Visiting Intern
Wins Award

We're pleased to announce that Sabine Rauchmann, the visiting intern from Germany in the New Brunswick Libraries, is one of the three award winners of the 2003 innovation forum of the German association BIB, the Professional Association for Information and Libraries. The award was based on her senior thesis, entitled Die Vermittlung von Informationskompetenz in Online-Tutorials: eine vergleichende Bewertung der US-amerikanischen und deutschen Konzepte (The teaching of information literacy in online tutorials: a comparative evaluation of US-American and German concepts).

Sabine has been invited to present a paper at the German Library Congress, to be held in Stuttgart on April 10, 2003. She will receive a prize of 1000 EUR, and B.I.T. online Verlag will publish her paper.

Congratulations, Sabine!

Professional Development Opportunity:
Future of Reference in Digital Libraries

Libraries everywhere are facing the following fundamental questions:

• What is the future of reference in the digital library environment?
• Who and where are our users?
• What information are they really seeking?
• And how can we best help them find it?

The Libraries are pleased to offer a unique opportunity for Rutgers librarians and staff to discuss these issues with Anne G. Lipow, a nationally renowned expert on the changing nature of library reference service. Anne will give a keynote presentation followed by presentations by a panel of Rutgers librarians involved in new reference services. The event is by invitation only to Rutgers librarians and staff.

Thursday December 12, 2002, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Pane Room, Alexander Library
(Simultaneous video conferencing will be offered to the Robeson and Dana Libraries).

Anne Grodzins Lipow, founder and director of Library Solutions Institute and Press

Keynote: Closing the Growing Gap between Users and the Library: Are We Up to the Challenge?
Anne Grodzins Lipow
Anne Lipow is founder and director of Library Solutions Institute and Press. Her special areas of expertise are the changing nature of reference service and continuing education of librarians. Anne helped the Library of Congress launch its collaborative digital reference service and currently serves on the CDRS governing board. Among other accomplishments, she is the recipient of ALA's Isadore Gilbert Mudge/R.R. Bowker award for "distinguished contribution to reference librarianship."

Panelists:

Ask a Librarian
Presenter: Natalie Borisovets
This email reference service, run by a team of Rutgers librarians and staff, answers inquiries from users concerning the university, the collections, resources, and services of the Libraries, or relating in some way to New Jersey. A response is usually sent within 24-48 hours, except on weekends and holidays.

Real Time Reference
Presenter: Marty Kesselman
Members of the Ask a Librarian team offered a trial real-time reference service during the spring 2002 semester. The trial will continue in the future with expanded hours, including a 7-10 pm slot from Sunday to Thursday.

Librarians Without Borders
Presenters: Triveni Kuchi, Laura Mullen, and Stephanie Tama-Bartels
The pilot study "Librarians Without Borders" was a reference service offered at the Busch Campus Center by a team of New Brunswick librarians during the spring 2002 semester. The innovative use of reference services and the importance of developing partnerships and collaborating with other campus entities to provide such library services were emphasized.

This event has been arranged by the Public Services Council, Scholarly and Professional Activity Committee (SAPAC), and the Training and Learning Advisory Committee.

To reserve a space at this event, please call the Libraries Administration reception desk at 732/932-7505.

U.S. IFLA 2001 Nat'l Committee Offers Fellowships

The U. S. IFLA 2001 national organizing committee, composed of representatives from the American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, Association of Library and Information Science Education, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries Association, is pleased to announce the 'Fellowships for the Americas Program.'

This program will provide grants for librarians from the Americas, including South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, to attend the IFLA conferences in Berlin in 2003 and Buenos Aires in 2004. The 'Fellowships for the Americas Program' will be funded from the net revenues earned from the IFLA 2001 conference, which was held August 16-25, 2001 in Boston.

The program was announced at a press conference at the IFLA 2002 conference at the Scottish Exhibition and Convention Centre in Glasgow on Tuesday, August 20th. Fifteen fellowships will be offered for librarians from the Americas to attend the IFLA 2003 conference in Berlin. The number of fellowships available for the Buenos Aires conference will be determined in 2003.

To be eligible librarians must be from the Americas, born after 1962, have a minimum of five years of working experience in a library or information setting, and not be a regular IFLA conference delegate. The fellowships will provide conference registration, air travel, shared accommodations, and a per diem, as well as a small orientation and reception for the participants.

The application deadline for the IFLA conference in Berlin is January 15, 2003.

Applications in English and Spanish can be completed online at https://cs.ala.org/ifla. To receive an application by mail or fax, please contact the international relations office at the American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611, fax number +1 -312-280-4392.

New Staff at LSM

Eddie Suarez

We are pleased to welcome Eddie Suarez to the access services department at the New Brunswick Libraries, for which he will be working in the Library of Science and Medicine.

Eddie Suarez graduated from Rutgers University in 2000 with a B.A. degree in communications and a minor in Spanish. While in school and after graduation, Eddie worked at the Alexander Library, planning and executing collection shifts, and creating and maintaining a statistical database for collection records. Eddie also worked as an assistant at Rutgers Sports Information and Media Relations, where he contributed as a writer and editor for press releases, media guides, brochures feature stories, and player biographies.

Eddie began working full time at LSM on November 18, 2002, as a Library Assistant II. He will be primarily involved with collection management as well as public service.

Until he receives an RCI account, Eddie can be reached by email at easuarez@optonline.net. He can be reached by phone at 732/445-3854.

Welcome Eddie!

Raw Data

• The Libraries spent $8,093,291 in total on collections in FY2002, $223,609 less than the previous year (or a 2.7% reduction).

• Of the total collections budget, 45% or $3,179,743 was spent on systemwide expenditures. This amount included 35% of the total collections budget or $2,830,584 used to secure networked electronic resources.

• From FY1998 to FY2002, expenditures for electronic resources have increased nearly 1400%, from $205,059 to $2,830,584.

• The Libraries tracked usage of databases and the general-purpose academic e-journal package, Academic Search Premier, was the most used at 367,362 searches. PsycINFO, Mediline, Academic Universe/Lexis-Nexis, and the Web of Science were the next most used, each reporting over 100,000 searches.

Source:
Collection Development and Management Annual Report, for FY2002

	November 17, 2002 November 3, 2002 The Agenda Archive

Contributors for this issue were James Niessen, Robert Sewell, Samson Soong, Michele Tokar, and Marilyn Wilt. Contributions for future issues of The Agenda should be sent to Harry Glazer, editor of The Agenda, at hglazer@rci.rutgers.edu.