The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Tag: Quick Takes

  • Quick Takes on Events & News – January 2021

    PTRC at LSM Co-sponsored a Successful Zoom Event at the University

    On December 1, 2020, a one-of-a-kind webinar took place on Zoom. The webinar, titled “The Future of American Innovation & the Role of the University,” a talk by the Director of United States Patent and Trademark Office followed by a Rutgers faculty and student panel discussion, attracted 238 participants. Dr. David Kimball, Senior Vice President for Research, delivered the opening Remarks. Dr. Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak, Associate Vice President, Innovation Ventures at Rutgers served as a moderator for the panel discussion. Many attendees have expressed their gratitude for this eye-opening session and would like to join our initiative’s call to action: “Inclusive Innovation and Equitable Entrepreneurship Coalition at Rutgers.”

    The Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) at LSM was one of co-sponsors for this event. Connie Wu contacted Dr. Prabhas V. Moghe, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, when she learned about USPTO’s special University Outreach initiative. Then she contacted School of Engineering, RBHS, SEBS, Business school, the IDEA team, Patents and Licensing division and Research & Innovative Strategies Office to build a planning task force for this event. The task force will continue the effort to the future university Innovation and invention endeavors.

    Submitted by Connie Wu

    Megan Lotts in Qatar

    Last February, Megan Lotts gave a lecture in Doha, Qatar for Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar. The lecture, titled “Fostering a Culture of Creativity and Play in Libraries,” is based on a forthcoming book project with ALA. Watch the video here.

    High Praise for Zara Wilkinson’s Guide

    Zara Wilkinson received a request to use her So You Want To Talk About Race research guide as part of a book discussion being held by ActionHoco, an organization based in Howard County, MD. Zara agreed, of course, and the guide has been posted to the Facebook page set up for the event. Congratulations, Zara!

    Krista White Blogs about Teaching with Digital Projects

    Krista White recently authored a guest post for the “Teaching Tuesdays” series on the P3 Collaboratory’s blog. Check it out to learn how digital pedagogy can be enhanced with creative, active learning digital projects as course assignments.

    Libraries Get Steppin’

    Some of us participated in a 10,000 step team challenge sponsored by our medical plan. It was really fun and we all motivated each other. It ran all December and into January. There were five rounds and my team won four, and I believe we’ll win the last one. My team was 12th out of 358 teams! My team was two people from Central, 2 from Newark and one from Camden, so we had a decent representation of people. The team building and encouragement was wonderful and it was also something healthy for all of us.

    Submitted by Mary Beth Weber

    Tips for Planning Virtual Events

    The Rutgers Event Planners Network (REPN) recently hosted a REPN Café with tips for planning virtual events. You can view the recording here.

    Great Things to Know about Rutgers

    Earlier this semester, President Holloway wrote to the university community to express his enthusiasm for the good news about Rutgers highlighted in the Great Things to Know about Rutgers brochure. In his email, he encouraged the Rutgers community to share his Rutgers pride and to spread the word about our remarkable university.

    Great Things to Know about Rutgers conveys what makes Rutgers an academic, health, and research powerhouse and a highly respected institution. Produced by the Department of University Communications and Marketing, this complimentary publication is available as a PDF download, as an ebook, and in print. You can order printed copies using the brochure order form. We hope you make good use of the brochure and thank you in advance for your patience as our department makes it available to the Rutgers community under the current challenging circumstances.

    Serving CCC during the Pandemic

    Robeson Library serves as the library for Rowan University and Camden County College’s Camden campuses. Although the Rowan and CCC computer lab was shut down in March to ensure social distancing, John Gibson, instructional technology specialist, and Ann Marie Latini, head of Access Services, worked with me to ensure these students continued to have access to the all of Rutgers resources and the Rutgers Computer Lab. In addition, I worked with Rowan and CCC teaching and library faculty to create new course guides, pivot to online library instruction, and direct Rowan and CCC students to use online chat.

    Submitted by Bart Everts

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – September 2020

    Updates to Rutgers Editorial Style Guide 

    University Communications and Marketing has developed and maintains the Rutgers Editorial Style Guide as a tool for communicators at the university. Approximately once a year, the guide is revised to keep it current with changes at Rutgers and with editorial style guidelines used by educational institutions, media outlets, and other organizations that focus on the use of language in contemporary times.

    The guide can assist in drafting university communications that are consistent, clear, inclusive, and accurate. The revised guide and a quick reference sheet can be found at: https://communications.rutgers.edu/resources/editorial-style-guide.

    The guide includes the following additions and updates.

    Addition of words to the Preferred Spellings section:

    •     teleconference
    •     telehealth
    •     telemedicine
    •     videoconference
    •     Webex

    Change to capitalization of the word “Black” when referring to race or ethnicity.

    Removal of hyphen in the word “African American” when used as an adjective. All uses are now open and unhyphenated.

    Removal of hyphen in 3D (and 4D). All uses are closed to avoid awkward constructions in phrases such as 3D-printed face shields. 

    Ermira Publishes New Poems

     I would like to share this great news about a new publication of my poetry in the United Kingdom. I feel so honored to have three of my poems—”Love for my Homeland,” “A Winter Night in New York,” and “Yearning Sweet Home”—published in the international anthology On the Road by the literary magazine The Poet on July 15, 2020. As EIC Robin Barratt said: “On the Road, the anthology of poetry on travel, is probably the largest international anthology ever published. 121 poets. Vol 1 & Vol 2.”  

    Retiree Publishes New Book

    In this book by Ron Jantz, the reader will learn about the emergence of Anabaptism in the Reformation of the sixteenth century.  The Anabaptists embraced the core principles of nonconformity and nonresistance and endured much persecution in the Netherlands and Switzerland.  Menno Simons left his comfortable life as a Catholic priest and organized various factions to become what we know of today as the Mennonites. This narrative history will impart an understanding of how a little known group of Mennonites migrated through the countries of Western Europe, ultimately to bring a unique way of life to the Great Plains of America. The book has been published by Wipf & Stock Publishers (https://wipfandstock.com/living-in-the-world.html).

    Digital Exhibition: Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti

    The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is pleased to present the virtual exhibition, Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti, which features the work of two exiled Venezuelan artists whose art responds to the country’s political turmoil of the last decade.

    The work of Castillo and Ordosgoitti carries a distinctly feminist form of social protest, relying on performative acts and activating the body in daring ways so as to challenge, not only the current political regime, but also heteronormative patriarchal culture and canonical Venezuelan aesthetics. In Venezuela’s economic heyday, geometric abstraction and architectural modernism were regarded as emblems of progress and prosperity. They eclipsed profound economic inequality and worsening social problems. As conditions deteriorated, abstraction was thrown into crisis, but Venezuela did not have a strong tradition of protest art. It was the task of artists in the twenty-first century to forge new directions. Castillo and Ordosgoitti do so by presenting a strong female body and imbuing her with agency, revealing a conviction in the power of art to effect social change.

    NJ Digital Newspaper Project Wins NEH Grant

    The NJ Digital Newspaper Project was awarded a $251,536 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue its work as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program into 2022. The project will contribute 100,000 pages of digitized historical newspapers to the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website. Caryn Radick is project director and Tara Kelley is co-principal investigator.

    CURCA Digital Collection

    Held each year in April, Research Week at Rutgers University-Camden celebrates research across the university. The week features multiple events that highlight the research contributions of students and faculty, including the Annual Faculty Research Fellow Lecture, the Graduate Research and Creative Works Symposium, and the Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA). This digital collection features posters presented at the annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA). CURCA aims to recognize and showcase the high-quality original research and creative work produced by undergraduate students in the Camden College of Arts and Sciences and University College-Camden.

    New Online Resources from SC/UA

    We have a new resource in SC/UA, our Digital Resources LibGuide, which brings together all of our scattered digital resources in one place for the first time, so it is intended to serve as a one-stop shop for our current and growing digitized resources in SC/UA that support teaching and research. It also includes digital resources at Rutgers outside of SC/UA, and outside of Rutgers, that we refer to regularly in our work with patrons and instructors. We will continually add to this guide as we digitize more material. https://libguides.rutgers.edu/scuadigital

    We also added another first for us–a dedicated section of our website aimed at RU and other faculty as well as K-12 instructors who want to teach with SC/UA materials: https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/scua/teach

    -submitted by Christie Lutz

    REALM Project Information Hub

    As libraries and museums around the country begin to resume operations and reopen facilities to the public, there is need for clear information to support the handling of core museum, library, and archival materials.

    OCLC, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle are conducting research on how long the COVID-19 virus survives on materials that are prevalent in libraries, archives, and museums. The project will draw upon the research to produce authoritative, science-based information on how—or if— materials can be handled to mitigate exposure to staff and visitors.

    To achieve these goals, the REALM project will:

    • Collect, review, and summarize authoritative research that applies to materials commonly found in the collections and facilities of archives, libraries, and museums
    • Ongoing consultation and engagement with a project steering committee, working groups, and other subject matter experts from archives, libraries, and museums
    • Laboratory testing of how COVID-19 interacts with a selection of materials commonly found in archives, libraries, and museums; and identifying methods of handling and remediation
    • Synthesize the above inputs into toolkit resources that support reopening and operational considerations
    • Share project information and toolkit resources through the project website and amplified by member associations and support organizations that serve archives, libraries, and/or museums.

    ­-submitted by Tim Corlis

     

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – March 2020

    Bishop Lecture Returns

    The 34th annual Bishop Lecture will feature photographer and author Barbara Mensch, who will speak about how she was inspired by Special Collections and University Archives’ Roebling Collection to create her recent book In the Shadow of Genius: The Brooklyn Bridge and Its Creators (Fordham University Press, 2018). Mensch, who has lived alongside the Brooklyn Bridge for over 30 years, will illustrate her talk with striking photographs, including some taken deep inside. During the reception following the talks, guests will have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the book.

    Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. RSVP here

    Gendering Protest on Display at Douglass

    The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce the two-person exhibition, Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti, which features the work of exiled Venezuelan artists whose art responds to the country’s political turmoil of the last decade.

    Gendering Protest will be on view from January 21 to April 3, 2020, in the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library. The exhibit is curated by art historian and curator Tatiana Flores, associate professor in the Departments of Latino & Caribbean Studies and Art History, Rutgers University. To accompany the exhibition, CWAH will publish a comprehensive online catalog.

    On Wednesday, March 25 at 5 p.m. in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room, Douglass Library, there will be a reception in honor of the artists followed by an artist’s lecture from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.

    Virgilio Papers Now Online

    Nicholas Virgilio was instrumental in popularizing haiku poetry in the United States and his own poetry received international acclaim. Except for a brief stay in Texas and service in the Navy, he lived in Camden his entire life. In 1962 he discovered a collection of haiku poems in the library at Rutgers University in Camden. A year later, his own first haiku works were published; he continued writing up until his death in 1989.

    This collection contains some of his haiku, including multiple versions of some of his better known poems, showing the development of his work. There are also drafts of correspondence, primarily concerning arrangements and publicity for his work and appearances. The collection includes thousands of unpublished and therefore never before seen haiku.

    Latino Oral History

    Krista White’s Digital Scholarship as Modular Pedagogy (DSMP) initiative is co-sponsoring an event with Newark Public Library about their Latino Oral History collection, which has been a featured collection used by students in the DSMP courses.

    Working Title: Latino Oral Histories: From Start to Finish.  With panelists:

    • Yesenia Lopez – managing an oral history project
    • Vanessa Castaldo – after the interview (transcribing, indexing, editing, etc.)
    • Juber Ayala – accessibility/ promoting the collection
    • Interviewee (tbd) – experience of being interviewed
    • Potential moderator: Dr. Katie Singer

    The program will be accompanied with a digital tour of our oral history collections and audio clips from some of our interviews.

    Date and location: Wednesday, April 1, Newark Public Library, 6:00–8:00 p.m. in Centennial Hall. 6:00–6:30 reception (light refreshments served), 6:30–8:00 p.m. program, community question and answers. Free and open to the public.

    More Published Poetry

    Congratulations to Ermira Mitre, whose English poetry was recently published in the literary magazine Mediterranean Poetry in Sweden.

    LOVE FOR MY HOMELAND

    I love your playful style, Albania,
    since I was a baby; still a gentle child,
    plunged myself blissfully, on your gusty roads,
    where my dream altered into a butterfly,
    chasing my shadow toward avant-garde.

    I love your prodigious Adriatic Sea coasts,
    the belly laugh of love, coiling on roses,
    melodious sounds, dance steps, moccasins,
    the echo, the zest of the flattering dances,
    the capricious sorceress of the wild tribes,
    unfolding the vivacity of the artifice.

    …

    Read the full poem here.

    Vote for Adriana

    Adriana Cuervo is running as a 2020 candidate for Council of the Society of American Archivists. “We are at a critical juncture where different constituencies within the profession are championing diverging views on the future of the Society, and this is the time where SAA’s values will provide the grounding to move into what our profession will look like in the years to come,” she said. Learn more here.

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – January 2020

    Targum Documentary Spotlights NBMSA

    Islamic Art Wiki-a-Thon Returns to Dana Library 

    Dana Library hosted its second Islamic Art Wiki-a-Thon last semester. Professor Alex Seggerman’s Islamic Architecture course was one of a group of classes participating in the December 9 Islamic Art Wiki-a-Thon. Students spent the semester learning how to do research and edit Wikipedia pages. They prepared and wrote drafts, updating current Wikipedia articles on various Islamic architecture sites. During the event, they came together and made official changes to articles. They were joined asynchronously by students at Temple University and the University of Texas. 

    On Exhibit at Douglass Library 

    MARY H. DANA WOMEN ARTISTS SERIES GALLERIES
    Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti
    Exhibition: January 21–April 3, 2020
    Curator: Tatiana Flores, Associate Professor of Latino & Caribbean Studies and Art History
    Gallery Hours: M-F 9 a.m.–10 p.m.
    Public Event
    Reception and Artist’s Lecture: Wednesday, March 25 | 5:00–6:45 p.m.
    RSVP: womenart@cwah.rutgers.edu
    Galleries and event are free and open to the public.
    cwah.rutgers.edu @CWAHatRutgers #GenderingProtest 

     

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – November 2019

    SWPACA Call for Papers

    Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 41st annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference! One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. The deadline has been extended to November 20. Visit the SWPACA website for more information.

    Dan Morgenstern Named IJS Executive Director Emeritus

    The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) at Rutgers University–Newark has appointed Dan Morgenstern Executive Director Emeritus of IJS and has named a yearlong fellowship in his honor to celebrate his 90th birthday and significant contributions to jazz scholarship. Homage will continue in the spring with a symposium on Morgenstern’s life and legacy. Read all the details on the Rutgers–Newark news site.

    Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State

    On November 11 at Douglass Library, the Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State (EMEWS) will present live electronic music made for laptop orchestra, game controllers, smartphones, and drum machines. The event is part of the ensemble’s EMEWS to the East tour, and it is supported by New Music USA. This event is free and open to the public!

    Rutgers Football from the Vault Panel Discussion

    Rutgers University is well known as the birthplace of intercollegiate football. On November 18, 2019, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first football game with a panel of Rutgers historians. Thomas J. Frusciano was Rutgers University Archivist at Rutgers from 1989 to 2017 and the author of The Rutgers University Football Vault: History of the Scarlet Knights. Tom will provide an overview of Rutgers football history. Steve Greene is a 1979 graduate of Rutgers and the author of the forthcoming 1869 – American Football Kicks Off ! New Discoveries at the Birthplace of Intercollegiate Football. Finally, Stephen Dalina is a recent graduate of Rutgers University–Newark. Currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in world history at Rutgers, he will reflect on his experience co-curating the exhibition Rutgers Football from the Vault: Celebrating 150 Years with Interim University Archivist Erika Gorder. Visit the events calendar for more information.

    Digital Collection Spotlight: The Stedman Gallery

    The Stedman Gallery Collection features works from the Stedman Art Gallery, which was established in 1975 and is located in the Fine Arts Center at Rutgers University–Camden.

    The digital collection includes a variety of artworks ranging from chalk and charcoal drawings, to acrylic and oil paintings, to 19th-century Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock print depicting Kabuki actors and other scenes from daily life. For more information, visit the digital collection portal or the Steadman Gallery website.

    Alumni Association Graduation Tour

    Know a graduating senior? Make sure you let them know about the Rutgers Alumni Association’s annual graduation trip! This year’s grad trip explores classic Europe, including England, France, Italy, the Vatican City, and Greece. Visit the Alumni Association’s website for more information.

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – September 2019

    Poet Takes Her Show on the Road

    In June, Smith Library library technician Ermira Mitre was invited to give a book talk and signing for Soul’s Gravity, her recently published book of Albanian poetry, for students in the Department of Education at the Alexander Moisiu University of Durres in Albania. While Soul’s Gravity will be coming to Amazon soon, Ermira is already hard at work on a follow-up book of poetry in English. Congrats, Ermira, and keep up the impressive work!

    SMLR and SCUA win NFPF Grant

    The School of Management and Labor Relations and Special Collections and University Archives have been awarded a 2019 Basic Presentation Grant for the James B. Carey Collection from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The collection is comprised of 4 reels of 8mm silent color home-movies shot by James B. Carey in Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. It was discovered in SMLR’s archives and documents Carey’s travels as the secretary-treasurer of the CIO and involvement in the World Federation of Trade Unionists (WFTU). The grant will fund both a digital access copy and 16mm film print of the original 8mm movies.

    New Exhibit at Douglass

    The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce that renowned artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts, Vanderbilt University, has been named the 2019-20 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist at Rutgers University. Campos-Pons’ solo exhibition, Sea and Self, will be on view from September 3 to December 13, 2019, in the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library. The exhibit is curated by art historian and curator, Tatiana Flores, associate professor in the departments of Latino & Caribbean Studies and Art History, Rutgers University. To accompany the exhibition, CWAH will publish a comprehensive online catalog.

    On Thursday, October 24 at 5 p.m. in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room, Douglass Library, there will be a reception in honor of Campos-Pons followed by an artist’s lecture from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Read more.

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – July 2019

    An Important Message for Faculty and Staff from the Center on Violence against Women and Children

    Better Late than Never?

    Stephanie Bartz reports on an amusing development: “We recently received a piece of mail for Donald F. Cameron. In case you don’t know, we have the Donald F. Cameron Reference Reading Room at Alexander, so his portrait is on the wall. Cameron was once the University Librarian. He retired in 1966. Just goes to show that mailing lists never die. Once you’re on one, your name has been recorded for posterity!”

    Mina Ghajar.
    Kudos for Mina

    Congratulations are in order for Mina Ghajar, who received an acknowledgment in one of her nutrition students’ recently published articles, “Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Efforts through A Life Course Health Development Perspective: A Scoping Review.” You can read the article and view the acknowledgment here. Way to go, Mina!

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – May 2019

    Talking Vocational Awe at ACRL

    Congratulations to Fobazi Ettarth, who was one of the invited presentations at the annual ACRL conference in Cleveland, Ohio last month. Fobazi’s talk was titled “Becoming a ‘Bad Librarian’: Dismantling Vocational Awe in Librarianship” and you can view the slides below, courtesy of her blog:

    The talk also spurred an interview with American Libraries magazine, which you can read here.

    A Cataloger, Cataloged

    This month, Dominique Dixon got quite the unique tattoo on her wrist, featuring the call number for catalogers (Z682.4 .C38) along with her last name (D59). “I’m so enamored of cataloging that I essentially cataloged myself!” she said. Now how’s that for dedication to the job?

    Have a Heart

    Dr. Daniel Shindler of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, president of the NJ chapter of the American College of Cardiology, requested a 3D printed heart showing a vascular ring defect to be created on the 3D printer at Douglass Library. Files of the heart were obtained fro

    m the NIH website at the 3D print exchange and printed by Stacey Carton. The model was presented to Congressman Frank Pallone of the 6th district in April as an example of surgeries being performed at RWJUH, and Stacey was invited to attend the presentation at RWJUH and meet the congressman. Congrats, Stacey!

    A Published Poet

    Congratulations to Ermira Mitre, whose first book of poetry was published in Albania, her home country. Written in in Albanian, the title of the book is Soul’s Gravity. As if this accomplishment were not enough, Ermira is already working on another book of poetry in English. Kudos, Ermira—we’ll look forward to the next volume!

    Opening the Schapiro Papers

    Please join Special Collections and University Archives in New Brunswick on Tuesday, May 7 to celebrate the opening of the Miriam Schapiro Papers. The opening, which will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Alexander Library, will feature audio stations playing digitized cassette tapes of interviews with and by Miriam Schapiro and a few of her lectures. The event will also showcase a slideshow of digitized images from the archives, a display of the finding aid, and a small exhibit of items from the collection. Hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served.

  • 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!

  • 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.