Author: Ryan Womack

Research Services Unit formed in New Brunswick Libraries

The New Brunswick Libraries (NBL) Research Services Unit has been formed to enhance research services, broadly defined as those activities of NBL that support the research endeavor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick (RU-NB). Research Services will work to foster the NBL strategic plan goal to Strengthen Faculty and Graduate Student Research and Teaching and the research-related goals of the New Brunswick Academic Master Plan. NBL Research Services will collaborate with Rutgers University Libraries, with other Rutgers groups, and with external partners and professional organizations (such as BTAA or ALA) to strengthen the delivery of research services across the University.

One of the primary goals of the new unit is to enhance communication and collaboration among the overlapping groups of librarians with interests in research services, in order to be more nimble and responsive to changing conditions. NBL librarians have been collaborating effectively, but this unit provides a structure to further encourage and advocate for research needs.

Faculty, staff, and students engaged in research can look to NBL Research Services for assistance in the following areas (lead personnel given in parentheses):

  • Copyright Education (Janice Pilch)
  • Digital Humanities (Francesca Giannetti)
  • GIS (Susan Oldenburg)
  • Graduate and Faculty Services (Kayo Denda and Triveni Kuchi)
  • HathiTrust (Tom Glynn)
  • Intensive Literaure Review Assistant Program (serving SCI) (Triveni Kuchi and Tao Yang)
  • Open Access and Scholarly Communication (Laura Mullen)
  • Research Data Management (Laura Palumbo)
  • Research Metrics and Impact (Mei Ling Lo)
  • Statistical Data (Ryan Womack)
  • Systematic Reviews (Julia Maxwell)

For further details on these services and contact information, see https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/new-brunswick/about-us/research-services-new-brunswick-libraries

The work of existing teams and initiatives such as the NBL Research Data Services Team and the Graduate Specialist Program is also part of the Research Services Unit. The Head of the Research Services Unit will provide coordination and leadership to the entire group. Ryan Womack is serving as the initial Head for a three-year term through June 2025.

Upcoming posts will describe these services in more detail, along with other initiatives. Stay tuned!

Instruction and Undergraduate Services Team

Leslin Charles, Undergraduate Instruction and Services Team, co-leader
Lily Todorinova
Lily Todorinova, Undergraduate Instruction and Services Team co-leader

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The Instruction and Undergraduate Services Team’s overall goal is to develop and communicate a cohesive and sustainable process for foundational information literacy instruction and undergraduate services, in support of undergraduate instruction programs in Rutgers New Brunswick.

The teams plans to undertake the following activities:

  • Develop a team approach to coordinating foundational undergraduate instruction and define “coordinating”
  • Investigate a more intuitive process for scheduling foundational undergraduate instruction
  • Recommend a scaffolded approach to information literacy that includes undergraduate curriculum mapping to courses/populations/programs
  • Norm workflows and practices in our systems (how to sign up, how to record, how and what we assess)
  • Design and lead annual information literacy summits
  • Develop and recommend instruction and outreach activities along an impact spectrum, working with NBL assessment stakeholders in developing metrics/templates/activities 
  • Related to the Libraries COVID19 Response, develop a contingency plan for online only EWP instruction in support of general undergraduate instruction programs 

The Instruction and Undergraduate Services Team Leaders are Leslin Charles and Lily Todorinova. The current members are Becky Diamond, Sherri Farber, Christie Lutz, Tom Glynn, Laura Palumbo, and Meredith Parker.

SEBS Team

Judit H. Ward, SEBS Team Leader

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

Lily Todorinova, Undergraduate Experience Team Leader

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

Laura Palumbo, Research Data Services Team Leader

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.

Content Team

Jim Niessen, Content Team Leader

The Content Team is concerned with information resources in New Brunswick.  We will focus on three main areas: collections, selector fund allocations, and outreach to selectors.

  1. Collections: We will maintain inventories of weeding projects and gift cataloging needs within New Brunswick and identify local priorities for efforts in these areas in order to optimize the deployment of available library personnel, collections, and study spaces.
  2. Selector Funds: As a subset of the Content Team, its chair and disciplinary group coordinators will allocate selector funds each year for the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
  3. Outreach to Selectors: Team members who serve on the Collection Analysis Group will ensure information sharing between these two groups.  We will also organize forums on collections topics and training sessions for collection development and management procedures and tools.

Jim Niessen is the Team Leader of the Content Team.  The current members are Kayo Denda, Rebecca Gardner, Tom Glynn, Rob Krack, Barry Lipinski, Laura Palumbo, and Jon Sauceda.

Scholarly Communication Team

Laura Bowering Mullen, Scholarly Communication Team Leader

The Scholarly Communication Team is focused on current issues such as open access, open data, and open educational resources. As the team’s agenda develops, we will bring to the New Brunswick Libraries and its wider community a strong focus on current issues in scholarly publishing, copyright, metrics, open science and other strategic areas. We anticipate putting a priority on engaging widely with Rutgers-New Brunswick faculty, staff, and students as well as other stakeholder groups.

The team’s first order of business will be to develop the “Scholarly Communication Road Show,” which is made up of a menu of relevant topics to be presented by team members to various New Brunswick faculty and student groups. The Roadshow will include presentations on copyright, metrics, open educational resources, open access, research data, and more. The team also will plan an event for Open Access Week 2019. We will move the scholarly communication conversation forward in NBL and within the larger Rutgers-New Brunswick community.

Laura Bowering Mullen is the Team Leader of the Scholarly Communication Team. The current members of the Scholarly Communication Team are Janet Brennan Croft, Mei Ling Lo, Laura Palumbo, Lily Todorinova, and Ryan Womack.

Copyright Team

Janet Brennan Croft, Copyright Team Leader

The Copyright Team has two primary areas of responsibility:

  • providing internal copyright advice to New Brunswick Libraries administration, staff, and units
  • providing external copyright reference service and education to New Brunswick campus faculty, staff, students, and other users.

The Copyright Response Team is a mailing list that responds to reference questions from external users, and includes librarians who specialize in different aspects of copyright.

The Copyright Education Team develops and delivers copyright orientation and review programs for library staff and faculty and, in close cooperation with the Scholarly Communication Team, modules for the Scholarly Communication Road Show program.

Over the next year, the team plans to develop a menu of short modules on topics like general copyright law, fair use, author’s right, codes of best practices, classroom use of copyrighted material, and so on for the road show and other educational purposes.

Janet Brennan Croft is the Team Leader of the Copyright Team. The current members of the Copyright Team are Mei Ling Lo, Caryn Radick, Francesca Gianetti, Megan Lotts, Jon Sauceda, and Leslin Charles.

The Missing Page is now here

We have seen the need for some time to have a better way of communicating with all of the NBL_all community, librarians and staff.  An easy-to-use and easy to keep up with mode of communication was missing.  But the Missing Page that we have been looking for has arrived.  This space can be used for all kinds of announcements, discussion, and feedback relevant to the activities of the New Brunswick Libraries.  May the Missing Page never absent itself again!

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