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.