Campus Updates

[flintopj]

SUNY Oneonta
Oneonta campus was spared much of the flooding damage recently experienced by others due to our location in the hills of the city.  As you know though, much of the surrounding county received extensive damage.  This made travel to and from campus a bit dicey for a few days!  Our thoughts are with our sister campuses that did not fare so well.

Alvin Dantes and Andy Perry have developed a mobile website for our library information.  You can check it out at http://www.oneonta.edu/library/m/. 

Our campus continues to undergo personnel changes.  The new interim director, Mary Lynn Bensen, began her duties on July 1st.   Our new Provost, Dr. E. Maria Thompson began her duties in July 18th.  We are also in the process of recruiting for a reference and instruction librarian.

We have started a pilot using SWANK videos.  Running into issues with accessibility and maintaining proper access to meet licensing requirements.  Currently we have decided to have the link posted to the course e-reserves in Angel.  This is not ideal, but keeps them from being open to the public at large.

[Angela Weiler]

Greetings from Onondaga!

John Spencer, long time Senior Media Development Specialist at Coulter Library, retired in May of 2011. After interviewing a number of individuals, the search committee chose Dennis Thoryk to fill the position, and he started at Coulter Library on August 29 . Dennis was formerly Student Engagement Initiatives Coordinator and adjunct instructor in computer studies at Onondaga.

Pauline Lynch Shostack developed a SCVNGR library orientation trek that the campus community can complete through a mobile phone app, text messaging, or completing a paper challenge sheet. SCVNGR is a game where you go places and do challenges to unlock badges and earn points. Participants who complete all the challenges in Coulter Library's Trek by Thanksgiving break will be entered in a drawing to win prizes. 

Jeff Harr attended a “Getting to Know RDA [Resource Description and Access]” workshop on Tuesday, September 20th. RDA will supplant AACR2 [the current rules governing cataloging] beginning in 2013. Jeff will also be attending the National Association of Research Administration [or NCURA] annual conference in Washington, DC November 3 – 9.

Pauline Lynch Shostack’s presentation proposal titled “Grown Ups Just Want to Have Fun! Library Play Programming for College Students of All Ages” has been accepted by the ACRL-ALA presentation committee. Pauline will give her presentation at the ALA 2012 Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

Angela Weiler was appointed to the editorial board of Public Services Quarterly (Haworth Press). Angela also had a book review published in CHOICE magazine in August of 2011 (Starting Your Career As A Freelance Writer, by Moira Allen).

Coulter Library is [finally] live with ILLiad borrowing! ILL clerk Cathy Bauer has been quickly learning the ins and outs of ILLiad borrowing, and Coulter’s public ILLiad interface is now available to patrons. Many thanks to Christine Sisak of Nazareth College, our extremely patient and knowledgeable IDS Project mentor.

Jeff Harr will present “Albums That Shook the World, volume 12: “Who’s Next” by The Who” on Friday, October 14th @ 11:15.

[Scott.Richmond]

The reference collection and the reference area underwent a much needed transformation over the summer.  New titles, both print and electronic, have been added while numerous items have been moved to the circulating collection.  The reference collection now resides on low-shelving, creating a more user friendly space that showcases our collection. 

Additionally, print magazines and journals, once shelved behind the circulation desk, are now located at the end of the reference area, in the main portion of the library.  In addition to our scholarly titles, we’ve added favorites such as Newsweek, Wired, MS, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone.

Reed Library has installed new study spaces equipped with outlets and whiteboards.  Five Research Islands are located on the first floor scattered among the stacks, while two more are located in the music library.

"Fredonia for St. Jude," an S.A. group which raises money for the St. Jude Children's Research Foundation, donated their first place prize of eight iMacs to Reed Library.   Four iMacs have been installed by the reference desk while the remaining four have been installed in the music library

Reed Library has revamped its Library Instruction classroom to be a dual-use facility for both Library Instruction classes and Professional Development Center events. The library instruction space was recently updated with 24 new laptop computers for student use during library classes. The classroom computers additionally will be available for hands-on technology training sessions sponsored by the PDC. A portion of the classroom space also has been outfitted for PDC events featuring roundtable and small group discussions, with internet and projection available. Due to the high volume of library classes and PDC events, the space is not open for other uses at this time.

   All music circulation functions including reserves, media and headphones have been relocated to the main circulation desk on the library’s main floor.
Our Big Read author is Edgar Allan Poe.  We will be reading the short stories and POEtry of Poe in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties.  Planned events include activities at public libraries  throughout the two county region; Mat Johnson, author of Pym: A Novel will be giving a talk titled “Pym: Poe’s Gauntlet” at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House on October 27th at 7:30;  and a county-wide POEtry contest for all ages is underway.

[hebertm3308]

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.  

[Christine Faraday]

Nassau Community College
Congratulations go out to two Nassau librarians that were promoted this fall. Rosanne Humes, Acquisitions, has been promoted to Associate Professor and Linda Gorman, Reference, has been promoted to Full Professor.

NCC just completed our participation in a five year Title III Grant Project. Under the distance learning component of this grant, the library was asked to offer a series of faculty workshops that introduce an array of online resources that would support distance education courses. From the spring of 2008 through early fall 2011, the NCC library offered over twenty-five workshops on a variety of resources including: Turnitin.com, Films on Demand, Federated Searching, EBSCO databases and LibGuides.

[mtimmons]

The Monroe Community College libraries had one retirement this summer. Long time librarian, and SUNYLA member, Ellen Mancuso retired but is still actively involved with the college community and is enjoying having time to pursue more outdoor activities.  Congratulation Ellen!  We will miss her.
 
The libraries have been very busy this summer with space reorganizations.  The Damon City Campus Library has merged with the Electronic Learning Center, a large computer lab adjacent to the library, to form the Damon City Campus Learning Commons.   We are now an open, collaborative space with an aim towards integrating technology into the learning process in a seamless environment.  

The LeRoy V. Good Library has opened up its floor space to make room for more student study areas by removing the bound periodical shelves.  Some of the periodicals are now being housed in closed storage while a lot more are just being weeded and discarded.  Also, a new student technology help desk was established within the LVG Library to assist students with login, e-mail, word processing , etc. issues.  

In spring 2011, Library Student Advisory Committee (LSAC) collaborated with a number of student clubs and departments to create a variety of colorful bookmarks to promote MCC Libraries to the college community. The bookmarks are based on the American Library Association (ALA) @ Your Library campaign for America's libraries.  We had a lot of fun with the students gathering props, posing and getting feedback on the project.  

[KimmySzeto]

Maritime College (Kimmy Szeto - delegate)
Campus update 9/23/2011

Personnel
========
Michael Russell, USCG (Ret.), and our own Part-time Reference Librarian Brendan Curley served on board TS Empire State VI as our Ship’s Librarians for our two Summer Sea Terms. Mr. Russell has since returned to private life, and Brendan is now at Pace University. Part-time Reference Librarian Kate Adler moved on to begin master’s studies at CUNY Graduate Center. Our circulation clerk Johanna Devlin retired after over 10 years at the library and over 30 years of service at SUNY.

This fall, we welcome three new staff members: Beth Silberstein and Julia Furay, part-time reference librarians, and Jennifer O’Keefe, Coordinator of Circulation Services.

Kimmy Szeto, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian and SUNYLA delegate, was appointed to the SUNY Faculty Senate Operations Committee.

Collections
========
The reference and bound periodicals collections were weeded this summer. And then we wonder why the shelves are still completely full. The government documents collection shifted its focus to more electronic resources until additional space becomes available.

Scholarship
========
Joseph Williams, Acquisitions and Collection Development Librarian, co-authored with David E. Woolwine from Hofstra University the article “Interlibrary Loan in the United States: An Analysis of Academic Libraries in a Digital Age,” which appeared in Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve. This study examines the rates and practices of interlibrary loan in the United States and its impact upon American academic libraries within the last decade.  In addition, Joseph has published the article, “Seeking a Safe Harbor: The Acquisition and Reconstruction of Fort Schuyler by the New York State Merchant Marine Academy” in the Bronx County Historical Society Journal.

Following her Fulbright sabbatical term in the spring, our director Constantia Constantinou presented her research in collaborative librarianship at the Qualitative and Quantitative Measures in Libraries International Conference in Athens, Greece.  She also secured funding for one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot to visit the United States for a first-hand experience of the collaborative process for inspiration in the development of their own National Library Consortium in Cyprus.

Exhibitions
========
On September 7, 2011, we welcomed Captain Robert H. Pouch for his presentation “September 11, 2001: Response and Rescue on New York Harbor.”  Captain Pouch was a first responder and directed marine evacuations and logistics in the New York harbor for first three days of the tragedy on board Pilot Boat New York. Photographs from his private collection are on display in the library lobby alongside additional resources on security and the maritime community.

[lcharbonneau]

Alana Verminski  joins our staff working as part-time librarian.  Alana recently returned to Central New York after receiving her Master’s Degree in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.  She will assist us in maintaining our Facebook page for the MVCC Libraries as well as working to enhance other outreach efforts.

Mohawk Valley Community College’s Cultural Series will present Maya Angelou as the keynote speaker of its Fall 2011 season.  Dr. Angelou will appear Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m. in the 2,800-seat field house at the new Robert R. Jorgensen Athletic and Event Center, becoming the first Cultural Series act to appear in the newly completed showcase building on MVCC’s Utica campus.

[CindyFrancis]

Dr. James Sunser became GCC’s 4th president on August 1, 2011 succeeding Dr. Stuart Steiner, who retired after 44 years of service to Genesee, including 36 years as president. Dr. Sunser has served at Onondaga Community College for the past 23 years, most recently as Vice President for Continuing and Extended Learning.

Anita Whitehead, Reference Services Librarian, received the 2011 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship.

GCC has begun its institutional process to prepare our 5-year Periodic Review Report. Library Director Nina Warren is serving as a Standards Task Force Chair, and Instructional Services Librarian Nicki Lerczak is serving on a task force.

Cindy Francis coordinated the third annual “Weed & Feed” event with Nursing faculty and staff. Print and Media Collections were reviewed for currency and title suggestions were noted. Library staff and faculty then shared a pizza luncheon and exchanged ideas for better utilizing resources. The library appreciates the Nursing faculty for their assistance and commitment to providing a current and comprehensive nursing collection. 

Michelle Eichelberger worked closely with the college's webmaster this summer to roll out the college's new branding identity and to completely redesign the library website. Other technology upgrades include replacement of all our student PC workstations with new units (Windows7 and Microsoft Office 2010.) With this update, the library offers all of the same computer programs as in the college’s main student computer lab.

GCC is experiencing increased enrollment in many of its programs which has increased the demand for instructional resources on Reserve. Utilizing Perkins funding, Cindy Francis worked with Nursing and Biology faculty to acquire new science models to support BIO, Polysomnography, Vet Tech and Nursing courses. Models include a second human skeleton, human circulatory system, heart models plus various cow, pig, dog and horse anatomical models.

Summer Break facilities improvements included significant projects to shift, remove, strut and reconstruct shelving in Reference, Circulating, Career and Reserve areas, to redo numerous areas including a computer pod, the south main reading room, and to convert the former Copy Room into a study room. Changes to book stacks and the reading room both created more space for student work and improved support for our large format Art books.

[GregB]

Lots of activity at UAlbany over the summer:


Trudi Jacobson, a University at Albany Libraries faculty member and Head of the Libraries’ Information Literacy Department,  has been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Librarian. Ms.Jacobson is nationally known for her scholarship in the field of information literacy instruction. Her theoretical and applied works have established her  reputation as an authority on how individuals recognize the need for, find, evaluate, and use information. Many of her publications are acclaimed as seminal works, transforming our understanding and teaching of information literacy. Her many refereed articles, nine books, and numerous book chapters, papers, and conference proceedings, as well as her presentations at national conferences, serve as a history of the transformation of librarians as agents for the development of critical thinking, research, and lifelong learning skills.

Ms. Jacobson has held many leadership positions in national professional organizations. She has chaired numerous Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section committees, as well as ACRL’s Information Literacy Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Urban Library Journal Advisory Board and was editor of the Public Services Quarterly (2004-2011.) She is also past member of the Research Strategies editorial board. In 2009 Ms. Jacobson recieved the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year Award, the highest honor conferred by the ACRL Instruction Section.

Ms. Jacobson earned three degrees from the University at Albany, a B.A., an M.L.S. and an M.A. in Liberal Studies. She is the recipient of the 1998 University at Albany School of Information Science and Policy Alumni Award and the secretary of University at Albany’s Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. She is married to John Vallely, a librarian at Siena College.

Ms. Jacobson is only the fourth librarian to be promoted to the SUNY Distinguished Librarian rank.

The University at Albany University Libraries are celebrating Open Access Week 2011 with exhibits and a program of activities on the afternoon of Wednesday October 26.  The libraries have received the generous support of University Auxiliary Services and The Eastern New York Association of College and Research Libraries in order to offer a moderated discussion of open access isssues, a presentation on open access/open science by “radically open scholar Dr. David Hogg of NYU, and a tour of the College of Nanoscale Sciences and Engineering. Please direct questions to Lorre Smith, lsmith@albany.edu
 

In January 2011 the University at Albany Libraries rolled out CitationFox, a new online citation tool designed to help users find the correct format of citations in either APA or MLA style. This collaborative project between the Information Literacy Department and the Systems Department is innovative in its structure, presentation, and comprehensiveness. Many online citation guides provide only some examples of citations and are far from comprehensive, but CitationFox includes over 900 nodes for entries which include templates for the general forms for both print and online formats, numerous citation examples, and any notes needed to clarify details. CitationFox, available at http://library.albany.edu/cfox (APA) or http://library.albany.edu/cfox?type=mla (MLA), has been well received and is becoming one of the most frequently viewed sources on the University Libraries' website. In June Carol Anne Germain, Daryl Bullis, and John Pardvila presented a poster session of CitationFox at the 43rd Annual SUNYLA Conference in Plattsburgh and in July CitationFox was added to the ACRL PRIMO (Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online) database. CitationFox has also been recently added to the California State University’s MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) database. Please feel free to browse this utility and encourage users to link to the site.


Daryl Bullis and Lorre Smith have written an article, “Looking Back, Moving Forward in the Digital Age: A Review of the Collection Management and Development Literature, 2004-2008.” to be published in October, 2011 in Library Resources and Technical Services 55.4


Gerald T. Burke and Carol Anne Germain have co-edited a new book, Information Literacy through the Streets of Hollywood. (Library Instruction Publications, 2011).  It is number 10 in the Active Learning Series.  For more information go to http://library-instruction-pubs.com/als10-info.php.


Yu-Hui Chen presented a research poster entitled “Shaping Perceptions of University Library Web Site via Information Literacy Instruction” at the ALA 2011 Annual Conference.  She also delivered a presentation based on this research at the EBSS Research Forum at the same conference.


Yu-Hui Chen and Mary Van Ullen published an article entitled “Helping International Students Succeed Academically Through Research Process and Plagiarism Workshops.”  College and Research Libraries, May 2011, 72(3), 209-235.


Yu-Hui Chen and Carol Anne Germain collaborated with Abebe Rorissa, a teaching faculty member at the Department of Information Studies, to publish an article entitled “Defining Usability: How Library Practice Differs from Published Research.”  portal: Libraries and the Academy, April 2011, 11(2), 599-628.

[Cayuga CC]

Cayuga Community College, Auburn and Fulton NY

Margaret Devereaux, Instruction and Assessment Librarian, has been appointed as the Interim Director for the libraries at Cayuga Community College (Bourke Memorial Library  in Auburn and the Fulton Campus Library in Fulton). Judy Campanella, Fulton Campus Librarian, has been appointed as the Interim Association Director at the Fulton Campus Library. We have hired two part-time Instructional Technologies Librarians for this academic year. Leah Galka will be working at the Fulton Campus. Leah received her Master of Library Science degree from Syracuse University in May 2009. Lisa Hoff will be working at the Auburn Campus. Lisa received her Master of Library Science degree from Syracuse University in May 2011. Both Leah and Lisa will work with the library’s information literacy program. We are very excited about the addition to our team of Leah and Lisa.

Other exciting news for our Fulton Campus is unfolding. The Fulton Campus is in the planning process of expanding and will be moving to a new location. The Library will be gaining more square footage and will continue to be part of the Learning Commons. The Library, Academic Support Center, and computing center are all located in the Learning Commons. The official move to our new place is planned for the fall 2012 semester.

[MSCLibrary]

SUNY Morrisville

In June, Wenli Gao, Assistant Librarian for Instructional Services, presented “Teaching from LibGuides: Engaging Students with Activities and Embedding Other Media” at the ACRL/New England Library Instruction Group Annual Program, Exploring Creativity in Information Literacy, in Lowell, MA.

Working with the Norwich Campus AmeriCorp group, Systems and Electronic Resources Librarian Angela Rhodes presented a week-long series of technology and information literacy workshops for Chenango County residents.  Topics ranged from introductions to Microsoft office applications to effective internet searching and social and professional networking tools.

The art of Leigh Yardley are on display on the main floor of the Library through the month of September.

Together with the campus gaming club, the Library offered board games during the Mustang Weekend.

[Danharms]

SUNY Cortland has welcomed John Scognamiglio to our Instructional Technology and Design Services staff.  He's been working to train our faculty during the campus transition to Blackboard.

The library will be hiring a consultant to look at reference service.  The consultant has yet to be named.

Ellen McCabe has brought an exhibit showcasing the works of Maurice Sendak to our building.

[mcbridmf]

****Shannon don't use this for newsletter. Lisa Forrest will be sending you something****

1. Buffalo State launched the Serials Solutions product Summon. We have received very positive feedback from the campus.
2. Our president was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. He will stay on and work during his treatments. A note; September is prostate cancer awareness month.
3. We have purchased iPads and Motorola Zooms for checkout in our equipment loan. We will be adding Google Chrome laptops next semester.
4. We are doing major campus renovations, one of the renovations will be our main library instruction classrooms. We are looking at many 21st century classroom designs.

[Amanda Hollister]

SUNY Broome was closed for a few days during the flood.  When we returned to campus, it was to find that most of the campus had been spared the flooding, except for the Learning Resources Center, where the library and student support services are.

The ground floor of the building was flooded with 1/2 a foot of water and has to be gutted.  Student support services, which was on that floor has been relocated to the library reference area, group study rooms, archives, conference room....a tight fit, but it's working!

To help the students that lost their textbooks during the flood, the library has significantly increased the number of textbooks on reserve with help from BCC faculty.

At this point the chaos has mostly settled down, and it's now time to start picking though the soggy book returns.

Amanda Hollister
BCC