2024 State of the Libraries Program

Antonio Barrera 
Libraries Applications and Development 

The poster provides various project and effort updates from the Applications and Development team. 

Maria Deptula, Ermina Mitre 
George F. Smith Library 

Dr. Benjamin F. Rush (1934-2013) was the founding and longtime Chair of the Department of Surgery at New Jersey Medical School (1969-1994). His estate donated to Smith Library a collection of books from the Classics of Medicine and Classics of Surgery series, published by Gryphon Editions from the 1970s–1990s. At the time of their publication, these elegantly produced facsimile editions were considered rare, but now many historic titles are freely available through HathiTrust, archive.org, and other online repositories. Therefore, the Rush Classics books were developed into a circulating collection. Many Rush books had existing catalog records in Alma, but others needed new records created. The Rush books now constitute a circulating collection on M-level of Smith Library. Our poster is going to explain the process of acquiring the collection, collaboration with the Cataloging Department, and the final product of this project. 

Naomi Gold, Pam Hargwood, John Maxymuk 
Collaboration with the librarians supporting nursing at RWJ, Dana, and Robeson Libraries 

This poster will describe collaboration among the librarians who support nursing on the Rutgers Health, Newark and Camden campuses, and in particular, their work on reorganizing the Nursing LibGuides. 

Judit Hajnal Ward 
Digital Alcohol Studies Collection team 

Launched in May 2023, the Rutgers Digital Alcohol Studies Collection offers unprecedented access to hundreds of images and documents accumulated over 80 years in the vast archives at the Center of Alcohol Studies. Our aim in digitizing these materials was to make them widely available to researchers everywhere. Promoted by articles, conference presentations, audiovisual resources, and social media to enhance visibility and discoverability, the Collection in RUcore is considered a highly praised resource in the international addiction studies community and a well-rounded addition to the RUL collections site. Showcasing the collaborative effort behind developing the collection, this poster aims to start a discussion and inspire colleagues to consider providing access to valuable resources in digital collections for our users to explore and research. (The presenter thanks Nicolas Allred, Isaiah Beard, William Bejarano, Eva Chan, Kaitlyn Greenberg, Sam McDonald, James Silverstein, and Geoffrey Wood for their assistance in creating this poster.) 

Mei Ling Lo 
New Brunswick Libraries 

This poster aims to explore the integration of AI-powered tools in the process of conducting literature reviews. Traditional databases like Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed have long been pillars in academic research. However, they often require significant time and effort to search, navigate and analyze. By contrast, emerging AI-powered tools such as Consensus, Elicit, Keenious, ResearchRabbit, ScienceOS, and Scite offer innovative approaches to data handling, citation analysis, and discovery of relevant literature using natural language processing. This poster will spotlight the features of some AI-powered tools and explore their potential limitations. 

 Orla Mejia, Christopher Sterback 
Fulfillment Working Group 

Leganto is the Ex Libris tool that instructors and students use to build and access reading lists of course materials in Canvas. The end user interface to Leganto changed to a more modern look and feel on May 20, 2024, and the Libraries are committed to making this a successful transition. Please stop by our poster to see what's changed with Leganto and the resources you can refer users to when they ask for help. 

Emily Cerri, Maria Deptula 
Health Sciences Libraries 

This poster will explain the process of acquiring, preparing, and promoting the anatomical models for hands-on student learning. Smith Library recently acquired 15 anatomical models as a circulating collection for in-house use by Rutgers medical and dental students. This new collection developed when Smith librarians learned that students wanted anatomical models available for study outside of anatomy classrooms, where such models were accessible only during limited class hours. These new anatomical models are being promoted through a research guide, an item in the Health Sciences Libraries monthly email newsletter, and through signage around campus. The models are also prominently visible in the Permanent Reserves collection near the Smith Library entrance. 

Ann Marie Latini, Orla Mejia, Andy Martinez 
Fulfillment Working Group 

Introducing Rutgers University Library Pick-up Lockers! We are piloting this exciting new service at Robeson and Douglass libraries, providing patrons with the ability to pick up their library materials at any time. 

Dan Delmonaco, Maria Deptula, Mina Ghajar 
George F. Smith Library 

RBHS Librarians are surveying the School of Health Professions, School of Dental Medicine, and New Jersey Medical School faculty to analyze faculty awareness of RUL Open Access agreements, faculty perceptions of publishing in Open Access & faculty experiences with publishing Open Access in journals. We will also determine what kind of services faculty expect from the library when publishing Open Access.  

Jeffrey Carroll, Christopher Sterback, Mary Beth Weber 
Central 

The PreCat process for handling donated materials was introduced in 2022 and was tested using the International Youth Literature Collection at Alexander. Since then, there have been a number of successful projects for each of our campuses. The process is a collaboration between CTS, IIS, SCC, subject specialists, and Access Services personnel. 

Jenica Ibarra, Elizabeth Surles 
Dana Library and Institute of Jazz Studies 

The Institute of Jazz Studies and Dana Library received a Rutgers University-Newark Cultural Programming Grant in March 2024 to support both a student-curated exhibit connecting jazz and Islam as well as the opening reception for the exhibit. This poster reports on the project, including outcomes and lessons learned. 

Sungmin Park, Elizabeth York 
Scholarly Communications and Collections 

Reparative description is the practice of correcting historical biases, inaccuracies, or omissions in the description of library and archival materials, to provide a more inclusive, accurate, and respectful representation of marginalized individuals, communities, and cultures. In this poster, SCC librarians will illustrate efforts taken in the past year to build a reparative description culture in RUL, ensuring that all perspectives are represented and valued in QuickSearch and contributing to an online library space that is inclusive, accurate, safe, and welcoming to all. (The presenters thank Melissa De Fino, Joseph Deodato, and Mary Beth Weber for their assistance in creating this poster.) 

Regina Koury 
Robeson Library 

This poster provides recognition and kudos to Robeson’s team members. 

Richard Jutkiewicz, Geoffrey Wood
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee 

This poster outlines the FY25 RUL DEI Journey. 

Stacey Carton, Becky Diamond, Mei Ling Lo, L.M. Miller, Sue Oldenburg, Andrew Ruggiero 
New Brunswick Libraries Learning Community Advisory Group 

This poster will highlight the Learning Community's efforts to build positive collaborative relationships between faculty and staff and support professional development and wellness. 

Rose Barbalace, John Gibson 
Staff Advisory Committee 

Join the chair and vice chair of the Staff Advisory Committee for an overview of the committee's accomplishments and a preview of their goals and projects for the upcoming fiscal year. 

Diane Biunno 
Dana Library 

This poster explores workflows for importing container lists into ArchivesSpace via the Harvard plug-in and outlines how to create digital object records in batch.