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Instruction librarian award in the USA
PERIPHERAL VISIONSOUTH AFRICA, OCTOBER
(Left to right) Majola Zenkosi with the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Zine Ntondindi
with the Medical Research Council and
Shariffa Nthembu with the University of
Zululand at the Library Connect Seminar
in Durban, South Africa.
More than 60 participants attended Library Connect Seminars at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. Topics discussed included future developments for ScienceDirect and Scopus and usage developments in South Africa.
Peter Brimblecombe, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of East Anglia in the UK and editor of the journal Atmospheric Environment, served as keynote speaker and shared how he uses Scopus not only as a professor, but also as a teacher, editor and administrator. He noted that Scopus provides peripheral vision, saying: “Scopus as an inspirational tool may derive as much from unintended use as its planned functions.”
All the presentations were highly appreciated by participants. Feedback included: “Thank you for coming to Durban — we need more of these kinds of events in this region” and “Very enjoyable and stimulating. The seminar exceeded my expectations.”
AVOIDING EXTINCTION
USA, OCTOBER
(Left to right) John Tooze, Layne Johnson
and Cathy Norton
The second Library Connect Seminar at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center attracted 88 librarians and guests. Organized in collaboration with MSKCC library director JoAnne Sparks, the event drew attendees including library directors from 16 institutions.
Three speakers explored the theme “Avoiding Extinction – Translating the Value of the Research Library.” Rockefeller University Vice President, Scientific and Facility Operations, John Tooze shared his views on how the library is viewed within academic institution hierarchies and speculated about the future of libraries and librarians in a world moving toward technological innovation, outsourcing, cost-cutting, space saving and streamlining research processes. Layne Johnson, an information management consultant, reviewed the progression of information services in the corporate sector over the past two decades. He documented the transition from multiple print collections to global electronic licensing and the diminishing role of the corporate librarian relative to management’s mandate for researchers’ self-sufficiency in using information resources. Cathy Norton, the director of the Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library, posed the thought that librarians could become roadkill on the information highway. She discussed that librarians need to be entrepreneurs and gave the example of the MBL/WHOI Library's uBIO (Universal Biological Indexer and Organizer), a taxonomy of biological terms across time, languages and subject disciplines. To build uBIO, the library is collaborating with the research community and solidifying the library’s role in the research community — adding value and expediting the research process.
The evening concluded with a reception and dinner.
YOUNG SCIENTISTS
INDIA, DECEMBER
Recipients of the 2nd annual Scopus Young Scientist
Awards in India beam as Royal Dutch Embassy S&T
Counselor Professor Theo Groothuizen (on the left)
and Elsevier colleague Phile Govaert and Jawaharlal
Nehru University Professor Rajendra Prasad (both on
the right) look on.
Elsevier in India received close to 250 applications for this year’s round of Scopus Young Scientist Awards. A jury including subject experts and senior academicians selected the winners. To facilitate the selection process, the jury members used Scopus — the world’s largest database of peer-reviewed scientific literature with tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
The nine awardees this year comprise scientists from fields including life sciences, oceanic sciences, aerospace, chemistry, materials engineering, mathematics and solid-state physics. Feted in Delhi at a ceremony where each received a cash prize and crystal plaque, the awardees are:
- Dr. Vinod Kumar Aswal of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
- Dr. Sushil Kumar Jha from Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Dr. Anil Kumar of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay
- Dr. Sanjay Mittal of IIT-Kanpur
- Dr. Dinesh Mohan of the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre
- Dr. Bakhtisaran Raman
- Dr. Upadrastha Ramamurthy of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Dr. S.K. Satheesh of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Dr. Nimish A. Shah from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
The evening ended on a cultural note with a dance performance entitled Glory of India.
INSTRUCTION LIBRARIAN AWARD
USA, JUNE
Elsevier's Library Relations
Director Daviess Menefee
(on the left) presents Debra
Gilchrist, the winner of the
Miriam Dudley Instruction
Librarian award for 2007,
with a check for $1,000.
During the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, in June, Debra L. Gilchrist, dean of the Pierce College District Library and Media Services, received the ACRL Instruction Section’s Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award. Sponsored by Elsevier on behalf of its library and information science program, the award comprised a plaque and a check for $1,000.
Lisa Hinchliffe, chair of the ACRL Instruction Section Dudley award committee, provided the following description (quoted from an ALA press release at www.ala.org) of Debra's contributions: “Debra’s example has inspired instruction librarians throughout North America to ask key questions about student learning and to improve their instruction programs with the results. Her approach to assessment-as-learning is refreshing and offers a manageable process for instructional and programmatic improvement.”
