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:
Records at Play: The Institute of Jazz Studies @50
A new exhibit of materials from IJS titled Records at Play: The Institute of Jazz Studies @50 is the inaugural exhibit in the Paul Robeson Galleries at Express Newark ( 54 Halsey Street, Newark, NJ 07102). On display through the end of the calendar year, this will be the first time the IJS has exhibited so many of its treasures at once. Although they represent only a small fraction of the Institute’s collections, the artifacts, documents, and sound recordings in this exhibit provide a record of IJS history and the music at its core.
From the Boarding House to the Board Room: 250 Years of Women at Rutgers
The Libraries collaborated with multiple university partners on the documentary “From the Boarding House to Board Room: 250 years of Women at Rutgers” by award winning filmmaker June Cross which was shown last October. Kayo Denda just received notice that the YouTube video for the panel discussion following the film screening is now available.
About “From the Boarding House to Board Room”: Rutgers was founded in 1766 to educate young men, and so it remained for the first 152 years. Yet from the beginning women played vital but unrecognized roles. This film, directed by award-winning filmmaker June Cross and produced by the Institute for Women’s Leadership consortium, highlights the multiple layers of Rutgers’ ongoing transformation – from the campaign to create a separate, co-ordinate women’s college to the first female students to enter Rutgers College. While Rutgers’ story is distinctive, it is also universal. The film considers the radical transformation of higher education and how this revolution continues to meet the needs of 21st century students.
Tara Kelley trains NJDNP staff in operation of the equipment.
New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project February Update
The latest blog from the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project introduces us to the new dedicated office space that has been prepared for the project at Alexander Library. It is replete with all the equipment needed for analyzing the papers on microfilm: “film reel arms, a light box, densitometer, jeweler’s loupe, a 100x handheld microscope, static-free cloths and (of course) white gloves,” writes project director Caryn Radick. Reach out to Peter Konin if you are interested in seeing the space.
Perhaps even more exciting, the advisory board has selected the newspapers that they hope to digitize and submitted them for approval to the Library of Congress. Once the titles are approved an announcement will follow shortly, so stay tuned for more from the NJDNP!
Tim Corlis and Erika Gorder teamed up in January to teach the NJLA workshop, “Archival Basics for Librarians: A workshop for new archivists and special collections librarians.” This workshop is geared toward public libraries who may encounter historical materials or have archival issues come up. It provides practical advice on immediate issues of preservation, writing a finding aid, archival materials, etc. This year, around 25 people participated and they had to turn additional registrations away. The need for this type of course is increasing. Winnowing library budgets mean there aren’t funds to hire archivists, though there continues to be a real need for archiving and conservation skills.
The Pony Wilson exhibit at Robeson Library. Credit: John Powell.
Exhibit at Robeson Library Remembers Longtime Athletic Director
Remembering Coach Wilbur “Pony” Wilson is on display now through March 8 at Paul Robeson Library. Wilson was the athletic director at Rutgers–Camden for over 28 years and coached the Pioneers basketball team to the first 20-win season in Rutgers–Camden athletics history. Under his leadership, the university expanded its varsity sports program from five to 14 teams, and his was the first name enshrined in the Rutgers–Camden Circle of Honor in February 2000.
The Kalmyks originated in Dzhungaria (today’s northern Xinjiang, China) in the 16th century. They proceeded via Russia and western Europe and, during the 1950s, established unique diasporic communities in Philadelphia as well as in Paterson and Howell. hrough illustrations, photographs, artifacts, and music recordings drawn from the Kalmyk Diaspora Archives Project, this exhibition showcases the Kalmyk journey from pastoral nomadism to post-WWII urban and suburban America.
NLM Director Appointed Interim NIH Associate Director for Data Science
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that National Library of Medicine director Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD will assume an additional role as NIH interim associate director for data science.
The associate director for data science and team provide input to the overall NIH vision and actions undertaken by each of the 27 institutes and centers in support of biomedical research as a digital enterprise. Among other duties, the office oversees the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative, stimulating the best developments in the data science community.
“I believe the future of health and health care rests on data—genomic data, environmental sensor-generated data, electronic health records data, patient-generated data, research collected data,” Dr. Brennan observed. “The data originating from research projects is becoming as important as the answers those research projects are providing.”
Ed conducted an annual Snapshot Day to document the people and activities of the library.
Ed and Joe Wilder participate in an IJS Roundtable in 2007.
Ed (sporting some Rutgers gear!) and long-time colleague Vincent Pelote help move the IJS location in 1994.
L-R: Vinny, Loren Schoenberg (of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem), Dan Morgenstern (former IJS Director), and Ed Berger, circa 1984.
Throughout his time at IJS, Ed had a very close relationship with Benny Carter.
Ed poses with his colleagues and the 2016 Jazz Archives Fellows.
Recently Consuella Askew and Wayne Winborne sent around a note announcing that our colleague Ed Berger passed away suddenly and quite unexpectedly in January. Ed was a wonderful photographer and spent many hours documenting the spaces and faces of Dana Library and the Institute of Jazz Studies. Many of his photographs are posted on his Flickr site. Here, we take a moment to turn the camera back toward the photographer and offer a glimpse into his time and the people who he called colleagues and friends at the Institute of Jazz Studies.
Ed played a vital role in the growth and development of the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies where he filled a number of positions for nearly four decades. He was also an award-winning jazz writer and accomplished photographer, teacher, producer, and road manager.
A graduate of Indiana University with an M.L.S. from Rutgers, his most recent book was Softly, With Feeling: Joe Wilder and the Breaking of Barriers in American Music (Temple University Press, 2014), which received the Association for Recorded Sound Collections’ Award for Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz in 2015. He was a frequent contributor to Jazz Times as writer and photographer and for many years served as co-editor of the Journal of Jazz Studies.
Berger taught at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, and from 1979 to 2014 was co-host of Jazz from the Archives on WBGO-FM. He enjoyed a long association with jazz master Benny Carter, serving as Carter’s road manager for nearly two decades, as well as producing two Grammy-winning recordings for the saxophonist. Berger’s other publications include Free Verse and Photos in the Key of Jazz (2015, with Gloria Krolak); Benny Carter: A Life in American Music (2002, with Morroe Berger and James Patrick); Basically Speaking: An Oral History of George Duvivier (1993); and Reminiscing in Tempo: The Life and Times of a Jazz Hustler (1990, with Teddy Reig).
He was a beloved friend, colleague, mentor, raconteur, and a true lover of jazz and jazz musicians. His loss is devastating to all of us at the IJS and to the broader jazz community across the globe.
A public celebration of Ed’s life is being planned and will be announced at a later date.
As recently announced, University Human Resources (UHR) will host a series of Open Enrollment Benefits Fairs throughout the month of October to educate employees about their SHBP benefits options, as well as other benefits and services that are available and may be of interest.
Save the date and plan to attend the Open Enrollment Benefit Fair that is most convenient for you:
Rutgers University/ Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) New Brunswick
Oct. 10, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Medical Education Building, 1 Robert Wood Johnson Pl.
Rutgers University – New Brunswick/Piscataway
Oct. 11, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Rutgers Student Center, College Avenue Campus
Oct. 20, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Busch Student Center, Busch Campus
Rutgers University – Camden
Oct. 13, 2016, 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Athletic and Fitness Center, 301 Linden St.
Rutgers University – Newark
Oct. 19, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Rutgers University – Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) Newark
Oct. 25, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Medical Science Building, 185 South Orange Ave.
Contact the Benefits Administration staff with questions regarding benefits at (848) 932-3990 or via email at benefits@hr.rutgers.edu.
Save the date for State of the Libraries – December 7, 2016
Many more details will follow, but please save the date of December 7 for the 2016 State of the Libraries. The program will begin with poster presentations at 10:30 a.m., lunch will be served around noon, and presentations by Krisellen Maloney and others at 1 p.m. The event will take place at the Busch Campus Center, so hopefully this schedule will allow many of our colleagues from Camden and Newark to avoid the brunt of rush hour traffic.
Judy Cohn to be a mentor in the 2016-2017 NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program
Congratulations to Judy Cohn who has been selected as a mentor in the 2016-2017 NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries. The Program prepares emerging leaders for director positions in academic health sciences libraries through a year-long mentoring relationship with a director of another library and a curriculum focused on developing leadership knowledge critical to enhancing the value of libraries in their institutions.
In this highly competitive program, Judy will be one of ten fellows and mentors from academic health sciences libraries across the U.S. who will begin their work together in November. Since the program began in 2002, 42% of all fellow graduates have assumed director positions.
President Barchi mentions Libraries’ capital construction projects in Report to the University Senate
Excerpt: “University Libraries: The University has also launched an in-depth master plan for the university libraries. Libraries have changed their mission; we are looking to align them with what students want and need today, including better computing resources, collaborative areas, and other amenities. Individual projects have been identified and designs are under way for a new OIT computer center at Alexander Library in New Brunswick and a Professional Development and Scholarship Center in Dana Library in Newark.”
“The centipede party,” 40 inches by 42 inches, oil painting by BFA student Audrey Meehan. This will be on view at the Mason Gross Galleries.
Art Library participating in The Co-Cureate Show
Undergraduate and graduate visual arts students are teaming up to conceptualize and install a collection of eight student exhibits at three locations across the New Brunswick campus: the Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers Art Library, and Douglass Student Center. The co-cureate shows (the title is a mash-up of what the initiative has prompted teams to engage in: conceive, curate and create exhibits) are set to run from Thursday, September 29 through Monday, October 17, 2016. The shows will feature student performances, paintings, photographs, sculptures, media, and prints. Admission is free.
The Art Library will host In Search of Punchline is curated by Johanna Boyce, Audrey Meehan, and Ed Weisgerber and features the work of Johanna Boyce, Erin Keane, Audrey Meehan, Carlyn Perlow, Delfina Picchio, and Ed Weisgerber.
New Brunswick Music Scene Symposium Planned for October 27, 2016
Save the date. Special Collections and University Archives will hold the next New Brunswick Music Scene Archive symposium on October 27, 6 p.m. in the Teleconference Lecture Hall at Alexander Library. Stay tuned for more information, including the participants. In the meantime, here’s a look back at the 2015 symposium, featuring a who’s who of New Jersey music (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/news/symposium-local-notables-inaugurate-new-brunswick-music-scene-archive).
Credit: Laura Anderson Barbata.
Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries Welcomes “Laura Anderson Barbata: Collaborations beyond Borders”
This fall, the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries in the Mabel Smith Douglass Library will welcome the 2016-17 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist Exhibition, Laura Anderson Barbata: Collaborations Beyond Borders. The exhibit contains selected highlights of textile, sculptural, 2-dimensional, and video works from the traveling exhibition Transcommunality.
In the July staff news, you may have noticed this announcement: “A poem of Michael Joseph‘s will be part of the Vispo Art Exhibition of poetry and art sponsored by the German state of Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW). The exhibition, scheduled for Spring 2017, will conclude in Burgau…” His brilliantly and beautifully conceived books are now a reality.
Shown above in the slideshow are SPICA, a poem by Michael Joseph, Failing to Act, a collaborative artists’ book, and Dream Dirt, a book unlike any other. All three books were conceived and fabricated by Sarah Stengle.
Details:
SPICA
Poem by Michael Joseph 2016
Art by Sarah Stengle 2016
Silkscreen on etched and drilled found glass autoclave windows with steel brass and neoprene rubber fittings.
Edition of 2
14 x 12 x 26 centimeters (height x depth x width)
Failing to Act
Collaborative artists’ book
Four Poems: Michael Joseph 2016
Book Art: Sarah Stengle 2016
Twelve pages as follows: six turkish map-folded spreads, each containing text on one side.
This book was typeset in Aldus and Aldus SC by Hermann Zapf, and printed on Crane Crest Natural White Cotton Wove. The endpapers are Rives Smoke Cover with Western Blot antibody test result films mounted with 3M 568 adhesive. The text appears inside mid-nineteenth century pale blue ledger-paper folded with a Turkish map-fold. The outer covers are sewn wool with printed pale celadon colored silk title labels applied. The covers are attached with waxed blue linen thread and vintage Erector Set hardware from the 1950’s.
Edition of 8.
Dream Dirt
Text by Michael Joseph 2016
Art by Sarah Stengle 2016
A wooden train carrying two vials of dirt, 30 vials containing paper scrolls (28 short stories, 2 signatures).
The text is available in a trade edition, titled Juvenile Fantasies and Innocent Dreams. The vials contain short stories about childhood and dirt, each one sentence in length, as well as an equivalent number of single-sentences critiques and responses to the stories. Two of the vials contain sterilized dirt from the past of the author and artist.
Making Rowan University and Camden County College Students Feel Welcome
Through a partnership agreement, Paul Robeson Library is now the campus library for Rowan University and Camden County College students. Bart Everts is the library liaison for these students and has started a new Facebook page to share information about their library privileges and resources. The agreement allows students to access the library, use library databases, and check out books using their student ID cards. Robeson also has computers reserved for their use.
Morroe Berger–Benny Carter Jazz Research Fund
Each year the Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) awards up to ten grants of $1,000 each to assist jazz researchers. Half of the awards are designated for students in the Rutgers University-Newark Master’s Program in Jazz History and Research and half are awarded to scholars from other institutions or unaffiliated researchers to enable them to visit IJS in conjunction with their projects. To date, we have given more than 70 awards to scholars and students worldwide working in a variety of disciplines, including jazz history, musicology, bibliography, and discography.
Applications for the 2017 grants are due October 21, 2016. Awards will be announced by November 14.
“Homecoming! Some Highlights from the Library of J. Milton French” at Alexander Library
Homecoming! Some Highlights from the Library of J. Milton French is on display now in the Scholarly Communication Center at Alexander Library. This case exhibit features a selection of volumes recently donated to Rutgers by the family of J. Milton French (1895–1962), a Milton scholar and professor of English at the university from 1940 to 1960.
The books on display include rare first and early editions of works by John Harington, Richard Barckley, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, John Suckling, George Wither, William Wollaston, and John Milton.
New Brunswick Music Scene Symposium Planned for October 27, 2016
Save the date. Special Collections and University Archives will hold the next New Brunswick Music Scene Archive symposium on October 27, 6 p.m. in the Teleconference Lecture Hall at Alexander Library. Stay tuned for more information, including the participants. In the meantime, here’s a look back at the 2015 symposium, featuring a who’s who of New Jersey music (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/news/symposium-local-notables-inaugurate-new-brunswick-music-scene-archive).
Credit: Laura Anderson Barbata.
Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries Welcomes “Laura Anderson Barbata: Collaborations beyond Borders”
This fall, the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries in the Mabel Smith Douglass Library will welcome the 2016-17 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist Exhibition, Laura Anderson Barbata: Collaborations Beyond Borders. The exhibit contains selected highlights of textile, sculptural, 2-dimensional, and video works from the traveling exhibition Transcommunality.
“Peep Show: Books from the Art Library X Room” Exhibit at Rutgers Art Library
Megan Lotts has raided the X Room to put on a case display of beautiful, surprising, amusing, and impressive books.
Stop by to get a taste of the treasures that reside in the Rutgers Art Library’s archives.
Latino Americans: 500 Years of History was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.
Rutgers University Libraries recently concluded the ALA-funded program Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. Over the course of a year, Rutgers and other scholars led 17 PBS film screening discussions about the experience of Latinos in New Jersey in collaboration with Rutgers University Libraries, the Nilsa L. Cruz-Perez Branch of the Camden County Library, New Brunswick Free Public Library, and the Newark Public Library.
Beyond the film showings in Spanish and English, project partners offered exhibits, book talks, lectures, and special celebrations. Highlights include A Day of the Dead Celebration and Cinco de Mayo festivities in New Brunswick showcasing a variety of performances and children’s activities; a Cuban musical concert by renowned singer Gema Corredera; the exhibit “Beyond Exile: Cubans in New Jersey” at the Newark Public Library, including a keynote address by Lisando Pérez; and two separate exhibitions at the Rutgers Art Library, Ilya Genin’s “Photographs of Cuban Revolution 50 Years Later,” and “From Island to Ocean: Caribbean and Pacific Dialogues by Fidalis Buehler and Juana Valdes.”
As project director Nancy Kranich notes in the final report on this initiative, this program allowed Rutgers University Libraries to become “a catalyst for bringing together scholars and organizations involved with the New Jersey Latino American experience and encouraging more attention to documenting it. The grant enabled us to take a more assertive role in building and strengthening relationships with local Latino communities and the scholars, organizations, and public libraries that interact with them.”
Kranich also lists several other outcomes that may be of interest to our colleagues:
Several new items were added to Special Collections, including several leaflets of unpublished poetry by Newark poet Pablo Le Riverend, clippings of anti-Castro activities in Hudson County, Sarah Hirschman’s papers covering People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos.
The publisher and owner of Impacto, published in the 1960s, donated 99 issues of the publication to Rutgers University.
15 Latino clubs are Rutgers are planning to learn how to organize and preserve their own records in conjunction with Rutgers University Libraries’ archivists.
Two possible books are in discussion: a history of Latinos in NJ and an anthology of unpublished documents about Latino migrant workers in NJ and the United States.
The New Brunswick Free Public Library and Rutgers University Libraries are discussing partnering again on another ALA public programming grant proposal.
A deeper understanding of the Latino collections in the state and increased participation in depositing scholarly works into our Rutgers Inclusion and Diversity Research Portal.
Mary Beth Weber won the ALCTS Slogal Contest for her slogan, “Creating the future, preserving the past.” This slogan will be used during the 60th anniversary celebration of ALCTS in 2017. In addition to bragging rights, Mary Beth also received a prize of registration for CE webinars valued at $350. Congratulations Mary Beth!
“Peep Show: Books from the Art Library X Room” Exhibit at Rutgers Art Library
Megan Lotts has raided the X Room to put on a case display of beautiful, surprising, amusing, and impressive books.
Stop by to get a taste of the treasures that reside in the Rutgers Art Library’s archives.
Location: Rutgers Art Library
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Late in July, America faced record temperatures outside and Smith Library in Newark was no exception. With the A/C out for several days, the librarians and staff had to come up with new ways to keep their cool. Here, a short haiku on the experience:
The books are burning!
Librarians are weeping…
The heat is too much.
– Sarah Jewell
Communications Tip – Using Rutgers Go to Shorten URLs
Want a short, trackable URL to use in an email or social media post? There are many URL shorteners on the market including goo.gl, bitly, and ow.ly, but go.rutgers.edu offers something the others can’t–an actual Rutgers URL to make your link appear official and trustworthy. This service allows Rutgers users to quickly and easily shorten a URL and track how many times that URL is viewed.
While I used the same shortened URL on both Facebook and Twitter, I could have created separate shortened URLs for each social media site to track the relative traffic. I did this for an earlier post about the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive, which allowed me to see the number of views on each platform (162 for Twitter, 7 for Facebook).
I highly recommend you try out go.rutgers.edu if you have not already done so.
–Jessica Pellien
New Brunswick Music Scene Symposium Planned for October 27, 2016
Save the date. Special Collections and University Archives will hold the next New Brunswick Music Scene Archive symposium on October 27, 6 p.m. in the Teleconference Lecture Hall at Alexander Library. Stay tuned for more information, including the participants. In the meantime, here’s a look back at the 2015 symposium, featuring a who’s who of New Jersey music (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/news/symposium-local-notables-inaugurate-new-brunswick-music-scene-archive).
Full Text Finder Training
This fall the Rutgers Libraries will be migrating to Full Text Finder, EBSCO’s newest holdings and link management tool designed to replace its A-to-Z and LinkSource services, which are being phased out. A-to-Z is the product that powers the Libraries’ electronic journals search. LinkSource is the product that powers its link resolver service (locally known as “Get it @ R”). Although the basic functionality of these tools has not changed much, we have taken the opportunity to introduce a few custom modifications that we hope will simplify the process of finding full-text articles and improve the overall user experience. If you’d like to learn more about Full Text Finder and the upcoming changes, feel free to attend one of the 30 minute drop-in sessions scheduled in August. Videoconferencing to Dana, Robeson, and Smith is available upon request.
Full Text Finder Information Sessions
August 4 @ 2 p.m. — LSM Conference Room, Library of Science & Medicine
August 8 @ 2 p.m. — Pane Room, Alexander Library
August 11 @ 2 p.m. — Pane Room, Alexander Library
Buttons! Buttons for Everyone!
Custom buttons are now available from the Communications Department.
The buttons we mentioned in the July issue of The Agenda proved a popular giveaway at the New Student Orientations in New Brunswick. This is a relatively low-cost and fun way to run a promotion or to market something at the Libraries. If you are interested in borrowing our machine for a project, please make sure to purchase the supplies that are available here. We’re happy to train you or your student workers on how to create buttons.
You’ve Got People, Now What?
August 3, 2016
9 a.m. – 1 p.m.NEW DATE!
This course is ideal for new and experienced managers, supervisors, and administrators who have direct reports and would like to apply their knowledge of personal styles to flexibly manage their staff.
Location: Pane Room, 1st floor, Alexander Library
RSVP: Erica Parin on behalf of the Professional Development Committee
Manager as Leader – Developing Staff
August 30, 2016
9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
This course is ideal for managers, supervisors, and administrators who would like to sharpen their situational leadership skills and discover how flexible and effective they are in a variety of situations with staff.
Location: Pane Room, 1st floor, Alexander Library
RSVP: Erica Parin on behalf of the Professional Development Committee
Image credit: Ingfbruno – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27955753
The Libraries now have a Central drive (T:\CENTRAL) where shared items of interest to all areas of the Libraries can be stored. The plan is to eventually store shared resources, information, procedures, and manuals in this location. Currently, it contains folders for Assessments, Collection Development and Management, Communications and Marketing, Photos and Media, Procedures and Resources, and Visual Identity, but more folders will be added as needed. Some of the folders are read-only, while others like Photos and Media are available to all for adding materials.
Please take some time to peruse the folders:
Jeanne Boyle recently sent an invitation to view the LibQUAL+ survey results now stored in the Assessments folder.
Under Visual Identity, you will find resources that are useful if you are making flyers, advertisements, or website graphics, such as the colors, fonts, logos, and letterheads that are approved by University Communications and Marketing.
Photos and Media is a one-stop place to find images of our spaces, our events, and faculty & staff.
The communications department has also moved their folders from the ALEX drive to Central location Communications and Marketing.
Procedures and Resources currently holds the recent communications policies for photography and fielding requests to photograph in the Libraries, but will be populated with other materials, procedures, and FAQs in the future.
These changes are partly philosophical–these are resources we all share and shouldn’t be housed on one of the unit server locations–but they are also intended to surface important materials and provide a single authoritative place to look for procedural information and guidance. If you have feedback, suggestions for how to further improve this shared drive, or materials you would like added to this drive, please speak with your unit director or supervisor.
The Digital Public Library of America announced the winners of the GIF IT UP competition. Enjoying this example? See more at their 
