Hello SUNYLA!
Not surprisingly, I have quite a few things to report.
Our Council meeting schedule is:
September 25, 2015 at Monroe CC
November 13, 2015 at SUNY Cobleskill
January 29, 2016 at FIT
March 11, 2016 at Binghamton
June 8, 2016 at Binghamton (at SUNYLA 2016)
Our meetings are open to all and I do encourage those of you who might be near
As President I have been serving as the SUNYLA Representative to the SUNY Council of Library Directors (SCLD). Beyond serving on their Executive Board, I was asked to be part of their Strategic Planning group and met with the Library Directors down in the Metro region back in July. I was also asked to serve in the Library Systems RFI Review Group, which is the group looking at the vendor responses to the Request for Information that was put out in May. Maureen Zajkowski from OLIS has been in charge of the review process and members of the SCLD EB and representatives from the University Centers make up the bulk of the group. That process is the first step in the process of determining what comes after Aleph. I will also be attending the SCLD Fall meeting in Rochester in October with Bill. They are slated to discuss their strategic plan and the RFI responses, so I'll have more to report in November.
On the "What's New in SUNYLA" front we have a new ad-hoc committee and a few new liaisons. I was approached by Michelle Toth from Plattsburgh following the very successful Assessment SIG that took place during SUNYLA 2015 with a request to form an Assessment Ad-Hoc Committee. One of their tasks will be working in conjunction with a similar group in SCLD. Michelle recently sent out a call for people to join several various groups looking into different questions in library assessment. Anyone interested should contact her.
I was also approached twice over the past few months looking for representatives from SUNYLA to serve on two important SUNY-wide committees. Open SUNY has decided to form a Community of Practice for Online Course Support Librarians and asked for a representative. April Steenburgh (FLCC) has volunteered to serve in that group. I was also approached by the University Faculty Senate looking for representation on a committee looking into the criteria for the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship and the rank of Distinguished Librarian. Logan Rath (Brockport) agreed to be our representative for that group. I'm looking forward to their reports once these groups have started to meet.
After the success of last year's Mid-Winter Virtual Conference, we do plan on another this year. More details will follow in the coming month or so. We're also trying to determine if the group that puts on the MWVC is a sub-group of a larger committee or a group in its own right.
Hopefully I'll see quite a few of you on Friday in Rochester!
