The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Faculty and staff news from the libraries at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

  • New Brunswick Libraries Examines Service Points and User Experience

    In the seven library buildings located across New Brunswick, we have more than 15 service points where we provide circulation, reference, and specialized services. These desks are staffed by undergraduate students, graduate student reference/information assistants, and library staff and faculty. We know that each desk serves a different role and that the staff at each desk are trained to answer different questions. But we also know that when users have a question, they are not interested in the differences between the desks functions—they just want help.

    I am leading the Service Points Team, one of the new groups in the New Brunswick Libraries (NBL) organization, as we start examining services points (physical and virtual) across NBL in order to improve the user experience. Potential areas for exploration include hours, staffing, triage, training, and use analysis, as well as determining how physical service points best complement online services including live chat and Ask a Librarian.

    To start our work, the team hosted a series of forums for the NBL staff and faculty during the spring semester. The forums were designed to bring together all of the people who work at the various service points to talk about what works in our current environment and to identify areas where there are opportunities for improvement. The team also gathered feedback online from student workers and those who were unable to attend a forum in person. More than 50 people participated and provided input.

    Participants were asked to respond to these three questions:

    • When thinking about the service points in the New Brunswick Libraries, what barriers or challenges do you think our users encounter?
    • What do you think works well in our current service desk environment?
    • From the patron’s point of view, describe an enjoyable/satisfying experience at a library service point.

    Service Points Team members took notes during the rich and engaging conversations. We coded more than 400 comments and identified themes that emerged across the sessions. The team will also review the themes identified here along with the LibQUAL survey results, paying particular attention to the general satisfaction, policies, reference, spaces, and staff comments and the “affect of service” ratings to set goals for their work in the coming year.

    The full summary from the Service Points Forum will be discussed at the upcoming NBL ALL meetings, and then shared widely across the organization. Generally speaking, we believe our staff and faculty working at service points are our greatest assets—they are friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. We provide a wide range of services through a variety of delivery methods and have experts available to refer specialized questions. However, the number and variety of service points is confusing to our users. They must often visit more than one desk to get the help they need. They have trouble navigating between our desks, in part because we lack clear and jargon-free signage. And although we have experts available for referral, the refer process itself does not always results in a seamless handoff or escalation.

    Over the next year, the Service Points Team will gather additional information, particularly about usage patterns, and will begin working on projects to address some of the identified challenges. I welcome any feedback or suggestions you have!

  • Kicking off Annual Planning and Budget Process with LibQUAL+ Results

    Kicking off Annual Planning and Budget Process with LibQUAL+ Results

    Welcome to July!

    For me, summer has always been a time to catch up, tidy loose ends, reflect, and prepare for the upcoming academic year. As with so many other things, I am learning that at Rutgers things are different.

    As a cost-center, the summer is a time of planning. Our budgets and plans for the following fiscal year have to be ready by October. That means that our plans for 2018 have to be in place this summer. This month, there will be two Cabinet retreats to begin to establish priorities, look at potential projects, and consider budget requests. There will be many conversations in the coming months.

    As we move into planning, one of the most important issues that we will address is the LibQUAL+ results. I talked about these a bit at the Spring Town Hall, but since these will be at the heart of our planning efforts, it is worth spending more time studying these.

    Overall, our results were good. However, there was a consistent finding, across libraries and universities, that the Information Control dimension did not meet faculty expectations. This graph from the LibQUAL+ results shows the combined results for all 1,200 faculty respondents:

    lib qual survey graph
    This graph is from section 6.2 – Core Questions Summary for Faculty (page 73 of 13501-2 Rutgers University Libraries.pdf available on T:\CENTRAL\Assessments\LibQUAL 2016 Reports).

    Here is a table form of the same information:

    lib qual chart
    The first column represents the minimum mean, the second is the desired mean, the third is the perceived mean, and the fourth is the adequacy mean.

    But what does this mean? LibQUAL+ does a good job of showing us where we are doing well and where we might improve. However, LibQUAL+ doesn’t tell us why and understanding why is the first step in solving the problems.

    When we look at IC-1 and IC-8 together, it is not clear if the problem is lack of collections or difficulty finding the collections. How do the website (IC-2) and access tools (IC-6) contribute to the perception that our collections are below expectations? These are not problems that are simply solved by purchasing more collections or by making improvements to the search functions of our website. They require a multi-pronged approach that balance collections needs and ease of discovery.

    This year, using both one-time funding and new funding from the chancellors, we have made some substantial additions to our collections. These additions include:

    • SWANK Digital Campus subscription: 250 feature films selected by instructors
    • UpToDate: an evidence-based clinical resource
    • Sage Journals: Approximately 180 additional Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Science Journals
    • Wiley Journals: Approximately 880 Science, Technology, Medicine, Social Sciences and Humanities Journal
    • EBSCO e-books: 850 e-book titles selected by faculty and students
    • Springer e-books: Approximately 2300 Biomedical/Life Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
    • American Institute of Physics (AIP) Digital Archive: Digital backfiles of 12 journals and conference proceedings
    • Oxford Journal Archive: Backfiles of about 150 Science and Medicine Journals
    • Wiley Journal: Digital backfiles of about 800 Science, Technology, Medicine, Social Sciences and Humanities Journals

    In addition, we eliminated the fees charged for requesting articles through ILL.

    In the coming year, we need to continue to make smart decisions about new collections and resources and I am confident that the Collection Analysis Group and the Selectors are moving in the right direction. But we must also look more deeply into our access infrastructure, making it easier for faculty to find the information they need. Moving in this direction will take a large amount of coordination, an effort kicked off by the new discovery working group charge.

    The LibQUAL+ results provide us with a tremendous amount of information and highlight opportunities for improvement. I expect that looking deeper at these issues will be a priority in the upcoming year and look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.

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  • Middle School Art on Display at Rutgers Art Library

    Middle School Art on Display at Rutgers Art Library

    • “Winter Night” by Carson He (6th Grade Art Cycle, teacher Antonia Germanos)

    This summer, Rutgers Art Library will host a free public exhibit of artwork by the sixth and seventh grade students at Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, NJ. Art teachers Anna Deacon, Antonia N. Germanos and Lisa Gombas hope the exhibit—on display from June 1 to August 31, 2016—will open students’ eyes to the world of artistic and educational possibilities outside their school classroom.

    Antonia N. Germanos, sixth grade art teacher at Hammarskjold Middle School, describes the motivation behind the exhibit saying, “I hope that placing Hammarskjold Middle Schools students’ work on exhibit at the collegiate level will help our students realize their talent and creativity. I want them to understand that art is part of life and that it can, and should, be taken outside the classroom walls.”

    For Megan Lotts, working with community partners to bring local artists of all ages to her exhibit space serves multiple purposes. “For many of these students, this will be their first and perhaps only art exhibition, but by inviting students and parents to visit Rutgers Art Library, we are giving them insight into what life and research is like at a leading university,” explains Lotts.

    “These very well could be future Rutgers students and many students this age have no idea that art libraries even exist. It can be empowering at a young age to see a space of this nature, as well as have your art work shown in a gallery space.”

    A Mason Gross alumna, Germanos is no stranger to the artistic scene at Rutgers University. She credits strong bonds between the East Brunswick community and Rutgers University with the decision to bring the exhibit to Rutgers Art Library.

    “As a neighboring community, East Brunswick embraces and supports Rutgers University activities and many of our graduates have attended the university,” says Germanos. “Displaying our students work at Rutgers Art Library will hopefully strengthen the bonds between primary, secondary, and collegiate education; honor our students’ hard work and dedication to the fine arts; and create opportunities for students to explore grander aspects of the fine arts.”

    The Hammarskjold Middle School art exhibit will feature a variety of pieces in different mediums, including:

    • Hand cut collages inspired by the Japanese term notan, used to describe the concept of dark versus light. Students embrace contrast through the use of symmetry, asymmetry, color, and shape to create balance. Don’t miss “Winter Night” by Carson He (6th Grade Art Cycle, teacher Antonia Germanos) which draws on associations of winter and white alongside black and night to conjure the feeling of a cold evening.
    • Drawings of objects from life, divided into four sections that use different art materials to create layers of color and value. Don’t miss “Deconstructed Still Life” by Amanda Lee (7th Grade Art Elective, teacher Anna Deacon) featuring playroom and household objects in oil pastels, graphite pencil, colored pencil, and Sharpie pens.
    • A series of Pop Art-inspired oil pastel drawings in which students pay close attention to their chosen light source and the effects of highlights and shadows to pay homage to the confectionery creations of painter Wayne Thiebaud and the bright patterns and thick lines of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Don’t miss “Rainbow Cupcake” by Katherine Mu (7th Grade Art Cycle, teacher Lisa Gombas) which depicts a realistic cupcake set off by a dramatic background and lighting.

  • Rutgers University Libraries at the American Library Association Meeting

    ALA logo

    The American Library Association Meeting will take place later this month in Orlando, Florida. Here are highlights from the program that feature our colleagues:

    Research, Writing, and Publishing Fair

    June 25. 2016
    10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.    		 Are you interested in publishing? Would you like to learn about a variety of opportunities to publish, resources to help you get started with writing an article or a book, and tools that will make research and writing for publication better and easier? Please join us for the Research, Writing, and Publishing Fair, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet with ALCTS editors, the Library Research Round Table, learn about publishing mentoring opportunities in ALA, and more. Sponsored by ALCTS Leadership Development Committee. Co-Sponsored by ALA Library Research Round Table (LRRT), ALCTS New Members Interest Group (ANMIG), and ALA New Members Round Table (NMRT).

    Speaker: Mary Beth Weber (Rutgers University Libraries)

    ACRL Arts Publications and Research Committee Annual Discussion Forum

    June 25. 2016
    3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.    		 Join ACRL Arts Publications and Research Committee for their Annual Discussion Forum! This year’s forum will feature the following presentations:

    • “Artists as Scholars: The Research Behavior of Dance Faculty” by Shannon Marie Robinson (Drexel University)
    • “Building Bridges, Creating Partnerships and Elevating the Arts: the Rutgers University Art Library Exhibition Spaces” by Megan Lotts (Rutgers University Libraries)
    • “You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato: Collection Format Preference of Music Faculty” by A. Carey Huddlestun (Kennesaw State University)

     

    If there are additional Rutgers University Libraries highlights I should include here, leave a comment below or let me know.

  • Behind the Scenes of the Historic Commencement of 2016

    The view on commencement day. Photo credit: Nick Romanenko, University Photographer, Creative Services
    The view on commencement day. Photo credit: Nick Romanenko, University Photographer, Creative Services

    On September 27, 2005 at the opening of the exhibition of the newly purchased East Jersey materials held at Morven Museum and Gardens in Princeton, Richard P. McCormick, distinguished professor of history at Rutgers, presented remarks on the extraordinary acquisition of colonial New Jersey documents from Christie’s. “What a glorious day!” McCormick stated at the beginning of his address. I’m sure that, as a Rutgers University historian, he would have felt the same way about Commencement in 2016.

    Indeed, it was a “glorious day” for the entire university community. To have the first sitting President of United States present the Commencement address was perhaps the signature event in the year-long celebration of Rutgers’ 250th anniversary.

    As a member of the Executive Planning Committee for Rutgers 250, I was involved in early discussions and was delighted to hear Matt Weismantel, Senior Director of Rutgers 250, was considering extending an invitation to President Barack Obama. We knew it was likely a far-fetched idea, given the complexity of scheduling and the number of invitations a president receives for such occasions, but there were numerous factors that weighed in favor of Rutgers, particularly its celebration as the eighth oldest college in the nation and its distinctly diverse student population. A three-year campaign, as highlighted in President Obama’s commencement remarks, resulted in a last-minute acceptance and dramatic preparations for a presidential visit to the Banks of the Old Raritan.

    I was fortunate to contribute to the events of this remarkable day. On the Friday preceding commencement, I received a call from Greg Trevor, director of media relations, asking if I would do an interview with WNYC (NPR) about Rutgers history. I told Greg that I would be more than willing to participate and that evening I participated in a five-minute conversation for a segment of “All Things Considered” that aired the following day at 5:30 p.m.

    During our preparations for the “All Things Considered” interview, I mentioned to Greg that I did not have a ticket for Sunday’s ceremony. If anything, I thought he might be able to get me a ticket as a professional courtesy, so I could observe this historic moment in my capacity as the university archivist. But Greg went one step further and added me to the Media Relations team that assembled in the press box at High Point Solutions Stadium.

    So, in addition to being a spectator, I also contributed to the event by informing the media about Rutgers past. During commencement, I was interviewed by both print media (the Star Ledger, Home News, Bergen Record, among others) as well as broadcast media (WCTC and WRSU).

    As I sat in the box at the 50-yard line looking at the crowd and listening to a wonderful commencement address, I kept thinking about Richard P. McCormick and wondering what his reaction would have been. To me, it was one of the most significant days in Rutgers history and I’m sure Richard McCormick would have agreed!

    “What a glorious day!” indeed.

  • News from The New Brunswick Libraries’ Undergraduate Experience Team

    Lily Todorinova and Rose Barbalace describe some of the activities the New Brunswick Libraries’ Undergraduate Experience Team have undertaken in recent months or have planned for the summer.

    #ClubAlex

    IMG_7530The Libraries partnered with Student Affairs once again to bring Club Alex back to Alexander Library during Senior Days. This much-anticipated annual event, which sold out within minutes, saw hundreds of graduating seniors and their guests descend upon the library-turned-nightclub on the day following the conclusion of finals. Alexander was transformed with all the trappings one would expect of an actual club: mood lighting and pipe and drape walls helped set the tone in the reference room—which featured a DJ, dance floor, and bar—and an R&B lounge was installed on the ground floor for those who preferred a more intimate atmosphere. A photo booth allowed partygoers to capture the excitement of the evening, and a massive Pac-Man-themed light show was projected onto the atrium walls to the delight of all in attendance.  The buzz on social media was considerable, with many students expressing their gratitude and enthusiasm—and perhaps even more alumni wishing that they had had the chance to party at the library when they were still at Rutgers! Club Alex is a great opportunity for us to create an impression of the Libraries that will last in students’ minds well beyond graduation, and we are grateful to be a partner in this event each year.

    Aresty Undergraduate Research

    The Summer Science Program of the Aresty Research Center offers sophomores an intensive research experience with a dedicated faculty adviser, as well summer  housing and a $3000 stipend. This year, students are working on a diversity of fascinating topics, from cancer prevention, to wearable devices and impact on dietary behaviors, to cataloging emission lines from simulated galaxies. Recognizing the importance of information literacy to the success of these students, the Center has recently reached out to Lily Todorinova, Undergraduate Experience Librarian, to lead several research sessions for the students. With the help of Laura Palumbo, Chemistry & Physics Librarian and Science Data Specialist, we will hold several active learning-based workshops for the 60 or so students in the program, which will focus on finding, evaluating, and using scholarly sources. We are excited to support these students and help them navigate the wealth of academic research resources available to them.

    -Lily Todorinova

    Undergraduate Experience Team Exam Week Stressbuster Report

    IMG_7438
    Students relax with therapy dogs in the lobby of Douglass Library during Spring 2016 Stressbusters.

    During the spring semester exam period (May 2 – May 11) the New Brunswick libraries hosted over 22 stressbuster events and activities, engaging with hundreds of students. New this semester we expanded our stressbuster activities to the Art Library, Math/Physics Library, and Chang Science Library each offering snacks and bottled water. The students expressed their thanks and appreciation as they waited patiently in line for their cookie or coffee. The pet therapy sessions were also extremely popular with many students staying nearly the whole hour with their favorite dog.

    Here are some of the highlights of items distributed during finals week:

    • 1480 bottles of water
    • 1000 ear plugs
    • 768 cookies
    • 675 sandwiches
    • 500 cups of coffee
    • 480 granola bars
    • 388 bags of chips
    • 160 packs of fruit snacks
    • 126 packages of cookies
    • 20 gallons of iced tea
    • 20 gallons of lemonade
    • 7 pet therapy sessions
    • 5 lbs. of chocolate
    • brunch at the Library of Science and Medicine serving coffee, orange juice, bagels, croissants, muffins, and pound cake. (Tried something new, students loved it!)
    • hundreds of coloring pages, stickers, stamps, and other craft supplies offered at two de-stress stations.

    Special thanks to Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, RU Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club, Creature Comfort Pet Therapy, Jimmy John’s, New Brunswick Libraries Administration, and Rutgers Health, Outreach, Promotion and Education for sponsoring these events.

    -Rose Barbalace

  • Annual Celebrations for Staff and Faculty of Rutgers University Libraries (2016)

    Recently, the University convened two events to recognize faculty and staff who are celebrating a decade increment of employment at Rutgers. We are delighted to announce that more than 25 of our colleagues were included in the festivities and hope you join us in congratulating them on these accomplishments:

     

    10 Fay Austin (TAS)

    Ashwin Bijur (TAS)

    Kevin Conover (RIS)

    Eric Fizur (Robeson Library)

    Qun Luo (RIS)

    Holly Muller (RIS)

    Alfreda Richardson (RIS)

    Christopher Singh (Dana Library)

    Li Sun (TAS)

    William Torres (RIS)

     
    20 Stephanie Bartz (RIS)

    Barbara Grau (RIS)

    Charlene Houser (Central administration)

    Yoshiko Ishii (Dana Library)

    Mei Ling Lo (RIS)

    Andres Martinez (RIS)

    Fernanda Perrone (SC/UA)

    Julie Still (Robeson Library)

     
    30 Ka-Neng Au (Dana Library)

    Gary Golden (Robeson Library)

    David Hoover (TAS)

    Martin Kesselman (RIS)

    Kenneth Kuehl (Central administration)

    Linda Langschied (TAS)

    Julianna Ritter (TAS)

    James Robinson (RIS)

     
    40 Natalie Borisovets (Dana Library)

     

     

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  • From Townhall to Rutgers Day, We Have a Lot to Celebrate

    From Townhall to Rutgers Day, We Have a Lot to Celebrate

    Hello all –

    I hope you all enjoyed the Townhall meeting last week. It was great to see so many of our colleagues virtually and in-person and to review all the ways we’ve moved forward on the priorities we identified at the State of the Libraries in the fall. The presentation by the architects provided us with a glimpse of how the spaces in our libraries are currently configured providing a baseline for planning for the changes that will meet the needs of the students and faculty. The LibQUAL+ survey results give us insight into what our users really think of the services we provide – which are necessary or optional, where we meet their expectations and where we don’t.  Together, these provide us with a strong foundation for planning.

    We are coming up with ways to share all the graphs and comments from LibQUAL+ with the Libraries’ faculty and staff, so look for this soon. I expect this will generate a lot of discussion and activity for us all, but in the meantime, with Memorial Day behind us and the summer yawning ahead, I wanted to take a breather and look back at one of the most popular and fun events the Libraries take part in…Rutgers Day!

    As you all know, Rutgers Day was expanded to Newark and Camden this year, in addition to sites in New Brunswick at Busch and College Ave. Each site celebrated the day a little differently, but across the board, I heard nothing but praise for our displays and activities. Thank you for taking the time to make the Libraries’ contributions to Rutgers Day exceptional in every way.

    From Newark bringing a bona fide Star Wars actor to campus and showcasing the activities of the archivists and IJS, to Camden collaborating with the public library branch to bring touches of superhero whimsy to campus, to New Brunswick inviting some impressive student athletes to read in our children’s reading corner—major effort went into making sure the Libraries’ booths and stands stood out from the crowd. Thank you to all of the volunteers who took time out of a sunny weekend day to participate in Rutgers Day and a special thanks to the members of the Rutgers Day committee who put it all together!

    Most of us only get to see one part of Rutgers Day, so I hope you enjoy the photographs below.

    Thank you,

    Kris

     

    • Hands-on Rutgers Day activities on the Busch campus.

     

    Thank you to our Rutgers Day volunteers:

    Busch:

    Students:

    Jenali Patel

    Jacek Zmuda

     

    Faculty & Staff:

    Mei Ling Lo (Chair)

     

    Camden:

    Students:

    Amanda Deptula

    Alex Carrigan

     

    Faculty & Staff:

    Zara Wilkinson (Chair)

    Julie Still

    Vibiana Cvetkovic

    Monique Whittle

    John Gibson

    Melinda Aviles

    Theresa Macklin

     

    New Brunswick:

    Joe Abraham

    Matt Badessa

    Marty Barnett

    Isaiah Beard

    Jeanne Boyle

    Stacey Carton

    Henry Charles

    Judith Cohn

    Peggy Dreker

    Melissa Gasparatto

    Marianne Gaunt

    Mina Ghajar

    Erika Gorder

    Bela Gupta

    Pam Hargwood (co-chair)

    Zachary Johnson

    Melissa Just

    Kim Kaiser

    Rob Krack

    Linda Langschied

    Tara Maharjan

    Jackie Mardikian

    Jim Niessen

    Erica Parin (co-chair)

    Jessica Pellien

    Tonie Perkins

    Roselyn Riley

    Kati Ritter

    Sheridan Sayles

    Connie Wu

    Tao Yang

    Katrina Zwaaf

     

     

    Newark:

    Consuella Askew

    Dorothy Grauer

    Maggie Harris-Clark

    Tad Hershorn (chair)

    James McElroy (Graduate student, assistant to IJS Associate Director Adriana Cuervo)

    Mark Papianni

    Vincent Pelote

    Marlene Reilly

    Chris Singh

    Wen-Hua Ren

    Elizabeth Surles

    Ann Watkins

    Krista White

     

     

    If your name does not appear on this list and you volunteered at Rutgers Day, please email Jessica Pellien to have it corrected.

     

     

     

     

  • Celebrating the Life of Ellen Calhoun

    Celebrating the Life of Ellen Calhoun

    Ellen Calhoun
    Heaven’s the place where all the dogs you’ve ever loved come to greet you. —Unknown

    Ellen Calhoun (August 17, 1949 – December 17, 2015) was the beloved wife of Bob DeMartino, with whom she celebrated forty four years of happy marriage. She graduated from Douglass College and had strong ties to Rutgers University.

    Ellen joined Rutgers University Libraries on November 2nd, 1981 as a Circulation Librarian. She achieved tenure in July 1988. During her thirty-four-year career at Rutgers, her titles included Head of the Reference Department, Serials Librarian, and Head of the Government Documents Department. As a government documents librarian at the Library of Science and Medicine, she helped countless library users track down hard-to-find materials including government documents, soil surveys, and topographic maps. She was also a patents expert and an early adopter of technologies in the library. In 1988, she was recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service for her outstanding public service contribution in government documents. As the author of several publications, she received an Outstanding Research Award, presented by the New Jersey Library Association for her paper, “Patents: A Valuable Resource in the Information Age”, with Connie Wu.

    In addition to her skills as a librarian, Ellen was a friend who will be missed for her wit, her gentleness, and her love for all living things, especially dogs. We wish her peace among all of her beloved animal friends.

    Donations in Ellen’s memory may be made to:
    Big Fluffy Dog Rescue
    or
    the charity of your choice

    Big Fluffy Dog Rescue is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization

     

  • “The Book: Digital, Edible, and as Art”

    “The Book: Digital, Edible, and as Art”

    • Edible books return as part of the Byrne Seminar taught by Megan Lotts: “The Book: Digital, Edible, and as Art.” Click on this image to see more.

     

    These books were created by students in the Spring 2016 Byrne Seminar “The Book: Digital, Edible, and as Art.” All photos were taken by Megan Lotts.