Messages

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March 24, 2023 Council Meeting @ SUNY Maritime / SILC report

« on: March 24, 2023, 09:38:19 AM »

Good morning,

Recordings and presenter slides are available for the SILC Instruction Showcase that was held in January: https://sunyla.org/informationliteracy/?p=531

Community Conversations:
- We held a community conversation in March on integrating library services into Brightspace. We do not record community conversations, but here are the notes from the discussion: https://tinyurl.com/mrum7w7b
- Our next community conversation is April 13 at 3:00. The Zoom link will be shared over the listserv. The discussion will center on professional development and sharing recommendations for trainings.
- The May community conversation will be May 25 at 3:00. There will be a common read and discussion on building an inclusive environment.

Respectfully submitted,
Jocelyn Ireland

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January 20, 2023 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / MVCC campus update

« on: January 19, 2023, 09:33:18 PM »

The Utica Campus library held a Welcome Back Social for faculty last week (the brain child of our Reference & Instruction Librarian Claire Ehrlich). The event was held during a three hour window. The plan was for faculty to visit the library before or after their department meetings for relaxing conversations and to discuss information literacy ideas. Coffee and cookies were served. It was a successful event. We got many familiar faces to visit, but they also brought along new faculty to socialize with library staff.

Our new User Experience Librarian, Molly Cameron, started a Library Student Advisors group last Fall. We didn't get a lot of participants in our first go, but they are an eager bunch filled with library love. Molly is utilizing Discord with the group for communication purposes.

Instruction Design Librarian, Jocelyn Ireland, organized a campus-wide book club on UDL taking place this semester. 23 people signed up. Looking forward some great conversations with faculty.

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January 20, 2023 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / SILC Report

« on: January 19, 2023, 09:16:25 PM »

The 3rd annual Instruction Showcase was held on Jan. 12th. Shoutout to Beth Carpenter from SUNY Buffalo for her help in organizing the event.
-  Ten presenters from across SUNY libraries presented on a variety of library instruction topics. The full list can be found on our blog https://sunyla.org/informationliteracy/.
- 187 registered, around 85 individuals attended the live event.
- The recordings are still being cut up and captions edited. I will send an announcement once the recordings are ready.

The Spring Community Conversations have not been scheduled yet, but you can expect an announcement over the sunyla listserv and info lit listserv with those dates in the next two weeks or so.

Respectfully submitted by Jocelyn Ireland

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November 4, 2022 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / SILC report

« on: November 04, 2022, 09:36:55 AM »

Since the last council meeting, SILC has hosted two Community Conversations. Our September conversation was on experiences with student participation & engagement during library instruction. At the end of October we discussed the SUNY GE Framework and how campuses are assessing the information literacy competency. The October meeting was recorded and will be shared through the SUNYLA Info Lit listserv shortly. We also created a shared Google folder to store documents and links related to the Gen Ed framework. This folder will be re-shared with the meeting recording as well.

Our next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 17th at 1:00 over Zoom. The conversation will focus on Fall Failure Confessions. What have you tried during Library instruction that didn't go well? Are there any issues you are experiencing that you haven't before (i.e. COVID fallout). Any SUNYLA member interested in instruction is welcome to attend SILC conversations. Send mbenson@binghamton.edu an email if you want to join our listserv to receive meeting reminders and Zoom links.

We are also in the early planning stages of a Spring Showcase on Active Learning happening Thursday, January 12 from 10am-3pm. A call for proposals will go out in a few weeks.

Submitted by: Jocelyn Ireland, SILC Co-Chair

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September 16, 2022 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / Re: MVCC update

« on: September 15, 2022, 09:59:31 PM »

MVCC welcomed Molly Cameron as our new User Experience Librarian in June. Molly earned an MLIS degree with a concentration in academic libraries from the University of South Carolina. They moved to central NY from Illinois.

We are welcoming applications for part-time reference librarians for our Utica campus.

The library invited students to Pop! into the Library during the first week of classes. We used programming funds which have gone underutilized during the pandemic to purchase cake pops, Pop Tarts, lollipops, and Pop Rocks. When students came in for the treats, we invited them to take a self-guided tour of the library and write down something they learned to enter a prize drawing. Thank you to Western Illinois University Library, from whom we adapted this idea.

Jocelyn Ireland was awarded the Excellence in Librarianship Award during MVCC's awards banquet in May.

Claire Ehrlich and Jocelyn Ireland presented at ENY-ACRL's and SUNYLA's annual conference on "The Implications of Neuroscience on Library Instruction." They also presented "Confident Competency: Infusing Information Literacy into your Instruction" discussing the new SUNY info lit GER at MVCC's Institute for professional development for faculty and staff.

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September 16, 2022 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL / SILC report

« on: September 15, 2022, 09:40:26 PM »

SILC community conversation dates:
- September 22: Conversation about student participation/engagement with summer reading debrief
- October 27: Is information literacy its own discipline? How can we think about the answer to this question in relation to the new SUNY GER?
- November 17:  topic TBD
All are welcome to attend and share your instruction highs and lows. SILC meetings are held over Zoom. If you would like to join the info lit list serv, just sent an email to Megan Benson (mbenson@binghamton.edu).

Advisory Board changes:
We were sad to say goodbye to some of our wonderful Board members. Don Simmons Jr., Fatoma Rad, and Brandon West (former Chair) have stepped down. The remaining Advisory Board,  Holly Kuhl, Becky Leathersich, and Megan Benson (Co-Chair), welcomed Beth Carpenter and Jocelyn Ireland (Co-Chair) as new Board members.

We look forward to another great year of sharing ideas and supporting each other.
Submitted by: Jocelyn Ireland

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June 8, 2022 Council Meeting @ Farmingdale State College (Annual) / President report

« on: June 06, 2022, 04:28:56 PM »

Welcome to the 2022 Annual Conference!

Thank you so much to the conference chair, Karen Gelles, for leading the way in planning this event. The sessions reflect the ingenuity that I have come to respect of library colleagues. This is our first try at a hybrid event. I appreciate Karen and the rest of the planning committee's flexibility to try something new. There are also several networking events that I hope those of you at the conference in-person will take advantage of. There are several first-time SUNYLA attendees so make that extra effort to talk to someone new so everyone feels welcome.

The chairpersons involved with the Professional Development Committee met to continue the discussion from our last council meeting on the future of the committee. There were concerns that too much was under the umbrella of the Professional Development Committee and whether a new committee should be formed to handle awards and scholarships. It was decided to not form another committee and keep everything under the Professional Development Committee. The Promotion and Tenure ad hoc committee will also go under professional development. We decided to revise the bylaws description of the committee. The proposal to change the description passed during the April/May election. The new description is:

"The Professional Development Committee shall recommend and develop programs of continuing education for academic library professionals that reflect the principles and standards for college and university libraries. This committee will also support and recognize professional endeavors with grants, awards, and scholarships."

On April 3, the LIS Student sub-committee led by Amanda Lowe presented our first Future Librarians Day. It was a virtual event created for aspiring librarians to see different kinds of academic library positions and to provide a space for them to connect with professionals in positions they may be interested in. There were three panels for archives and special collections, public services, and technical services. It was a successful event that will be repeated again next spring.

Curtis Kendrick sent a charter for a proposed Antiracism, Accessibility, Diversity, Justice, Inclusion and Equity Committee. We will discuss further during New Business.

Rebecca Hyams' term as LACUNY liaison to SUNYLA is complete and she has informed me that she is not seeking to be reappointed. I am currently looking for a replacement. Please send me or Jennifer DeVito your recommendations.

We are also looking for a volunteer to host the annual conference in 2024. SUNY Maritime will be hosting next year.

It was a pleasure serving as your president the past year. The organization is in great hands with Jennifer DeVito.
Respectfully submitted, Jocelyn Ireland

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June 8, 2022 Council Meeting @ Farmingdale State College (Annual) / MVCC update

« on: June 06, 2022, 03:41:03 PM »

Molly Cameron joined our team as our new User Experience Librarian. We are so glad to have them on board!

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March 25, 2022 Council Meeting @ Farmingdale State College / President report

« on: March 24, 2022, 08:48:17 PM »

Congratulations to our Midwinter Conference Committee, Jill Locascio (chair), Jennifer DeVito, Bill Jones, Carrie Marten, and Jessica McGivney, on another successful event. The recordings are available at https://sunyla.org/sunyla-midwinter-2022/.

Since our last Council Meeting, the SUNYLA website has undergone a redesign. Bill Jones, our Webmaster, was instrumental to this project. Bill and I welcome any feedback you have on how to make the website more user friendly and accessible. Thank you also to Amanda Lowe for creating the picture banner.

Andrea Kingston got a new job outside of SUNY and stepped down as Chair of the Scholarship Subcommittee. Morgan Bond (Oswego) has agreed to be the new Scholarship Chair. Applications for the Sylvia Chu and Daniel Kissane Memorial Scholarships are due today (March 25).

Kim Nolan has stepped down as Chair of the Professional Development Committee. Fabio Montella (Suffolk CC) has recently agreed to be the new Chair. I will be emailing current members that have expressed interest in the Professional Development Committee on their membership/renewal form and invite them to a meeting. We will be discussing goals and future endeavors of the Professional Development Committee. I will share ideas Fabio and I have discussed so far during the Professional Development segment.

There have been discussions of creating a new committee for awards and scholarships to be written into the bylaws. Currently, subgroups of the Professional Development Committee handle awards and scholarships. If we want to pull out awards from this committee, we need to put the proposal on the April ballot to update the bylaws. I would like to discuss this further.

Submitted by: Jocelyn Ireland

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March 25, 2022 Council Meeting @ Farmingdale State College / MVCC update

« on: March 24, 2022, 03:34:58 PM »

 Venerable Tenzin Yignyen, ordained Tibetan Buddhist Monk and Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, created a sand mandala and lectured on Buddhist teachings in the Utica campus library March 21-24. A mandala is a cosmic diagram that represents the dwelling place of a deity, a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of the mandala made from colored sand.

Lily Wadsworth left her position as Technology and Access Services Librarian. We are currently in the final stages of hiring a User Experience Librarian.

We gained two part-time reference librarians: Imani Odom and Kirsten Campbell.

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January 21, 2022 Council Meeting @ SUNY Delhi / MVCC Update

« on: January 20, 2022, 03:50:56 PM »

Mohawk Valley Community College lost two employees pursuing other career interests. We have three openings: two part-time reference positions and one full-time User Experience Librarian. Job postings: https://mvcc.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx?site=1&c=mvcc&sid=%5e%5e%5eOaMvITriLzBof0CroI66zg%3d%3d

Our college transitioned to double authentication for student account login this semester. Surprisingly there haven't been as many issues as I expected the first week. The IT department set up a Zoom room for the Library to connect students with IT support during the first week of classes so students didn't have to walk to another building for help with their account. This has worked out quite well!

Not much else to report. Eager for more students to be on-campus this semester.

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January 21, 2022 Council Meeting @ SUNY Delhi / President's report

« on: January 20, 2022, 03:40:28 PM »

Hello SUNYLA!

Upcoming SUNYLA Council Meetings:
March 25 10am @ Farmingdale State College
June 8 (Annual Conference), time TBD @ Farmingdale State College

Since our last council meeting I have been busy with two major initiatives for SUNYLA.

The first is the Mentoring program. The Mentoring Program webpage has been updated (https://sunyla.org/mentoring-program/). The page includes links to volunteer to be a mentor and an application to be a mentee. Many of you have answered my emails about being a mentor (thank you!).  If you haven't submitted a profile yet, don't worry, there is no deadline. I'd like to get as large of a pool as possible before we do a hard roll out in the fall. The LIS Student Sub-Committee has not started advertising the program yet to library schools. Even though we're doing a soft roll out, we have already started receiving applications of individuals looking for mentors. I have already started matching mentees and mentors. Great start!

Secondly, I have been working on a website redesign for SUNYLA. I have met with Bill Jones, our wonderful web master and former president, a couple times. We have discussed our vision for the site, explored different themes, and reorganized content into categories that will be different drop-down buttons for the website. I am hoping we can go live with the new website in the next few months. Big thank you to Amanda Lowe for her incredible creative graphic design skills. She created several banner images to choose from.

I'm excited about this year's annual conference taking place at Farmingdale State College June 8-10. Karen Gelles and the planning committee have great things in store.

Also looking forward to the Midwinter Conference taking place virtually February 4. Thank you to Jill Locascio, Bill Jones, and the rest of the planning committee for putting on this event. See Jill's TDG post for more details: https://sunyla.org/forums/index.php?topic=1126.0

As a token of SUNYLA's appreciation for our campus delegates, we are going to hold a raffle for three gift cards at the end of this meeting. Please stick around if you can. If you are not able to attend today's meeting or stay until the end, there will be more appreciation events in the future (thinking probably the next one will be during the annual conference).

Respectfully submitted,
Jocelyn Ireland

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November 12, 2021 Council Meeting @ Turning Stone Casino / President's report

« on: November 11, 2021, 10:13:48 AM »

Hello,
I'm excited to be back in-person and to hear from our esteemed speakers Kelvin King and Rachel Ivy Clarke. I hope more of you can join us at Farmingdale State College in June for Annual. Thank you to Carol Anne for coordinating the mini-conference keynote speakers. Thank you to Carrie Fishner for handling local arrangements. Finally, thank you to Logan for handling registration.

The LIS Student Subcommittee organized a successful Resume and Cover Letter Writing Workshop in October. Amanda Lowe, Logan Rath, Adam Saunders, Laura Harris, and I presented.

There will be a meeting on Monday, Nov. 22nd at 2:00 to continue planning for a SUNYLA mentor program. The goal is to re-brand the current mentor program to welcome library school students and early career librarians. If anyone is interested in rebuilding the mentor program, please email me at jireland@mvcc.edu.

The SUNY library job and internship list is available on the SUNYLA website. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS-DMpDU9kJ9aK_-s2Ac2R4RYSs3XAxvkPEvmOIwJWvZJZAFIb-3osaazaq3GxvTljDl_raG67J4XsO/pubhtml. Delegates if you need the editable link to add or remove positions at your institution please let me know.

Respectfully submitted,
Jocelyn Ireland

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September 17, 2021 Council Meeting @ MVCC / President's report

« on: September 16, 2021, 11:56:35 AM »

Schedule of Council meetings 2021-2022
Nov. 12 @ Turning Stone 10am - to be discussed under old business
Jan. 21 @ SUNY Delhi 10am
March 25 @ Farmingdale State 10am
June TBD, during the week of the Annual Conference @ Farmingdale State College

Thank you to Karen Gelles and Farmingdale State College for hosting the 2022 Annual Conference. We are also excited to announce SUNY Maritime has agreed to host the 2023 Annual Conference. Thank you to Renae Rapp and her team for their advanced planning.

I had a meeting in July with Queens College graduate students, Gillian Rothchild and Angelina Anzalone, regarding how SUNYLA can better support library school students. Below are the main points from this meeting.
- Increase mentoring opportunities (further discussed under new business). I drafted a mentoring program outline. Will look for feedback and mentoring volunteers.
- SUNY Library job listing site with internship opportunities - being worked on
- Resume/cover letter writing workshop - tentatively scheduled for Oct. 15th; hosted by LIS sub-committee
- Library school student voice during Council meetings (also under new business).

During the June Council meeting it was recommended to invite Tim Stookesberry from SUNY Press to start a conversation on how SUNYLA and SUNY Press can collaborate. I contacted him and he agreed to attend today. Welcome Tim! He will be speaking under new business.

I attended a meeting discussing a possible SUNYLA DEI committee. We need to explore whether or not we want this as a permanent standing committee and further establish the mission and goals. To be discussed further under old business.

I attended a delegate enhancement sub-committee organized by Carol Anne Germain. We discussed reduced conference fees for delegates and other incentives that will be shared during the Membership report.
Respectfully submitted,
Jocelyn Ireland

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June 16, 2021 Council Meeting @ VIRTUAL (Annual) / 1st VP Report

« on: June 14, 2021, 11:31:04 AM »

The SUNYLA election occurred successfully through Election Runner. Thank you Jill Locascio for setting everything up behind the scenes. Congratulations to our newly elected officials: Jennifer DeVito (1st Vice President/President-Elect), Karen Gelles (2nd Vice President/Conference Chair), and Gregory Bobish (Treasurer). Terms start at the end of the annual conference on Friday.

Thank you also to April Davies, Carol Anne Germain, and others that updated the bylaws. The bylaw changes were passed during the election. Summary of bylaw changes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WdO6TcBSLR5ia-1aqOr2LHc1SBZfE0gUfjvJrCBWn6Q/edit

I will be holding a new member/1st SUNYLA conference meeting today (Wed. the 16th) at 3:30 in Zoom room one. If this is your first conference, you are a new member, a library school student, or you just want to stop in and say hi, please join me.

I am looking forward to serving as your president for the next year.

Jocelyn Ireland