Messages

1

Sept. 25, 2015 Council Meeting @ Monroe Community College / Campus Updates - Potsdam

« on: September 24, 2015, 11:43:08 AM »

New hire: As of September 1st, Jessica Ramey has joined our Information Literacy Team. Jessica is recent graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Vacancies and Searches: We still have three librarian vacancies and the continued campus hiring freeze leaves us very short staffed.  The search for a Metadata librarian is on hold while we wait for approval revamp and re-advertise the position. 

Renovations: We suffered again with a summer disrupted by noise dust and confusion.  The payoff was a new instruction class on the 2nd floor,  renovated Reference and research study spaces on the first floor, and a new Center for Creative Instruction (faculty development center).  A new Center for Applied Learning is still under construction in spaces formerly home to our old BI classroom and the old faculty development center.

We aren't sure who our SUNYLA delegate is, so I'm just reporting, cuz I have time today.

Marianne Hebert
SUNY Potsdam

2

June 12, 2013 Council Meeting @SUNY Buffalo State / Re: Campus updates - SUNY Potsdam

« on: June 10, 2013, 03:26:02 PM »

College Archivist Matt Francis has resigned to take a position as Archivist for Collection Management at Penn State University.  His last day is June 28th.   A search for his replacement is underway.

Dr. Dennis L. Hefner is now Interim President of SUNY Potsdam as of June 1st.  Dr. Hefner served as president of SUNY Fredonia between 1996 and 2012.  

Student Health Services bought therapy dogs to Crumb Library as part of our StressBusters during Finals Week.  Games, toys, candy and other activities were also available as some of our more traditional StressBusters.  The dogs were a huge hit!

As part of the Lougheed Festival of the Arts in April, Crumb Library hosted a graffiti project to transform blank bookshelves into study room dividers: http://t.co/Lrlc6iDBrS

Jackhammers in the Library have quieted down as progress on the new loading dock construction project progresses.  

Printing Chocolate Bars: Exploring the Library of the Future was the topic of the panel presented by Librarians Nancy Alzo, Elizabeth Andrews, Carol Franck, Marianne Hebert, Abby Smith, and Jenica Rogers at the 2013 SUNY Potsdam Academic Festival.  http://tinyurl.com/ldyhzk6

3

March 22, 2013 Council Meeting @SUNY Buffalo State / Re: Campus updates - SUNY Potsdam

« on: March 22, 2013, 10:41:17 AM »

On March 19th, The State University of New York Board of Trustees unanimously today to appoint Dr. Dennis L. Hefner as Interim President of SUNY Potsdam.  Dr. Hefner served as president of SUNY Fredonia between 1996 and 2012. His appointment as interim president of SUNY Potsdam is effective June 1, 2013, at an annual salary of $225,000.

4

Jan. 17, 2013 Council Meeting @SUNY New Paltz / Re: Campus updates - SUNY Potsdam

« on: January 16, 2013, 02:58:42 PM »

1. New staff hires were announced this week:
Linda Hansen begins this week in as our adjunct Reference Librarian. She will be working about 10 hours per week, evenings and Sundays. Linda is joining us as the next step in a varied career in libraries, including work as a library manager, skills trainer, and instructional designer, most of it international in Australia and the Middle East.

Paula Tufo will be starting on Wednesday, February 6 as our Clerk 2 in Collection Building with responsibilities in Acquisitions and Interlibrary loan.

2. SUNY Potsdam College President John Schwaller announced his resignation on November 27th, effective July 31, 2013.   Daily Courier news article here: http://www.mpcourier.com/article/20121204/DCO01/712049932   We expect to have an announcement soon regarding an interim president.

3. SUNY Potsdam and Canton are exploring the possibilities of "shared services" for cataloging.  Meetings are being held by administrators, directors and staff to explore the feasibility of having Potsdam catalogers do copy-cataloging for Canton's new acquisitions.  

4. SUNY Potsdam Computing and Technical Services has decided to do away with our proprietary Meeting Maker calender service, and is moving forward with the implementation of the open source Sogo software, campus wide.  The College Libraries is a heavy user of the calendar software, and with a Jan. 21 cut-over date, library staff are scrambling to learn how to implement the software for not only work/meeting schedules, but also how to manage rooms, equipment and the reference schedules. SoGo email is also being rolled out to students, although staff and students will still be able to use other email clients and web software.

5. Library faculty are please that the renovations to staff offices on the 2nd floor of Crumb Library are complete.  New office furniture was delivered during the holiday break.  The furniture includes new ergonomic adjustable desks so that the height of the desk can be easily changed.  Staff can either stand or sit at their computers as they work. 

5

Nov. 16, 2012 Council Meeting @SUNY IT, Utica / Re: Campus updates - SUNY Potsdam

« on: November 14, 2012, 06:27:59 PM »

* In the most recent SUNY Student Opinion Survey (2012), SUNY Potsdam was ranked the highest among comprehensive colleges for food service on campus.

* Shared Services: Potsdam and Canton are planning to create a SUNY Institute for Arts, Sciences, and Technology to to bring faculty and departments together to discuss collaborative curricula.  A Steering Committee is being established to address administrative issues such as how earned credits are recorded on transcripts, how would joint courses be approved, etc. Administrators are hoping that academic collaborations will be initiated by faculty and departments.  In other areas, the joint CFO is working with both campuses to develop single offices for Purchasing and Travel, and for Accounts Payable.  Two new joint Potsdam/Canton positions (50/50) have been filled: Military & Veterans Student Services Coordinator (Patrick Massaro) and an Interlibrary Loan Specialist (Glen Bogardus).

* College Libraries recently hosted an ENY/ACRL Brown Bag Lunch on Ebooks on Oct. 30 (despite the hurricane).  Attendees came from Jefferson CC, Clinton CC, Canton, Clarkson and Potsdam.  Jennifer Whittaker (SUNY Canton) gave a short presentation on Overdrive and Marianne Hebert demoed the WNYLRC EBL Pilot.

* The College Libraries recently hosted a Digital Humanities Bregman Lecture by Dr. Stefan Sinclair of McGill University on the Digital Humanites on.  The title of his talk was: "Entrepreneurial Digital Humanities: Selling Out or Buying In?

6

Sept 21m 2012 @SUNY Empire, Saratoga Springs / SUNY Potsdam Update

« on: September 20, 2012, 12:37:00 PM »

New Hires: Abby Smith has joined the College Libraries as our new Metadata Librarian.   Abby comes to us from the University of Michigan and holds an MS in Information Science. While in Ann Arbor, Abby worked on digitization projects in support of the University’s Google and Hathi Trust initiatives.  The College Libraries has also hired a new Acquisitions Clerk, Shelly Smiddy. The Search for the shared services (Canton/Potsdam) ILL Specialist position continues.  Interviews with candidates are being held.

IL Tutorials: Over the summer, Instruction Librarians were very busy revising the SUNY Potsdam self paced Information Literacy Tutorials: http://potsdam.libguides.com/tutorialsportal.  The new tutorials "Research in Databases" and "Free Web" are designed to help students learn basic research skills.  Overall, they are more interactive and engaging, maybe even fun!

American Chemical Society journal subscriptions: Potsdam canceled their subscription to ACS journals, and opted to subscribe to the journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry instead.  The ACS journal costs were simply unsustainable, and would have consumed more than 10% of our entire acquisitions budget.  We have agreed to retain the ACS Legacy Archives and the Journal of Chemical Education, per request from the faculty.  If you haven't seen Jenica Roger's Attempting Elegance blog post, check it out.  It has made quite a few ripples: http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1765

Construction update:  Library faculty offices are being reconfigured and remodeled, and new furniture is being ordered.  We all hope to be back in our offices by the end of the semester.

Shared services.  SUNY Potsdam continues to have discussions with SUNY Canton on shared services.  Conversations are beginning regarding academic collaborations (e.g. shared courses/curriculum).

Potsdam is participating in the EBL WNYLRC consortial ebook pilot (now live).  Thanks to Maggie Horn at OLIS for loading our records into ALEPH.

SUNY Potsdam received a glowing Middle States Accreditation Review report.  26 commendations!  Only 4 recommendations for improvement, all dealing with institutional assessment.

7

June 6, 2012 @FIT, New York City / Re: Campus updates - SUNY Potsdam

« on: June 01, 2012, 01:55:49 PM »

SUNY Potsdam Campus update

Several small construction projects are planned for the Summer: Archives HVAC will be replaced, Basement leaks will be investigated and repaired, and the handicap ramp/loading dock will be replaced. The Archives Reading room was recently renovated and now has better wireless access, more seating and better access to electrical outlets.

A Clerk 2 (Acquisitions Department) has been hired with a start date of June 18. The search for a Meta-Data Discovery Librarian is well underway.  Discussions are continuing between SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam for a shared services position for InterLibrary Loan.

Jenica Rogers (Library Director) has been appointed as Chair of the Bicentennial Celebration Planning Committee.  Bicentennial celebrations are being planned for 2015-2016.

All materials (books, periodicals, videos and government documents) in the "Stacks" collections will be shifted this Summer, and all collections on the lower level will be moved to the 2nd floor.  This is in preparation of a renovation project scheduled to begin in 2013/2014.  

Recent campus announcement from President Schwaller regarding a Shared Services position: "SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam have appointed the first chief financial officer to serve both campuses, as part of their ongoing shared services strategy. Natalie Higley has been selected as the Vice President of Business Affairs and Administrative Services for both institutions. She will begin service on July 1."

8

March 15, 2012 @Empire, Saratoga Springs / Re: Campus Updates -- Potsdam

« on: March 09, 2012, 01:25:58 PM »

New Hire
The College Libraries are pleased to welcome Elizabeth Andrews, the newest member of our librarian team.  Elizabeth comes to us from Cudahy Library at Loyola University Chicago and holds an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Elizabeth has also earned an MA in Humanities, focused on Cinema and Media Studies, from the University of Chicago. Elizabeth will be serving on the Information Literacy Instruction team, will be collection development liaison to several departments, and will be working on outreach projects to connect the Libraries and our users.

Archives in the News
An Example of an early Norman Rockwell illustration was recently found in SUNY Potsdam archives.  The full story, and photo of the illustration is available at the North Country Now website: http://northcountrynow.com/news/example-early-norman-rockwell-illustration-found-suny-potsdam-archives-050355

Position Announcement - Discovery Metadata Librarian
SUNY Potsdam seeks a service-oriented and intellectually curious librarian to serve as Discovery Metadata Librarian.  For full job description and qualifications, see employment.potsdam.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51229

New Seminar Space: Occasional use limited-­‐projection classroom
Faculty have asked many times if there is a place they can use as a “home base” at times when they bring their classes to Crumb for in-class library research, and now the answer is “yes”. Crumb Library now has a revamped classroom with 16 movable student seats to accommodate any teaching or work style, a 55” tv on the wall that can be plugged into our DVD/Blu-ray player, a laptop, or campus cable tv, and chalk and white boards on the walls.

Weeding Project 2012
Collection Development Librarians and Technical Services staff are knee deep in a very large deselection project in Crumb Library.  Both books and print periodical collections are being heavily weeded to make room for a 2013 renovation.  Detail about the project are on the Weeding Project web page: http://potsdam.libguides.com/weeding

9

Sept. 23, 2011 @ Cortland / Re: Campus Updates - Potsdam

« on: November 15, 2011, 07:17:41 PM »

The Search for a User Services Librarian is moving forward with on-campus interviews. 

The College Libraries has been given the go ahead to hire a previously frozen Librarian position.  Work has begun on identifying needs and crafting a job description.

The renovations for the Collection Building (Acquisitions and Interlibrary Loan) work area are complete, and new office furniture has been installed.

The College Libraries has embarked on a project to overhaul the library web pages.   User testing, web page redesign and content rewrite are nearly complete.  We anticipate the “unveiling” before the beginning of the Spring semester.   To facilitate the redesign, the College Libraries implemented BaseCamp Project Management software, which includes a calendar to keep our tasks on target, and an interactive space for planning the project, and ability for staff to weigh in with comments.

10

Sept. 23, 2011 @ Cortland / Re: Campus Updates - Potsdam

« on: September 19, 2011, 05:22:12 PM »

SUNY Potsdam (Marianne Hebert - Delegate)

New initiatives this year:

* Created a new Technology Help Desk near the Reference Desk (Staffed by a library systems professional and student workers from the campus IT department). It is designed to assist students with printing, logging into accounts, setting margins in Word, etc.  We are hoping it provides better service and free up librarians to assist with research questions.

* This Fall we launched two new Honors program Internships.  The reference intern will be trained to serve as a research peer mentor.  The mentor will assist students with locating research materials, and navigating the library's resources.  The second intern will provide assistance coordinating our Bregman Book discussion series.

OTHER NEWS:

* Library renovations nearly done – Collection Building area has new ceilings, lighting and walls, and a new ADA compliant handicapped access door and area has been retrofitted to the building.  

* Revamped Information Literacy tutorials have been revamped in Moodle, as the campus is migrating from Blackboard by the end of Spring semester.

* On Sept. 8th, the College Libraries hosted its 6th annual Library Expo.  The event is held for incoming freshmen to help orient them to the library building, services and friendly staff.  Over 311 freshman participated this year.

* The Search for a User Services Librarian (Instruction, Reference and Outreach) is well underway.  We hope to have the position filled by January 2012.
.
* Edward Komara received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities in May 2011.

* Matt Francis was recently hired as the new College Archivist.   Matt received his M.A. in public history from Wright State University in 2008.  Most recently he worked as an Assistant Archivist at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, 2008-2011.

* Senior Assistant Librarian Dan Newton has left SUNY Potsdam for a position at Scottsdale Community College in his home state of Arizona.