionally active, particularly in the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). He was elected to the SAA Council from 2009 to 2012, coedited the SAA manual Archival Arrangement and Description (2013), and was named an SAA Fellow in 2002. He has taught archival courses at both New York University’s Archival Management and Public History program, and the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. Some of his former students are now archivists and librarians at archives, libraries, and historical societies throughout New Jersey and elsewhere. He has also served on several editorial boards and coedited the Journal of Archival Organization.

    Tom is the fourth recipient of the McDonough Award from Rutgers University Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, following Bonita Craft Grant (2011), Janet Riemer (2014), and Ron Becker (2015).

  • Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference Report

    • Irina Radeva (r) and SC&I scholarship recipients.

    Last week, I attended the Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference held in Atlantic City, NJ. Four other School of Communication and Information students and I attended this exciting two-day event thanks to a scholarship provided by the Library and Information Science Department and were accompanied by two SC&I instructors, Dr. Ross Todd and Dr. Joyce Valenza. The gathering was a great way to come together with like-minded library professionals and discover how libraries can thrive in a world full of ever-changing technology and vast information.

    The main question posed by the conference was, “How do we predict the future?” Among those trying to answer were keynote speakers Kevin Mitnick, the most elusive computer hacker in history; David Pescovitz, the research director at the Institute of the Future; Nicole Baker Rosa from the Future Schools; and Rutgers’ own Dr. James Hughes, University Professor and former dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Each speaker touched on the importance of knowing what libraries are and what they stand for, as well as keeping their eyes open not for trends, but for patterns that will point to the next big thing. There was a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality, and how they will affect both libraries and society. Acceleration strategist Phil Bowermaster proposed that the convergence of information and society is accelerating change, while communication specialist Rakia Reynolds shared a communication strategy that is both noticeable and disruptive.  Finally, Cindy Ball from Oculus Rift gave a demonstration of a virtual reality future that may be much closer than we think.

    So, how do we predict the future? We create it–with knowledge and imagination.

    I would like to thank Lilia Pavlovsky, director of the Master of Information program, who facilitated this opportunity for me, as well as Andy Martinez and Janet Croft for giving me approval to attend.