The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Category: Rutgers University–Newark

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

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – March 2019

    Did You Know?

    Did you know that Ermira Mitre, library technician at Smith Library, is an accomplished writer, poet, and translator—both in the States and in her home country of Albania? Viktor Canosinaj’s The King’s Shadow, which Ermira translated from the original Albanian, is available on Amazon, and her poem “Dust from a Green Leaf” was recently published in the Montclair Write Group’s 2018 sampler.

    That’s Honorable!

    Kudos to Robeson librarians Bart Everts and Julie still, who will both be serving as judges for New Jersey History Day during the South Jersey regional competition at Rutgers–Camden this weekend. Congrats, Bart and Julie!

    Krista Gets Cinematic

    Krista White will give a talk at the Rutgers Cinema on March 12 at 7:30 p.m. for Douglass Residential College’s screening of Captain Marvel. Her talk will be called, “Further, Higher, Faster: Women as Action Heroes in Hollywood.”

    Hopper Expert Coming to Rutgers

    The 33rd annual Bishop Lecture will be held at Alexander Library on March 13. Gail Levin, Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York and Rutgers alumna, is the acknowledged authority on the American painter Edward Hopper. Her lecture focuses on her discovery of a major theft from the Hopper estate before it reached the Whitney Museum, where she formerly served as curator of the Hopper Collection. RSVP on Eventbrite.

    New Databases

    Check out these new resources: Medieval Travel Writing and African American Communities.

    Just for Fun

    Check out this list of 12 Tales of Librarian Badassery from The Booklist Reader!

  • Self-Appraisal Reminder

    In anticipation of an announcement from University Human Resources regarding the performance appraisal program, managers and supervisors should remind URA-AFT staff to begin a self-appraisal. Managers and supervisors should also ensure that employees have a self-appraisal form that includes an accurate list of key duties. Self-appraisals should be completed and returned to supervisors by April 5, 2019. Managers and supervisors must complete performance evaluations and notify eligible employees of the appraisal by April 30, 2019.

    Here is a link to the UHR webpage to assist you in the appraisal process.

    If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Libraries HR.

  • Ex Libris Implementation Project Update – March 2019

    quicksearch logoThis month, the Ex Libris Implementation Team welcomed back Megan Drake from Ex Libris for our follow up to the six-month health check. Following two days of meeting with representatives from various Ex Libris working groups, Megan provided some very actionable suggestions for improving our processes and making our workflow more efficient in Alma. The team is working hard to integrate her suggestions into our processes.

    Leganto Implementation

    This month also marked the kickoff of the Ex Libris Leganto project. Leganto is a course reserves platform that is integrated with both Alma and the course management systems we support at Rutgers, like Canvas, Sakai, Moodle, and Blackboard. This product will give instructors more control over developing their course reserves lists and put the power of the library directly in their course space to help them provide electronic resources and streaming video from our subscriptions, and realtime catalog information for physical reserves.

    Because faculty members are able to create their own course reading lists, Leganto will enable us to increase our course reserves services without creating additional work for reserves management in access services. Students will be able to access course reserves directly from their course management system on any device and Leganto will help faculty select clean pdfs from our subscription databases rather than scans of readings. The system also provides robust analytics and encourages faculty to use materials from within our subscription databases for course reserves, providing us with a more accurate understanding of usage. Ex Libris provides a good overview of the product in this video demo.

    Ex Libris expects that our implementation process will take 12 weeks and the team plans to conduct a pilot with several courses during the summer with an official launch in Fall 2019. Faculty engagement is important for the success of Leganto, so expect to hear soon from your campus Leganto Team representative about communication strategies and training.

  • University Librarian’s Report – March 2019

    As we learned in Lorcan Dempsey’s presentation in January, collections are one area where academic libraries face strategic choices along a continuum that ranges from cooperation (weakest) to consolidation (strongest), with collaboration in the middle. When does it make sense to consolidate infrastructure? What are the advantages of offering access collaboratively versus locally? And what are the tradeoffs that come with these decisions?

    It was somehow reassuring to see that libraries in general are grappling with these issues, since asking these questions is something we do every day at Rutgers. When Cabinet developed our Services and Planning Framework, we thought about what aspects of our work it would be beneficial to consolidate centrally, where our efforts would require shared coordination, and which services were best left to local discretion.

    At this point, the majority of our Foundational services are consolidated. These include activities related to acquisitions, cataloging, and discovery, for example, which are all handled centrally. Services that benefit from having a consolidated infrastructure are typically large-scale and have substantial startup and operation costs—especially in terms of faculty and staff time, with the recent Alma/Primo implementation being a prime example. Once implemented, changes to these services have wide ranging impact and need to be carefully planned and communicated.

    Of course, there are pros and cons to consolidation. On the plus side, it increases operational efficiency and lowers the long-term cost of providing the core services that reach the most faculty and students. The biggest drawback is that in order to gain efficiencies, some local features and specializations can be lost.

    In other areas, like reference and instruction, our activities are coordinated. We decide collectively on a tool or service like Credo or Leganto, but how it is deployed locally is up to the individual unit. Then there are the truly local activities. Education and consulting services, from workshops to systematic reviews, can be tailored to meet the specific needs of our local communities. There is a lot of freedom and flexibility in this area to use the available infrastructure in your own unique way.

    Whether in the BTAA or OCLC, the trending discussion is about these tradeoffs between efficiency and autonomy. At Rutgers, we’re fortunate to have experience navigating these same issues. As the larger academic library environment continues to evolve, we will be well-positioned to contribute meaningfully to these discussions.

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – January 2019

    Talking Gennett Records

    Congratulations to Elizabeth Surles, who was recently interviewed for The Music Makers of Gennett Records, a documentary for WTIU, Indiana Public Television. The Institute of Jazz Studies also provided photographs and archival materials for the film. You can view it on Facebook Live now for a limited time:

    Talking Tech with Mary Beth

    Mary Beth Weber was recently featured in an interview with ALCTS News, the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services blog. In it, she discusses her role at the Libraries, her leadership position in ALCTS, some of her personal interests, and her personal and professional philosophy: “Your best investment is yourself.”

    Robeson Library Helps Camden Kids in Need

    Robeson Library continued its annual tradition of collecting toys for the Camden Rescue Mission this year. All gifts were personal contributions from faculty, staff, or retirees. “Some children in our community near Rutgers–Camden may have no toys to open during the holidays, but during this toy drive, we put a dent in those numbers,” said John Gibson, Robeson’s instructional technology specialist. “As a child, this particular toy drive meant a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to others today.” Cheers to our colleagues in Camden for their continued support of this worthy cause!

    Kudos to Kayo

    Congratulations are in order for Kayo Denda, head of the Margery Somers Foster Center and librarian for women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, who has two exciting news items to report. First, Kayo has been selected for an appointment as a Smithsonian Fellow in Museum Practice at the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access. Kayo’s project “Discovering American Women’s Histories: An Examination of Metadata Schema and Access Issues” will explore how libraries, museums and archives develop metadata relevant to the content of women in American history. The project will emphasize finding digital resources about women of color and appropriate metadata that describes the material and captures multidimensional relationships that increase access to diverse collections in support of ongoing projects on race, ethnicity, class, and gender inclusion. Kayo’s appointment (part-time) will start in mid-May and continue through September 2019.

    Next, Kayo reports that the “Women, Education and Leadership at Rutgers” portal is now live. Here, users can access a collection of interviews created by the award-winning filmmaker June Cross for the documentary From the Boarding House to the Board Room: 250 Years of Women at Rutgers, which was produced by the Institute for Women’s Leadership Consortium in celebration of Rutgers’ 250th Anniversary in 2016. The interviews with Rutgers faculty and alumnae, former deans of Douglass College, the dean of Douglass Residential College, and the director of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs record and chronicle first-hand accounts of the history of women at Rutgers and serve as a unique resource to advance research and learning on women, gender, and leadership at Rutgers and beyond. It also affords to the world a glimpse at the significant work of women’s and gender studies scholars at Rutgers. With guidance provided by Rhonda Marker, two NBL graduate specialists based at the Margery Somers Foster Center created the metadata schema for each interview.

    New Resource for Promoting Your Next Event

    Customizable postcard templates can now be downloaded from the Communications Department website. These 4”x6” postcards are available in portrait and landscape orientations and are a great resource for promoting your next exhibit, lecture, or workshop. Download them here and contact the Communications Department with any questions or suggestions for new templates.

    Rutgers Style Guide Quick Reference Sheet

    University Communications and Marketing recently released a Quick Reference Sheet that addresses common questions about editorial style at Rutgers. This is a great cheat sheet to have bookmarked if you do any sort of writing about Rutgers or the Libraries that is public-facing. It’s also a nice complement to the Libraries Style Sheet. If you have any questions about how to use these resources, please contact the Communications Department.

  • Introducing Libraries HR’s New Website

    I’m happy to announce the launch of Libraries HR’s new staff resources website at https://apps.libraries.rutgers.edu/hr.

    The goal of this page is to be your new one-stop shop for all things related to human resources at the Libraries. It contains need-to-know information for managers, from position management to onboarding and integration; guides to tenure, benefits, and applying for research leave; and a library of useful forms and other documents including CARFs and APPs. There is also a collection of links to resources available via UHR, such as the REHS reporting portal and the university’s holiday closing schedule.

    I hope you’ll have a look and let us know what you think. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!

  • University Librarian’s Report – January 2019

    Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you’ve had a restful winter break and are ready to tackle all the challenges of the upcoming semester.

    Though we are between terms and the activity on campus may have slowed a bit, this is actually a busy time in the Libraries’ planning cycle. The library directors have just completed progress reports on their 2018-2019 plans, adjusting them to reflect progress as well as any changes in their goals for the rest of the year. In addition, the Discovery Working Group, Web Improvement Team, and Virtual Reference Group have updated their annual plans. We have now received news about our 2020 budget, so we will have solid information as we move into the 2019-2021 planning cycle.

    We are also in Town Hall season. Last month the central units had a Town Hall, yesterday was Camden’s, later this week will be New Brunswick’s, and RBHS will hold theirs in February. This year, my Town Hall presentation has focused on our planning cycle. Although some of you have already seen the presentations, and others will soon, it is worth seeing a few times. Like all things Rutgers, the process is a bit complicated but the results are worth the effort. Here are the slides that I’ve been presenting:

    As you can see, the Libraries operate on a two-year planning cycle that is tied closely to the budget activities of the university overall. It’s a three-phase, iterative process that includes establishing local priorities, taking stock of central capacities to support those priorities, and looking ahead to solidify a plan and develop related budget requests. This helps us stay focused on our core services while maintaining the flexibility to respond to important new requests as they come in.

    Our priorities document for 2018-2020 has been added to our mission page and I invite you to read through to get a sense of where we’re headed in the months to come. And, if they haven’t already, your library director will soon be updating you on the local implications of the 2020 budget.

    I know that it seems like a lot to juggle all at once, but sound planning ensures that we continue to build on the momentum we’ve gained and can make the best choices on behalf of all our users. I look forward to seeing all we will accomplish together in 2019.

  • Dana Library and Institute of Jazz Studies Host Society of American Archivists Workshops

    workshop photo
    The SAA workshops provided free training on archival basics to non-professionals who work or volunteer at institutions that cannot afford to employ professional archivists.

    In November and December 2018, Dana Library and the Institute of Jazz Studies hosted a series of five workshops presented by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) via SAA’s “Lone Arranger” Section. The workshops provided free training on archival basics to non-professionals who work or volunteer at institutions that cannot afford to employ professional archivists. The overall goal was to help preserve and provide access to archival collections in New Jersey, hidden due to limited access to information on professional archival practice. Similar workshops were held across the state in Atlantic City, Trenton, and Chester, including one led by the Libraries’ Tara Maharjan. Special thanks to Adriana Cuervo for arranging for refreshments and to Mark Papianni for setting up the workshop space.

  • Planner and Teams in Connect

    The Office of Information Technology has enabled two new Office 365 apps, Planner and Teams, for all Rutgers Connect users. These tools will appear in your Outlook app launcher, aka “waffle.” They work best for users who are members of Office 365 Groups.

    Planner is an application for creating, assigning, and managing tasks. It is useful for collaborating among small groups.

    Teams is a chat-based workspace that integrates all the people, content, and tools that the team needs to be more engaged and effective. It is useful for communicating with team members through messages that require an instant response.

    Every group has its own needs and workstyle, so selecting the best tool is important. This article highlights some of the features available in Planner and Teams.

    plannerPlanner

    • Organize your work
    • Manage tasks
      • Assign user(s)
      • Set due dates
    • Collaborate
      • Communicate with group members
      • Attach project related files
    • Monitor progress
      • Use charts to view progress
      • Get email updates

    Teams

    • Communicate with your team
      • Email
      • Chat
    • Share files
      • Store all your files and docs in one place
    • Team OneNote
    • Audio/Video Meetings
      • On-demand
      • Scheduled
    • Integrate other apps

    Still not clear what is suitable for your group? Please submit a ticket in RULhelp and help will be on the way!

  • Ex Libris Implementation Project Update – January 2019

    quicksearch logoAs we move into spring semester, the Ex Libris Implementation Team is working towards optimizing our workflows and resolving remaining issues in the systems. We passed a major milestone in December with the end of our subscription to Symphony. Integrated Information Systems (IIS) has archived our data and will make it available on request. The Ex Libris Fulfillment Team has also transformed in the New Year and will continue in a new form as the Fulfillment Working Group, addressing central coordination for systems and processes for access services. The Ex Libris Implementation Team moved to a new schedule and will be meeting every other week during spring semester as we address the remaining implementation issues. Some other updates from our work include:

    Updates to QuickSearch

    We made several updates to QuickSearch in early January based on feedback from user testing and from system enhancements provided by Ex Libris. These updates include direct linking through Get it @ R, increased clarity in the display of some menus and options, and search improvements.

    Six-Month Health Check

    Megan Drake, a representative from Ex Libris, visited onsite in January to review workflows and address system issues. Representatives from each working group brought lingering problems for review and Megan suggested alternative strategies and optimizations that will help improve efficiency in Alma.

    Analytics Training for Selectors

    We held our first analytics training session for selectors on January 7. This active training session focused on learning the analytics platform and testing queries related to circulation and fund information. Future sessions are planned for 1–3 p.m. on January 17 and January 22 in New Brunswick and via WebEx and 9–11 a.m. on January 18 in Newark. Prior registration is not necessary, but if you have questions, please contact Laura Costello.

    Ex Libris Identity Service

    At the end of January, Ex Libris will debut an identity management service that will improve security for our barcode and password users. New security standards will ensure better privacy protection and users will be able to change their own password and retrieve a lost password via “My Account.” This update will not impact our users that authenticate via NetID.