The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Rutgers University–New Brunswick

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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • What’s Happening around Rutgers – November 2019

    “Top Girls” Theater Performance

    Friday, November 1, 7:30 p.m.
    Fine Arts Building, Walter K. Gordon Theater, Camden

    The Rutgers–Camden theater program presents Top Girls. Hilarious and haunting, Caryl Churchill’s feminist masterpiece set in Margaret Thatcher’s England is a wildly innovative play about a country divided by its own ambitions. Marlene has reached the pinnacle of success as the head of the Top Girls Employment Agency—but at what price? Purchase tickets. (Additional shows on Saturday and Sunday.)

    Philip Roth Lecture: Sean Wilentz

    Monday, November 4, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
    Newark Public Library, Newark

    This year’s lecturer is Princeton’s Sean Wilentz. Mr. Wilentz is the author of a wide range of books including The Rise of American Democracy, No Property in Man, Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, and Bob Dylan in America.

    His lecture topic is American Slavery, American Anti-slavery. After retiring, Mr. Roth devoted most of his reading to the study of American history.

    Professor Wilentz was Roth’s guide, helping him to make book selections and engaging in discussions of the material.

    The event is free. Valet parking is available. Seating will be available on a first-come/first-served basis.

    RSVP here.

    Planetary Science Late Night

    Wednesday, November 6, 4:00–8:00 p.m.
    Rutgers Geology Museum, New Brunswick

    Visit us on Wednesday, November 6th, and learn about our Solar System and all of its planetary bodies! Demonstrations, arts and crafts and educational activities will be set up around the museum for this event and people are welcome to come and go as they please. We encourage all ages to come participate and learn something new! More information.

  • Harry Potter, Books We Read, Science Café – What’s Cooking at Chang?

    The fall 2019 semester has brought literature, science, and even a little magic to the Stephen and Lucy Chang Library on Cook Campus.

    In course papers on redesigning the Chang Science Library submitted for the Landscape Architecture course in 2018, students expressed their strong interest in events at the library that are “educational, entertaining, and competitive.” Inspired also by the revelation that Rutgers students not only read for fun, but enjoy a wide variety of genres and topics, the Chang Science Library took the challenge to meet the interests and expectations of the Rutgers community today.

    In the summer of 2019, we developed a group of new programs to promote recreational reading at the library under an umbrella initiative called Books We Read. The idea originated from library sessions in spring 2019 taught as part of a SEBS course called Portals to Academic Success (PASS), where students were tasked to find one of their favorite books in QuickSearch and, using a template, create a poster including the book’s title, its availability at the Libraries, an image, and the proper citation. A select group of posters were displayed at Chang Library after the course, but when students asked for a virtual home for the posters the Books We Read website was born. Galleries of these posters are still available on the site as examples of peer-to-peer book recommendations.

    Books We Read is exactly what the name suggests: an initiative to promote, highlight, and build communities around reading for pleasure at Rutgers. Hosted on the brand new Rutgers WordPress site, the Books We Read website aims to facilitate non-required reading through book suggestions from students for other students. It also links to a curated lists of books available at Rutgers Libraries in a LibGuide, updated frequently. The browsable collection showcasing books in American literature and recreational reading also includes titles for ESL (English as a Second Language) readers.

    Led by Nick Allred (MSt., Oxford), PhD candidate at the Rutgers English Department and Graduate Specialist at New Brunswick Libraries, a weekly short-fiction reading group has begun meeting on Wednesdays at Chang Science Library in the Fall semester to promote reading for fun. Students are invited to join as often as they like, and no preparation is required as we will be reading the pieces in session. Advertised as “like SPEED-DATING THE LIBRARY STACKS”, the program will allow students to encounter writers from classic to contemporary, discuss the experience with friends, and maybe even start a fling with a new favorite author or genre.

    The reading program, along with the web site, wishes to create a sustainable model of reading for pleasure individually or in a group setting, using the Libraries’ collection. It intends to connect students with library resources, while helping them learn about library research for their school assignments. By providing tips and resources, the sessions and the web site also empower students to create book clubs or reading groups of their own.

    The kick-off event on Tuesday, September 17 revolved around one of the most beloved recreational reads on Rutgers (or any) campus: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. SEBS faculty and students volunteered to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone aloud in shifts throughout the day, all while enjoying Harry Potter-themed outfits, activities, food, drinks (butterbeer, anyone?), and goodies. Over 30 readers participated, split evenly between faculty and students – the latter drawn largely from two dedicated student groups, READ, the Rutgers University Book Club and Muggle Mayhem (the Rutgers Chapter of Harry Potter Alliance). The competition aspect of the event involved Harry Potter trivia and spells managed by students and an international component to identify languages of book covers from the international editions. Thanks to art librarian Megan Lotts and archivist Tara Maharjan, participants also got a chance to make buttons and color in unusual (or magical!) archival images scanned from special collections.

    The event was extremely well received on the Cook Campus and the Libraries and SEBS social media. The success is based on Chang’s central location on campus and partnerships previously established with the SEBS Office of Academic Affairs and the SEBS International Office. The two new student group partners hopefully will strengthen ties with pleasure readers on other campuses.

    Another new initiative also shows a great promise for all parties. On September 18, the first Science Café was held at the Chang Science Library. A popular event on the Cook Campus, the Science Café series invites experts and laypeople to have coffee and chat about important issues in science. The successful event, entitled “Why We Need Pest Management”, will be followed by two more: on October 24, Oscar Schofield will discuss “Why Rutgers is Building a Global Ocean Observing a System and it is COOL!” and on November 14, Donna Fennell and Kevin Dixon will talk about how “Microbes are in the Atmosphere!”, both from 10 am to 11 am.

     

  • Reservations Accepted for One Button Studio

    One button studio at Alexander Library
    The One Button Studio at Alexander Library.

    Students, faculty, and staff now can reserve the One Button Studio in Alexander Library to create high-quality digital video recordings in a studio setting. The studio does not require users to have prior video production knowledge. Lighting, audio, and video configurations have been pre-set for ease of use.  With support and funding from Ben Sifuentes-Jáuregui, vice chancellor for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, this space will enable students to present their research as a high-quality video, an alternative to the more static conventions of the poster or long-form essay. The room is set up for one to three people to create a video with only a FAT formatted flash drive. It really is as simple as 1-2-3-4: insert your USB drive into the dock, press the large silver button to begin recording, press the button to stop recording, and remove your USB drive to deactivate the studio camera and lights. Shared User Services provided support to list the One Button Studio on the Group Study Rooms web page and link to a user guide/reservation page. Reserve the room online and visit the Circulation Desk in Alexander Library to check out the key with your Rutgers ID card.

  • Robert Moevs Audio Archive

    Robert Moevs at piano
    Robert Moevs (1920–2007) served on the faculty of Rutgers University from 1964 to 1991, and as chair of the Music Department from 1974 to 1981.

    The Robert Moevs Audio Archive now features publicly available streaming clips of all of its 193 pieces and is one of the libraries’ featured Digital Collections. The audio was digitized from reel-to-reel and cassette tapes to preserve the material while making it more easily accessible. The metadata is visible to anyone, and the complete audio can be accessed from computers in Douglass Library.

    An accomplished composer and beloved teacher, Robert Moevs (1920–2007) served on the faculty of Rutgers University from 1964 to 1991, and as chair of the Music Department from 1974 to 1981. Accolades include fellowships, residencies, and awards from the American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim, the National Institute of Arts and Sciences, ASCAP, and the Stockhausen International Prize in Composition. The creator of a rich body of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and instrumental music, Moevs’s work received major performances by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony, and Leonard Bernstein and Symphony of the Air. He was also a revered professor whose students include Richard Wilson at Vassar College and Judith Shatin at the University of Virginia.

    The Robert Moevs Audio Archive ensures the preservation of the composer’s music and the style he represents for generations to come. Modernist composers sought to challenge and expand the horizons of the listener; as teachers, they significantly impacted the scholarly study of music. Digitization and metadata creation was possible thanks to the Moevs endowment, which generously supports conferences and concerts on 20th-century modernist music.

    I’d like to thank everyone who worked on this project, especially Kalaivani Ananthan, Marty Barnett, Isaiah Beard, Thomas Izbicki, Lila Kwederis, Rachael Lansang, Rhonda Marker, Sam McDonald, Janice Pilch, Geoffrey Wood, and Esther Zenzele.

  • On the Impact of a Casual Conversation

    Kayo and student
    Noah Mac and I during New Student Orientation at Carr Library.

    One never thinks that a casual conversation with a librarian at Rutgers Day might impact a student’s decision to come to Rutgers University, but this is one such example.

    Noah Mac, RU ’21 and I met for the first time during the cool morning of 2017 Rutgers Day. Noah and his father were among the many visitors to the Rutgers University Libraries table in front of the Art Library. I engaged in a conversation with them and learned that they were visiting from Michigan. The visit was important for Noah, a high school senior, as he was in the process of selecting the college where he was to spend the next four years. After a friendly conversation that included information on the 250-year history of Rutgers and library services available for undergraduate students, I often wondered which college Noah ended up attending, especially because Michigan has so many options of state universities with great academic standings.

    It was a great pleasure for me to meet Noah for the second time in August 2018, when he was attending the New Student Orientation at Carr Library. He mentioned that the Rutgers Day conversation in 2017 had made a very positive impact on his decision in coming to Rutgers. Unexpectedly, Noah and I met for the third time during the 2019 New Student Orientation at Carr Library. This time, Noah was an orientation leader with the New Student Orientation and Family Programs guiding the incoming student groups from one event to another. After talking about his successful first year at Rutgers, Noah mentioned to me that the story he tells his group of incoming students, My Rutgers Story, includes “a librarian whom he met on Rutgers Day” who made him feel “not just another number,” impacting his decision!

    Noah will be majoring in microbiology and in addition to his academic endeavors has other talents, including that of being a trumpet performer in the Rutgers Marching Band. He is certainly very talented, as he was one of the five trumpet performers (among 35 or so) to be selected to travel with the band to a football game in Ann Arbor, MI against University of Michigan in fall 2019. He is delighted to go back to his home state as a member of Rutgers Marching Band representing the university.

  • Making Room for (Space) Improvement

    Last month the Central unit completed a series of relocation projects within Alexander Library and the Libraries Technical Services Building in order to maximize the efficient use of space and prepare for future improvement projects.

    We were pleased to welcome Communications, Shared User Services and Digital Projects to the administrative offices on the third floor at Alexander: Matt Badessa, Rhonda Marker, Marty Barnett, and Isaiah Beard are now located at 169 College Avenue, and may be reached at their same telephone lines. Business Operations, including Abigail DiPaolo, Amanda Presler and Jodi Costeira, have relocated within the administrative suite, so their address and telephone lines will not change.

    We are also excited to welcome Gracemary Smulewitz to the SCC space on the fourth floor of Alexander. Web services librarian Amy Kimura and discovery services librarian Joseph Deodato have now relocated to TSB, near to their frequent collaborators in IIS and TAS, and can be reached at their same telephone lines at 47 Davidson Road.

    These new arrangements are partly the result of achieving certain goals and priorities for FY2019, namely, the addition of Jeffrey Carroll, our new AVP of scholarly communications and collections, who joins Rutgers on July 15. In the coming year, both Alexander Library and TSB will undergo limited renovation projects to include more collaborative space for staff and students, and to co-locate School of Communication and Information faculty in Alexander Library.

    The Libraries are accustomed to the strengths and challenges of working together across 16 buildings and three campuses, and effective workspace is always in demand. More news about ongoing space improvements will follow as we work on the functionality and use of the Technical Services Building. We look forward to the next phase of enhancements!

    Want more exciting news about spaces and places at RUL? Read about the Dana Library Transformation Project and track its progress on its dedicated blog.

  • What’s Happening around Rutgers – July 2019

    Bach 2 Rock: The Science of Sound

    Thursday, July 11 | 10 a.m.
    Walter K. Gordon Theater

    This multimedia presentation by Caryn Lin transforms sound with a five-string electric violin and a myriad of modern technology. Students journey from the classical days of Bach to today’s techno-wonders. Part of the Summer Arts at RCCA program. Performances are open to everyone, but are especially recommended for Camden City youth ages 4-18. Group size is generally limited to approximately 125 per performance. A supervisor is required for every ten students.

    Newark Gay Pride Festival and Flag Raising

    Sunday, July 14 | Line up at 11 a.m. | March begins at noon
    Lincoln Park at the intersection of Broad St. and Clinton Ave.

    March with RUN faculty, staff, students and alumni to show your pride and support for the LGBTQ community! Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, light clothing, and a hat or sunglasses (and Rutgers gear if you have it). RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/RUNNWKPrideMarch.

    Summer Fest

    Saturday, July 27 | 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
    Rutgers Gardens

    Our annual Summer Fest, run by our Summer Interns, showcases all the Gardens has to offer! The festival celebrates Rutgers agricultural research and development. Join us for tours, tastings, games, and more! Find more information at https://rutgersgardens.rutgers.edu/event/summer-fest/.