A July 6 Rutgers Today story featured summer reading recommendations from five of our librarians: Melissa De Fino, cataloging and metadata librarian, Collections and Digital Strategies; Naomi Gold, reference and instruction librarian, Dana Library; Tony Nguyen, associate university librarian, Rutgers Health Libraries; John Powell, reference and instruction librarian, Paul Robeson Library; and Lily Todorinova, undergraduate experience librarian/open educational research, Douglass Library. The story’s “If you like this, try that” format offers alternate books to consider if you can’t get your hands on the latest bestsellers.
Melissa De Fino and Mary Beth Weber, coordinator for training and mentorship, received a rare gold star review from Library Journal for their book, Library Technical Services: Future Forward (Bloomsbury, November 2025). “This valuable work provides a window into the magic and dedication behind the scenes that are necessary to make library resources available to users,” wrote reviewer James Rhoades.
Maria Deptula, health sciences collections librarian at Smith Library, and Mina Ghajar, education and research librarian at Smith Library, represented Rutgers Health at the 14th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML) 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 14–16. They presented “Evidence-Based Practice in Action: Evaluating Open Access and Transformative Agreements to Inform Library Strategy at Rutgers Health,” highlighting their research on open access publishing and transformative agreements and engaging with health information professionals from around the world.
Becky Libourel Diamond, Business Instruction Librarian at Carr Library, was featured in an article in Bucks County Magazine. The article highlighted her books on culinary history with a special focus on her new book that comes out this month, City Tavern: The Founding Table―Colonial Dining, Revolutionary History, and the Restaurant at the Center of it All (Westholme Publishing, August 2026).
City Tavern: The Founding Table is Diamond’s fifth book and her third with Westholme Publishing. The book takes readers inside the City Tavern, the Philadelphia hotspot where the men crafting the country’s future met for dining, drinking and discourse. When the Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, City Tavern was designated as a neutral spot for delegates to make connections, solicit opinions, and offer off-the-record thoughts and solutions―all over a pint of ale or glass of Madeira. This important role continued throughout the Revolution and beyond. Many of the founding fathers dined there, and George Washington even used it briefly as his headquarters. City Tavern: The Founding Table views this crucial time in America’s history through the tavern’s lens, and the book’s publication aligns with America’s 250th anniversary year. Judit Hajnal Ward, science reference and instruction librarian at Chang Library, interviewed Diamond about the book for a recent Books We Read post.
Richard Jutkiewicz, head of access services at Smith Library, was invited to present at Yeshiva University on June 17. The presentation, part of a mini-symposium titled The 21st Century Academic Library, was on “Connecting Through Craft: Library Outreach and Marketing with Crochet and Knitting Programs.” This outreach presentation highlighted a program that library technician Ermira Mitre had developed for medical students interested in crafting. The program and presentation provided an example of how academic libraries can connect with students and create partnerships with student organizations.
Ann Marie Latini, head of access services at Robeson Library, recently co-authored an article published in the Journal of Diversity & Inclusion Research titled, “Breaking Barriers in Nursing Education: A Scoping Review on the Experiences of Nursing Students with Disabilities Using Arksey and O’Malley’s Framework.” The article examines the experiences of nursing students with disabilities and highlights barriers and opportunities for creating more inclusive nursing education environments.
Latini and Jutkiewicz presented at the New Jersey Academic Libraries (NJAL) Summer Workshop, hosted by the NJAL Access Services group at Drew University in Madison. Their presentation was titled “Building Belonging Through Onboarding: A ‘One Libraries’ Approach to Welcoming New Employees at Rutgers University Libraries.” The presentation highlighted the research, planning, early development stages, and future directions of a collaborative, system-wide onboarding program designed to connect new hires with colleagues, resources, and the broader library community. Inspired by work completed through the ARL Strategies Institute, the initiative emphasizes engagement, mentorship, shared learning, and cross-campus collaboration.
Christie Lutz, New Jersey regional studies librarian and head of public services in Special Collections and University Archives, gave a presentation, “This is Larkin Barkin’: New Jersey’s Own Country and Western DJ Don Larkin” at the 42nd Annual International Country Music Conference, held in May at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lutz was interviewed for and quoted in the recent American Archivist article “All the Freaks We’ve Saved: The Louisville Underground Music Archive in Retrospect and Comparison.” As part of their study, the authors sought to take the pulse of punk archives similar to their own now that time has passed since these archives were founded. Lutz provided information on the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive, housed in Special Collections and University Archives. The authors also cited Lutz’s 2022 American Archivist article, “Making a Scene: A Scenes Approach to a Local Music Archives,” as well as Adriana Cuervo’s review essay of three books on DIY music archiving in The American Archivist 81, no. 2 (2018). This article is a follow-up to the authors’ 2016 seminal American Archivist article, “Saving All the Freaks on the Life Raft: Blending Documentation Strategy with Community Engagement to Build a Local Music Archives.”
Fernanda Perrone, archivist and head of the exhibitions program for Special Collections and University Archives, and co-editor Haruko Wakabayashi, an associate teaching professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, appeared at a launch and signing event for their recent book on August 1. During the event, held at the American Buddhist Study Center in New York, they discussed Rutgers Meets Japan: A Trans-Pacific Network of the Late Nineteenth Century (January 2026, Rutgers University Press).
Christopher Sterback, system administrator for Information Technology Services, presented in a HathiTrust sponsored webinar on the experience of a library partner working on the Google Books project. Because the May 19 webinar was presented to five universities that are currently onboarding, Sterback focused on the experience of working on the project from the member perspective. The webinar was titled “Ingest Orientation Session for New Google Scanning Partners” and, in addition to Sterback, included presenters from the HathiTrust and the California Digital Library, which manages the bibliographic metadata for HathiTrust contributors.
Elizabeth Surles, archivist, Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, presented her paper “Measuring What Matters: A Diversity Audit Tool for Archives” at the Society of American Archivists Research Forum on July 15.