April 2019 – NBLALL: The Missing Page

SEBS Team

The SEBS Team was formed in the spring of 2017 in response to emerging needs at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) on the Cook campus. In the absence of a dedicated subject specialist for each discipline taught and researched at SEBS, a group of librarians took the challenge to experiment with a holistic approach to meet evolving library and information needs at SEBS. Benefiting from the support of SEBS administration, departments, faculty, and staff, the team managed to forge relationships on the Cook Campus quickly.

The team provides reference via the newly minted science group email, sciencereference@libraries.rutgers.edu and pop-up reference. Library instruction includes partnering with the SEBS Office of Academic Programs and research support for graduate students on topics such as citation management and systematic reviews. Along with the SEBS Office of International Programs, the team hosts orientations for international students. In addition to fulfilling collection requests, the SEBS team has also established demand-driven acquisition in the sciences as an experiment.

The SEBS team has been working with student groups on redefining the library as a space and making the Chang Science Library more welcoming and responsive to students’ current needs. This includes physical changes, such as moving bound periodicals to storage, as well as engaging students in various ways, such as offering Drop-in resume reviews by Career Services and an Open Mic night.

In the future the team is planning to continue to integrate NBL services into the SEBS curriculum and engage with library users on the Cook Campus.

The SEBS team leader is Judit H. Ward. The current members members are Rebecca Gardner, Karen Hartman, Mei Ling Lo, Megan Lotts, Laura Bowering Mullen, Laura Palumbo, Ryan Womack, and Connie Wu.

Undergraduate Experience Team

The Undergraduate Experience Team’s overall goal is to enhance library support for a diverse group of undergraduate students in Rutgers-New Brunswick. This includes collaborating with colleagues from the Libraries and university partners and creating meaningful experiences that impact students in and outside of the classroom. We focus primarily on first year and transfer students, but hope to expand and target our reach in the next few years to undergraduate researchers, STEM students, underrepresented minority students, and first generation students. The team provides planning, creativity, and leadership in support of student engagement. Our work is guided by ACRL Standards. The Team is regrouping with new membership and focus over the summer.

Plans for this coming year include the creation of an undergraduate student advisory/ambassador program. A diverse group of students will be selected to participate in meetings with Team members and other stakeholders in the Libraries. We hope to engage these participants in two ways: 1) soliciting real-time feedback for ways to improve their experiences with the Libraries, as well as 2) educating them about the work of the Libraries and the value we can bring to their university experience.

The Undergraduate Experience Team Leader is Lily Todorinova. The current members are Leslin Charles and Laura Palumbo. We are interested in adding one more additional member. Please reach out to Lily if you are interested!

Research Data Services Team

The Research Data Services Team provides services for the Rutgers New Brunswick research community on the organization, management, sharing, and preservation of research data, at all phases of the research data life cycle. We do this through outreach events, individual consultations, and workshops on such topics as data management planning; best practices for organizing, storing, and sharing data; and the use of software and tools for data analysis, visualization, and sharing. Information about data workshops and other data management resources are available on the New Brunswick Libraries Research Data Management Services website.

Plans for the coming year include presentations by data repositories for sharing and preserving research data, an environmental scan of data services being offered at other research institutions, developing GIS services, and creating workshops and presentations that are customized to the research practices of different disciplines, through collaboration with interested liaisons. If you are a liaison who would like to learn more about data management, please consider joining our team.

The Research Data Services Team leader is Laura Palumbo. The current members are Francesca Giannetti and Ryan Womack.