Category: Units

Button Making Events: A Magnet for Engagement

On Thursday, November 10^th, 2016, Tara Maharjan, Processing Archivist, Janki Patel, Undergraduate, Art History & Art Library reference assistant, and Megan Lotts, Art Librarian, hosted a pop-up button making space in the lobby of Alexander Library. At this event patrons had the opportunity to create and make their own button, take a pre-made button of an image from Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives, and view a vintage button collection, discovered in a basement, in Edison, NJ.

The inspiration for purchasing a button maker came from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) annual conference in 2013, when Char Booth, current Associate Dean, Library at California State University San Marcos, spoke about libraries building good will within their communities and noted that the button maker they purchased was worth its weight in gold.

Button making can be a low-cost pop up making space that addresses the idea of object, from concept to consumption. In the case of a button, a wearable item is the outcome. Creating a button can strengthen ones’ creative thinking and problem solving skills. Furthermore, it also addresses finding and using images and understanding copyright laws.

Throughout the event many positive comments were made by Rutgers students, faculty, staff, alum, and non-affiliate patrons. Multiple reference questions were asked, and a few patrons inquired about other making opportunities available at the Rutgers University Libraries. Also during the event, the hosts connected with a new student, who was uncertain about navigating the Rutgers systems, and we could share with her information about the libraries, the campuses in general, and what to do in the local area. Lastly, following the event a student reached out from a Rutgers Learning Living Communities (LLC), to ask for 23 Paul Robeson buttons. The LLC is currently researching Robeson, and they all wanted this image from the RUL collections to wear proudly.

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November 29, 2016
Retirement & You
Gary Golden’s retirement cake!

Retirement is defined as “withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from active working life”. Retirement is the goal most employees look forward too. Others not so much. There are a lot of decisions to make and for many the process can be daunting! Educating yourself on this important process is extremely important. To help explain the vital steps, please take note of the following info below:

1.) Attend a retirement seminar here at Rutgers
- Retirement seminars are offered through UHR: You can register for a session through the UHR Learning and Development Course Registration System under the Human Resources Development tab: https://hrservices.rutgers.edu/crs/ then Employee Benefit and Work Life Programs drop down
- PERS members – Tuesday, December 6, 2016 -10-NOON
- ABP members – Wednesday, January 25, 2017 – 10-11:30
2.) Review accumulated leave balances (must take all accumulated leave prior to retirement date) with supervisor or Libraries HR to figure out last physical day at work

3.) Choose a retirement date (must be 1^st of the Month)

4.) Write a brief letter to advise your supervisor of your retirement plans, making sure the letter includes your retirement date (i.e. 3/1/2017) and last physical day at work

5.) Complete and submit PERS or ABP pension paperwork to UHR

6.) Libraries HR finalizes retirement and confirms pension paperwork completed
November 29, 2016
The Rutgers 250 Thank You picnic was a great success

New Brunswick Chancellor Edwards gifted each faculty and staff member of the Libraries with a small commemorative bell and provided us with funds toward an event to recognize the efforts of our colleagues throughout the anniversary year. So, we planned a picnic!

Thanks to his generosity and additional funds from the central administration of the Libraries, we were able to rent the log cabin and picnic area of Rutgers Gardens for the afternoon. Our colleagues donated their time for set up and break down of the event; supplied lawn games for us to enjoy; and led short nature walks through the gardens. And of course, the ice breaker BINGO gave us all opportunities to meet our colleagues and a chance to win a wonderful prize package of Libraries’ swag. It was truly a group effort and we owe a big thank you to everyone who helped to plan and make this day incredibly special. We had well over 150 of our colleagues in attendance and every unit was well-represented. Thank you especially to our colleagues in Camden and Newark for making the trip.

We were also honored to have Chancellor Edwards in attendance and to give a few words of thanks to the Libraries. He is a big fan of what we do and that was evident in his short remarks.

I hope you enjoy this slideshow of photos from the picnic.

November 2, 2016

Quick Takes on Events & News – November 2016

Save the date for Open Textbook Network Workshop – November 18, 2016

Rutgers University Libraries are excited to host a two-hour workshop for faculty which will be led by the Open Textbook Network, which is a national alliance of higher education institutions committed to improving access, affordability, and academic success through the use of open textbooks. The workshop will take place in New Brunswick, but teleconferencing will be available to other locations. Faculty who attend this workshop will learn more about the pedagogical benefits of open textbooks, as well as discover open textbooks in their field. They will also have the opportunity to review an existing open textbook and receive a stipend ($200).

Counterfeit Caesars at the Zimmerli

Tim Corliss teamed up with classics professor Corey Brennan on a new display of counterfeit coins from the Ernst Badian Collection of Roman Republican Coins. Counterfeit Caesars: The Criminal Genius of Coin Forger Carl Wilhelm Becker (1772–1830) is on display at the Zimmerli Art Museum through February 6, 2017.

Buttonmaking event at Alexander Library

On Thursday, November 10th, Alexander Library will host a buttonmaking event for students and the Rutgers community from 3 to 4 p.m. Using our new buttonmakers, they can create a button and take it home. Students can bring an image or color one on-site. Paper & coloring utensils will be available to create customized designs at the event. Pre-made buttons will also be available for taking home. This event is co-sponsored by the Learning & Engagement Team, the Art Library, and Special Collections and University Archives.

Cambridge Structural Database and RUL Data Management Services

Co-sponsored by the CCDC and Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, this workshop will present information about the Cambridge Structural Database, as well as data management best practices and data management services available through the Libraries. The second half of the presentation will be a hands-on demonstration of the uses of the CSD. Please register for one or both parts of the workshop.

The Legacy of Robert Moevs concert

Jonathan Sauceda has teamed up with the Mason Gross School of the Arts to plan a celebratory concert of the modernist composer who taught at Rutgers University from 1964 to 1991. The Legacy of Robert Moevs is a free event taking place Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at Richard H. Shindell Choral Hall, inside Mortensen Hall on the Douglass Campus. It will feature the music of Moevs, as well as composer and sound artist Judith Shatin and Steven Kemper.

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.

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November 1, 2016

Organizational changes clarify collections acquisitions and processing, holdings management, and interlibrary loan
In this column last month, I talked about changes in the organization that were designed to separate central and local responsibilities and to improve our information control functions, particularly in relation to the website, discovery infrastructure, and collections. Shifting the coordinating functions for shared users services from RIS to the newly formed Shared User Services department has created an independent central unit that will work equally with all of the Directors to establish priorities for the website, discovery, shared reference services, and digital projects across the University.

This month, I want to follow up on a second round of organizational changes designed to similarly clarify central/local responsibilities and this time to also focus on the coordination of information related to collections. Previously, the AUL for Collection Development and Management (CDRM) did not have a direct reporting relationship with the units that acquired and managed collections. This reduced opportunities for coordination and accountability.

The changes announced in October will significantly improve the transparency of our practices and decisions by creating teams that are focused on different aspects of collections—acquisitions, holdings management, interlibrary loan, and collections processing.

So, what happened and who is affected?
- DTS has been redefined as Collection Services and Resource Sharing (CSRS). This new unit, reporting to the AUL/CDRM, will include ILL and provide an integrated view of acquisitions where ILL is considered a strategy for providing access to content. Shifting the ILL unit from RIS to CDRM has the added benefit of further clarifying central and local decision-making.
- To keep the efforts of the newly defined CSRS focused on the complexities of acquisitions, the Holdings Management Unit (HMU) will move from the department to report directly to the AUL/CDRM. In the future, we will look for ways to use the mountains of valuable information that is captured in CSRS to formalize an assessment function. When it is established, this function will work closely with the HMU which relies heavily on information about collection use for its operations.
- Not all of the DTS employees moved to CSRS. Some employees became a part of CTS, thus consolidating most of the physical resource workflow processing in that department.
With these changes, we have created an organization that aligns much better with the University’s structure and with our RCM budget requirements. We have created a single unit that is completely focused on managing the central components of collections from acquisitions to holdings management. And, while there are still some details related to access services and some committees that need to be addressed, the major universitywide functions of RIS have officially shifted to central units. Although RIS did an excellent job coordinating shared services, there was always ambiguity regarding decision-making within the unit. Hopefully, these changes will provide more clarity and allow New Brunswick Libraries, together with Special Collection and University Archives, to establish their unique identity.
November 1, 2016
Halloween fun at the Mathematical Sciences and Physics Library

The Mathematical Sciences and Physics Library included separate prizes for their student workers and library users.

This Halloween season the Mathematical Sciences and Physics Library asked and answered an important question: how many mathematics, engineering, or pharmacy students does it take to figure out how many peanut and peanut butter M&M’s are in a jar?

From October 17 to October 31 the library held a candy guessing contest for both their student employees and library users–6 lucky winners in total were declared on November 1.

According to L. Melanie Miller, the students have used many different methods and tools to put forward their best guess.

“What is most fascinating, is watching how a number of students have used ruler’s, calculators and several different calculations to figure out how many pieces of candy there are in the jars,” said Miller.

She also notes that a number of the student workers collaborated to help each other figure it out. Miller describes the scene, saying, “they measured the width, length and circumference of the Jars and even went so far as to include the size and shape of the candy into their calculation.”

An example of one student’s candy counting equation taking into account the diameter and height of the jar measured in candy.

Needless to say, this has been a fun activity for both users and staff. From funny discussions about the choice of candy — what was it about peanut M&Ms? Why not choose plain ones? To last ditch efforts to coerce or persuade the librarians to reveal the correct number of M&M’s, the users and students workers who participated made this a great program.

So, what were the prizes that were on the line?

Student Staff Prizes

1^st Prize – $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

2^nd Prize – the Jar of Candy

3^rd Prize – $5.00 Cash

User Prizes

1^st Prize – the Jar of Candy

2^nd Prize – Library Gift Bag

3^rd Prize – Library Gift Bag

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November 1, 2016
A rare find in the Rutgers Art Library

Interaction of Color on display at Rutgers Art Library. Photo credit: Megan Lotts.

Rutgers Art Library recently unearthed a 1963 copy of a book by Josef Albers, Interaction of Color. The 1963 copy is special, in part, because of its size and format. It was, according to Yale University Press, originally published “as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates.” There were only 2000 original copies made and they sold out quickly. Some copies of this valuable book have made it to auction in recent years.

Following this limited run, Interaction of Color was released in smaller format books (shown in the photo above is art librarian Megan Lotts’ version from the 1990s) and eventually an app from Yale University Press.

The book was on display at the Art Library as part of the launch for the coloring book and will be put to good use in several courses in the spring, according to Lotts.

“I personally feel that this is a spectacular example of the evolution of a book, and will definitely be showing this off to my Byrne seminar in the spring, as well as the Color classes out of Mason Gross Visual Arts. I’ve been fortunate to show this book off to many people from the Zimmerli, MGVA, and arts enthusiasts since we have found it. This book really leaves a lot of mouths dropping.”

For a complete history of Interaction of Color, see this interesting article from The Amherst College Press.

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November 1, 2016
Piloting Stories on the Libraries’ Instagram Account: A Case Study
Back in August, Instagram announced a new feature called Stories. Similar to their counterparts on Snapchat, Instagram stories allow users to create a “slideshow” of images and/or videos that is viewable for 24 hours before disappearing.

Last week, we (@rutgerslibraries on Instagram) published our first story to help promote the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive anniversary panel and exhibit. Following are some reflections after our first foray into using this new feature.
Pros
- As is suggested by their name, stories allow you to shape a narrative around your subject in a way that a single image or video may not.
- Much like Snapchat stories, Instagram stories are well-suited to capturing action as it is happening. This allows you to leverage the “fear of missing out” to generate excitement around your programming.
- When you post or update a story, your account appears in a list that runs across top of others’ Instagram feeds. This extra visibility is a welcome boon given recent changes to the platform’s timeline algorithm.
- You can experiment with the story-based approach to social media without having to build a new audience from scratch on a different platform.
Cons
- While you can download your story content to your camera roll as it is published, the preferred portrait orientation makes it difficult to repurpose your content elsewhere. Shooting in landscape orientation requires your viewers to either turn their heads awkwardly or rotate their phones, an inconvenience that puts your content at risk of being skipped over.
- The 10 second limit on video clips presents some challenges. For example, a speaker’s comments can easily run over and get cut off, necessitating additional takes.
- Viewing statistics disappear along with the image or video they are attached to, complicating assessment.
- Instagram’s story editing tools (basic text and drawing) are limited compared to Snapchat’s, especially its robust filter system.
Next Steps
- Identifying more story opportunities to allow for additional testing. (If you have any ideas, please get in touch!)
- Incorporating stories into the Instagram content schedule.
- Formalizing the procedure for recording and reporting story viewing statistics.
October 31, 2016
Digitization Project at IJS Part of International Effort to Preserve Music Journals

Ben Knysak, left, of RIPM and assistant Gabriel Caballero scanning 1930s issues of Down Beat in October. The effort at IJS is part of an international project to digitize music publications going back to the eighteenth century. Photograph by Mark Papianni.

For two weeks in October, the Baltimore-based research center RIPM set up a scanner in the reading room of the Institute of Jazz Studies. The main objective was scanning the first few years of the venerated magazine Down Beat and a few others of the hundreds of jazz, pop and related periodicals and journals collected by IJS since its founding in 1952.

RIPM (Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals) was founded in 1980 by H. Robert Cohen at the behest of the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) and the International Musicological Society (IMS). The goal was access to some 5,000 international music journals and publications published from 1760 through the 1960s.

“The goal was to create access to journals both for historians and lovers of music,” said Benjamin Knysak, managing associate director of RIPM. “Through these publications, people can put themselves in places where music history happened.”

Knysak said digitizing jazz periodicals face some of the same issues as other periodicals. Some issues are more unique to jazz, such as relative scarcity.

“Many jazz journals are very rare sources of documentation,” he said. “They may have been printed in the limited numbers and had limited distribution because they were not published by large corporations. Many were published by individuals: musicians, aficionados, critics and collectors.”

In many cases, RIPM has tracked down those solo publishers or their heirs who he said have been uniformly thrilled to have their labors of love preserved for posterity.

The Jazz Database will be online in 2017. It will provide fully searchable text and photos based on technology developed by RIPM.

Knysak hopes the relationship between RIPM and the Institute will continue for many years.

“IJS is amazing, simply amazing,” Knysak said. “The breadth and depth of publications held there is unique. We are honored to work with the collection and wonderful colleagues.”

“For many years jazz researchers have been dreaming of having the kind of access to the jazz periodical literature that RIPM will be providing,” said IJS director of operations Vincent Pelote. “I am both proud and happy to have had a part in making that happen.”

In addition to Pelote, associate director Adriana Cuervo and collections manager Elsa Alves are coordinating the project on behalf of the Institute.

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October 31, 2016
Visit of Cape Town Mayor presents international opportunities for Institute of Jazz Studies

On October 9, Capetown Mayor Patricia de Lille was feted during a reception at Clement’s Place, a new jazz venue operated by the Institute of Jazz Studies and the Office of the Chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark. From are Newark Mayor Raz Baraka, de Lille, City Council President Mildred Crump, Linda Juma, and IJS Executive Director Wayne Winborne. Photograph by Bronwyn Douman.

The recent visit of Cape Town, South Africa Mayor Patricia de Lille furthers a relationship to the Institute of Jazz Studies that began in June when IJS Executive Director Wayne Winborne paid a two-week visit to the city.

De Lille arrived in Newark on October 9 and went immediately to a dinner reception held at Clement’s Place. There she was greeted by city officials–led by Mayor Raz Baraka and City Council President Mildred Crump–and Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Music was provided by a sextet led by drummer T.S. Monk, son of the legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The following morning de Lille attended a breakfast in the Special Collections Room at the Dana Library.

Winborne said de Lille’s visit to Newark was one stop in a tour that also included New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Among the topics of discussion were democratic institutions, civil society, and jazz.

On his trip to Cape Town, Winborne was dazzled by the diverse music scene he encountered. He visited such local clubs as The Crypt, The Drawing Room, and Straight No Chaser, and met with musicians, students and educators at the University of Cape Town and the University of Western Cape Town.

“I heard everything from straight ahead jazz to South African to pop-oriented fusion,” said Winborne. He also pointed to the success of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival which has brought in such mainstays on the American jazz scene as pianists Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Gary Bartz as well as well-known local and regional musicians.

Winborne might return to Cape Town as early as January to meet with the mayor, as well as the regional minister of culture to set up some exchange programs between IJS and the city. He predicts IJS will host performances of South African musicians.

Cape Town jazz enthusiasts have already spoken to him about their interest in establishing an archives there to preserve the history of the music. This may result in workshops given by IJS staff members to help get the project off the ground.

“I think this idea has huge potential,” Winborne concluded.

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October 31, 2016