Librarians Help Students Navigate Information

Dear Editor,

Nathan Miklos is correct to state that students should take advantage of the mind-boggling array of resources available from the UCSD Libraries (“”Focus on Research Must Be Backed With Information Tech Training,”” April 19). However, the sheer number and diversity of available databases, journals and other online reference works and collections can make that a daunting task. I wish to add another to his list of resources that students often forget: the librarians who can help you navigate this information universe. We will steer you to the resources that best meet your information needs, and we will guide you in using those tools effectively and efficiently.

Take Miklos’ challenge that all chemistry majors use SciFinder Scholar. Chemistry majors should know that SciFinder is the principal database that abstracts and indexes the chemical literature, but they also need to be aware of its peculiar and at times frustrating user issues. Students may not know they must download special software to use SciFinder on their computers, or that UCSD has limited, shared access with the other UC campuses. As the chemistry librarian, not only can I show students how to use SciFinder, but I can also direct them to campus computers where it has already been installed, assist them with problems that arise when they try to download and install the software and recommend alternate databases they should use when SciFinder is “”busy.””

Librarians’ knowledge and understanding of resources can also save you time by reducing the amount wasted in searching databases, catalogs, encyclopedias and e-book collections that do not meet your particular information needs. If a biology student contacted me about Beilstein, I would let them know that it has a much narrower scope than some of our other databases, and that unless they are interested in property data and reactions of organic compounds, they will probably not find this one useful. I can then recommend more suitable starting places like Biosis, PubMed or Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, and then refer the student to the librarians at the Biomedical Library and/or Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library for further assistance.

A list of librarians and their subject areas, contact information and affiliated libraries may be found at http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services/specialists.html.

– Teri M. Vogel

Chemistry Librarian, UCSD Science and Engineering Library

UCSD Admit Day Needs Organization

Dear Editor,

I am the mother of a high school senior at Torrey Pines High School. My daughter has been accepted to all the UC schools she applied to and has narrowed it down to UCSD and UCLA. She attended the open house at UC Irvine and UCLA before coming to your open house last Saturday. We were totally disappointed at the way the open house was organized at UCSD – especially because UC Irvine and UCLA had done an excellent job in welcoming the kids with open arms. If my daughter was to pick between UCLA and UCSD by comparing how much information she got during the open house at the two campuses, UCLA will definitely win hands down.

Even though UC Irvine is just an emerging school, it has done an excellent job with Powerpoint presentations on all its great achievements. There were several high-ranking professors at UC Irvine who welcomed the students. There were so many enthusiastic volunteers throughout the UC Irvine campus, that we felt they were really carrying the school’s pride. We had the same experience at UCLA – got lots of helpful information from their open house.

We all know that UCSD has an excellent science program; but not a single professor was seen that day to talk to or address the students who may join UCSD. Overall, we did not feel welcome at all. The student panel at Mandeville Auditorium had only girls, making us wonder why the boys did not want to participate. We had to buy food and there was only one student at the cash register to help all these people who attended the open house that day! (At UC Irvine and UCLA, we were served free breakfast and lunch.)

We did not get a feeling that the students at your campus carried any UCSD pride, except for a few students at the Price Center. There were no signs from the parking lot leading to Price Center, where we were to meet first. There were some students at Price Center who led the participants to Mandeville Auditorium. But after that all the participants seemed lost in that campus. There were not enough volunteers to help out. We spent a long time figuring out how to get to Sequoia Hall for a meeting. Knowing that Sequoia Hall is so hard to reach, we wondered why you planned on having a meeting there without having proper signs or volunteers to help participants reach that hall. At a campus like UCSD, a campus map is not going to be of much help in locating buildings. In comparison, UC Irvine had banner-holding kids everywhere to lead the participants to the different events.

One good thing that came out of the open house was that we got to meet an excellent student adviser, David Naimie, who has been corresponding with my daughter to clear up lots of her questions. After those e-mail exchanges, we came to realize that UCSD and UCLA have similar options for freshman students. It just so happens that UCLA has a better way of reaching out to these would-be freshmen with an excellent open house.

Maybe somebody from your school should attend the open house at UC Irvine and UCLA and learn a lesson or two about how to hold an open house.

– Rema Sanjiv

Parent, Carmel Valley