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Topics - AprilDavies

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November 18, 2016 Council meeting at Albany / Publications Report

« on: November 17, 2016, 03:38:24 PM »

Below & attached.
**************************
Publications Committee Report
November 17, 2016

Activities:
• The October issue of the newsletter was delayed and became the November issue. It is up on the SUNYLA website: http://www.sunyla.org/sunyla_docs/newsletters/2016Nov.pdf
• Jennifer DeVito has begun setting up Hootsuite to help manage our social media.
• Sherry Larson-Rhodes (Geneseo) joined the committee and is now our newsletter editor.

Coming up:
• The next issue of the newsletter will come out in February, due date mid-January.
• We will be creating a formal style guide for the newsletter to assist with the editing process and with future editor transitions.
• We need to discuss our file sharing platform. Do we continue with the FTP site or change to something else?

Current members:
Nancy Abashian (Binghamton)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Sherry Larson-Rhodes (Geneseo)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Christian Poehlmann (Albany)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)
Susanna Van Sant (TC3)
Brandon West (Geneseo)
Lydia Willoughby (New Paltz)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

September 23, 2016 Council meeting at Geneseo / Publications Report

« on: September 22, 2016, 04:49:46 PM »

Below and attached. I will not be attending the meeting so please email me or something if you have any questions.

*********************
Publications Committee Report
September 22, 2016

Activities:
•   Submissions are coming in for the October newsletter. The deadline is Sept. 26.
•   The post-conference special edition of the newsletter was a hit. I think we’ll need to make that a regular thing.
•   Jennifer DeVito has volunteered to be co-admin of the SUNYLA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/SUNY-Librarians-Association/160763520618503) and to take over running our Twitter account (https://twitter.com/sunyla).
•   I am currently recruiting someone to be the newsletter editor as Jennifer Smathers has stepped down from that job.

Coming up:
•   The next issue of the newsletter will come out in February.
•   Jennifer D. is looking into setting up a Hootsuite account to help manage the FB and Twitter feeds.

Current members:
Nancy Abashian (Binghamton)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Christian Poehlmann (Albany)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)
Susanna Van Sant (TC3)
Brandon West (Geneseo)
Lydia Willoughby (New Paltz)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

June 8, 2016 Council meeting at Binghamton (Annual) / Publications Report

« on: June 06, 2016, 09:41:00 AM »

The committee's report is over in the Reports section:
http://sunyla.org/forums/index.php?topic=572.msg1083#msg1083

March 11, 2016 Council Meeting at Binghamton / Publications Committee

« on: March 09, 2016, 10:06:48 AM »

Publications Committee Report
March 9, 2016

Activities:
•   The February newsletter got posted just under the wire. The next issue will be in May, with the submission date probably in mid-April.
•   We are submitting a bylaws change. We want to change our official charge to more explicitly include things beyond the newsletter, but not be so specific as to be restrictive.
o    Current: The Publications Committee shall publish a Newsletter and any other publications of the Association.
o    New: The Publications Committee shall publish a Newsletter and any other publications of the Association. The Committee shall also engage in publicity and marketing efforts to further the work and raise the profile of the Association.
•   Email discussions re: other potential activities for the committee have resumed.

ACTION ITEM:
•   Bylaws change for the spring ballot, committee charge

Current members:
Nancy Abashian (Binghamton)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Christian Poehlmann (Albany)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)
Susanna Van Sant (TC3)
Brandon West (Geneseo)
Lydia Willoughby (New Paltz)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

January 29, 2016 Council Meeting @ FIT / Publications Committee

« on: January 26, 2016, 04:22:19 PM »

Publications Committee Report
Jan. 26, 2016

Activities:
• The February newsletter is in progress. The next issue will be in May, with the submission date probably in mid-April.

Membership:
• Lori Annesi (Monroe) stepped down from the committee so we decided to take the opportunity to get some new members. I used the Committee Interest feature of the Membership Directory to find interested members and emailed them directly. Five people responded right away and are joining the crew. A couple of longtime members have hinted that they might leave the committee at the end of 2015-16 so this will provide a useful overlap period.

Current members:
Nancy Abashian (Binghamton)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Christian Poehlmann (Albany)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)
Susanna Van Sant (TC3)
Brandon West (Geneseo)
Lydia Willoughby (New Paltz)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

Nov. 13, 2015 Council Meeting @ Cobleskill / Publications Committee

« on: November 11, 2015, 09:06:21 AM »

Publications Committee Report
Nov. 11, 2015

Activities:
• The October newsletter is up on the SUNYLA website. The next issue will be in February, with the submission date in mid-January.
• Jennifer Smathers cleaned up the newsletter template that we use so putting it together should go even more smoothly now.

Current members:
Lori Annesi (Monroe)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

Sept. 25, 2015 Council Meeting @ Monroe Community College / Publications Committee Report

« on: September 21, 2015, 08:03:34 PM »

below & attached
*******************
Publications Committee Report
Sept. 21, 2015

Activities:
• The first newsletter of 2015/16 is in the works and will be out in October.
• We’ve had some email discussions about the committee’s work. “Is there something we should be doing that we’re not?” and that sort of thing. This will continue.
• I’ve been trying to update the SUNYLA Facebook page more often; I think FB will probably become a group effort.

Current members:
Lori Annesi (Monroe)
Jim Coan (Oneonta)
April Davies, chair (Cobleskill)
Jennifer DeVito (Stony Brook)
Karen Gelles (Farmingdale)
Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Jennifer Smathers (Brockport)

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

June 3, 2015 Council Meeting @ Purchase (Annual) / SCFC Report

« on: June 01, 2015, 11:42:57 AM »

Attached & below. Please note ACTION ITEM at the end.

*********************************
SUNYConnect Coordinating & Finance Committee (SCFC) Report
June 2015

SCFC had a conference call on March 18. The main topics of discussion were SUNYConnect core services and what all should be brought to SCLD’s April conference for discussion.

There was another meeting at the SCLD conference but I didn’t find out about it until after it was over. There hasn’t been any communication from SCFC since then that I know of. I found out through non-SCFC channels that a revision to SCLD’s bylaws with regard to the SCFC was passed at their business meeting. SUNYLA will still be represented on the committee, here are the pertinent bits:
VII) Committees.
2. SUNYConnect Coordinating & Finance Committee (SCFC)
b. Membership:
v. SUNY Librarians Association (SUNYLA) shall have one non-voting member.
c. Terms
i. July to June
ii. Two year
iii. Maximum two consecutive terms, except OLIS
(excerpted from the proposal document, SCLD’s website hasn’t been updated yet)

Other SCFC-related issues such as SUNYConnect core services were also on the agenda but, since there hasn’t been any communication, I don’t know what was said or decided or anything. From the same non-SCFC channels, I’ve heard that there was "extensive discussion" regarding core services at the sector meetings. That, unfortunately, is all I know at this time.

***ACTION ITEM: My 2 consecutive terms as SCFC liaison are done at the end of June. A new liaison needs to be appointed by the President and approved by the Council.

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

June 3, 2015 Council Meeting @ Purchase (Annual) / Revised Expenditures Policy

« on: June 01, 2015, 10:42:18 AM »

Rosanne asked me to update the 'Policy on the Expenditure of Association Funds'. I sent the new version to the Council listserv for comment back in April. The only comment I received at the time was 'looks good to me'. The policy now needs to be discussed and voted on at Wednesday's meeting. The new version is attached here, the old old/current one is available online: http://www.sunyla.org/policies/funds-expenditure

--April

March 13, 2015 Council Meeting @ Purchase / SCFC Report

« on: March 09, 2015, 11:54:34 AM »

Attached & below.

*********************************
SUNYConnect Coordinating & Finance Committee (SCFC) Report
March 13, 2015

SCFC has not met since December 10th. The chair sent an email & doodle poll at the end of February to set up a quick conference call before SCLD’s spring meeting but I haven’t heard anything more about it since.

I expect that the proposal to change the SCLD bylaws with regard to SCFC membership that I mentioned in my January report will be on the agenda at that spring meeting. This is something for SUNYLA to watch. There will probably be other SCFC-related items discussed as well: alternative revenue sources, Elsevier, SUNYConnect core services, etc. These are just educated guesses since there’s been no official communication.

******* UPDATE: I forgot SCFC has a regularly scheduled conference call next week. I'll let you know if I learn anything interesting. **************

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

January 23, 2015 Council Meeting @ FIT / SCFC Report

« on: January 20, 2015, 12:43:59 PM »

Below and attached
**********
SUNYConnect Coordinating & Finance Committee (SCFC) Report
Jan. 20, 2015

SCFC met via conference call on December 10th. SUNYConnect Cost Calculations were discussed briefly. There was an update on the Elsevier negotiations, followed by much discussion. We also discussed whether or not IDS membership should be part of the SUNYConnect Core but SCFC will need the promised business plan from IDS before making any recommendations. There was a brief discussion as to whether EDS should be Core, it’s currently not. And it was noted that ELD, which IS part of the Core, needs to be discussed at the spring SCLD meeting since we’re nearing the of the contract--should it remain Core? should we continue to be part of the NY3Rs delivery? Then we talked about consortial purchasing—maybe we can do better than we currently are. There was also some discussion about alternative revenue sources and lack of uncommitted funds at system and on campuses—noted that we need to do more to advocate and educate administrators, especially re: support for new programs.

Changing the SCLD bylaws with regard to SCFC membership was brought up again. The proposal went to the EB but hasn’t moved on from them yet. They are hoping to get it on the agenda for the spring meeting but it might have to wait until after the dust clears from Elsevier. The proposal was sent out to the committee members again. It would eliminate all non-voting members from SCFC, including SUNYLA. The rationale is basically that having non-SCLD people could inhibit discussion and that it takes too much time to include these groups. My PERSONAL opinion is that that’s a load of bunk and that having representation from non-SCLD groups is important. It’s too easy to be insulated from the impact of decisions if you only listen to yourselves. The non-directors are usually the ones that have to implement whatever SCLD and SCFC come up with; that practical, hands-on perspective makes a difference.

Respectfully submitted,
April Davies

September 26, 2014 Council Meeting @SUNY IT / SCFC Report

« on: September 23, 2014, 09:48:00 AM »

There is nothing to report. There has been no communication from them at all. If they've been meeting or talking, it's been without notifying their full membership.

June 11, 2014 Council Meeting @SUNY Albany / President's Report

« on: June 05, 2014, 03:13:50 PM »

Below & attached.
**********************
SUNYLA President’s Report
June 11, 2014

Here’s what’s been happening since our March meeting:
•   It’s official—2015 Conference, SUNY Purchase, June 3-5. Carrie Marten has been elected 2ndVP/Conference Chair, Susanne Markgren volunteered to be Local Arrangements Chair
•   I got all the Salary Survey info from Pam O’Sullivan and passed it on to Eugene Harvey. The project then went on hold again because he had knee surgery and was out for several weeks. I think the whole thing needs a reboot; there are too many gaps in the data and it has been delayed for too long. Something for Rosanne’s to-do list.
•   Speaking of Rosanne… you all know that Alvin Dantes left SUNY and thus his position with SUNYLA. I put together a special election last month and I’m pleased to say that Rosanne Humes is our new 1stVP/Prez-Elect. She’ll take over as President at the end of the conference and Rebecca Hyams will then begin her term as 1stVP.
•   I’ve continued to serve on the UUP A-48 Advisory Committee, which is looking at “issues of concern to librarians,” as was called for in the new contract. We had one additional in-person meeting on April 25 but have done the rest of our work online.
o An online survey is up and running right now aimed at all UUP-represented librarians and library professionals
o We also want input from the Community College sector. Send to: appendix48@uupmail.org.
o A formal letter went to SCLD letting them know what we’re up to. We want to keep the directors in the loop and (hopefully) supportive of the process.
•   And speaking of SCLD… I attended the SCLD Spring Conference April 29-May 1 in Cooperstown. It was a good conference overall. Things that might be of interest to SUNYLA:
o EDS API for building custom reading lists and embedding in Moodle/Blackboard/etc. is cool
o Carey Hatch and the crew at OLIS are very interested in what SCLD and the SUNY library community want OLIS to be/do in the future? Retirements are looming, systems/technologies are changing, etc.
o SCLD endorsed the I2NY manifesto re: Enhancing access to research databases
o NY3Rs ebook pilot is entering phase 3; contact Sheryl Knab at WNYLRC if you want in. Info online: http://www.ny3rs.org/ebooks
o     NY3Rs also exploring a consortial streaming video pilot through Kanopy. Contact Sheryl Knab for info.
o     Funding model for IDS will be changing, not sure how yet
o     Elsevier negotiations are proceeding, doctoral sector is taking the lead, expect it to cost more.
o     There was some discussion about EDL (LAND) but no decisions
o     SCLD Fall meeting will probably be in Rochester, dates TBD

ACTION ITEMS:
•   Officer travel for 2014-15, request allocation of $1000 for the year

Respectfully submitted,
April C. Davies

March 21, 2014 Council Meeting @SUNY Albany / President's Report

« on: March 19, 2014, 01:26:05 PM »

SUNYLA President’s Report
March 21, 2014

Here are the highlights of what I’ve been up to since we met in November.
• It’s not official yet but it looks like the 2015 Conference will be June 3-5 at SUNY XXXXXXXX (I’m not putting the name in writing/out on the web until it’s final).
o There’s a meeting between people from the library and their campus rentals person next week to confirm.
o NYSLAA usually has their conference that week. I checked with them; they haven’t finalized anything yet and told me to go ahead.
• I made several edits to the Manual of Duties and Responsibilities and the Bylaws. The proposed changes were sent to the Council last week for review. Assuming they are all approved, the ones to the Bylaws will also have to go on the ballot for approval by the membership.
• In February, someone asked me if SUNYLA could get involved with the state contract expirations for all our book vendors. I did some digging and reported my findings (such as they were) on the SUNYLA listserv. Earlier this week I got a follow-up email from OGS on this issue and I shared that news as well. Bottom line: contract extensions through the end of 2014 were approved.
o I think (I repeat, think) that many of the vendors are looking to negotiate a whole new contract for 2015 on. Let’s hope that proceeds in a timely fashion and we don’t end up in the same situation come next year.
• I attended the OpenSUNY Summit (Dec. 5, Albany) sponsored by SCLD. It was great to see so many SUNY librarians there, sharing their ideas and energy to move OpenSUNY forward in a positive way. Some initiatives grew out of that work and more than 30 librarians have signed up to work on them.
o A key one for SUNYLA is the Taskforce on Information Literacy. SCLD would like to coordinate with WGIL on this. I anticipate that this will be headed by someone from WGIL.
• I was asked to serve on the UUP A-48 Advisory Committee, which is looking at “issues of concern to librarians,” as was called for in the new contract. Other members: Dan Harms, John Schumacher, Valerie Mittenberg, Jason Torre, Dan Kinney, Jamie Dangler. The group met in person on Feb. 3 and Mar. 7 in Albany. I’ll let Dan Harms take the lead in sharing information since he’s our UUP Liaison but everyone should be on the lookout for announcements and information gathering efforts in the near future.
• SUNY’s lovely accreditors (Middle States or MSCHE) released a draft of their new guidelines from which Information Literacy has pretty much vanished. I shared this information via the general SUNYLA list and was surprised at how few people commented. Someone shared the news on the SCLD list and got the same result. Ah well.
• I also participated in a number of conference calls but I don’t think any of them need details at this point. I’m happy to answer any questions if they come up.
o NYSHEI Board, Jan. 23
o SCLD-EB, Dec. 11, Jan. 28, Mar. 17
o I2NY task force, Dec. 9

Upcoming thus far:
• UUP A-48 Committee, April 25
• SCLD Spring Conference, April 29-May 1, Cooperstown
• SUNYLA Annual Conference!

ACTION ITEMS:
• Vote on Bylaws changes
• Vote on Manual changes

Respectfully submitted,
April C. Davies

November 20, 2013 Council Meeting @SUNY FIT / 2013 Conference Report

« on: November 19, 2013, 03:38:37 PM »

From Mark McBride:

April,

My apologies for getting report to you so late. Overall the conference feedback was good, although not everyone was thrilled with their experience. And SUNYLA made some serious dough.

(report below and attached, pdf of eval responses attached)
-------------------------------
SUNYLA 2013 Annual Conference Wrap Up
October 30th, 2013
submitted by Mark McBride, 2013 Conference Chair

It was a pleasure serving as conference chair for SUNYLA 2013. I was deeply impressed by the willingness all our members showed in making this a great conference. It was also a good year to have conversations around open education, open access, open textbook and the overall concept of what open means. As usual, we saw some great session featuring innovative services and collaboration. Below are general recommendations moving forward on how to improve the conference experience.

Sessions Scheduling
The scheduling of sessions was probably one of the easier pieces at SUNYLA 2013. It was great having the team at Geneseo take this bull by the horns again. My recommendation to continue with the great work started by Bonnie and Tracy at Geneseo is to ask them to act as contacts for the folks doing the conference at SUNY Albany. Overall I believe whoever volunteers to take a major role like this for the annual conference (session evaluations, poster sessions, housing, catering, vendors) that they make themselves available for consultation for the following year. All that information is available out there, but if the people from the previous years planning committee could make themselves available for the first meeting of the following year’s committee it would help with a smooth transition.

Vendor Solicitations
Carol Anne did another fabulous job of soliciting money from the vendors, but it would have made it much easier if a shared spreadsheet was exchanged by the host campus and the Vendor Chair so that everyone was aware of how much money was coming in. Carol Anne brought in so much money that it became hard plan for events, because the planning committee never knew how much money they had to work with. It isn’t a bad problem to have, but we could have had a much better conference experience for people if the crew at Buffalo State were able to plan on how much money was coming in. We ended up getting so much in free merchandise that we didn’t use any money for giveaways. Also, Chartwells did not charge us the proper amount, nor prepare the appropriate foods not prepare the proper amount of food for lunches and breakfasts. Make sure that group preparing the food for the conference reviews the menus the week of the conference. There was too much confusion between the conference chair and Chartwells.

Signage and Scheduling
No matter how well prepared you think you are you are not prepared enough. We walked the campus three times to ensure we had proper signage, but it was still a major complaint from participants. The construction did not help, nor the rain, but still signage should have been doubled. Also, on Wednesday night during the social, make sure you have the right people scheduled to escort people to housing. There was confusion while events were running about where people are supposed to go. Communicate clearly to people arriving on campus and to the people volunteering to act as guides around campus.

Try Not To Overlap With Another Conference
This caused confusion between participants at both events. Groups were removing signs unaware that the signs were for a conference happening at the same time. If you are going to have conferences conflicting with another group try very, very hard to schedule a meeting between both organizations. We only tried very hard. I should have been more forceful with attempting to schedule that.

Session Evaluations
This year session evaluations were not administered very well. Session evaluations were suppose to be embedded right inside Lanyard schedule but they were not. Make some responsible strictly for making sure session evaluations are created, distributed and the data shared with SUNYLA.

Conference Evaluations
Overall conference evaluations were good, although the evaluations should have been present on the webpage through out. I recommend strongly using Lanyard again we received very good feedback.