By Hilary Westgate
NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ Chapter President
I hope that this message finds you well this fall semester! For most of us, this fall probably brought a ‘return’ to campuses -- with some changes and modifications -- as well as continuing to balance virtual presences. We are certainly in a unique time as we transition into this academic year and into these different ways of being together. I have enjoyed catching up with colleagues and seeing others both virtually and in person!
NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ has continued to meet and conduct our work together. Our annual Open Membership Meeting took place virtually on Friday, September 10, and included presentations from the following colleagues: Jessica Trujillo, NJLA Vice President/President-Elect; Rita Route, Deputy Director of Accelerated & Innovative Programs, Paterson Public Schools; Theresa Agostinelli, former LibraryLinkNJ Programming & Outreach Specialist, and Neil Grimes, Education & Curriculum Materials Librarian at William Paterson University. We also learned about the NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ Committees (https://cus.njla.org/content/membership), and we played a fun game of virtual Pictionary, led by Gary Marks, Reference & Outreach Librarian at William Paterson University!
Our October 15th monthly meeting featured a joint meeting with the Young Adult Services Section of NJLA (http://njlamembers.org/yasection), which we had also done offered in Fall 2020. We were happy to collaborate with their group again to discuss the similarities of our work and how our populations overlap, as well as programming we could consider creating together. It’s always wonderful to connect with other NJLA Sections and Committees! We also have great representation of our own CUS members on other NJLA Sections and Committees; we like to make sure that we have at least one connection with each group.
We are also happy to work closely with LibraryLinkNJ and VALE. We co-sponsored the fantastic Information Equity Conference hosted by LibraryLinkNJ on October 25 (https://librarylinknj.org/calendar/information-equity-conference), and we have a LibraryLinkNJ Liaison on our Executive Board. With VALE, we our President continues to attend their Members’ Council meetings to provide reports on our NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ work and our conference planning process. This year, the VALE Conference Planning Committee put forth an idea to change the name of the conference to the New Jersey Academic Libraries Conference, which was supported by our members and accepted as a change! (https://vale.njedge.net/events-meetings/annual-conference/). Our hope is that this change will make our conference more easily understandable to others and will draw in new presenters and attendees. Our President (Hilary Westgate) and Past President (Alyssa Valenti) are the Conference Co-Chairs this year, working closely with our Conference Planning Committee members to create an excellent virtual conference experience that will take place on Friday, January 7, 2022. Our theme this year, created by the Planning Committee, is The Importance of Now: Rethink, Refocus, Recover. Registration information is coming soon!
We look forward to the 2022 NJLA Annual Conference in June (https://www.njlaconference.info/content/2022-embracing-opportunity), and many of our members are already planning to submit proposals and attend. We also plan to have our annual CUS Luncheon at the conference and to honor our award winners for the 2021-22 year. We are excited that this year, the conference will be back in person in Atlantic City!
Please feel free to reach out if you have any suggestions or questions! Thank you to everyone who is working together to make this unique year a great one.
Hilary Westgate is the Reference, Instruction, and Outreach Librarian at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She can be reached at hwestgat@ramapo.edu.
By Melissa Lena, VALE Program Manager
It is now the first fall semester since the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine. Per Governor Murphy’s Executive Order No. 242 issued over the summer, institutions of higher education may resume all in-person instruction. Face coverings are no longer required for most indoor public spaces, but institutions may continue to require them for employees, customers, and guests. Social distancing is not required, but encouraged along with other CDC safety guidelines. Institutions may choose to adopt stricter COVID-19 safety requirements as long as they are consistent with federal and state law.
However, even though institutions are reopening their doors, distance learning and virtual events have not gone away. During the summer, the Conference Committee surveyed the membership to ascertain their conference format preference. The majority of respondents indicated they would prefer another virtual conference rather than an in-person event. With that, the New Jersey Academic Libraries Conference (formerly known as the VALE/ACRL-NJ/NJLA-CUS Users Conference) will be held virtually on January 7, 2022.
The conference theme is The Importance of Now: Rethink, Refocus, Recover. In order to succeed, higher education institutions will need to be adaptive and significantly different from the ones that students left for remote learning in 2020. Our new learning environments should be technology enhanced and accessibility committed. Conference sessions will cover not just post-pandemic strategies and navigating the new normal, but also how the increase in library technology and virtual space use is affecting libraries and librarians.
The NJLA College and University Section Technology Innovation Award honors a librarian or group of librarians for innovative use and application of technology in a New Jersey academic library. The award may be given either in recognition of a specific project or for ongoing delivery of innovative technology applications.
The winning proposals will be showcased at the NJLA Annual Conference, during the joint session of the ACRL NJ Research and Technology Committees, which will take place in-person on June 3 or 4, 2022 in Atlantic City.
Please consider nominating yourself or your colleague librarian(s) for the work in increasing value to your library through technology projects.
For guidelines about submission check this: (https://www.njla.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46:njla-cusacrl-nj-technology-innovation-award&catid=31:honors-and-awards&Itemid=170)
To see previous winners, please check our website: http://cus.njla.org/content/technology
Caldwell University
Victoria Swanson, MLS is the new Interim Library Director at Jennings Library at Caldwell University. She replaces Heather Cook who has moved to Institutional Research and Assessment at Caldwell University. Victoria was previously Instruction and Assessment Librarian at Jennings Library and formerly Library Director at Eastern International College in Belleville, NJ. She received her MLS from Pratt Institute.
Christina Getaz was hired as Caldwell University's new Temporary Full Time Librarian and is joining Jennings Library as the new liaison librarian for English, Communications and Media, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences. Christina has a background in early childhood education and recently completed her Master’s in Library Science. She previously worked in the media and journalism library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Christine Jansen joined the Florham Campus Library as a Research and Instruction Librarian in October 2021. Prior to FDU, Christine worked for the Somerset County Library System as the Manager of Youth Services Programming where among other things, she served as community liaison, developed a school readiness series, and trained colleagues on digital tools and software. Christine began her library career as a School Media Specialist in Orange Middle School where she collaborated with faculty on lesson planning, developed curriculum, taught information literacy, trained and mentored volunteers, and managed the collection.
David Biel joined the Florham Campus Library as a Research & Instruction Librarian in November 2021. Before he decided to join FDU and relocate to New Jersey from Maryland, he was a teaching assistant and graduate assistant at the University of Maryland while obtaining his MLIS. Before entering the library field, David taught high school social studies in Dumfries, Virginia.
Robert Wolf has been promoted to Associate University Librarian for Technical Services. Rob served as the Serials Librarian from 2005-2006 and Digital Operations Coordinator from 2006-2014 at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke before joining FDU in 2014 as the Electronic Resources Librarian. Rob is responsible for overseeing the operation of technical services, electronic resources, and library web services across the FDU’s campuses.
Montclair University
Danianne Mizzy joined Harry A. Sprague Library, Montclair State University, as Dean of Library Services on July 26, 2021. Over a 20-plus year library career, she worked most recently at Cornell University, as a special projects librarian and associate university librarian. While there, she launched a personal librarian program to welcome first-year, first-generation students, to help them make a successful academic transition and foster a sense of belonging. Prior to Cornell, she worked in libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the University of Pittsburgh. Mizzy earned a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Fine Arts in Design from the Yale School of Drama and a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Brown University. Prior to working in library services, she worked as a theatrical lighting designer.
Judith Lin Hunt retired as Dean of Library Services at Harry A. Sprague Library after 25 years of service.
Justin Savage joined the Harry A. Sprague Library as a Reference Librarian in the Research and Reference Services Department in September 2021. Justin earned his MSLIS and Advanced Certificate in Archives and Records Management in 2018 from Long Island University and has worked part-time as a reference librarian at Montclair since 2019. He brings with him experience as a Public Librarian and Assistant Director of the Mountain Lakes Public Library. Justin's research interests include information literacy, first-generation/non-traditional students and libraries, and archives.
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Robert JP Graham is the new Circulation Desk Supervisor / Interim Course Reserves Coordinator at Ramapo College's George T. Potter Library. Rob previously worked in the Periodicals department at David and Lorraine Cheng Library at William Paterson University.
St. Peter's University
Saint Peter’s University has been awarded a $2.9 million Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a project titled Ensuring Success for the New Majority Student. The grant is designed to address the growing needs of diverse learners by improving flexible and affordable opportunities through online learning. The extensive project helps bolster many existing initiatives and departments across the university and includes library renovations, library technology, online library resources, and a summer institute to foster the adoption of open educational resources (OER) by Saint Peter's faculty. Library Director, Daisy DeCoster is the coordinator for the library and OER initiatives under this grant.
Rutgers-Camden librarian Bart Everts and Associate University Librarian Regina Koury tabled the Camden County College Welcome Back BBQ in Camden earlier this semester. As part of a long-standing partnership, students, faculty, and staff at the Camden campuses of CCC and Rowan University have full access to the services and spaces of the Robeson Library at Rutgers.
The Fall 2001 issue referred to “uncertain and changing times for the library profession,” and that could still be said today. The issue reported on the impact of VALE databases and new technology. Fall 2001 welcomed many new faces to new positions in NJ academic libraries, including two of the newsletter committee members!
The Peter P. Mercer Learning Commons at Ramapo College opened for current students, faculty, staff on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. The new Learning Commons includes the renovated George T. Potter Library, as well as other campus offices and centers, such as the Center for Reading and Writing; an ITS Help Desk and ITS computer area; the Faculty Resource Center; the Instructional Design Center; special collections such as the American History Textbook Project and the Ramapo College Archives; the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and more.
Group study rooms, open study areas, computer stations and printers/printing rooms, and brand new furniture are just some of the highlights of the beautiful new space. Students can reserve study rooms through an online system, and all study rooms have already been very busy since our opening! There are four large, spacious floors with lots of natural light and full glass walls that face the mountains of the Ramapo Valley County Reservation. Open study spaces include comfortable, modern, and tech-friendly furniture, such as built-in outlets in tables.
We had a Grand Opening celebration as part of the College's Founders' Day on November 10, 2021 (https://www.ramapo.edu/founders/).
By Kate McGivern
Fall 2021 brought new challenges to the library at Bergen Community College. With only 20% of our classes in person and the library fully staffed, we recognized the need to let students know that we were open and ready to help. The idea was to have a new student-centered, library-related hint provided for each week of the semester. A small marketing committee of librarians was created and the “Library Hints” project was born.
We leveraged our partnership with teaching faculty, asking them to sign up for a brief, weekly email which would include a graphic to add to their Moodle course shell for all students to see. An initial email asking faculty to sign up prior to the start of the semester led to 14 faculty members on board. While the project was primarily aimed at faculty teaching our college readiness course, a subsequent email to the all faculty enlisted those from other disciplines with 54 faculty members signed up as of this date. The email included step-by-step instructions for sharing the graphic in Moodle.
One librarian managed the email sign ups and sent the weekly email message. One librarian created the graphics to reflect the weekly message using Canva. Two other librarians managed posting the messages to the Library’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. Librarians met in person twice to get the project started and then communicated mostly through email each week to agree upon email language and the weekly graphic.
We planned the program with one hint offered for each week of the semester beginning the first week of classes.
· Week 0 was a welcome back message with links to our social media pages.
· Week 1 promoted the library policy of making textbooks available for student use. Week 2 reminded students of all the ways to get in touch with a librarian (chat, text, telephone, email, in person and/or virtual appointments).
· Week 4 promoted a college-wide book reading and discussion of Ta-Nahesi Coates’ Between the World and Me..
· Week 5 marked the semester halfway point with a collection of motivational quotes set to music.
· Upcoming hints will include citation help, a selfie station, professional headshots for LinkedIn pages and a promotion of fun reading over the winter break with our popular reading collection.
The Library Hint was shared weekly on the library’s Facebook and Instagram accounts with some additional language for context. These platforms allow for some analytics to help us determine reactions and engagement and whether to expand to other platforms. Facebook data showed consistent reach for each post and some sharing. We saw an increase in reach and engagement with each post as well as a 67% increase in followers of the page. Likewise, Instagram data shows followers engaged with the posts and following our page which was created in September. The most popular Facebook post was week 0 announcing that we were back and open. The second most popular was week 2 with ways to get in touch with librarians.
Comments received from faculty and students included
· "Great idea! I am passing this on to my students (and my colleagues and my kids)."
· “This is great!”
· “Thanks for this great inspiration video. I need it too!”
The last hint for the semester will promote the library’s collections from Overdrive while encouraging students and faculty to take a much needed break from course work and read just for the fun of it!
Kate McGivern is a librarian at the Sidney Silverman Library at Bergen Community College. She can be reached at kmcgivern@bergen.edu.
By Neil D. Grimes, Education & Curriculum Materials Librarian, William Paterson University
Latinos in the United States: demographic trends and educational attainment
According to Flores, Lopez, & Radford (2017), in 2015, 56.5 million Latinos, of whom 37.1 million were U.S. born, accounted for 17.6% of the total U.S. population, marking a ninefold increase since 1960. Current projections estimate that the growth will continue and that by 2065, there will be 107 million Latinos in the United States, adding up to 24% of the total population (Flores, 2017). Mexican Americans form the largest group (63%), with Puerto Ricans (9.5%), Salvadorans (3.8%), and Cubans (3.7%) constituting the next three largest groups (Flores, 2017). More importantly, with the median age of 28, Latinos make up the youngest racial or ethnic group in America today (Patten, 2016). The younger cohorts of Latinos (those between the ages of 5-17) are proficient English speakers with 28% speaking English only at home (Patten, 2016).
One major change in public school enrollment has been in the number of Hispanic students enrolled. Enrollment of Hispanic students has grown from 6.0 million in 1995 to 13.6 million in fall 2017 (the last year of data available). During that period, Hispanic students went from making up 13.5 percent of public-school enrollment to 26.8 percent of public school enrollment. NCES projects that Hispanic enrollment will continue to grow, reaching 14.0 million and 27.5 percent of public-school enrollment by fall 2029 (NCES, 2020).
Nationally, Latino educational attainment has been steadily rising over the decades. Currently, 11% of Latinos 25 years old or older hold a bachelor’s degree compared to 19.7% of the total U.S. population in the same age group (Flores et al., 2017; United States Census Bureau, 2017).
Latinos in New Jersey: demographic trends
The total K-12 Population (based on 2018 enrollment) in the state of New Jersey was 1,370,236 (NJ DOE, 2018). In fact, the current public school population is more diverse than that of the state. U.S. Census data shows that about 55% of New Jerseyans were non-Hispanic white in 2016, but white children made up just 45.3 % of the public-school population, with Hispanics making up 27.1 % of students; African-Americans, 15.5 %; and Asians, about 10 %. While whites still predominate, there is no longer a single racial or ethnic majority in the state’s schools (O’Dea, 2019). Taking a closer look at public schools in Passaic County reveals that Hispanics make up 55% of the total K-12 population which is an even higher percentage than the 40.8% of Hispanics that make up the total K-12 population in New York City, the nation’s largest public school system (NYC DOE, 2021; NJ DOE, 2020). Given this data, it makes sense that William Paterson University and other universities in the state of New Jersey are designated as members of the 492 Hispanic-serving institutions in higher education today (HACU, 2017).
Academic Libraries at HSIs
Academic libraries at HSIs recognize their need to assess and meet the needs of Latino students. They have a documented impact on student retention, GPA, related educational outcomes, and overall student success. Oliveira (2017) identified three key areas that libraries contribute to students’ academic success throughout their college careers. They are: library instruction, library space, and use of library materials. Murray (2015) also noted that libraries’ role in campus-wide high impact practices including first-year seminars, common intellectual experiences, writing intensive courses, undergraduate research, diversity and global learning, capstone courses and projects have an impact on student success and learning outcomes with Hispanic students. Whitmire (2003) emphasized librarians’ responsibility to learn about and understand how diverse students experience the library in order to “provide better services that assist undergraduates with their academic integration and subsequent retention and academic achievement” (p. 148-149). The mission of all academic libraries and librarians is to support student success by providing academic support for all of its students.
Bladek (2015) identified six key areas for academic libraries at HSIs and beyond to better serve the increasing large numbers of Hispanic students that attend institutions of higher education. They are: developing cultural competence, personalizing services, teaching information literacy, removing barriers to library use, and adapting recommendations for practice (looking at various case studies of ways academic libraries are serving their Hispanic students). By looking for ways to better serve the Hispanic students that attend our universities and use our academic libraries in the state of New Jersey, we can continue to work toward higher rates of student retention and success as we support these students, many of whom are first-generation college students. The challenge for academic libraries and librarians in the years ahead will be to continue to research and look more closely at how they can support student retention and success for Hispanic students, first generation students, and all students that attend our academic institutions. This important work will need to done amid declining undergraduate enrollments at 2- and 4-year colleges and universities across the United States in the coming decades.
References
Flores, A. (2017). Facts on U.S. Latinos, 2015: Statistical portrait of Hispanics in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2017/09/18/facts-on-u-s-latinos/.
Flores, A., Lopez, G., & Radford, J. (2017). Facts on U.S.Latinos, 2015: Statistical portrait of Hispanics in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2017/09/18/facts-on-u-s-latinos-trend-data/.
Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities (HACU). (2017). HACU list of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) 2016–17. Retrieved from https://www.hacu.net/hacu/HSIs.asp.
Murray, A. (2015). Academic Libraries and High-Impact Practices for Student Retention: Library Deans’ Perspectives. portal: Libraries and the Academy 15(3), 471-487. doi:10.1353/pla.2015.0027.
NCES Blog Editor. (2020, June 10). Bar Chart Races: Changing Demographics in K–12 Public School Enrollment. IES. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/bar-chart-races-changing-demographics-in-k-12-public-school-enrollment.
NJ DOE. (2020). New Jersey Department of Education. The Official Web Site for The State of New Jersey. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.nj.gov/cgi-bin/education/data/enr11plus.pl.
NJ DOE. (2018). New Jersey Department of Education. 2017-2018 Enrollment District Reported Data. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.nj.gov/education/data/enr/enr18/.
NYC DOE. (2021). DOE data at a glance. New York City Department of Education. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/doe-data-at-a-glance.
O'Dea, C. (2019, September 19). Interactive map: Diversity remains elusive for NJ schools and districts. NJ Spotlight News. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.njspotlight.com/2018/05/18-05-03-school-segregation/.
Oliveira, S. M. (2017). The academic library's role in student retention: A review of the literature. Library Review, 66(4/5), 310–329.
Patten, E. (2016). The nation's Latino population is defined by its youth. Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/04/20/the-nations-latino-population-is-defined-by-its-youth/.
Whitmire, E. (2003). Cultural diversity and undergraduates’ academic library use. The journal of academic librarianship, 29(3), 148-161.
By Katie Cohen
This fall, academic librarians from across New Jersey reached out to high school students through the NJ Academic Libraries High School Outreach Panels, presented by NJLA CUS / ACRL-NJ and the New Jersey Association of School Libraries (NJASL). Through a series of virtual panel presentations, academic librarians spoke to high school students about the value of academic libraries. Facilitators led the discussions, which included questions from high school students, librarians and media specialists.
Six panel presentations were held, spread across Friday, October 22 and Friday, October 29. Three to five librarians presented on each panel, representing a total of twenty five academic libraries. This included representatives from 4 year and 2 year, and public and private institutions. Panel presenters were grouped based on their geographic location within the state, in order for particular sessions to appeal to high schools in certain areas.
The NJLA CUS / ACRL-NJ Marketing and Outreach Committee, led by Committee Chair Gary Marks (Reference and Outreach Librarian, William Paterson University), took charge of organizing the panels. This collaboration between the two organizations stemmed from early conversations between Librarian Neil Grimes, William Paterson University, Ewa Dziedzic-Elliot, Head Librarian at Lawrence High School and NJASL President-Elect, and Marks. The planning logistics included reaching out to academic librarians to serve as panelists and discussion facilitators, and high school librarians and media specialists to organize streaming the presentations to their students. Scheduling sessions so that high school students could attend was a crucial part of planning.
Organizers supplied panelists with a speaker preparation guide, allowing panelists to prepare talking points in advance. Prompts included questions such as:
Soon after the events, two distinct surveys were sent to academic librarians and high school librarians. The goal of the surveys was to assess the panel presentations from the point of view of presenters and participants. Among other questions, both groups were asked, "Do you think your participation as a college librarian on the panel helps demonstrate the importance of school media specialists and information literacy/research skills to high school administrators and stakeholders?" Librarians were also asked if they would like future programs like this collaboration between NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ and NJASL. Feedback has been positive, and hopefully we will see more collaborations between academic and high school librarians in the near future.
Katie Cohen is the Interlibrary Loan, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She can be reached at kcohen1@ramapo.edu.
By Tara Maharjan, MS, MA
In September 2021, Hurricane Ida severely impacted the Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA), home to the Sinclair New Jersey Collection, Manuscript Collection, Rare Book and Book Arts Collection, and Rutgers University Archives. As a result, we closed the New Jersey Reading Room on October 1, to allow library faculty and staff to work on flood recovery activities.
As of October 15, we have temporarily suspended all reference services while we prepare to safely move our collections out of the affected spaces. We hope to resume limited services including remote reference and scanning as well as a small onsite reading room for Rutgers students, faculty, and staff in January 2022. We must take these measures to ensure the long-term preservation of collections and to improve the storage and research environments. At this time, we anticipate that our full reference services will be unavailable for approximately two years.
In the interim, you can access portions of SC/UA’s materials online through the SC/UA Digital Resources Guide, at SC/UA Primary Source Highlights, and at the Rutgers University Libraries Digital Collections site.
Please refer to the SC/UA website for the most up-to-date information on our services and resources. You can also follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, or subscribe to our blog.
We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have questions, please contact us.
Date: Dec 7, 2021
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Online (From Your Home)
Is Brand Loyalty a Thing of The Past?
In the 50’s and 60’s “Mad Men” advertisers turned brand loyalty into gold. As factories converted from war production to consumer goods, the companies that were able to distinguish themselves from their competitors with recognizable brands and iconic images, won big. Seventy years later, does brand loyalty hold up to online convenience? Can iconic companies compete in a digital world of disruptive innovations? Come and share your thoughts and ideas with us.
Presenter: Nancy Dowd
Nancy began her career by helping libraries market their value to their communities as Director of Marketing for Ocean County Library and The New Jersey State Library. She has spoken around the world on the topic of marketing and was co-author of the bestselling book, Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian. During the pandemic she became interested in alternative ways for people to celebrate special occasions and is currently opening a luxury picnic company called Picnic in Paradise SC. She lives in Murrells Inlet, SC with her husband, Tom, and a pup named Easy. She enjoys reading, traveling and entertaining good friends and family.
The program will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is requested – sign up here.
Join Zoom Meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87568756396
Or join by phone 646-558-8656 Meeting ID: 875 6875 6396
By Christina Connor and Joe Louderback
The Assessment and Reference & User Education Committees have a long history of collaboration. The co-sponsored Summer Workshop has been a staple in annual offerings to academic librarians for many years. In the spring of 2021, the committee co-chairs worked together to produce a new event, and on May 7, 2021, offered a virtual workshop framed around the ACRL Learning Analytics Toolkit. The ACRL Learning Analytics Toolkit is designed to help connect the data commonly collected by librarians to bigger campus-wide initiatives. The workshop was open to all members of the NJLA-CUS community and offered a general introduction to the Toolkit, as well as two breakout sessions. The breakout sessions facilitated by the co-chairs of the committees, explored different aspects of the Toolkit: Exploring the Connections Between Learning Analytics and Student Success and Rebalancing the Toolkit: Considering Both Quantitative and Qualitative Data. The workshop was well received by attendees, who indicated an interest in similar events in the future.
In keeping with tradition, the Reference & User Education and Assessment Committees hosted the Summer Workshop on July 22, 2021. This annual, half-day event provides an opportunity for New Jersey academic librarians to share ideas through roundtable discussions and lightning talks in a relatively informal environment. The event organizers solicit presentations related to assessment, instruction, and reference services – the theme serves as a focal point for presenters. This year’s forward-looking and hopeful theme was Weathering the Storm: Looking Ahead to Brighter Horizons. The Summer Workshop is consistently well attended, and this year’s event was no exception: despite (or perhaps because of) the online delivery mode, over 60 librarians from all corners of New Jersey were able to participate. The big draw, no doubt, was the range of presentation topics, including using ACRL’s Project Outcome for assessment, academic integrity, collaboration on course design, proactive chat reference, visual literacy and information literacy programs, academic library outreach, qualitative and quantitative assessment methods, OER initiatives, embedding LibGuides in the LMS, and how hidden bias affects diversity and inclusion efforts in libraries.
The committee chairs find these collaborative efforts professionally rewarding and have seen an increased interest in their respective groups as a result. The chairs of both the Reference & User Education and Assessment Committees have an interest in finding new, collaborative opportunities in the future and are open to suggestions for topics or events. If you’re interested in collaboration, have a suggestion for a future event, or wish to know more about the Assessment or Reference & User Education committees, please contact Christina Connor (cconnor@ramapo.edu) or Joe Louderback (jlouderback@devry.edu) respectively.
By Andrea Baer and Dan Kipnis
On Tuesday October 5, 2021, Public Services Librarian Andrea Baer, PhD, and Life Sciences Librarian Dan Kipnis, MSI, from Rowan University’s Campbell Library (Glassboro campus) facilitated the hands-on workshop “Teaching Online Source Evaluation through “Lateral Reading.” This event, offered to educators throughout the state of New Jersey, was part of the New Jersey National History Day workshop series and among Baer and Kipnis’s larger efforts to support digital literacy across the disciplines.
“Lateral reading” is a way to quickly evaluate the credibility of an online source. It essentially involves quickly moving off of a webpage to learn more about a source from other online information. This contrasts investing too much time up front in examining what a website says about itself. Research indicates that lateral reading is a far more effective way to evaluate sources than many of the traditional checklist approaches that students have often been taught.
Workshop participants included teachers and administrators from middle and high schools, as well as college educators. The participants teach a variety of subjects, including social studies, history, English, language arts, digital citizenship, information literacy, business, and child development. Educators came from across the state of New Jersey including: Glassboro, Ridgewood, Wayne, Summit, Paramus, Marlton, Somerset, Ramsey, and Patterson.
Additional information on evaluating online sources can be found at Evaluating Online Sources: A Toolkit. If you have questions about lateral reading, please reach out to Andrea or Dan.
Andrea and Dan volunteer as judges for the New Jersey National History Day competition. Source evaluation is among the many complex skills that students apply when developing history National History Day projects, through which they synthesize information sources and critically interpret what those sources illuminate about history and its relationship to today.
This year the National History Day competition theme for 2021-2022 is Debate and Diplomacy in History. Additional information for judges can be found here. If you wish to volunteer for the upcoming NHD competition and be added to the judges listserv to receive information, email: Njhistoryday@wpunj.edu. Volunteer judges are needed every year, and it is a great opportunity to learn something new and to see the great work being done by future historians!
Andrea Baer (baera@rowan.edu) is the History and Political Science Librarian and Dan Kipnis (kipnisd@rowan.edu) is the Life Sciences Librarian at Campbell Library at Rowan University.
By Erin Mustard
SCARLA, the Student College, Academic, and Research Library Association at Rutgers University held its second annual event, BANNED: A Virtual Banned Books Read-Out & Discussions on the Freedom to Read via Zoom. The event was co-sponsored by the Rutgers University New Brunswick Libraries and LISSA (Library and Information Science Student Association). The event featured engaging faculty flashtalks and passionate students reading aloud from banned books of their choosing.
Students read from books of many genres, from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, to Munro Leaf’s The Story of Ferdinand, to James Baldwin’s Another Country. In addition to reading aloud, many participants spoke passionately about why they loved a particular book, as well as why it was banned. Every reader expressed a deep connection with their chosen book, their shock at its being banned, and their determination to share it at this event.
Interspersed between the readings were flashtalks by professors and librarians at Rutgers, focusing on censorship and academic freedom. The topics included: banning books for school-aged children; the role of the Catholic Church banning science books in the 17th century; recent attempts to ban books in cities as close as York, Pennsylvania, and as far away as Budapest, Hungary; and publishers’ roles in censorship.
At the end of the event, we felt invigorated by the expertise and passion of a community who wanted to speak against censorship. We are looking forward to planning and growing the event next year.
SCARLA’s president is Wafa Fatima Isfahani, the Vice-President is Victoria Sun, Frances Fynan is the webmaster and acting secretary, and Nicole Willis is the treasurer. The faculty advisors are Dr. Marie Radford and Dr. Gretchen Stahlman. More information can be found at https://scarla.rutgers.edu/.
Upcoming Event
SCARLA would like to invite anyone interested to the upcoming #CritLibCollective event via Zoom on Thursday, November 18 at 7pm EST. Join us for our second edition of the #CritLibCollective, a space where students, faculty, and librarians can gather for informal discussions on important topics related to critical librarianship. For this iteration of our event, we are reading Jennifer A. Ferretti’s article, "Building a Critical Culture: How Critical Librarianship Falls Short in the Workplace” from the open access journal Communications in Information Literacy.
Register for #CritLibCollective at https://bit.ly/CritLibNov2021. Bring your questions, thoughts, and anecdotes! We are excited for the conversation!
Erin Mustard (she/hers) is a member of SCARLA. She can be reached at erin.mustard@rutgers.edu.
By Andrew Dauphinee and Cindy Warrick of The New Jersey State Library
Like many libraries throughout the state, the global Covid-19 pandemic forced the New Jersey State Library to close our doors in unprecedented fashion. Some of our traditional services were halted, while others were forced to move online. We spent the past few years developing and growing our adult programming initiatives and were on pace to exceed totals in terms of number of programs, overall attendance, and average attendance. As a result of our closure, we decided to take the leap into 100% virtual programming, which turned out to be extremely beneficial for us and our patrons.
As more and more people were forced to stay home, the demand for virtual programming was very apparent. People were looking for a distraction from current events. Fortunately, many of our presenters were capable of converting their in-person programs to virtual, some for the very first time. While our first major foray into virtual programming got off to a rocky start, we learned many valuable lessons which we want to share with the greater NJ library community.
Transitioning to virtual programming can be daunting, especially with the wide variety of virtual platforms available. Choosing the right platform for your needs is the first step toward mastering the virtual programming beast. Some platforms offer free versions, but may limit the number of attendees that can join for the duration of the webinars. Many platforms have subscription tiers that offer benefits and features, such as increased attendee limits, file sharing, cloud storage for recording, or the capability to incorporate polls or surveys. Because each platform has a different user interface, experimenting with different ones is beneficial to figuring out which platform is best for your library.
Once you choose your platform, it is a good idea to attend available training or watch any tutorials available on how to use it. It is important to understand how all aspects of the platform work to avoid spending time setting up a program and then realizing you don't know how to run the program effectively and troubleshoot common problems.
In the rush to provide timely programs, we encountered several problems that we were unprepared for, from compatibility issues with different devices (PC, Mac, Mobile) to ensuring all the features of the platform were working properly or supported. Training allows you to familiarize yourself with the platform's website and support forums, where you can find answers and support for common technical questions, such as screen-sharing, audio fixes, and service interruptions. While we cannot control what technology does all the time, we can be prepared with alternatives for when technology fails us.
Another benefit we realized as we increased our number of online programs was to schedule practice sessions with the presenters. This not only helped our staff learn the platform and how to use specific features such as polling, it also allowed us to identify, in advance, any technical issues our presenters might face. Practice sessions increased confidence for both the host library staff as well as the presenters, some of whom had never used webinar platforms before. Through these practice sessions we learned the different security requirements between Microsoft and Apple computers for microphone use and screen-sharing, limits of platforms when recording videos, and settings for hosts who had multiple screens. By making practice sessions part of your virtual programming best practices, it will eliminate many of the common problems faced during webinars.
While technology can be intimidating and virtual programming can be more time consuming, especially related to preparation, we discovered early in the pandemic the many benefits of virtual programming. First and foremost, many webinar platforms allow you to record the program, which you can share with patrons who were unable to attend the live program. We also found that many of those who attended the webinar wanted to go back and watch it again. It is important, however, to secure permission from the presenter for recording and distributing the presentation. Many of our presenters appreciated this gesture and granted their permission. Additionally, virtual programming allows you to reach a much wider audience and include those people who may not be able to physically come to the library. Lastly, virtual programming is easy to share with other organizations, allowing us to expand our partnerships both within and outside the library community.
While many of us may enjoy the personal interactions associated with in-person programs at our libraries, the pandemic has really shown the immense benefit of having an online programming presence. Libraries can no longer remain content waiting for patrons to come to us; we have to become proactive and find ways to reach our patrons where they are, whether at home, at the office, or anywhere around the world.
Virtual programming creates a fantastic opportunity to increase the library's presence in their local community, region, and state. Additionally, speakers and topics that may have been unavailable in-person due to long distances or travel constraints are now more readily accessible. The brick and mortar library is here to stay, but must find ways to maintain and grow a virtual presence. There is no better way than developing programming opportunities for the online environment.
Andrew Dauphinee is the Outreach Librarian and Cindy Warrick is a Senior Publications Information Assistant at the New Jersey State Library in Trenton. Reach Andrew at adauphinee@njstatelib.org and Cindy at cwarrick@njstatelib.org.
The CUS/ACRL-NJ Newsletter is edited by Joan Dalrymple, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Bergen Community College; Katie Maricic Cohen, Interlibrary Loan, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Ramapo College of New Jersey; and Liz Siecke, Reference and Instruction Librarian/Serials Coordinator at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
Editors Joan Dalrymple and Katie Cohen pose for a picture during the Summer 2015 Marketing and Communications Committee Meeting at Monmouth University Library.
