Ka-Neng Au
Microcomputer Coordinator
John Cotton Dana Library
Annual Report
FY1998/99

Highlights | CIF | CD-ROMs | Presentations | Webpages | Duties | Goals | Statistics

HIGHLIGHTS

This year, I continued to teach an undergraduate course at the School of Management: Computer Network Applications, 29:623:375. In return, the SOM provided compensation for Dana Library to hire a temporary reference librarian. Enrollment during the Spring semester was 31 students, a 41% increase from the previous semester.

The RUL Business Resources Subject Webguide was restructured and expanded to become the multi-part Business Research Guide, with the inclusion of many print resources from the business collections system-wide. The usefulness of this Research Guide is attested to by the increasing number of sites around the world that link to it.

Following the staff PCs last year, the public ELF PCs had their operating systems upgraded from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. The building network server was also upgraded to a Pentium II-233 running Novell Netware 4.11.

COORDINATED INSTRUCTIONAL FACILITIES

This program, run by Rutgers University Computing Services-Newark, allows the Dana Library to have several student assistants available to serve library users of electronic resources, as well as computer hardware upgrades when necessary. In return, computer workstations are available to students for non-library academic computing activities when they are not used for access to the Libraries website. Applications software available include two office suites, a range of course-related instructional packages, and various utility programs; students can also do e-mail and FTP. All CIF PCs were upgraded this year to Pentium II-333 processors.

A new Site Manager to oversee the staffing and operation of the two CIF labs was hired in the Summer of 1998. Camille Singleton served in this capacity for several months and helped to streamline some of the lab procedures. She also brought in several new lab assistants and had them cross-trained so that they would be able to function in both the Reference Area and Media Services. Jude Lennon was hired in the Spring of 1999 to continue in this important role.

Dana Library continued to benefit from the presence of the student assistants in both labs. During the school year, the students provided approximately 100 hours a week of coverage. This increase (from 70 hours a week last year) resulted from our assessment of computer usage and support needs, and was endorsed by campus Computing Services. Student assistants were also on duty during the Summer months, for about 50 hours a week. New hires this year included Seema Ananda, Amos Charles, Sookjung Chon, Ivenchy Faife, William Harris, Roland Ilog, Prasan Kumar, Jude Lennon, Vivek Masand, Albert Pascual, and Jing Zhu. They joined Reggie Thomas, Shirley Ortiz, Manpreet Singh, Avinash Wadhwa, and Andrea Xie from last year, and answered more than five thousand queries in the Reference Area alone.

CD-ROM COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

The collection grew to about 350 titles this year. Notable acquisitions of the year included several numeric databases:
The American Community Survey 1997.

Fixed Reproducible Tangible Wealth of the United States, 1925-1997.

Gross Product by Industry for the United States and States.

Additional titles continued to stream in from the Government Printing Office, including many from the US Census Bureau and other agencies of the Department of Commerce.

PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

I gave one conference presentation:
Au, Ka-Neng. "Technology Support in Libraries: The Rutgers-Newark Experience". 1999 New Jersey Statewide Reference Summit, Princeton, NJ, June 8, 1999.

In collaboration with Warren Mayer of RUCS-Newark, I also conducted the following workshops:

Au, Ka-Neng, and Warren Mayer. "Advanced Website Design". Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Professional Development Studies Program, New Brunswick, NJ, May 26, 1999.

Au, Ka-Neng, and Warren Mayer. "Creating your own Website". Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Professional Development Studies Program, New Brunswick, NJ, April 21-22, 1999.

Au, Ka-Neng, and Warren Mayer. "Designing your Webspace: Skills for Creating Library Webpages". Pennsylvania Library Association, College and Research Libraries Division program, Center Valley, PA, March 12, 1999.

Au, Ka-Neng, and Warren Mayer. "Creating your own Website". Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Professional Development Studies Program, New Brunswick, NJ, December 3-4, 1998.

WEBPAGES

I am the primary contributor to a fourteen-part business research guide on the Rutgers Libraries website, all of which were recently revised (five of which were created this year):
Au, Ka-Neng, Theo Haynes, and Roberta Tipton. "Rutgers University Libraries Business Research Guide," created November 1994; last revised June 1999, --1,272 links. [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/socsci/busi/business.html]

The following are part of this Guide:
I also maintain two shorter Webpages that serve as an introduction to resources on the Internet.
Au, Ka-Neng. "Other Electronic Journal Directories," created May 1998; last revised July 1998, --25 links. [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/ej-other.shtml]

Au, Ka-Neng. "Starting Points For Exploring The Internet," created July 1996; last revised January 1999, --46 links. [http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/guides/search.htm]

With the help of Wen-Hua Ren, the Dana Library webpages are being kept up to date on the RUL website; the URL of the homepage is http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/abtlib/danlib/dana.htm. Two new pages added this year were Exhibits and Walking Tour Of Dana Library's Public Art. Dana librarians also contributed many new or revised library guides to the website:

DUTIES

As the Microcomputer Systems Librarian, I have overall responsibility in evaluating, selecting, recommending, installing, and maintaining all microcomputer software and hardware at Dana. This year, the total number of machines in Newark rose to 135, as a result of additions to the Electronic Classroom and some new staff PCs (see Table A), installed in Circulation and the Institute of Jazz Studies.

This year, I completed my term of office as an appointed member of the Planning Committee, and as an appointed member of the Scholarly and Professional Activities Committee. I continue to serve as the Newark representative to the Coordinating Committee, and as a member of the Web Advisory Committee as well as the PC Working Group. I also represented Dana Library on the Newark Campus Y2K Committee.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES FOR FY1999/00

To continue to maintain, update, and expand the Business Research Guide

To continue to improve the computer literacy of library staff

To assist in the planning of the CIIT
KNA: 990615