Librarians, especially subject specialists in academic sci-tech libraries, appear to be facing a very perilous predicament. Two of their major job responsibilities, developing subject collections and providing face-to-face reference service, are in rapid decline. Budget cuts, publisher packages for books and a transition to cost-per-use evaluations for journal subscriptions all clearly diminish the need for active collection development. Meanwhile, because of changes in information-gathering habits, users increasingly approach reference librarians as a last resort

Roth, Dana L.

English

Caltech Authors - Main

Sci-Tech News
| Issue 3Volume 64 Article 4
1-1-2010
The Future of Librarianship in Science and
Technology Libraries
Dana Roth
California Institute of Technology, dzrlib@library.caltech.edu
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Jefferson Digital Commons. The Jefferson Digital Commons is a service of Thomas
Jefferson University's Academic & Instructional Support & Resources Department (AISR). The Commons is a showcase for Jefferson books and
journals, peer-reviewed scholarly publications, unique historical collections from the University archives, and teaching tools. The Jefferson Digital
Commons allows researchers and interested readers anywhere in the world to learn about and keep up to date with Jefferson scholarship. This article
has been accepted for inclusion in Sci-Tech News by an authorized administrator of the Jefferson Digital Commons. For more information, please
contact: JeffersonDigitalCommons@jefferson.edu.
Recommended Citation
Roth, Dana (2010) "The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries," Sci-Tech News: Vol. 64: Iss. 3, Article 4.
Available at: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/4
6 SciTech News
Future of Science Librarianship Contributed Papers
The following papers were presented at the 2010 Special Libraries 
Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.
The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries 
Presented by Dana L. Roth
Chemistry Librarian, California Institute of Technology
Librarians, especially subject specialists in 
academic sci-tech libraries, appear to be facing 
a very perilous predicament.  Two of their 
major job responsibilities, developing subject 
collections and providing face-to-face reference 
service, are in rapid decline. Budget cuts, 
publisher packages for books and a transition to 
cost-per-use evaluations for journal subscriptions 
all clearly diminish the need for active collection 
development.  Meanwhile, because of changes in 
information-gathering habits, users increasingly 
approach reference librarians as a last resort.
In addition, there seems to be a growing 
inclination among library administrators to 
question the importance of subject librarians in 
branch libraries.  This is due to the well known 
fact that users have come to rely completely on 
electronic databases, notably Google and Google 
Scholar, and electronic journals.
This new mindset was brought home to me by 
the pronouncement of a biology faculty member 
that, following a retirement, “a biology librarian is 
no longer needed.”  This because “all the journals 
are available electronically and each research 
group should be responsible for obtaining any 
books they need through Amazon.”  While this 
may sound like an extreme position, I sense 
that it could be an omen mainly for libraries 
where a subject librarian’s role has largely been 
reduced to forwarding problems with web links 
to the library’s IT staff, passing along orders for 
books and journals to the acquisitions staff, and 
providing instruction only in basic information 
resources.   
Fortunately, this trend is neither universal nor 
inevitable.  By taking advantage of a number of 
opportunities -- using both in-house and outreach 
strategies -- publicservice librarians can ensure a 
continuing need for subject expertise, especially 
in new and expanding research areas.  
Creating opportunities in-house seems to demand 
increasing creativity and fl exibility. What has not 
changed are user needs. I recently experienced 
a déjà vu moment when I re-read a short 
unpublished essay I wrote in the early 1970s, 
on the “Needs of Library Users”.  Surprisingly, 
many of the observations in this essay remain 
relevant in today’s fully electronic era.
The fi rst observation concerns liaison roles: 
“Since informal (i.e., personal) sources supply 
users with at least half of their information 
requirements, librarians must be aware of their 
users’ specifi c research projects, while developing 
skills and common interests that can serve to 
facilitate interpersonal contacts.” Maintaining 
an interest in their institution’s various research 
projects will enable public service librarians to 
take advantage of opportunities for information 
outreach, and to discuss reference questions 
in an intelligent and collegial manner.  In 
the electronic era, since in-person contact is 
declining, it needs to be enhanced with e-mail 
and social networking.
The second observation in this essay had to do 
with the need for undergraduate instruction: 
“Studies of users who failed to fi nd what they 
were looking for, at Birmingham University, 
revealed that 65% of the undergraduate 
students and 58% of the graduate students 
failed to consult catalogs, abstracting-indexing 
tools or even library staff members.”  Fortunately 
in the intervening years, electronic access to 
a multiplicity of information tools has largely 
eliminated this nonsensical approach.  However, 
given that many undergraduates substitute 
Google for the library’s subscription databases, 
it has become an essential component of the 
library’s mission to develop instruction programs 
for undergraduates in information retrieval. 
My third observation had to do with the library’s 
need to be more user-oriented:  “Library 
procedures are too often designed for the 
convenience of librarians.”  In the 1960s, many 
libraries had not even thought of developing a 
user-orientation.  For example, simply providing 
1
Roth: The Future of Librarianship in Sci-Tech Libraries
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
7SciTech News
users with a listing of the library’s periodical 
titles, based on the titles used in the various 
indexing and abstracting services, was almost 
unheard of.  At Caltech, we broke new ground 
by providing such a list, Serials & Journals in the 
Caltech Libraries, that provided the direct form of 
the title, without prepositions and conjunctions, 
along with library holdings and locations.  This 
allowed users to quickly translate journal 
abbreviations to their location in the library.  
Another way that we can be oriented to our users 
is to apply a high level of creativity in interpreting 
institutional policies and guidelines.  Faculty and 
students put a much higher value on positive 
results than developing a deeper understanding 
of restrictive policies. This is particularly true for 
copyright law.  Every professional librarian needs 
to develop a sophisticated understanding of the 
concept of fair use, and be willing to apply it for 
the benefi t of our users.
These in-house opportunities can be considered 
examples of Seth Godin’s concept of gate-
openers, which emphasizes the importance 
of providing users with initial meaningful 
experiences (1).  I can think back on numerous 
instances when a simple question, such as 
“Can I help you fi nd something?” or “Did you 
fi nd everything you were looking for?” provided 
an opportunity to introduce a faculty member 
to a new physical property resource, or help a 
student locate either an obscure reference or a 
previously unknown English translation.  Each 
of these experiences obviously left the user 
with a positive outlook on the value of library 
services and a strong encouragement to return 
in the future.
In regard to outreach opportunities, especially 
in rapidly growing research areas, such as 
chemistry, the life sciences, and engineering, 
academic subject librarians must appreciate 
the importance of working to integrate library 
services with their faculty’s workflow and 
teaching requirements.  Some examples at 
Caltech include:
1.  Reviewing research publications for possible 
corrections in Web of Science or Scopus, 
especially for your institution’s author names and 
grant agency data. The staff at Thomson-Reuters 
has developed a very efficient process for 
correcting Web of Science records.  Corrections 
are necessary because many of the records 
are based on scanning and OCR, with their 
predictable problems.  Although the error rate is 
generally small, a scanning error in an individual 
author’s name can obviously be very signifi cant. 
Our policy at Caltech is to have a clerical staff 
member print out the front page of each Caltech 
article indexed for Web of Science. Each subject 
librarian then compares the author and grant 
agency data with the Web of Science record. 
Errors are routinely reported to ISI and are 
generally corrected within a couple of weeks. 
This exercise also provides subject librarians 
with a continuously updated review of their 
department’s current research activities.
2. Attending departmental seminars as well 
as auditing classes with the goal of developing 
course-related web pages in collaboration with 
faculty. I think it is important to be seen by 
faculty and graduate students on a regular basis. 
Attending seminars is an effective way to do this. 
It serves to remind them you have a shared 
interest, while often bringing out library questions 
they haven’t gotten around to asking.  Auditing 
classes, while providing a deeper engagement 
with the subject matter, can also facilitate the 
rapid provision of services.  For example, several 
years ago, a new faculty member mentioned 
that he would be offering an organic synthesis 
class that would require extensive reading of 
the published literature.  Since this was before 
the availability of back volumes of electronic 
journal articles, my initial concern was that 50 
to 60 students would all come to the library, at 
the same time, trying to obtain photocopies of 
the assigned articles.  Seeking to minimize the 
damage to our bound volumes, and desiring 
a refresher course in organic synthesis, I 
requested permission to audit the course and 
offered to place a set of photocopies on reserve 
of the assigned articles that were not available 
electronically.  This procedure, which worked out 
very well, quickly morphed into a course web 
page, with a listing of all the assigned articles 
and links to their electronic versions, if available. 
I also added resources related to the class topic: 
unusual journal abbreviations used in chemistry 
databases (i.e., Beilstein & Gmelin); links to 
databases focused on synthetic techniques and 
natural products; and a link to the handout for 
a library workshop on structure searching.
3. Reaching out to users with library newsletters 
and listings of new library materials.  I have 
been sending out an e-mail version of the 
Caltech Chemistry Library Newsletter since 
1998, generally on a quarterly basis.  News 
2
Sci-Tech News, Vol. 64 [2010], Iss. 3, Art. 4
http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/4
8 SciTech News
items are primarily focused on access to new 
electronic materials, library-related news about 
the ACS, RSC and CAS, as well as other general 
interest information.  Another way to maintain 
contact with users is to send out e-mail listings 
of new materials, either those added to the 
library collection (a new books list) or those that 
appear to be marginal or excessively expensive 
(a recently published books list).  Using the new 
books list, which is re-formatted from library 
catalog records to provide the title, author, 
publisher, date and library call number, users 
can request check-out and, when appropriate, 
personal delivery.  The recently published books 
list is taken from publisher blurbs, vendor slip 
plans, and reviews in various scientifi c journals, 
such as Nature, Science, JACS, Chemistry World, 
etc.  Listings are limited to one line … title, 
author, date, publisher and price, and users can 
recommend library purchase.
4. Offering library workshops on the use of 
databases and other subject specifi c resources. 
These are one-hour demonstrations that include 
distribution of comprehensive user guides.  Here 
are some examples of these workshops focused 
on specialized resources in chemistry:  Beilstein/
Gmelin Crossfi re; Chemical Compound Data 
Searching; Chemistry Information Resources 
at Caltech; Chemical Structure Searching; 
Crystallography … (offered in collaboration 
with  X-ray Lab staff); Endnote Tutorial; Patent 
Searching … (offered in collaboration with 
Technology Transfer staff); Physical Property 
Data Searching; SciFinder Scholar. 
By offering workshops and updating user guides, 
librarians can maintain their personal expertise 
in using and teaching these databases. This 
is very important for maintaining personal 
expertise in database use and instruction.  They 
also provide important added value to users, 
many of whom are unaware of special features, 
such as related records in Web of Science and the 
ability to combine result sets in both SciFinder 
and Web of Science.
5. Informing faculty about cost/article 
comparisons for research journals.  As it 
turned out, this was one of the more important 
projects I worked on during my career.  I began 
writing and talking about journal pricing issues 
in the mid-1980s, when the effect of foreign 
exchange rate variations was beginning to be 
felt by libraries in the US.  At that time, it was 
common to see the exchange rates expressed 
as DM/$ (or how many DM were required to 
purchase a $, rather than $/DM (or how many 
$ were required to purchase a DM).  This very 
effectively masked the fact that, while a decrease 
from 3.2 DM/$ to 1.6 DM/$, between 1985-
1989, is a 50% decrease in cost for Germans 
purchasing US$, US libraries were seeing their 
European subscription costs increase 100%, 
since the cost of a DM was increasing from 31 
cents to 62 cents.  This information, in addition 
to comparisons between commercial publisher 
subscription rates and society subscription rates, 
was communicated to faculty members on a 
regular basis.  These activities, along with a 
very effi cient document delivery program, had 
the effect of making the need for cancellation 
programs much more understandable and far 
more easily accepted.
6. Search results comparisons from competing 
indexing & abstracting services.  Running 
comparative searches periodically is extremely 
important for a librarian’s edifi cation, and helps 
to provide meaningful answers to questions like, 
“Why didn’t I fi nd this article?”
 
7. Pro-active assistance in depositing publications 
in institutional repositories.  Caltech’s Online 
Digital Archives (CODA) was set up by library 
staff members.  It is populated now with a 
variety of formats, most of which involved their 
very active assistance:
CaltechAuthors:  mainly journal articles 
with ~13K items published over the last 
century.  
CaltechBook:  Caltech is fortunate that a 
number of professors retained copyright for 
their out-of-print books and were willing to 
allow the library to scan and deposit PDF 
copies.
Technical Reports: Library staff are digitizing 
a number of Caltech’s technical report 
series.
Caltech-hosted Conferences:  Library 
staff established procedures to accept 
submitted conference papers and make them 
globally accessible before, during, and after 
conferences.  The collection currently includes 
conference papers on neural computation, 
turbulent mixing and cavitation. 
CaltechTheses: Electronic dissertations 
became a Ph.D. requirement at Caltech 
beginning in 2002 and the version of record in 
2005.  Digitization of the older dissertations 
is now more than 60% completed.  CODA 
•
•
•
•
•
3
Roth: The Future of Librarianship in Sci-Tech Libraries
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
9SciTech News
also hosts materials from other groups on 
campus, such as the Institute’s Engineering 
and Science magazine, and the Caltech 
Archives’ Oral Histories.
Populating CODA has required extensive library 
assistance.  Our experience, which is shared 
by others, shows that without active assistance 
deposits are very reluctantly made.  Caltech has 
not, and probably will not, have an institutional 
mandate.  Library staff work on the assumption 
that there is an unstated ‘permission to deposit’ 
on behalf of faculty members.
In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a 
few pieces of advice:  
First is the need to seriously work at making 
librarianship your profession.  This means you 
need to think about it both on and off the job 
and do not use it for ‘higher’ purposes.  I fi rst 
realized this in library school, where I had the 
good fortune to attend a class given by Lawrence 
Clark Powell.  While he had a very distinguished 
career as a writer, this came primarily after he 
retired as UCLA’s University Librarian in 1961. 
One of my fellow students, who was attempting 
to transition from instructing high school English 
students to academic librarianship, mentioned 
to Dr. Powell that he thought that, by working 
as a librarian, he would fi nally have time to 
write the great American novel.  As you might 
have suspected, this almost angered Dr. Powell, 
who made it very clear, in no uncertain terms, 
to all within ear shot, that librarianship was a 
profession and not simply a job.  Needless to 
say, the aspiring writer left at the end of the 
term, presumably to fi nd a less-demanding 
occupation.
Second is that quality service will continue to 
be highly prized.  Particularly in this electronic 
age, where library users have decreased their 
visits to the library, librarians need to interact 
with the faculty’s administrative assistants so 
that they will call or e-mail you directly when 
they have a special need or are having diffi culty 
dealing with library policies.  In this regard, I 
also fi nd it refreshing to occasionally drop off a 
book or photocopy, especially when it gives me 
an opportunity to interact with a faculty member 
and converse about library-related matters.
Third is that you can never have too much 
knowledge.  I make it a point to peruse Nature, 
Science, Chemical & Engineering News, Physics 
Today and Chemistry World for news items, 
brief reviews of interesting research and book 
reviews.  I believe that this is an essential part 
of your on-going professional development.  I 
have also been especially fortunate to have been 
a librarian at a small institution, so that over the 
years I have had the opportunity to work in all 
of the science and engineering libraries.  Given 
the rapidly growing interdisciplinary nature of 
academic research, if you are presented with a 
similar opportunity, please take it…
Fourth is the need for continuing education 
in both academic subject areas and technical 
library skills.  This is essential for envisioning, 
implementing and evaluating both services and 
tools that will enrich users’ experiences.  
Finally, please don’t forget the importance 
of one’s personal qualities, since they are 
directly related to your professional success. 
Compassion, integrity, good humor, friendliness, 
tolerance, concern for others, energy, creativity 
and dedication are not qualities that one either 
has or does not have.  Developing these qualities 
should be an on-going process, since they 
are fed by reading, refl ection, conversation, 
literature, music, art, recreation, and love of 
your job (2).
References:
1. Bell, Steven.  “From Gatekeepers to Gate-
Openers.”  American Libraries (Aug.-Sept. 2009), 
p. 50-53.
2.  Horn, Andrew H.  “Address to the graduates 
by Dean Emeritus Andrew H. Horn, June 21, 
1981.”  UCLA, Graduate School of Library and 
Information Science, 1984.  
4
Sci-Tech News, Vol. 64 [2010], Iss. 3, Art. 4
http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/4


The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries

A paper delivered at the Future of Science Librarianship Contributed Papers session at the 2010 Annual Conference of the Special Libraries Association

Roth, Dana

Name not available

Jefferson Digital Commons

Sci-Tech NewsVolume 64 | Issue 3 Article 42010The Future of Librarianship in Science andTechnology LibrariesDana RothCalifornia Institute of Technology, dzrlib@library.caltech.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnewsPart of the Physical Sciences and Mathematics CommonsLet us know how access to this document benefits youThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Jefferson Digital Commons. The Jefferson Digital Commons is a service of ThomasJefferson University's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The Commons is a showcase for Jefferson books and journals, peer-reviewed scholarlypublications, unique historical collections from the University archives, and teaching tools. The Jefferson Digital Commons allows researchers andinterested readers anywhere in the world to learn about and keep up to date with Jefferson scholarship. This article has been accepted for inclusion inSci-Tech News by an authorized administrator of the Jefferson Digital Commons. For more information, please contact:JeffersonDigitalCommons@jefferson.edu.Recommended CitationRoth, Dana (2010) "The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries," Sci-Tech News: Vol. 64: Iss. 3, Article 4.Available at: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/46 SciTech NewsFuture of Science Librarianship Contributed PapersThe following papers were presented at the 2010 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries Presented by Dana L. RothChemistry Librarian, California Institute of TechnologyLibrarians, especially subject specialists in academic sci-tech libraries, appear to be facing a very perilous predicament.  Two of their major job responsibilities, developing subject collections and providing face-to-face reference service, are in rapid decline. Budget cuts, publisher packages for books and a transition to cost-per-use evaluations for journal subscriptions all clearly diminish the need for active collection development.  Meanwhile, because of changes in information-gathering habits, users increasingly approach reference librarians as a last resort.In addition, there seems to be a growing inclination among library administrators to question the importance of subject librarians in branch libraries.  This is due to the well known fact that users have come to rely completely on electronic databases, notably Google and Google Scholar, and electronic journals.This new mindset was brought home to me by the pronouncement of a biology faculty member that, following a retirement, “a biology librarian is no longer needed.”  This because “all the journals are available electronically and each research group should be responsible for obtaining any books they need through Amazon.”  While this may sound like an extreme position, I sense that it could be an omen mainly for libraries where a subject librarian’s role has largely been reduced to forwarding problems with web links to the library’s IT staff, passing along orders for books and journals to the acquisitions staff, and providing instruction only in basic information resources.   Fortunately, this trend is neither universal nor inevitable.  By taking advantage of a number of opportunities -- using both in-house and outreach strategies -- publicservice librarians can ensure a continuing need for subject expertise, especially in new and expanding research areas.  Creating opportunities in-house seems to demand increasing creativity and fl exibility. What has not changed are user needs. I recently experienced a déjà vu moment when I re-read a short unpublished essay I wrote in the early 1970s, on the “Needs of Library Users”.  Surprisingly, many of the observations in this essay remain relevant in today’s fully electronic era.The fi rst observation concerns liaison roles: “Since informal (i.e., personal) sources supply users with at least half of their information requirements, librarians must be aware of their users’ specifi c research projects, while developing skills and common interests that can serve to facilitate interpersonal contacts.” Maintaining an interest in their institution’s various research projects will enable public service librarians to take advantage of opportunities for information outreach, and to discuss reference questions in an intelligent and collegial manner.  In the electronic era, since in-person contact is declining, it needs to be enhanced with e-mail and social networking.The second observation in this essay had to do with the need for undergraduate instruction: “Studies of users who failed to fi nd what they were looking for, at Birmingham University, revealed that 65% of the undergraduate students and 58% of the graduate students failed to consult catalogs, abstracting-indexing tools or even library staff members.”  Fortunately in the intervening years, electronic access to a multiplicity of information tools has largely eliminated this nonsensical approach.  However, given that many undergraduates substitute Google for the library’s subscription databases, it has become an essential component of the library’s mission to develop instruction programs for undergraduates in information retrieval. My third observation had to do with the library’s need to be more user-oriented:  “Library procedures are too often designed for the convenience of librarians.”  In the 1960s, many libraries had not even thought of developing a user-orientation.  For example, simply providing 1Roth: The Future of Librarianship in Sci-Tech LibrariesPublished by Jefferson Digital Commons, 20107SciTech Newsusers with a listing of the library’s periodical titles, based on the titles used in the various indexing and abstracting services, was almost unheard of.  At Caltech, we broke new ground by providing such a list, Serials & Journals in the Caltech Libraries, that provided the direct form of the title, without prepositions and conjunctions, along with library holdings and locations.  This allowed users to quickly translate journal abbreviations to their location in the library.  Another way that we can be oriented to our users is to apply a high level of creativity in interpreting institutional policies and guidelines.  Faculty and students put a much higher value on positive results than developing a deeper understanding of restrictive policies. This is particularly true for copyright law.  Every professional librarian needs to develop a sophisticated understanding of the concept of fair use, and be willing to apply it for the benefi t of our users.These in-house opportunities can be considered examples of Seth Godin’s concept of gate-openers, which emphasizes the importance of providing users with initial meaningful experiences (1).  I can think back on numerous instances when a simple question, such as “Can I help you fi nd something?” or “Did you fi nd everything you were looking for?” provided an opportunity to introduce a faculty member to a new physical property resource, or help a student locate either an obscure reference or a previously unknown English translation.  Each of these experiences obviously left the user with a positive outlook on the value of library services and a strong encouragement to return in the future.In regard to outreach opportunities, especially in rapidly growing research areas, such as chemistry, the life sciences, and engineering, academic subject librarians must appreciate the importance of working to integrate library services with their faculty’s workflow and teaching requirements.  Some examples at Caltech include:1.  Reviewing research publications for possible corrections in Web of Science or Scopus, especially for your institution’s author names and grant agency data. The staff at Thomson-Reuters has developed a very efficient process for correcting Web of Science records.  Corrections are necessary because many of the records are based on scanning and OCR, with their predictable problems.  Although the error rate is generally small, a scanning error in an individual author’s name can obviously be very signifi cant. Our policy at Caltech is to have a clerical staff member print out the front page of each Caltech article indexed for Web of Science. Each subject librarian then compares the author and grant agency data with the Web of Science record. Errors are routinely reported to ISI and are generally corrected within a couple of weeks. This exercise also provides subject librarians with a continuously updated review of their department’s current research activities.2. Attending departmental seminars as well as auditing classes with the goal of developing course-related web pages in collaboration with faculty. I think it is important to be seen by faculty and graduate students on a regular basis. Attending seminars is an effective way to do this. It serves to remind them you have a shared interest, while often bringing out library questions they haven’t gotten around to asking.  Auditing classes, while providing a deeper engagement with the subject matter, can also facilitate the rapid provision of services.  For example, several years ago, a new faculty member mentioned that he would be offering an organic synthesis class that would require extensive reading of the published literature.  Since this was before the availability of back volumes of electronic journal articles, my initial concern was that 50 to 60 students would all come to the library, at the same time, trying to obtain photocopies of the assigned articles.  Seeking to minimize the damage to our bound volumes, and desiring a refresher course in organic synthesis, I requested permission to audit the course and offered to place a set of photocopies on reserve of the assigned articles that were not available electronically.  This procedure, which worked out very well, quickly morphed into a course web page, with a listing of all the assigned articles and links to their electronic versions, if available. I also added resources related to the class topic: unusual journal abbreviations used in chemistry databases (i.e., Beilstein & Gmelin); links to databases focused on synthetic techniques and natural products; and a link to the handout for a library workshop on structure searching.3. Reaching out to users with library newsletters and listings of new library materials.  I have been sending out an e-mail version of the Caltech Chemistry Library Newsletter since 1998, generally on a quarterly basis.  News 2Sci-Tech News, Vol. 64 [2010], Iss. 3, Art. 4http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/48 SciTech Newsitems are primarily focused on access to new electronic materials, library-related news about the ACS, RSC and CAS, as well as other general interest information.  Another way to maintain contact with users is to send out e-mail listings of new materials, either those added to the library collection (a new books list) or those that appear to be marginal or excessively expensive (a recently published books list).  Using the new books list, which is re-formatted from library catalog records to provide the title, author, publisher, date and library call number, users can request check-out and, when appropriate, personal delivery.  The recently published books list is taken from publisher blurbs, vendor slip plans, and reviews in various scientifi c journals, such as Nature, Science, JACS, Chemistry World, etc.  Listings are limited to one line … title, author, date, publisher and price, and users can recommend library purchase.4. Offering library workshops on the use of databases and other subject specifi c resources. These are one-hour demonstrations that include distribution of comprehensive user guides.  Here are some examples of these workshops focused on specialized resources in chemistry:  Beilstein/Gmelin Crossfi re; Chemical Compound Data Searching; Chemistry Information Resources at Caltech; Chemical Structure Searching; Crystallography … (offered in collaboration with  X-ray Lab staff); Endnote Tutorial; Patent Searching … (offered in collaboration with Technology Transfer staff); Physical Property Data Searching; SciFinder Scholar. By offering workshops and updating user guides, librarians can maintain their personal expertise in using and teaching these databases. This is very important for maintaining personal expertise in database use and instruction.  They also provide important added value to users, many of whom are unaware of special features, such as related records in Web of Science and the ability to combine result sets in both SciFinder and Web of Science.5. Informing faculty about cost/article comparisons for research journals.  As it turned out, this was one of the more important projects I worked on during my career.  I began writing and talking about journal pricing issues in the mid-1980s, when the effect of foreign exchange rate variations was beginning to be felt by libraries in the US.  At that time, it was common to see the exchange rates expressed as DM/$ (or how many DM were required to purchase a $, rather than $/DM (or how many $ were required to purchase a DM).  This very effectively masked the fact that, while a decrease from 3.2 DM/$ to 1.6 DM/$, between 1985-1989, is a 50% decrease in cost for Germans purchasing US$, US libraries were seeing their European subscription costs increase 100%, since the cost of a DM was increasing from 31 cents to 62 cents.  This information, in addition to comparisons between commercial publisher subscription rates and society subscription rates, was communicated to faculty members on a regular basis.  These activities, along with a very effi cient document delivery program, had the effect of making the need for cancellation programs much more understandable and far more easily accepted.6. Search results comparisons from competing indexing & abstracting services.  Running comparative searches periodically is extremely important for a librarian’s edifi cation, and helps to provide meaningful answers to questions like, “Why didn’t I fi nd this article?” 7. Pro-active assistance in depositing publications in institutional repositories.  Caltech’s Online Digital Archives (CODA) was set up by library staff members.  It is populated now with a variety of formats, most of which involved their very active assistance:CaltechAuthors:  mainly journal articles with ~13K items published over the last century.  CaltechBook:  Caltech is fortunate that a number of professors retained copyright for their out-of-print books and were willing to allow the library to scan and deposit PDF copies.Technical Reports: Library staff are digitizing a number of Caltech’s technical report series.Caltech-hosted Conferences:  Library staff established procedures to accept submitted conference papers and make them globally accessible before, during, and after conferences.  The collection currently includes conference papers on neural computation, turbulent mixing and cavitation. CaltechTheses: Electronic dissertations became a Ph.D. requirement at Caltech beginning in 2002 and the version of record in 2005.  Digitization of the older dissertations is now more than 60% completed.  CODA •••••3Roth: The Future of Librarianship in Sci-Tech LibrariesPublished by Jefferson Digital Commons, 20109SciTech Newsalso hosts materials from other groups on campus, such as the Institute’s Engineering and Science magazine, and the Caltech Archives’ Oral Histories.Populating CODA has required extensive library assistance.  Our experience, which is shared by others, shows that without active assistance deposits are very reluctantly made.  Caltech has not, and probably will not, have an institutional mandate.  Library staff work on the assumption that there is an unstated ‘permission to deposit’ on behalf of faculty members.In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a few pieces of advice:  First is the need to seriously work at making librarianship your profession.  This means you need to think about it both on and off the job and do not use it for ‘higher’ purposes.  I fi rst realized this in library school, where I had the good fortune to attend a class given by Lawrence Clark Powell.  While he had a very distinguished career as a writer, this came primarily after he retired as UCLA’s University Librarian in 1961. One of my fellow students, who was attempting to transition from instructing high school English students to academic librarianship, mentioned to Dr. Powell that he thought that, by working as a librarian, he would fi nally have time to write the great American novel.  As you might have suspected, this almost angered Dr. Powell, who made it very clear, in no uncertain terms, to all within ear shot, that librarianship was a profession and not simply a job.  Needless to say, the aspiring writer left at the end of the term, presumably to fi nd a less-demanding occupation.Second is that quality service will continue to be highly prized.  Particularly in this electronic age, where library users have decreased their visits to the library, librarians need to interact with the faculty’s administrative assistants so that they will call or e-mail you directly when they have a special need or are having diffi culty dealing with library policies.  In this regard, I also fi nd it refreshing to occasionally drop off a book or photocopy, especially when it gives me an opportunity to interact with a faculty member and converse about library-related matters.Third is that you can never have too much knowledge.  I make it a point to peruse Nature, Science, Chemical & Engineering News, Physics Today and Chemistry World for news items, brief reviews of interesting research and book reviews.  I believe that this is an essential part of your on-going professional development.  I have also been especially fortunate to have been a librarian at a small institution, so that over the years I have had the opportunity to work in all of the science and engineering libraries.  Given the rapidly growing interdisciplinary nature of academic research, if you are presented with a similar opportunity, please take it…Fourth is the need for continuing education in both academic subject areas and technical library skills.  This is essential for envisioning, implementing and evaluating both services and tools that will enrich users’ experiences.  Finally, please don’t forget the importance of one’s personal qualities, since they are directly related to your professional success. Compassion, integrity, good humor, friendliness, tolerance, concern for others, energy, creativity and dedication are not qualities that one either has or does not have.  Developing these qualities should be an on-going process, since they are fed by reading, refl ection, conversation, literature, music, art, recreation, and love of your job (2).References:1. Bell, Steven.  “From Gatekeepers to Gate-Openers.”  American Libraries (Aug.-Sept. 2009), p. 50-53.2.  Horn, Andrew H.  “Address to the graduates by Dean Emeritus Andrew H. Horn, June 21, 1981.”  UCLA, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1984.  4Sci-Tech News, Vol. 64 [2010], Iss. 3, Art. 4http://jdc.jefferson.edu/scitechnews/vol64/iss3/4

Address to the graduates by Dean Emeritus Andrew

From Gatekeepers to GateOpeners.” American Libraries (Aug.-Sept.

Graduate School of Library and Information Science,

http://authors.library.caltech.edu/25928/1/CaltechLIB.2011.001.pdf

The Future of Librarianship in Science and Technology Libraries

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