The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Units

  • 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.

     

  • What’s Happening around Rutgers – January 2020

    Adverse Childhood Experiences, Social Determinants of Health, and the Road to Health Equity

    Tuesday January 21, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
    Medical Science Building, RBHS Newark

    Luis Alzate-Duque, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers NJMS, will present this important, socially-relevant talk addressing health inequity and the road to redress. All interested parties are encouraged to attend. Learn more.

    Outside the Wire: Speaking Out About Marginalized Experiences in the Military

    Wednesday January 22, 7–8:30pm
    Rutgers–Camden Campus Center, Multi-Purpose Room

    Outside the Wire is an annual programming series highlighting veterans’ narratives. This event pairs the lived experiences of veterans with speakers whose scholarly, journalistic, or creative work concerns veterans’ experiences. The panel will feature Samuel Black, curator of African American Programs at the Heinz History Center; Helen Benedict, author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq; and area veterans. Learn more and RSVP to attend.

    Hosted by the Writers House.

    Dogs and People and Dingoes

    Friday January 24, 3:30 p.m.
    Ruth Adams Building, Rutgers–New Brunswick

    As part of the 2019-20 Lecture Series of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies (CHES), Dr. Patricia Shipman (Pennsylvania State University) will give a lecture, “Dogs and People and Dingoes.” Learn more.

  • Ex Libris Implementation Team Update – January 2020

    As you know, the Ex Libris Implementation Team has been working with the Law Libraries since May on a project to migrate their data to Alma and merge their library catalog with ours. During the week of January 6, we will begin the final steps of this migration. To help you navigate this transition, below are answers to some frequently asked questions about the project. If you have additional questions, please send them to the Ex Libris Implementation Team at exlibris@rutgers.libanswers.com.

    Q: When are the Law libraries expected to migrate to Alma?

    A: The migration is expected to be completed on January 10, 2020.

    Q: Will any services be disrupted or temporarily unavailable during the migration?

    A: No, Alma and Primo are expected to remain fully operational during the migration.

    Q: Will the collections of the Law libraries be discoverable in QuickSearch?

    A: Once migration is complete, all materials currently represented in Law’s library catalog will be discoverable in QuickSearch. Law patrons will also be able to access these resources through a separate custom view designed specifically for the Law School. Additional work is required to create and configure Law’s electronic resources. It will take up to 24 hours after go-live for all of Law’s electronic resources begin appearing in QuickSearch. Because this configuration must be done in our live production environment, users may experience intermittent access issues during this time.

    Q: Can Law’s circulating collections be borrowed or requested by non-Law School patrons? Are the loan policies the same?

    A: Yes, circulating materials can be borrowed or requested by any Rutgers user. To make borrowing between the libraries easier, loan polices have been made uniform.

    Q: Are there any resources that are restricted to Law patrons only?

    A: Yes, certain electronic resources (such as Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg) are restricted to Law patrons only. Access to these resources is only available from a Law School IP address, via the Law School proxy, or with an assigned username and password. These resources will be visible to all QuickSearch users with a note indicating that access is restricted to Rutgers Law School students, faculty, and staff [view example]. To maximize visibility of this note, direct linking will be deactivated for all Law-restricted resources.

    Q: Will the Law migration result in duplicate records?

    A: Yes, you may see some duplicate records initially. There are plans to identify and remove duplicate records post go-live.

    Q: Where should I refer Law-specific reference and borrowing inquiries?

    A: Please direct patrons to contact the appropriate Law library:

    Camden Law
    Reference (856) 225-6173
    Circulation (856) 225-6172
    lawlib@camden.rutgers.edu    		 Newark Law
    Reference (973) 353-5676
    Circulation (973) 353-5677
    refdesk@law.rutgers.edu
    Q: Who should I contact if I have additional questions?

    A: Please send questions or comments to the Ex Libris Implementation Team at exlibris@rutgers.libanswers.com.

     

  • Special Collections Open House

    You’re invited to an open house at

    Special Collections and University Archives

    Thursday, January 9

    1 – 4 PM

    Alexander Library

    Featuring snacks, demonstrations, and tours.

    RSVP

    Sign up for a tour of our galleries and vast storage areas

  • SAPAC Schedule 2020

    Join the Scholarly and Professional Activities Committee for these upcoming talks.

    Lies, Damned lies, and…What LibQual+ 2019 and other statistics mean to me

    Thursday, January 16, Noon-1:00 pm, Pane Room, Alexander Library, New Brunswick
    Grace Agnew, Special Advisor for Strategic Initiatives and Analytics

    So we did this survey in April, 2019.  But what does it mean for me?  Will anything change?  Does anything need to change?  Why do we collect numbers, anyway?  Grace Agnew will highlight the findings of the 2019 LibQual+ statistics, with specific emphasis on individual user groups and libraries, as well as other statistics we are collecting to get a handle on how we are doing with services and collections.  Much of the time will be discussion, as attendees share what they think the statistics mean, based on their observations when working with users.

    Learning from the Smithsonian: Reflections of a Museum Studies Fellow

    Thursday, February 13, Noon-1:00 pm, Pane Room, Alexander Library, New Brunswick
    Kayo Denda, Librarian for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Douglass Library

    The presentation will be based on my 4 week-stay in Washington D.C., during summer ’19 as a museum studies fellow affiliated with the Smithsonian, Center for Learning and Digital Access. I will provide an insider’s view of the nation’s leading historical institution, its uniqueness and its challenges as they forge their future. The presentation will highlight select Smithsonian projects and tools, such as the Learning Lab platform, with great potential for the library community.

    Ithaka S+R Research study

    Wednesday, March 26, Noon-1:00 pm, Pane Room, Alexander Library, New Brunswick
    Triveni Kuchi, Social Sciences/Instructional Services Librarian and Faculty & Graduate Services Coordinator, NBL
    Jim Niessen, World History librarian, NBL
    Jon Sauceda, Music/Performing Arts librarian and interim liaison to Spanish, Portuguese, Latinx, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, NBL

    We examine the research practices of faculty in a particular field, namely language and literatures, to identify what resources and services scholars currently use and wish they had access to at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. This research was part of a study coordinated by Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research and consulting organization, working in conjunction with the Modern Language Association (MLA). In this presentation we would like to share our findings and recommendations.

    The Nick Virgilio Papers

    Monday, April 20, Noon-1:00 pm, Conference Room 290, Robeson Library, Camden (with Webex to remote locations)
    Julie Still, Reference Librarian/Collection Development Coordinator, Robeson Library

    The Nick Virgilio Haiku Archives arrived at Rutgers (and later at the Robeson Library) in several copier paper boxes over a decade ago. In January the Rutgers University Libraries released the fully searchable database of these poems. The process of getting from Point A to Point B is long and convoluted, full of fits and starts. This presentation will focus not just on the technical nuts and bolts, but also on the human element involved, and what consideration might be due those whose name is invoked in someone else’s work.

    Understanding Open Access Trends in Business Schools: A Bibliometric Analysis of Open Access Faculty Publications in Accounting Departments at Three Universities

    Monday, May 11, location TBA
    Jonathan Torres, Business Librarian, Dana Library

    Open access publications and journals continue to be an emerging trend in a variety of academic areas. Studies have indicated that open access journals offer a citation benefit. (Salisbury et.al, 2017) One of the many benefits of OA mentioned in previous studies states that, “advocates argue that OA will increase research efficacy as measured by citation counts and/or citation impact factor” (Atchison and Bull, 2015, p.133). Further research highlights the fact that free access to literature has the potential to increase authorship and readership (Philip and Walter, 2011). Nonetheless, studies have indicated that a top priority for faculty is having their publications viewed by peers within the same field because that impacts their career. As a result, providing articles for open access to the public is secondary. Faculty perceptions of article and journal accessibility tends to vary based on disciplines.

    This presentation will examine the outcome using bibliometric analysis between (OA) open access and non-OA publications from the accounting departments of three business schools (University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Auburn University). These schools were selected based on the comparable sizes of the departments. The research will demonstrate faculty OA compared to non-OA publications and their relative scholarly impact and merits for the period 2013-2018.

    SAPAC 2019-2020 Committee Members:
    Janet Brennan Croft, Co-Chair
    Bart Howard Everts, Co-Chair
    Amy Kimura
    Laura Costello
    Fobazi Ettarh

  • OneDrive External Sharing

    Beginning on January 13, Rutgers Connect users will be able to share OneDrive files with collaborators outside of the university. Up to this point, external sharing was possible only between authenticated Rutgers Connect users.

    This feature works like sharing with internal Rutgers Connect users. Anyone with access to the shared link will be able to view and edit shared files or folders based on permissions specified by the owner. More information on sharing OneDrive files and folders can be found here.

    If you have any questions about OneDrive file sharing, please do not hesitate to contact IIS by phone at 848-445-5896, option 7, or by email at support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu.

  • Camden Area Libraries

    The Paul Robeson Library in Camden hosted an Oreo tasting and cookie exchange for libraries in the Camden area, on Tuesday, December 10.  We worked with the Rutgers–Camden Law Library and Nilsa Cruz-Perez branch of the Camden Public Library. About 20 people from four different library systems attended. We tasted Oreos, talked about Alma as well as current and upcoming outreach efforts, and how we might work together on various projects. Julie Still and John Powell developed a logo (CAL for Camden Area Libraries) and made buttons for the event. All in attendance, and some who were unable to attend, indicated an interest in similar future events.

  • Teaching and Learning: LibGuides

    Did you know that our LibGuides have been viewed over 240,000 times just in the fall 2019 semester? Keeping our LibGuides free of errors and up to date is an important part of our services at Rutgers University Libraries. With the help of some awesome student workers, we’ve made great progress in recent months to reduce the number of broken links from more than 4,600 to fewer than 1,800. As we move into the spring semester, now is a good time for LibGuide authors to make sure that your content is current and accurate! Taking the time to do some “spring cleaning” will make ongoing maintenance easier.

    Here are some suggestions to prepare your LibGuides for the start of the semester:

    LibGuide authors who have questions about LibGuides may contact Maria Breger at maria.breger@rutgers.edu

  • OAT Program Launches January 27

    The next cycle of the Open and Affordable Textbook Program will launch on January 27 and run through March 30, 2020. We’re excited to get started, but could use your help in spreading the word.

    How can you get involved?

    Thank you in advance for your help! We look forward to making this the best year yet. If you have any questions or suggestions about the OAT Program, please let me or your local team member know.

  • Looking Forward to 2020

    Welcome back! I hope you’re all feeling rested and rejuvenated from a well-deserved winter break.

    As I mentioned in my holiday email last month, I am so impressed by the amount of work we were able to accomplish last year. None of the achievements I chose to highlight was the result of a cookie-cutter project. Each of them required hard work, creative problem solving, and deep collaboration across the library system and with local campus partners. I know it isn’t always easy, but when these things come together, the impact is felt by students and faculty across the university. Thank you again for all your good work in 2019.

    As we turn our collective attention to 2020, I’d like to kick off the New Year by sharing some fantastic news. We have received our official FY21 budget awards and I am happy to report that we have received full support for salary increases and collection inflation, exceeding our expectations for funding in both these areas. Moreover, this funding is not representative of what was awarded to other cost pool units across the university. Simply put, this means that all our hard work is paying off. It’s a strong vote of confidence for the Libraries and the direction in which we’re headed, and I’m proud that we’ve received this recognition of our importance to Rutgers students and faculty.

    I’m glad that we will continue this momentum and hit the ground running this year with several impactful, large-scale projects. One such undertaking is the redesign of our website. While this project is still in its early stages, we have contracted with a vendor that will be performing the work. A web group is being convened to manage the project internally, establishing a timeline and benchmarks and communicating progress with the rest of our colleagues. The first step of the redesign is a discovery phase that includes surveying site visitors to learn more about their goals and experiences. This is another project that will draw on the expertise of many of us across the Libraries, and I look forward to following its progress as we continue to cater our services to meet the unique needs of our local communities.

    Another important project for us is Esploro. One of the priorities that arose from our last planning cycle was to implement an information management solution that will allow us to support the university’s open access policy in a sustainable manner, and Esploro represents a huge step toward meeting that goal. Esploro automates the management of research output—including capture and direct deposit—and helps streamline the process of depositing the results of scholarship into SOAR. It integrates directly with our library system and leverages one of the largest indexes of scholarly research available in order to ensure the broadest possible capture. Because it automatically harvests scholarly work done by Rutgers faculty, Esploro should give us a more comprehensive repository of Rutgers scholarship than we have with our current, purely manual deposit process. It will also help us better partner with the Office of Research & Economic Development by providing them with data on faculty output and productivity that can be used when pursuing research grants or steering potential industry partners toward relevant faculty experts. With projects like this, is it encouraging for me to see how the foundations we’ve laid over the last several years open up new possibilities for us moving forward. Adding a tool like Esploro builds on the work that groups like the Ex Libris Implementation Team have done in the past, and allows us to deliver value-added services that uplift the entire Rutgers community.

    Of course these are only a couple examples of the many exciting projects we have slated for 2020, but I hope they serve as compelling illustrations of all the progress we’re making. I look forward to another productive year ahead!