An event celebrating the enduring impact of Paul Robeson was facilitated by Jason L. James, Director, Strategy and Operations Support Initiatives for Rutgers–Camden Student Academic Success.
On February 19, Robeson Library hosted an evening that honored the enduring impact of Paul Robeson, the distinguished Rutgers alumnus, activist, artist, and scholar. The program highlighted Robeson’s powerful legacy through curated reflections and engaging dialogue, offering a rich exploration of his contributions to social justice, culture, and intellectual life.
Facilitated by Jason L. James, Director, Strategy and Operations Support Initiatives for Rutgers–Camden Student Academic Success, the event celebrated a shared commitment to scholarship, leadership, and cultural impact. Librarian John Powell spoke about the life of Paul Robeson, including his time spent as a scholar and athlete at Rutgers in New Brunswick, where he was a two-time All-American in football. While at Rutgers, Robeson was also inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Rutgers’ Cap and Skull Honor Society and was valedictorian of his graduating class in 1919.
The evening was co-sponsored by the Division of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement (DICE), Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. – Nu Gamma Lambda Chapter, and NAACP Rutgers University-Camden Chapter.
The Rutgers Meets Japan digital collection invites users to explore the people and places that shaped a pivotal moment in global education and cultural exchange.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Rutgers Meets Japan, a new digital companion collection that brings to life a remarkable trans-Pacific story of intellectual exchange, cultural connection, and shared history. Developed in conjunction with the book Rutgers Meets Japan: A Trans-Pacific Network of the Late Nineteenth Century, this digital collection expands upon the book’s narrative by providing open access to a rich set of historical photographs drawn from the William E. Griffis Collection.
The collection features portraits of some of Rutgers’ earliest Japanese students, as well as images of alumni who traveled to Japan as teachers and missionaries during the late 19th century. These photographs offer a rare visual window into a formative period of U.S.-Japan relations, capturing individuals, institutions, and everyday scenes across locations such as Fukui, Yokohama, Tokyo, and Shizuoka. In addition to images reproduced in the book, the digital companion includes many photographs that could not be published due to space constraints, significantly broadening access to these materials for researchers, students, and the public.
Funded by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, the project involved the careful digitization, transcription, and annotation of materials, ensuring both accessibility and scholarly value. By pairing rigorous historical scholarship with digital access, Rutgers Meets Japan invites users to explore the people and places that shaped a pivotal moment in global education and cultural exchange.
The launch of this digital collection also coincided with an event held on April 17, Rutgers Meets Japan: In Conversation with the Authors. This event was held in the Alexander Library Pane Room and featured presenters Haruko Wakabayashi and Fernanda Perrone, with Janet Walker moderating.
The highlight of the workshop was a Q&A session with New York Times technology journalist Tiffany Hsu, who specializes in misinformation reporting.
On April 1, librarians at Dana Library hosted The Erosion of Truth: How to Protect Yourself from Mis/Disinformation in the Age of AI, a hybrid virtual/in-person workshop. Mis- and disinformation in society’s information landscape is not new; however, the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence has compounded its impact on individuals, society, and our democracy. This workshop introduced foundational information literacy strategies for critically evaluating news and media content, along with available online tools to support this work. Students, faculty, and staff explored the rapid development of AI-generated deepfake videos, manipulated images, and viral misinformation, and tested their ability to distinguish between AI-generated and authentic content. Attendees were also introduced to real-world examples and professional fact-checking techniques, leaving with a personal toolkit for verifying information.
The highlight of the workshop was a Q&A session with New York Times technology journalist Tiffany Hsu, who specializes in misinformation reporting. Hsu fielded questions on topics including how New York Times reporters verify images and video, the challenges posed by AI-generated content to investigative journalism’s ability to establish credibility and truth, and the role that social media platforms play in the spread of misinformation. Participants enthusiastically expressed appreciation for her insights into these critical issues.
We hope to continue this discussion as technologies used to fabricate, manipulate, and mislead grow increasingly sophisticated, with the library planning additional workshops and learning opportunities to strengthen our community’s information resilience in the age of generative AI.
Co-Organizers of the event: Joanne Dera, Diane Biunno, and Naomi Gold
Diane Biunno and Joanne Dera were among the co-organizers of the Women in STEM Wikidata Edit-a-Thon.
On March 4, Dana Library hosted a Wikidata mini edit-a-thon focused on Women in STEM in collaboration with librarians from NJIT. The event brought together 13 participants ranging from beginner to advanced contributors, including students, librarians, and experienced Wikipedians. Attendees represented Drew University, NJIT, Smith Library, and Dana Library, along with members of the regional Wikimedia community. We were especially fortunate to have leadership from Wikipedia NYC and the Philadelphia Wikisalon in attendance. Their expertise was invaluable in supporting participants who were new to Wikidata and helping guide the editing process throughout the session.
During the edit-a-thon, participants expanded and strengthened approximately 30 Wikidata entries related to Rutgers and NJIT graduates. Contributors added new data points, improved existing information, and incorporated reliable references to support the entries. Participants also drew on Rutgers University Libraries and NJIT Libraries resources to enhance the records, demonstrating how library collections and research materials can be used to improve structured data and increase the visibility of our libraries’ collections and resources.
In addition to the hands-on editing work, participants learned what Wikidata is, how it functions as structured linked data, and why contributing to it matters. The session highlighted how improving data about women in STEM helps make their contributions more visible and discoverable. Because major platforms, such as Google, and large generative language models, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, draw on Wikipedia and Wikidata, expanding these records helps broaden public knowledge and address systemic gaps and biases in how women’s achievements are represented online and in AI-driven systems.
The event was a strong success and demonstrated significant growth potential. As a result, we are now in conversations with Wikipedia NYC and NJIT about organizing additional events and expanding this collaboration. With greater support from the Wikimedia community, future edit-a-thons could scale to larger participation and further leverage Rutgers and NJIT library collections to enrich Wikidata entries, both strengthening the global knowledge graph and helping drive researchers and readers back to our library resources and collections.
Co-organizers of the event:
Dana Library Team: Joanne Dera, Diane Biunno, and Angela Lawrence
NJIT Libraries Team: Bob Vietrogoski and Jill Lagerstrom
A new exhibition at Carr Library explores how qualitative research methodologies can be used to uncover and address complex cases such as campus food insecurity.
Xu Guo, graduate specialist for qualitative methods at the Rutgers–New Brunswick Libraries, contributed to this report and to the development of the exhibition.
In celebration of International Love Data Week, a new exhibition opened on February 9 at Carr Library. When Data Speaks: Stories from People, Places, and Time aims to show how qualitative research methodologies can be used to uncover and address complex cases such as campus food insecurity. Centered around a comprehensive introduction, the multidimensional display utilizes three curated cases to transition between theoretical frameworks and the lived experiences of a college campus.
The installation employs a diverse array of media to engage visitors’ senses and intellect. Academic rigor is represented through illustrated texts on qualitative methods and peer-reviewed journals featuring interview scripts, participant responses, and ethnographic field notes. These are juxtaposed with hyperrealistic food models and everyday tableware to symbolize the basic human needs at the heart of the study. Visual data, such as infographics regarding Rutgers-specific food security statistics and a detailed campus map, help ground the research in a local context.
Beyond static displays, the exhibition incorporates digital storytelling through curated podcasts and videos, offering a deeper dive into the systemic challenges of student basic needs. To bridge the gap between researchers and the public, a visitor interactive board was integrated, inviting the community to share their reflections and foster a dialogue.
The exhibition will remain in the library for the duration of the spring semester.
The last will and testament of Joseph Bonaparte, the former King of Naples, King of Spain and the Indies, and the older brother of Napoleon.
As the metadata archivist at Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA), I have had the privilege of working with our collections on a daily basis. Though I’ve just been able to scratch the surface of our ample and unique holdings, I’ve had the joy of making old records publicly accessible while creating new records for materials that were never previously described. This undertaking has allowed me to unearth and publicize various collections that I would consider treasures, and I’m happy to share just a few of those with you here.
Legacy Finding Aids
The first part of my endeavor involved getting previously written finding aids, known as “legacy finding aids,” into our collection management system, ArchivesSpace. Many of these legacy finding aids were decades old, written by staff and faculty members that no longer work here, and only exist as PDFs, their physical counterparts long since gone. These documents were published by creating a new, base-level finding aid in ArchivesSpace for each collection and then attaching the legacy finding aid to the resource record as a digital object hosted through RUCore. Among the dozens of legacy finding aids published via this route are the Joyce Kilmer papers (MC 1547) and the Nicholas F. Brady senatorial papers (MC 660).
Joyce Kilmer was a New Brunswick-born writer and poet, best known for his work “Trees,” published in 1913. He was killed just five years later in France during World War I. Here at SC/UA, we have scrapbooks of his writings created by his parents over a century ago.
The Nicholas F. Brady senatorial papers relate to the work Senator Brady undertook while in Congress. Brady served as a United States senator for eight months in 1982 following the resignation of Harrison A. Williams. As of February 2026, Brady is the oldest living former U.S. senator.
New Finding Aids Published
Since publishing the legacy finding aids that hid on our internal servers for so many years, I’ve been able to turn my attention to new collections that were never described in any format. In order to find out which boxes fit this criteria, I’ve been creating an inventory of our spaces, particularly of Room 022 (B-Level, Alexander Library). This comprehensive account of our collections allows me to easily discover which materials have been sitting dormant on our shelves and are in need of archival description.
Comparable to how legacy finding aids were handled, new finding aids are created in a similar fashion. Generally, only a basic, box-level finding aid is written, as we’re prioritizing the publication of many finding aids rather than the thorough description of substantially fewer collections. This has led me to publishing almost 100 new finding aids to date. Favorites of mine include the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission records (MC 1331), the Emerson B. Garrison photographs (MC 1620), and the Joseph Bonaparte papers (MC 1624).
The Delaware and Raritan Canal was a feat of engineering when it was completed in 1834, shortening the journey from New York City to Philadelphia by a hundred miles. The collection at SC/UA consists of land agreements between townships and residents that made it possible for this transportation system to be built.
The Emerson B. Garrison photographs contain images of Cumberland County and adjacent areas of New Jersey dating back to at least the early 20th century. The style of some of the photographs suggest that some of the undated prints might have been created as early as the 1890s!
Perhaps the jewel that I’ve found in Room 022 is the one-box collection on Joseph Bonaparte, the former King of Naples, King of Spain and the Indies, and the older brother of Napoleon. Following the fall of Napoleon and his subsequent exile, Joseph fled Europe and settled in Bordentown, NJ; the papers we hold primarily relate to the affairs of his estate and other legal matters, including a printed version of his last will and testament.
Benefits of the Project
The initiative to publish these finding aids offers many benefits to SC/UA. Not only are we providing our patrons with information on collections that have never before been accessible in a digital format, but the push to publish box-level finding aids has allowed us to gain intellectual control over our holdings and free up physical space in our storage areas. When surveying a collection, I am able to consolidate materials into fewer boxes, as oftentimes half-full boxes appear on our shelves, taking up unnecessary space that should be designated for other materials. This will undoubtedly help us as our collections are returned from off-site storage facilities so that we may more quickly and efficiently assist our patrons.
In the coming months, I know I will uncover many more treasures that SC/UA has to offer; I’m looking forward to sharing those with you in the future.
The Clement Alexander Price Archive and Circulating Collection was unveiled at Dana Library in October.
On October 24, the John Cotton Dana Library hosted a reception for the grand opening of the Clement Alexander Price Archive and Circulating Collection. The event featured an exhibition of items from Price’s archival collection and personal library. It also kicked off a year of programming called Clement@80, which is taking place around what would have been the 80th year of Price’s life. Speakers at the event included Amanda Clay Powers, associate university librarian for Rutgers University–Newark; Mary Sue Sweeney Price, Clement’s wife and Director Emerita of the Newark Museum; and Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor of American History at George Mason University, who coauthored a book with Price.
Price was an eminent professor, renowned scholar, and dedicated citizen. His influence can still be felt in the very fabric of Rutgers–Newark, the city of Newark, and the entire nation. He was the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History at Rutgers–Newark; the founding director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience (now the Price Institute); the vice chair of President Barak Obama’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; the chair of Obama’s transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities; a member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; and a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can read more about his tremendous legacy in this story on the Rutgers website.
The Dana Library faculty and staff are pleased and proud to make the Price archive and collection available. Special recognition goes to two former associate university librarians for Rutgers–Newark, Consuella Askew and Rhonda Marker, for the acquisition of the collection, and to Mary Sue Sweeney Price for making it available.
Joyful Collégialité through Crocheting and Knitting, a monthly initiative at Smith Library, is funded by the Rutgers Health Joy at Work Mini-Grant Program.
George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences has successfully hosted four open crochet/knit gatherings in collaboration with the NJMS Crochet and Knitting Club, with a strong turnout of 36 participants, including New Jersey Medical School students, faculty, and staff. This monthly initiative, Joyful Collégialité through Crocheting and Knitting, is funded by the Rutgers Health Joy at Work Mini-Grant Program, which aims to promote a culture of well-being in the workplace, fostering belonging, human connection, and collegial support.
Participation in the events has surpassed expectations, and the waiting list continues to grow. While the project is scheduled to conclude in March 2026, the Smith Library team remains committed to continuing the program well beyond the grant period.
The workshops offer group and one-on-one skill-building opportunities for beginners and experienced crafters, creating an enthusiastic and engaging environment. Instructors Chun Yen Chen and Purvi Shakelly, both NJMS students, and Ermira Mitre, a library technician in Access Services at Smith Library, prepare pattern handouts and offer hands-on guidance. In addition, library technology, including OkidCam and SmartBoard, enhances live demonstrations of crocheting techniques through large-screen displays of stitching and pattern techniques, ensuring clear visual learning for all participants.
The creative projects these workshops undertake are both joyful and skill building, ranging from seasonal items (e.g., pumpkins and holiday-themed coasters) to detailed, three-dimensional anatomical pieces (e.g., hearts and blood cells). The instructors also have incorporated a brief Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping practice to begin each session, sending calming signals to the nervous system and promoting a relaxing atmosphere for crocheting sessions.
Survey responses highlight the program’s positive impact: reduced stress levels, increased joy through creative expression, and strengthened interpersonal connections. Participants consistently describe the workshops as restorative, uplifting, and community-building.
Overall, this initiative has contributed to a more supportive campus environment and reflects the library’s ongoing commitment to promoting well-being, creativity, and collegial engagement across the Rutgers Health community.
In Fall 2025, under the leadership of Rutgers University–Camden’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost, Paul Robeson Library—along with the Office of University Online Education Services (UOES) and Rutgers–Camden IT—opened a Media Recording Studio on the second floor of the library (Room 290). This is the first recording studio of its kind at Rutgers–Camden.
Current faculty and staff with a valid Rutgers NetID can use the studio to create video content for teaching and learning. Whether for short lectures, course introductions, updates, or hosting live sessions with students, the studio offers a simple and professional-quality production experience. No prior video experience is required—just bring your content and press a button.
Individuals who need support can book a consultation with the Office of University Online Education Services (UOES). If no assistance is needed, the space can be reserved directly.
These Scarlet Raptors nesting dolls are part of the Special Collections at Robeson Library.
After nearly 30 years, Julie Still retired from her role as a history liaison and special collections librarian. Following her retirement, I became the acting Paul Robeson Library liaison for history, world languages, and special collections. I am very excited to take on this role, and I am particularly looking forward to the work ahead in Robeson Special Collections as Rutgers University–Camden celebrates its centennial in 2026. Moreover, as an alum of the undergraduate history program (not quite a century ago!) I have both a personal and professional connection to Rutgers history.
The special collections housed at Robeson Library fall into three broad categories: ephemera and realia from campus history, campus publications, and collections from the Camden and South Jersey communities, including two haiku-related collections (Nick Virgilio Haiku Archive and the Pamela Miller Ness Fine Arts Haiku Collection). Since the campus was founded in 1926, we’ve had a number of student-produced newspapers, literary journals, and pamphlets, and the student newspapers are among my favorite items in the collection. These publications are a great primary source for campus history but also give insight into how the campus community responded to world events, including the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. On a lighter note, I often find myself reading the features sections to see what music and movies were popular with students during a particular era.
Building on Julie’s work, I plan to use my time in this role to promote the collection to Rutgers–Camden and beyond. With that goal in mind, Robeson Library is participating in Archives Month Philly, an annual event showcasing collections from throughout Greater Philadelphia. I saw this as an opportunity to create a small exhibit featuring highlights from the past century to share beyond the Rutgers community.
As part of the Distinctive Collections team, I enjoy our discussions on special collections policy and challenges, as well as the opportunity to promote our collection beyond Rutgers–Camden in the context of One Libraries. I hope to move forward with some of the digitization projects in the works, including making the campus newspaper The Gleaner and our theater bills available online. I also plan to work on collections guidelines for Camden. Of course, I look forward to collaborating with the Research Support Services team, and with my fellow liaisons and Rutgers faculty members in history and world languages.
