Messages

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November 12, 2021 Council Meeting @ Turning Stone Casino / LACUNY Update

« on: November 12, 2021, 09:49:06 AM »

Hi everyone, and hope you're having a good meeting.

There's not much to report on the LACUNY front yet this morning, as we're having our monthly meeting this afternoon.

The two things I can report are:

-The 2022 LACUNY Institute will be held online in the spring. I'll share more information (save the date, call for papers, etc.) when that becomes available.

-The McCrann Lectures are taking place next Friday afternoon (online) and the program includes:
•   A Phenomenological Study of Academic Librarians’ Understanding of their Teacher Identity- Mark Aaron Polger- College of Staten Island.
•   When was this book borrowed?! Looking at Long Overdue Books- John DeLooper- Lehman College
•   Prison Librarianship and LIS Schools: Is There a Career Path? - Patrick Raftery- John Jay College
•   It’s Meaningful Work, But It’s Really, Really Hard: Librarians’ Understanding of their Work with Families Experiencing Homelessness- Vicki Terrile - Queensborough Community College.
•   Research as Inquiry: Verifying Voices of Queens through OERs - Madeline Ruggiero- Queensborough Community College
•   Teaching for Success: Promoting Research Inquiry Practices with Students- Vanessa Arce Senati & Katelyn Angell- Lehman College
(This event seems to be open just to LACUNY members.)

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September 17, 2021 Council Meeting @ MVCC / LACUNY Update

« on: September 17, 2021, 09:05:53 AM »

Hi there everyone!

I can't make it this morning and my update is really brief. The LACUNY Executive Board isn't meeting until *next* Friday so there aren't any changes from last time. All of our meetings for the fall at least will be remote and they're just starting to plan the 2022 LACUNY Institute (date, time, and place TBD).


LACUNY Officers 2021-22:
Jeffrey Delgado (President)
Nelson Santana (VP/President-Elect)
Nandi Prince (Secretary)
Matthew Dineiro (Treasurer)
Derek Stadler and Leila Walker (Urban Library Journal Editors)

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June 16, 2021 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL (Annual) / LACUNY Update

« on: June 16, 2021, 11:40:46 AM »

Hi everyone. I've been pretty swamped so I don't know if I'll make it today, but I hope everyone's having a good conference so far.

We have a few updates from LACUNY:

The 2021 LACUNY Institute was held on May 5th and 6th virtually and was well attended.

Elections were held to elect new officers for the Executive Council. The 2021-22 Executive Council is:
Jeffrey Delgado (President)
Nelson Santana (VP/President-Elect)
Nandi Prince (Secretary)
Matthew Dineiro (Treasurer)
Derek Stadler and Leila Walker (Urban Library Journal Editors)

It was decided by the LACUNY Executive Council that we would no longer solicit donations for our Mutual Aid fund. The fund has a healthy balance and the number of requests for monetary assistance had slowed to the point where we anticipate being able to fulfill any requests that come in for the time being. LACUNY will revisit the fund and determine what to do with the remaining funds that can support the Mutual Aid mission.

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March 26, 2021 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / LACUNY Update

« on: March 24, 2021, 04:39:15 PM »

(Apologizes in advance that I won't be there for this meeting. My report is below:)

The 2021 LACUNY Institute will be taking place May 5th and 6th over Zoom (both are expected to be half-days). Registration is $5 to benefit the LACUNY Mutual Aid Fund. The keynote speaker is Dr. Lorgia García Peña and the conference theme is "Ending the Library Stereotype: Non-traditional practices for the 21st-century."

The schedule of sessions has not yet been released but should be shortly.

To register and for more information: https://lacuny.org/event-4217159

LACUNY is currently soliciting nominations for its next Executive Board (elections were postponed last year). They're seeking nominations for 1st VP, Treasurer, Secretary, and editor for the Urban Library Journal.

The Professional Development Committee is also hosting a panel discussion on Friday, April 9th titled "Ask the editors: Responding to peer review tips for successful journal submissions". More information and the registration is here: https://lacuny.org/event-4165603

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November 13, 2020 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / LACUNY Update

« on: January 15, 2021, 09:57:58 AM »

There's not too much new going on down here with LACUNY right now. The main thing right now is continuing the planning for the LACUNY Institute where there's been a lot of discussion about registration costs (as in, should there be any?) and Zoom logistics. If a CFP goes out (they did offer those who sent proposals last year to stay under consideration for this year) I'll send it over.

Also, the next LACUNY Dialogues will take place on February 19th in the afternoon. The theme is: '“Can you all hear me...I think you muted yourself”: Learning to Work in a Remote Age and Staying Sane'.

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November 13, 2020 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / LACUNY Update

« on: November 13, 2020, 09:25:10 AM »

The LACUNY Council made the decision at its September meeting that no dues would be collected for membership for the 2020-21 academic year. Members are instead encouraged to donate to the LACUNY Mutual Aid fund, which is open for anyone  CUNY Library employees to request financial assistance.

The next installment of the Grace-Ellen McCrann Lecture Series will be held next Friday (11/20) at 2pm. The schedule of presenters is still to be announced. Attendance is open to all current LACUNY Members.

The next LACUNY Council meeting is this afternoon (11/13). Discussing plans for the postponed 2020 (now 2021) LACUNY Institute is on the agenda.

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September 18, 2020 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / LACUNY Update

« on: September 18, 2020, 09:14:31 AM »

There isn't *too much* to report on, as our first Council meeting of the academic year will be next week from 2-4pm so there hasn't been much activity in the past few months.

However, we do have one thing:

The editors of Urban Library Journal (https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ulj/) invite short (1,000- to 4,000-words), scholarly submissions for a special themed issue on Urban Libraries in a Pandemic. Submissions may consider any aspect of how urban libraries have been affected by and responded to the pandemic, including but not limited to:
 
-the transition to fully remote services
-decisions on closing and reopening
-training staff and faculty in light of the digital divide
-psychological trauma
-xenophobia
-social distancing
-labor and employment concerns
-the urban dilemma of physical space
-reflections on the legacy of AIDS
-archiving the pandemic
-the value of information literacy in times of crisis
-open access and the public good in urban environments
 
All submissions selected for publication will undergo rigorous peer-review. Submission deadline is October 15, 2020.
 
Please contact the editors at dstadler@lagcc.cuny.edu and lwalker@qc.cuny.edu with general questions or recommendations. Please visit the ULJ homepage to read the complete Author Guidelines or to submit an article.

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June 17, 2020 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL (Annual) / LACUNY Report

« on: June 17, 2020, 08:54:38 AM »

The 2020 LACUNY Institute, which had been scheduled for May at Bronx Community College was postponed until 2021. Those that submitted proposals were given the option to keep the session for consideration for next year.

It was decided, and approved by the LACUNY Council that officer elections would be suspended this year, citing COVID among other things. All previously-approved Travel Grants were also extended by one year in light of the current climate.

LACUNY has established a Mutual Aid Network to distribute one-time grants of $200 for any CUNY Library faculty or staff member who requests support. The initial funding comes from postponing this year's LACUNY institute.

The editors of Urban Library Journal are currently accepting submissions for a special issue on Urban Libraries in a Pandemic. Submissions should be between 1,000 and 4,000 words and will be subject to a scholarly peer review. For more information please contact the editors at dstadler@lagcc.cuny.edu and lwalker@qc.cuny.edu with general questions or recommendations.

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March 27, 2020 Council Meeting (VIRTUAL) / LACUNY Report

« on: March 27, 2020, 09:39:48 AM »

Hi everyone, from my apartment in the Bronx! I apologize, but I have two other meetings scheduled up against this one this morning, so I won't be in this meeting.

The LACUNY institute, that had been scheduled for early May, has been postponed for obvious reasons. They have not decided on a new date yet, but when that's available we will let everyone know. They are, however, offering refunds to anyone who already registered if they don't plan on attending the event whenever it may be held.

Three recipients from CUNY libraries were selected to receive travel grants of the $600 each. The recipients are Colleen Bradley-Sanders (Brooklyn College), Junior Tidal (City Tech), and Jeffrey Delgado (Kingsborough).

And then in not-LACUNY but CUNY libraries news, our Alma migration is still going ahead as scheduled. We just had to move all of our training to online training. Also, Polly Thistlethwaite has been named Interim University Dean for Library Services. We have been assured that a search will take place for permanent person in this position.

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January 10, 2020 Council Meeting @ FIT / LACUNY Update

« on: January 10, 2020, 10:19:04 AM »

[Sorry I won't be there today, I got my dates mixed up... ]

The LACUNY Dialogues are taking place on February 28th at the Graduate Center. The theme this year is "Old Traditions vs New Imperatives: Subject Liaisons in Today’s Academic Library".

The LACUNY Institute is currently accepting presenter proposals. The theme is "Ending the Library Stereotype: Non-traditional practices for the 21st-century". This year's Institute will be held on May 8th at Bronx Community College.
More information: https://2020lacunyinst.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
To submit a proposal: https://form.jotform.com/92775406152156

Our next regular board meeting will be February 14th.

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November 8, 2019 Council Meeting @ UAlbany / LACUNY Update

« on: November 08, 2019, 10:27:38 AM »

(Sorry I can't be on the call this morning, we had a lot going on in my library today.)

LACUNY held its annual Grace-Ellen McCrann Lectures event on October 25th with 8 presentations given by library faculty from across CUNY. The presentations were well-received and covered a wide range of topics.

The 2020 LACUNY Institute will be held on May 8th at Bronx Community College. Calls for proposals will be forthcoming.

Many of the roundtables have been holding meetings in recent weeks including Cataloging, Privacy, Emerging Technologies, ILL, and Web Management.

While not directly related to LACUNY, CUNY now has a projected Alma launch date of August 3, 2020, so many folks are busy working on making that project successful.

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September 20, 2019 Council Meeting @ SUNY Geneseo / LACUNY Update

« on: September 19, 2019, 10:08:33 AM »

LACUNY had its first Executive Council meeting of the year last Friday at the Graduate Center.

The 2019-2020 Officers are:
President- Ian McDermott (LaGuardia)
VP- Jeffery Delgado (Kingsborough)
Secretary: Wanett Cylde (City Tech)
Treasurer: Ryan Phillips (Baruch)

The call for proposals just went out for this Fall's Grace-Ellen McCrann Lecture series, that will take place on October 25th at the Graduate Center. The Lectures will be followed by the Fall Membership meeting.

This year's LACUNY Institute will be at Bronx CC in the Spring. More information, including the theme will be forthcoming.

Currently there is only one editor for the Urban Library Journal (Derrick Stadler, LaGuardia) as the other editor had stepped down. There was a lot of discussion in the meeting about what to do going forward as it is currently an elected, two-year term position. For the time being LACUNY will look to recruit someone to serve out the rest of the existing term. LACUNY is looking into updating its bylaws to change the editor positions to appointed (rather than elected) positions to help with continuity. (Currently, both editors have terms that end at the same time, which had been identified as a challenge.)

There was also talk at the meeting about the LACUNY Roundtables. There has been interest from members in reviving the Library Faculty Mentoring, Privacy, and Web Management Roundtables. So far, calls have gone out on CULIBS (our listserv) to find people who may be interested in Web Management and Privacy.
(I'm the person who put the call out for Web Management, and the interest was strong, so we'll likely have a meeting later this semester.)

Lastly, there was discussion about what, if anything, LACUNY could do or say to lessen the burden of Alma Migration. Those of us in the room who are working closely with it basically just asked that the folks that won't really be affected by the migration to be understanding and patient because it's happening next Summer and those of us affected need to prioritize migration and training. (CUNY has been using Primo for several years, so this primarily affects access services and technical services folks as the front-end interface is staying the same.)

The next EC meeting will be on October 11th.

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January 18, 2019 Council Meeting @ FIT / Re: Campus Updates

« on: January 18, 2019, 08:31:29 AM »

Maritime-

Rebecca Hyams will be leaving the Stephen B. Luce Library on February 1st (following the SUNYLA Midwinter Conference) to take up the position of Web and Systems Librarian at Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY). She had started at Maritime in 2013 and has served as the SUNYLA delegate (among other things, including as President of SUNYLA from 2015-16) since then.

Chante Hope, Instruction and Outreach Librarian, will be taking over as Delegate.

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June 13, 2018 Council Meeting @ FLCC (Annual) / Re: Campus Updates

« on: June 13, 2018, 08:53:11 AM »

Maritime

After 12 years, Part-time Reference Librarian Geri Hebert handed in her notice of retirement from Maritime College. Geri had been working evenings and weekends for us, and had served as ship's librarian on several occasions. She also worked full-time as the Access Services Librarian at Bronx Community College (CUNY), which she is also retiring from. In her retirement she will be moving back to her home state of North Carolina. We wish her all the best.

Rebecca Hyams, who in the Library's transition period had been serving as the Interim Managing Director of the College's Center for Teaching Excellence, was asked to stay on in the role in an ongoing capacity.

The TS Empire State VI is currently off the coast of Europe. The ship docked in Puerto Rico in May where students from Maritime were joined from students from ESF and Albany to help in relief projects. Apparently, some of the guests from other campuses were a little surprised at how comfortable our students were with power tools! They recently spent three days in Mallorca and their next stop is Glasgow, where some of the crew and students will be switching out. This year we hired Kaitlyn Tanis, who is a recent MLS grad and she's serving onboard for the full cruise(!). You can follow our ship library blog here: https://medium.com/@empirestate

Otherwise, we're all in the full swing of summer projects including weeding, data cleanup, and planning for fall courses and events.

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March 23, 2018 Council Meeting @ FLCC / Re: Campus Updates

« on: March 22, 2018, 03:26:57 PM »

Maritime
Rebecca Hyams, delegate

The biggest news for us is that our new Library Director, Corey Halaychik, joined us on March 5th. He was most recently at the University of Tennessee where he had been the Head of Acquisitions and Continuing Resources. We're very excited to have him on board.

Many of us are right now working on doing all of the preparation work that goes into Summer Sea Term, including finishing the inventory of items that was started before last year's cruise. We're also in the process of hiring the Ship Librarian(s) so they can get everything they need in order before May.

Though there's still a few loose ends to finish, Project Archivist (and Part-time Reference Librarian) Jannette D'Esposito just this week finished working on the finding aids for the college's early schoolships and student records. As part of her work she created records for individual students to make finding information on them and filling reference requests on alumni of our pre-SUNY days easier to find. The work was funded by the NYS Documentary Heritage Program. To see the fruits of her labor, the collections can be viewed here (http://sunymaritimearchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/classification_terms/1) and here (http://sunymaritimearchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/classification_terms/17)

In preparation for the move to Alma, Digital Services Librarian Rebecca Hyams has been made a part of the LSP Migration Systems Working Group.