E V O L U T I O N S Annual Report | 2020
Welcome to Our 2020 Annual Report
Unifying Themes
From Camden
From Newark
From New Brunswick
From Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey was an incredibly disruptive experience. In just a matter of days, the entire university had to shift its instructional model to online-only, requiring significant adjustments from students, staff, and instructors alike. As you might imagine, the Libraries were not immune to the effects of this abrupt change, as we hurried to assist teaching faculty in identifying the online resources they would need to finish out the semester successfully, albeit remotely.
Nine months later, and Rutgers is still operating according to a hybrid model. This has forced us to look closely at our resources and services, adapt quickly to an uncertain environment, and leverage the strong infrastructure we've built over the past several years, all to ensure that we are in a position to continue supporting the university, no matter what obstacles may lie ahead. In the stories that follow, you will find many examples of how we've approached this daunting task, though what is collected here only begins to scratch the surface.
We've titled this year's report Evolutions as a way to underscore the many changes the Libraries have undergone in 2020. While some of them were born out of necessity due to the public health crisis, still more are the fruits of our labors from the past several years. In many ways, adapting to change is something libraries have always done. Moving forward, it is something we will continue to do so that we can meet the needs of our students, faculty, and the larger community in the rapidly changing landscape of higher education.
As always, we thank you for your interest in our work. If you have any questions or feedback about the Libraries, please feel free to contact me.
Krisellen Maloney, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian
By the Numbers - 2020
Helping Rutgers Move Online
Strengthening our "digital core"—the online resources, services, and infrastructure that reach the largest swathes of the Rutgers community—has been a top priority of the Libraries over the past several years. While we had been building steadily in this direction for some time, the rapid shift to online-only instruction kicked this motion into an even higher gear.
Within weeks of the onset of the pandemic, we purchased well over 22,000 new ebooks, 500 streaming video files, and national newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for direct, in-classroom use. We also added access to an additional 40,000 new ebooks to support research by expanding the scope of our point-of-need technology, which triggers behind-the-scenes purchases of new titles at the click of a user's button. We added multiple major journal backfile packages—171 titles in Periodicals Archive Online, the full backfiles issued by the American Medical Association for JAMA, and backfiles for the New England Journal of Medicine and Chemical & Engineering News—to broaden our collection's coverage. Moreover, we've been leveraging our institutional partnerships, adding 52 new primary-source databases through our membership in the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium as well as temporary, emergency access to more than 1.2 million ebooks via HathiTrust and the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Through this partnership alone, approximately 45% of our physical collection is now available to our users online. For those who prefer using physical materials, our Click and Collect service allows on-campus users to pick up items at various library locations by appointment, while our Personal Delivery service ships materials directly to patrons' homes.
Further, we've pursued new options for making the expertise of our librarians available virtually, expanding our chat coverage and experimenting with a video reference desk to capture the intimacy of the in-person reference experience from the safety and comfort of our users' homes. Our librarians have also been proactive about providing office hours, consultations, and workshops through platforms like WebEx and Zoom. We have developed and deployed a host of online instructional instruments both asynchronous and synchronous, from research guides and tutorials to live presentations and discussion forums. Last—but certainly not least—we are in the midst of a comprehensive website redesign that will lead to a streamlined, personalized, and much more user-friendly experience for all our users.
As the charts below begin to indicate, many of our online resources saw significantly increased demand in the spring despite the disruptions to our sense of normalcy. Needless to say, we were very pleased to see these trends. It brings us great pride to know that we have been able to rise to the challenge and support the Rutgers community when it needed us most.
Top journal and database usage by percent increase, January to June 2019 vs. 2020. Click to enlarge.
Empowering Student Success
Students are at the heart of Rutgers' mission—and as such, they are at the center of nearly everything we do. Whether it's guiding students through the research process or creating tools to connect them more easily to library resources and expertise, empowering student success is a key priority for our libraries and librarians across the university.
Supporting Researcher Excellence
Rutgers is home to some of the world's most outstanding faculty and researchers, as well as the graduate students that will become the leading scholars of tomorrow. We believe that support from the Libraries is central to this research enterprise. That's why our goal is to be there for our researchers every step of the way—from the workshops that introduce novices to the fundamentals of research, to the systematic reviews that lay the foundation for their scholarship, to the exhibitions and displays that celebrate their achievements.
Building Accessible Collections
The way that scholarship is conducted is changing. The preferences and expectations of students and faculty are too, with information being created and consumed at a faster rate than ever before. This has only been precipitated by the pandemic and the shift to an online-centric mode of learning. For the Libraries to be successful in this environment, we must strive to create collections that are available to our students and faculty wherever they are, whenever they need them.
Reimagining Library Spaces
Today's academic libraries are about far more than just books. They are the intellectual commons of the university—gathering places where students and researchers come together to collaborate, discover, and learn. Rutgers University Libraries are constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of our communities by reimagining our spaces with an eye toward innovation and exploration.
Pictured: A rendering of the Digital Learning Commons, currently under construction at Alexander Library.
Forging Strategic Relationships
If the university were a wheel, then the Libraries would be its hub. Not only do we serve the entire university community—we view it as part of our purpose to build connections, strengthen relationships, and reveal new possibilities. We do this by reaching beyond the traditional boundaries and forging partnerships with stakeholders throughout the university, our communities, and the world.
Pictured: Robeson Library hosts a board game night in collaboration with the Office of International Students and the Rowan at Camden English Language Learner program.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Robeson Library building—and needless to say, it has been unlike any in its history so far. Despite the challenges we've faced in 2020, I'm incredibly proud of how our library faculty and staff have adapted and continue to bring our signature blend of expert, friendly, and personalized service to the Rutgers–Camden community.
While the pandemic has precipitated a massive shift in both how we operate and how our patrons work and learn, Robeson Library remains committed to supporting the research, teaching, learning, and civic engagement activities of our campus. The highlights that follow describe just a handful of the ways in which we have advanced these priorities, both in person and online, and how Rutgers–Camden students and faculty are enriched by having the library woven into the fabric of their academic lives.
Have questions or comments about the library? Please don't hesitate to reach out!
Regina Koury, Associate University Librarian, Rutgers University–Camden
Robeson Library Facts & Figures
Personal Librarian Program
To support first-year students with access to resources and experiences that help them succeed academically, librarian Samantha Kannegiser led a team of Robeson librarians in creating the Personal Librarian Program using Raptor Connect, a student success management system adopted on campus for use by advisors, tutors, student services staff, faculty, and students. A librarian and a Student Success Coach are each paired with a student to provide targeted outreach throughout their first year, sending timely emails with tips, tutorials, library updates, and events.
"Library processes, terminology, resources, and services can overwhelm new students who are unfamiliar with academic libraries," said Kannegiser. "Our goal is to relay information to students when it is most needed, making them comfortable asking questions of librarians, navigating library resources, and attending library events with their peers."
The program reaches hundreds of new students each year.
Pictured: Student Success Librarian Samantha Kannegiser, lead for Rutgers–Camden's Personal Librarian Program, which included herself and personal librarians Katie Anderson, Julie Still, and Zara Wilkinson.
Student Research Poster Archives
This spring, in response to the cancellation of Research Week 2020 because of the pandemic, librarian Zara Wilkinson led efforts to digitize and archive posters previously presented at Camden's annual Graduate Research and Creative Works Symposium and Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA), events recognizing the original research of students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Camden College of Arts and Sciences, and University College-Camden.
Available to anyone in the world with an internet connection, these digital collections help expand the reach and impact of the students' scholarship. Explore them at the following links:
Rutgers–Camden Graduate Research and Creative Works Symposium Poster Archive
Rutgers-Camden CURCA Poster Archive
Pictured: Students present their research at the Rutgers–Camden Graduate Research and Creative Works Symposium.
Spearheaded by librarian Bart Everts, Robeson Library held its first Board Game Night this year in collaboration with the Rutgers–Camden Office of International Students and Rowan at Camden's English Language Learner Program. Open to all Rutgers students, the event offered free refreshments and access to classic games like Yahtzee, Uno, and Battleship.
"In addition to helping the students build their English language skills while strengthening relationships with their peers, hosting these events at the library allows us to connect the students to library resources and other support services on campus that will help them succeed academically," said Everts.
Pictured: International and ELL students play Monopoly at Robeson Library's Board Game Night.
Nicholas Virgilio Papers
This year we completed one of our most highly anticipated special collections projects, digitizing the papers of Camden-based poet Nicholas Virgilio.
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.
Our digital 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 never-before-seen haiku.
"Virgilio was such an influential figure—not just in the history of poetry, but in the history of Camden as well," said librarian Julie Still, who oversees special collections for Robeson Library and led the digitization project. "Having these materials available in a digital format increases the visibility of Virgilio's work and gives scholars new insights into the poet and his creative process."
Electronic Classroom Renovation
This year, our Space Committee, led by chair John Maxymuk, instructional technology specialist John Gibson, and instruction coordinator Zara Wilkinson, initiated a renovation of our electronic classroom. We updated all the original furniture, installing sleek new work areas including a durable table system custom-designed for the room. New wiring and installation of equipment under each new surface offers better accessibility and access to the room technology. And while library instruction is currently being conducted remotely, we look forward to the day when we can welcome students back to the classroom to take advantage of all this space has to offer!
Pictured: The renovated electronic classroom at Robeson Library.
Thank you to our students, faculty, and colleagues for another year full of memories!
This year was one of transition for Dana Library, as the unexpected public health crisis led to a rather disruptive environment requiring quick pivots to institute changes to many of our operations and workflows. It was an incredibly dynamic period—one which repeatedly tested the new organizational structure we put into place last year, and with good results.
While they are of course just the tip of the iceberg, the following snapshots give some sense of what we've been up to. A guiding principle for us throughout this tumultuous period has been to continue evolving with our stakeholders in mind, so that no matter where they are—or when they need us—our services, resources, and expertise are never too far away.
Consuella Askew, Associate University Librarian, Rutgers University–Newark
Dana Library Facts & Figures
Virtual Reference Services
This year Dana Library and the Institute of Jazz Students rolled out a video reference function to complement our traditional, text-based chat reference service. This fully featured "virtual reference desk" replicates the experience of visiting the library in person, allowing students and faculty to connect face-to-face with a librarian or archivist from the comfort of their own devices, five days a week.
In addition, this year we hosted our first virtual open houses as well as "Research Freakouts," day-long events held on Zoom during finals period that allowed students to drop in for last minute research assistance. High attendance indicated that these sessions were appreciated by our students, and we look forward to providing more of this type of support in the future.
We are happy to provide these "high-touch" services, which align with the values of our campus and allow us to provide a more personalized and intimate experience despite our physical distance.
Events & Engagement
One of Dana Library's priorities is to increase our community engagement through programming that is accessible, relevant, and meaningful to our constituents.
This year, we provided 21 in-person and virtual workshops that saw the library collaborate with partners at Rutgers–Newark and within the greater Newark community. These events included:
Library Research Tips for Graduate Students
Archival Research Tools and Tips
Which Citation Manager?
Introduction to Qualtrics
How to Increase Your Research's Visibility & Impact
Job Hunting for Graduate Students
Islamic Art Wiki-a-Thon
Digital Scholarship as Modular Pedagogy Bootcamp
Building Your Professional Network
De-Stress Fest Newark
We like to say that "all roads at Rutgers–Newark lead to Dana Library," and this programming is just one example of how the library helps brings our community together. Stay tuned to our website to learn all about our spring offerings!
Pictured: Students attend an Islamic Art Wiki-a-Thon at Dana Library, hosted in partnership with the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media; the Shangri-La Foundation; and Temple University.
A finding aid is document that describes an archival collection and helps guide researchers in using it. Building on the progress we made last year in authoring over 200 finding aids for the Institute of Jazz Studies' collections, this year we edited them to standardize their style before uploading them into our new archival information management system.
There are 188 finding aids now in the repository, with 42 different subject headings and 336 names searchable throughout the collections. The finding aids can also be discovered in QuickSearch, making it easier than ever before for researchers to locate and use this information.
A Love Letter to Count Basie
This year was a big one for the Institute of Jazz Studies' Count Basie Collection, which was publicly exhibited for the first time since its acquisition in 2018 when the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center opened its doors and front lawn for a display titled A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance.
More than 1,000 Basie artifacts are archived at the Institute of Jazz Studies. The collection—known formally as the William "Count" and Catherine Basie papers and artifacts—is the only body of materials that traces directly to the family of Basie, who was a Red Bank, New Jersey native.
The Basie Collection received the digital spotlight as well this year, as the IJS partnered with the GRAMMY Museum to contribute to Count Basie: The King of Swing as part of its "Exhibits at Home" series.
To add a final flourish to an already stellar year, the Basie Collection was also the recipient of multiple grants—including one from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the amount of $443,500, and one from the New Jersey Historical Commission in the amount of $23,500—both of which will contribute to its processing to make the collection more useful to researchers.
Tomorrow's Dana, Today
After over a year of construction (and a pandemic in between), the renovation project at Dana Library is nearing its conclusion, creating a more dynamic, flexible, and creative learning environment for our students and faculty.
This project was conceived to realize our ideal of the 21st-century, user-centered library, and to make Dana Library more user friendly in numerous ways. It addresses directly the highest priorities for improving the library that were identified through our strategic planning process several years ago—including finally fitting out for use the third floor, which has been shell space since the construction of that wing of the building decades ago. The centerpiece of this project is the construction that has taken place on the third floor, including additional quiet study space for our students and the new P3 Collaboratory for Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship at Rutgers University–Newark.
While access to the building is currently limited to a small number of students as well as staff providing collection-based services, we look forward to the day when we can open up our doors more fully and see these beautiful spaces brimming with energy from the students and faculty who truly make Dana Library the crossroads of our campus.
Learn more and see additional progress pictures on the Dana Library Transformation Project blog.
We can't wait to see what adventures the next year has in store!
I am so proud to share this year's update with you. While 2020 has been a year not without its challenges, it has also been transformational for the New Brunswick Libraries—a year in which we moved several steps forward, following our strategic North Star of "Connect, Build, Evolve: Implementing the Future Academy."
The projects we've chosen to spotlight this year only begin to describe the progress we've made, but we hope they serve as examples representing everything that makes the New Brunswick Libraries great: our inventive, expert personnel; a penchant for bold, forward-thinking ideas; a spirit of collaboration; and a steadfast commitment to advancing the mission of Rutgers–New Brunswick.
Thank you for your interest in the work that we do. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish in the year to come.
Dee Magnoni, Associate University Librarian, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
New Brunswick Libraries Facts & Figures
The Libraries have recently adopted a new course reserves software called Reading Lists that is integrated directly into Canvas, Blackboard, and Sakai. This software organizes library resources including electronic articles, streaming media, digitized content, and more into a single list so students can access all their course materials in one place. Instructors also have greater control over the display and organization of content in their reading lists and can build and update lists during the semester.
In New Brunswick, we have been working hard with teaching faculty to help them adopt this new technology, and one area where we have been particularly successful is in our partnership with the School of Social Work.
Led by our social work librarian Karen Hartman, in the spring the school agreed to work with us to pilot the construction and use of reading lists in fully online courses. Beginning in the summer, reading lists were created and embedded in Canvas for 27 classes used by 50 sections. The pilot continued into the fall, with 62 sections using reading lists, including on-campus classes.
The feedback from students and faculty alike has been incredibly encouraging thus far, and we look forward to helping other schools adopt this technology in the semesters to come.
Ithaka Study
Understanding the many constituencies that make up an academic library's patrons is a formidable task. Scientists utilize resources quite differently from artists, and even scholars within a specific discipline like the humanities may have divergent practices and expectations depending on their academic niche and experience of library services at previous institutions.
Under the auspices of Ithaka S+R and the Modern Language Association (MLA), in 2018 New Brunswick Libraries began a qualitative study of the information needs of faculty in languages, literature and cultural studies at Rutgers–New Brunswick. The study was conducted by librarians Triveni Kuchi, James P. Niessen, and Jonathan Sauceda. The purpose was to examine the research practices of faculty in a particular field—namely, languages and literature—to identify what resources and services scholars currently use and wish they had access to at Rutgers. A report was completed in the fall of 2019 and made available through the Scholarly Open Access at Rutgers repository.
In addition to Rutgers, 13 other university libraries across the United States and a team from MLA participated in the languages and literature study. A capstone report that analyzed and combined all the information and findings from individual reports was published by Ithaka S+R this fall.
We are proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to this study and grateful to the Rutgers faculty for being so generous with their time. The insights they shared with us will allow us to better serve scholars in these disciplines well into the future.
Special Collections and University Archives made progress on several major digitization projects this year, making the treasures of its collections available to more students, researchers, and community members than ever before. Highlights include:
The Targum Digitization Project, with issues from 1869 to 1921 now available in RUcore
The New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project, which provided 60,000 digitized newspaper pages to the Library of Congress for inclusion in Chronicling America,
An online collection celebrating the 50th anniversary of Livingston College, and
The papers of the abstract painter and sculptor Dorothy Gillespie
We have also mounted digital exhibitions titled On Account of Sex: The Struggle for Women's Suffrage in Middlesex County and Battles for the Ballot in New Jersey.
We are delighted to make these resources available to the global research community, especially in our current environment where so much research is being conducted remotely due to extraordinary circumstances.
Pictured: Front page of The Targum, September 29, 1915.
Online Programming and Outreach
It is said that "necessity is the mother of invention," and no year has demonstrated that for the New Brunswick Libraries quite like 2020.
When the university shifted to all-remote instruction, the Libraries followed suit with our plans for programming and events. In just a matter of weeks, we were able to develop a platform allowing us to mount a series of exhibits celebrating the work of graduating seniors—including the capability for live poster presentations in virtual breakout rooms; a showcase of Rutgers–New Brunswick scholarship; an undergraduate research writing conference; and a digital Book Arts Symposium featuring a virtual reality gallery that guests could "walk through" in three dimensions.
Undergraduate student Iram Mansoor reflects on her participation in the Senior Exhibits project. Click to enlarge.
Further, our librarians explored new modes of outreach in the digital space, creating virtual book clubs and discussion forums, hosting workshops and lectures, and launching blogs on topics ranging from thinking and speaking critically about STEM to the art of recreational reading. These projects demonstrate the Libraries' strength of bringing people together to build connections virtually, even when we must remain physically apart.
Pictured: Students and faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology pose for a group photo during their Senior Exhibit.
Evolving Our Spaces
One of New Brunswick Libraries' strategic goals is to help strengthen research and teaching, and reimagining library spaces as intellectual commons and incubators of ideas is just one of the many approaches we take toward this end.
An example of a space created with this philosophy in mind is the new Jetstream (Joint Experimental Teaching Space for Transdisciplinary REseArch Methods) in Alexander Library. The purpose of the JetStream is to provide a space that catalyzes interdisciplinary learning and advanced research methods. It will be used to host workshops, discussions, trainings, and presentations that blur boundaries (between presenter and participant, between disciplines, between methodologies) to enable rapid and fast-moving thoughts, in the metaphorical spirit of its namesake.
This year, we also initiated construction on Alexander Library's Digital Learning Commons, a collaboration among the Rutgers–New Brunswick Chancellor's Office, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of Disability Services. This forward-looking destination will enrich the student experience through diverse and flexible space configurations along with blended state-of-the-art, accessible research library resources and technology tools, a pitch space, video creation and editing capabilities, and spaces for teams as well as individuals.
Finally, in partnership with the New Brunswick Provost Office's Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) initiative, the IDEA Hatchery will be a dedicated innovation space where students can explore concepts with peers, faculty, and industry representatives and where proposals can take shape. Students and other stakeholders will help guide the design and development of the space. Our UX and Design graduate specialists will also lead workshops and work with students in the IDEA program to help bring their ideas to life.
Pictured: The Jetstream at Alexander Library.
Looking forward to all that 2021 holds!
From RBHS
What a year 2020 has been! While much has changed about our physical circumstances this year, one thing about the Health Sciences Libraries remains constant: our commitment to providing outstanding library service to the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences community—whether they be on campus or remote. At the same time, rapidly shifting to an online-centric mode of service delivery has positioned us well for the future, as we now boast a stronger digital model than ever before.
The stories that follow illustrate how the Health Sciences Libraries have adapted to the obstacles of a uniquely challenging year, only to emerge stronger and more agile on the other side. I look forward to all we can accomplish in support of the RBHS community in 2021 and beyond.
Judy Cohn, Assistant Vice President for Information Services & Director, Health Sciences Libraries
RBHS Libraries Facts & Figures
RWJMS Summer Research Program
When the onset of the pandemic prevented second-year medical students from coming to campus for a traditional summer research experience, research services librarian Yingting Zhang was tapped to help create a virtual program that would be as enriching as its physical counterpart.
Ever up for a challenge, Zhang designed and delivered an eight-week systematic review track with Webex sessions focused on search strategies, citation management, and appraisal, culminating with a symposium of student poster presentations. As the embedded librarian, Zhang provided six instruction sessions and several student consultations throughout the course of the program. The track received very high marks on evaluation, and some students are even planning to continue work on their projects, preparing manuscripts for publication.
"It was my great pleasure to be able to help with the virtual research program," said Zhang. "My involvement demonstrated that librarians are responsive to the needs of our users and are ready to help our clients regardless of the circumstances. We are an integral part of the academic and scholarly community."
Pictured: Yingting Zhang, Robert Wood Johnson Library's research services librarian.
Adapting to A New Normal
There are few aspects of library service that have been untouched by the transition to remote teaching and learning.
We have transformed meetings, in-person consultations, workshops, orientations, instruction, and office hours into Webex or Zoom meetings. Thanks to our new LibCal scheduling software, booking time with a health sciences librarian has never been easier for our students and faculty.
This year, RBHS librarians used media tools such as Kaltura to record online orientation and instruction sessions. Coupled with our ever-popular research guides, reading lists, online tutorials, and other web-based learning objects like online labs and our "Virtual Wards" software, our users have a growing body of on-demand content to help them navigate our wealth of library resources and adopt best practices for research and clinical activities.
Health sciences librarians were also trained for the Libraries' chat reference service, further contributing to the transition of our services to support online learning. We continue to work actively with faculty and departments to identify resources and innovations to replace clinical activities that are limited or hybrid throughout RBHS curricula.
During this time, we have demonstrated that we are flexible, resilient, and remain positive despite these dramatic changes. We are happy that we have the technology necessary to support this new normal.
Online Learning, Online Resources
With limited access to our physical collections, the Health Sciences Libraries have made a concerted effort to make more online content available to our faculty and students. This was especially important in the early weeks of the pandemic, when the abrupt shift to remote learning made it necessary to quickly find online replacements for traditional content, so that students could finish their degrees on time.
One such resource is the LWW Health Library - Premium Basic Sciences Collection, which includes over 60 current textbooks on core and fundamental medical science topics, including anatomy, microbiology, pathology, and physiology. The collection is regularly updated with new textbooks and new editions as they are released. It also includes procedural videos, images, real-life case studies, and clinical skills summaries.
We are proud to offer this and a wide variety of other online resources to ensure that our students get the quality Rutgers education they have come to expect, despite the extraordinary circumstances.
Systematic Review Service
One of the Health Sciences Libraries' most popular services is our provision of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. These "studies of studies" offer a one-stop summary of all the relevant evidence that exists about a specific research question. Systematic reviews reside near the top of the evidence-based pyramid—indicating the best rigor, quality, and reliability of evidence—and are considered the highest level of study design.
The Health Sciences Libraries offer a two-tier systematic review service, designed to teach and guide students while partnering and collaborating with faculty and researchers. For students, we offer an advisory service, providing guidance on a search strategy and the overall systematic review process. For researchers, we offer a more comprehensive approach, coauthoring the systematic review and preparing it for publication.
Providing a systematic review service allows us to forge partnerships with researchers across RBHS and ensures that their scholarship has a solid foundation on which to build. Our work thus far has included collaborations with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health, University Behavioral Healthcare, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Institute for Health, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and many more. There are 26 systematic reviews currently in process or completed: 13 published, four accepted for publication, one submitted for publication, and eight in progress.
RWJ @ LSM
Our health sciences service point at the Library of Science and Medicine (LSM) on Busch campus continued to evolve this year, with over 400 hours of reference support and expanded programming offerings provided within the space prior to the shift to online learning. Our events at LSM included:
RWJMS Mindfulness Elective
DMP Tool Workshop (Love Data Week)
Master of Biomedical Sciences Open House
RWJMS Entrepreneur Interest Group
Reach out and Read Book Sale
Resources for Conducting Medical Education Research (RWJMS Distinction in Medical Education Program)
Searching PubMed and Using EndNote (EOSHI Pharmacology & Toxicology Graduate Program)
Drop-in workshops on PubMed and EndNote
While we have successfully transitioned much of our support in these areas online, we look forward to the day when we can once again gather with our students and faculty face-to-face!
Pictured: Librarian Victoria Wagner leads an orientation session for Robert Wood Johnson Medical School students at the Library of Science and Medicine.
Looking forward to what 2021 has in store!
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Dr. Peter M. Russo
Ms. Margaret Schramm Horn
Mrs. Evelyn Jackson Sealand
Dr. Harold B. Shill III
Susan Jane Siggelakis, Ph.D.
Mr. Philip B. Stern
Mr. Robert Stout
Dr. Maria Arnaboldi Tanis
Mr. James H. Van Dyke
Mr. Lawrence D. Weimer
Robert A. Zielinski, Ph.D.
Ms. Janice C. Bennett
Ms. Janet E. Bone
Ms. Arielle Budoff
Elsie Bull, Ed.D.
Ms. Anne Ellen Butler
Mrs. Elizabeth Carabillo
Mrs. Lorna Carroll
Ms. Viannette C. Carvellas
Mr. Keith R. Case
Joseph M. Colella, Esq.
Mr. Paul B. Cors
Mr. Timothy J. Cunningham
Mr. Kwame Davis
Mr. William E. Dawe
Mrs. Mary Anne DeAndrea
Mr. Gerard DeBoey
Mr. Philip G. DeGeorge
Judith Deutsch, P.T.
Professor Lowell Edmunds
Dr. Dennis D. Focht
Mrs. Catherine M. Fowler
Dr. Marguerite L. Franca-Terceira
Mr. George L. Fricke
Mr. Samuel J. Garro
Ms. Barbara H. Giebelhaus
Mr. David Norman Grayson
Santa A. Gregory, Ph.D.
Arthur D. Grossman, Esq.
Mr. Barry L. Grubb
Ms. Kathleen Lischko Hartford
Mr. Robert D. Hendler
Dr. Richard P. Hotz
Mr. Ronald C. Jantz
Mrs. Roberta R. Katz
Mr. Lawrence C. Klein
Professor Antoni A. Kosinski
Mr. Marvin Krantzow
Mr. Lawrence B. Kugler
Ms. Susan Mahon-Galasso
Ms. Shelby Anne Martin
Ms. Katha D. Massey
Dr. Tara C. Matise
David A. Mauriello, Ph.D.
Mrs. Suzanne S. McKenna
Mr. George H. McKinnon
Miles M. Merwin, Ph.D.
Mr. Jacob K. Miller
Steven E. Miller, D.O.
Mr. Boris Moczula
Mrs. Helen M. Morris
Dr. Susan Muller
Ms. Colette Murphy-Cole
Dr. Peter D. Paul
Ms. Mary A. Prendergast
Mr. Henry Ramos
Mrs. Susan L. Rhodes
Mr. Charles A. Rizzo
Mrs. Patricia Rourke
Mrs. Patricia D. Sanders
Mr. John A. Santucci
Mrs. Pamela Scheinman
Joel Schulman, M.D.
Mr. Joseph P. Serylo
Ms. Gracemary C. Smulewitz
Dr. William K. Stoms, Jr.
Dr. Sivakumara Tadikonda
Mr. William P. Tuchrello
Ms. Clotilde Twagiramariya
Mrs. Janet W. Waanders
Mr. Raymond Wasilko
Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Watkins
Mrs. Judith Louise Weinstein
Ms. Wendy S. Whitbeck
Mr. Stephen D. Wood
Ms. Rachel D. Zack
James Andrew Zwiebel, M.D.
Gifts in honor of:
Mr. Gerald Fleetwood
Ms. Janice Greenberg
Dr. Kevin Patrick Mulcahy
Mr. Wayne C. Winborne
Gifts in memory of:
Mr. William D. Alderson
Ms. Valaire Belloff Biddulph
Mr. Jeong Do Kim
Mr. William E. Fowler
Ms. Halina Neuman
Mr. Marvin L. Norton
Ms. Halina Rodzko Rusak
Mrs. Elizabeth Stern
Mrs. Helen Thomson Thomas
Professor William M. Weinberg
Henry R. Winkler, Ph.D.
Pictured: The Mabel Smith Douglass Room at Douglass Library, renovated with a bequest from Suzanne Wieme Whitlock DC'66 to the Margery Somers Foster Center.
Photos: Nick Romanenko, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, John Powell, Michele Tokar, Matt Bridgeman, John Gibson, Elsa Alves, Dee Magnoni, Holly Muller, Mei Ling Lo. Graphic design: Marinelle Manansala.