Messages

16

January 26, 2018 Council Meeting @ FIT / Re: Campus Updates

« on: January 25, 2018, 12:30:00 PM »

Maritime
Rebecca Hyams, Delegate

A new Library Director has been hired! They will be starting in March, so I'll be able to share more details and fully introduce them for our next meeting. We're also going to be looking for Ship Librarians (as we do every year) soon.

We've all been very busy continuing to work on several large projects including a weed and rebuild of our 2nd floor circulating collection, revamping our LibGuides, better integrating library services into Blackboard, and working our way through several Archives-related grants. Most recently, we updated our Medium account with an update on our NYS Documentary Heritage Program grant, which can be found here: https://medium.com/@LuceLibrary/records-of-a-school-at-sea-f6189d1713eb

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January 26, 2018 Council Meeting @ FIT / [Final] SCFC Report

« on: January 22, 2018, 03:19:38 PM »

The SCFC is dead! Long live the SCFC!

I attended the December SLC meeting, and at the end of the Commercial Products Committee presentation I asked Curtis Kendrick (chair of that committee) if the CPC replaced all or part of the SCFC (as the charges seemed to be overlapping), to which he replied "what is the SCFC?"

And with that, it sounds like that committee is officially no more. It does raise the question of where the parts of the SUNYConnect service that don't fall under the CPC jurisdiction will go, but it appears as though the committee is formally disbanded. (John was there and can maybe elaborate a little more.)

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November 3, 2017 Council Meeting @ Albany / Re: Campus Updates

« on: November 03, 2017, 08:56:55 AM »

Maritime:

Since our last update, we had two more additions in our library. Chante Hope is our new Instruction and Outreach Librarian and Adele Merlino is our new Educational Technologist. Both came on and jumped right in and we're super happy to have both of them. Once the Library Director search (currently in progress) finishes we will go back to being fully-staffed for the first time since the end of February.

This year we had all 18 sections of the freshman seminar class LEAD 101 come to the library over the span of a week for library orientation, in an event we called "LEAD Week". We did a library scavenger hunt game (using Tompkins-Cortland's Library Quest format) and it went over really well.

We recently launched our ArchivesSpace site, allowing users to search our physical archival collections easily. Over the past year Annie Tummino has worked to get our legacy finding aids entered into the system, assisted by other members of the library staff and student workers. It can be viewed here: http://sunymaritimearchives.libraryhost.com/

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September 18, 2017 Council Meeting @ Delhi / Re: Campus Updates

« on: September 18, 2017, 09:30:39 AM »

Maritime:

We've have several comings and goings this summer. The biggest news is that Library Director Kristin Hart left us at the end of August to take a position as the Dean of Libraries at Queens College (CUNY). A search is underway for our next Library Director. While that search is ongoing, Annie Tummino is serving as our Interim Library Director and Rebecca Hyams is serving as the Interim Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Over the summer we hired Marty Zmijewski as our new Content Services Librarian. Marty had been working for us as a Part-time Librarian for the past year and a half and we're excited to see what he will do in this new role. To fill Marty's previous position we recently hired a new Part-time Librarian, Matthew Dineiro (who's first day is today actually). We've also hired a new Instruction and Outreach Librarian (who is starting next week) and a new Educational Technologist (starting in October). [I'll post more about them in our next update.]

The Stephen B. Luce Library has recently been awarded several grants, two to fund projects in the Archives and a SUNY IITG grant (in conjunction with the Humanities Department) to fund a Digital Scholarship initiative.

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June 14, 2017 Council Meeting @ Stony Brook (Annual) / Re: Campus Updates

« on: June 14, 2017, 08:46:34 AM »

Maritime
On May 9th the TSES Empire State VI departed Maritime College bound for New Orleans, Spain, Lisbon, Sicily, and Scotland. The library was sent off with a largely rebuilt collection and a whole new ILS for this voyage. We've been getting blog posts from them and posting them to our new ship blog: https://medium.com/@empirestate

Maritime College was just awarded an IITG grant, headed by Humanities professor John Rocco, to launch a digital scholarship initiative on our campus. The library faculty will be intimately involved in this project, which will include the forming of a faculty cohort and the integration of digital scholarship tools into spring semester courses. The grant also includes funding for the creation of a digital scholarship lab and funding towards establishing our own home for our digital archival materials and projects.

Educational Technologist Ian August has taken a position over at St. John's and left in early June. Instruction and Outreach Librarian Mona Ramonetti has taken another position and will be leaving Maritime at the end of June. We expect to have searches to fill both of their positions shortly. We're also in the process of filling our Content Services Librarian position and hope to have someone onboard soon.

At SUNYLA this year, Library Director Kristin Hart is participating in a pre-conference panel on library renovations, Archives and Scholarly Communications Librarian Annie Tummino is on a roundtable discussion on teaching with primary sources, and Digital Services Librarian Rebecca Hyams is speaking at the tech services lightning talk session on setting up the ship library's new ILS.

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March 10, 2017 Council Meeting @ Stony Brook / SCFC Update

« on: March 08, 2017, 03:53:30 PM »

Again, no update. I'm on standby to hear if this committee will continue to exist.

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March 10, 2017 Council Meeting @ Stony Brook / Re: Campus Updates

« on: March 08, 2017, 03:52:49 PM »

Maritime

Renovation finished on the Archives a few weeks ago! Right now we're in the process of moving all of our archival collections out of their temporary locations and into new compact shelving.

Speaking of our Archives, Annie Tummino was interviewed on News12 about last year's Snug Harbor project that went live earlier this year:
http://bronx.news12.com/news/college-in-the-bronx-preserves-piece-of-nyc-maritime-history-1.13183214

Acquisitions and User Services Librarian Katie Bram recently took a job with the New York City Department of Buildings as a Records Manager. We were really sad to see her go but wish her all the best in her new position.

Otherwise we've all been super busy keeping the ship running, so to speak.

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January 27, 2017 Council Meeting @ FIT / Re: Campus Updates

« on: January 26, 2017, 11:04:41 AM »

Maritime:

Maybe the better question to ask is "what *isn't* happening?" As usual we've been super busy here and have been making a lot of changes.

The Stephen B. Luce Library has extended its hours, and is now open until midnight every night. This was in response to student demand and is proving to be popular.

Work finished on the most recent phase of the Sailor's Snug Harbor digitization project, which was funded by a METRO grant. A new (and vastly improved) portal was launched to showcase the records and tell the stories of the men who lived there. Special congratulations go out to Jannette D'Esposito (who served as the Project Archivist) and Annie Tummino (who built the portal site). Their work can be viewed at https://snugharborarchivesblog.wordpress.com/

The renovation of the Library's archives is underway. Compact shelving will be installed in the coming weeks and then the moving of materials into the newly-renovated space will start. Once the renovation and move is complete, all of the archives and special collections will be housed in one space that will also include a work/reading area for archival materials.

We're also in the middle of several large simultaneous collection-related projects. The largest is a focusing of our Maritime Heritage Collection which is being helmed by Katie Bram. The goal is to have a comprehensive and focused collection on materials pertaining to the Merchant Marine and shipping industry.

We also recently had a shift in personnel to announce. Veronica Gaffney has been working in our library since November of 2013 in the position of Keyboard Specialist I. We were recently able to offer Veronica a new role as Technical Services Assistant, a position which she officially started earlier this month.

Also, expect to see an announcement soon as we look for Librarians to go on this year's Summer Sea Term. That should be going out in the next few weeks.

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January 27, 2017 Council Meeting @ FIT / SCFC Update

« on: January 26, 2017, 08:55:27 AM »

SCFC has not met so there is nothing to report

(As an aside, I am curious to see what the future of this committee is once the new SLC structure is established.)

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November 18, 2016 Council meeting at Albany / Re: Campus Updates

« on: November 18, 2016, 09:50:12 AM »

Maritime

The Academic Success Center had its Grand Opening this past Monday (November 14th). Students and Faculty alike are very pleased with the space that includes an Active Learning Classroom, Study Lounge, and three group study rooms. All of the rooms can be reserved by members of the Maritime Community though the Library's website.

We posted pictures from the Grand Opening on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stephenblucelibrary/posts/960852810725405:0

As soon as final exams end Facilities will be returning to work on renovating our Archives. The internal walls were demolished over the summer, and they'll be back to do all the necessary work to make the space nice before the installation of compact shelving.

We're also about to undertake several more large weeding and inventory projects. Once those projects are done we hope to have additional space in the library for students to work and relax.

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November 18, 2016 Council meeting at Albany / SCFC Liaison Report

« on: November 18, 2016, 08:54:32 AM »

I haven't heard anything on the SCFC front since the last meeting. I expected there to be a meeting last month when SCLD met but I didn't hear anything.

(I'm actually wondering if they realize I'm still the liaison...I did have to keep reminding them last year that while I was no longer the SUNYLA Liaison to SCLD I was continuing on SCFC because the terms are different.)

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September 23, 2016 Council meeting at Geneseo / Re: Campus Updates

« on: September 22, 2016, 08:51:12 AM »

Maritime:

We are very nearly done with a major renovation to the first floor of the Stephen B. Luce Library! Since May the library has been under renovation to create the college's Academic Success Center (a technology-enhanced active learning classroom), a new office for our library director and one for an Academic Coach, three group study rooms, and another larger study space. As we speak they are installing ceiling tiles and preparing to install new flooring in preparation for a furniture delivery next week. This has all been a very exciting process and we're looking forward to seeing it finished!

Next up is an overhaul of our Archives. The demolition was done over the summer and we'll be up to having compact shelving installed over the Winter Break.

Other than that we've all been super busy on various projects and should have more to share in November.

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September 23, 2016 Council meeting at Geneseo / Campus Updates

« on: September 21, 2016, 09:16:35 AM »

Please place your campus updates here:

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September 23, 2016 Council meeting at Geneseo / SCFC Liaison Report

« on: September 21, 2016, 09:15:24 AM »

SCFC has not met since the summer started. I suspect there will be a meeting in October during the SCLD Fall Meeting, so I should have an update for our next Council Meeting.

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June 8, 2016 Council meeting at Binghamton (Annual) / President's Report

« on: June 06, 2016, 10:27:58 AM »

Has it been a year already? This is already my final update as SUNYLA President! This has been a great year for us and I'm proud to have presided over the organization for the past year.

I'm pleased to announce the incoming board:
Bill Jones (Geneseo)- President
Carrie Fishner (Delhi)- 1st VP/President-Elect
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)- 2nd VP/Conference Chair
Amanda Lowe (Albany)- Secretary
Greg Bobish (Albany)- Treasurer

Following the conference I will move into the role of Past-President (Ex-Officio).

The two Bylaws changes on our election ballot also passed. TUG has officially been renamed the TDG (Technology Discussion Group) and the Publication Committee's charge has been broadened to include social media and other forms of communication.

As voted at the last council meeting, SUNYLA 2017 will be held at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY on June 14-16, 2017.

Bill and I attended the SCLD Spring Meeting in Albany held on April 19-21. A lot of the meeting was devoted to updates on their Strategic Plan initiatives and work with the Ithaka S+R Consultants. (SCLD has contracted with Ithaka S+R to give a report on SUNY Libraries, though I think it is a little murky right now if Ithaka is giving advice about SCLD or SUNY Libraries as a whole because I've heard both.) I've summarized the ELD discussion in my SCFC report. Shannon Pritting also gave an update about the ILS Review process, which the ILS Review Group will be giving on Wednesday as a Pre-Conference session. (I can't elaborate much more on the forum here about that as the discussion is SUNY-Confidential, but if you are interested and can't attend the session on Wednesday, it will be recorded.)

At the council meeting we will vote to approve a new chair for the Professional Development Committee and new liaisons to FACT2 and LACUNY.

I hope to see many of you around at Binghamton this week! I hope everyone coming enjoys the conference!