Campus Updates

[alana]

Please post any campus updates using this thread!

[Adam Saunders]

A very short update for our campus. The SUNY Morrisville Library celebrated the end of the semester with free chair massages for students, free cookies and refreshments during finals week, and a Positivity Station that provided coloring pages, positive messaging, stress balls, tiny stuffed animal keychains, and candies.

The library is also gearing up to repost a reworked Library Director position. We have now been without a director for over a year.

[jenndevito]

Victoria Pilato was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship. Congratulations, Victoria!

The Stony Brook University Libraries is now a member of HathiTrust.

[Kate Brent]

A brief update from Cobleskill - more to come in the February newsletter.

Shannon Kelly has joined us as our new evening operations supervisor in the circulation department.  We're excited to have her on board!

The annual mac & cheese contest will be February 14.

[Chrissy O'Grady]

New Paltz

The ground floor reopened on Jan 8th after being closed since July 2022 for mold remediation. Our circulation team and student employees have been working hard to shelf read the entire floor.

We are experiencing some staffing changes which I'll include in the upcoming newsletter.

[Dana Laird]

Two new librarians are starting on January 18, Kellie Barbato as Head of Research and Instruction Services and Nicole Baker as Research and Instruction Librarian. We are excited to have them at SUNY Brockport!

Our Student Engagement Committee is planning spring events including our annual Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon on February 14.

More information will be in the upcoming newsletter.

[Michelle Bowers]

Our new Evidence Synthesis Librarian, James Evans, has hit the ground running working on our evidence synthesis LibGuide material and diving into reference shift requests. We’re very glad to have him on board!

We have some great events and programs coming up, ranging from celebrating National Popcorn Day tomorrow to an Adopt a Plant day later this month and a succulent planting class in March.

We’re especially glad to celebrate National Women Physicians Day on February 3rd, which commemorates the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Elizabeth graduated from Geneva College of Medicine, which would eventually become SUNY Upstate Medical University.

[Jocelyn Ireland]

Claire Ehrlich presented "Flipping the Script: Problem-Solving First Instruction in Library One-Shots" at the SILC Instruction Showcase. English Assistant Professor Sam McManus participated on the Faculty Panel of Library Advocates.

Milo Cameron presented a session at MVCC's Institute titled "Battling Everyday Imposter Syndrome."

Jocelyn Ireland composed a NOVELny advocacy letter for our campus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b2pkxEgnEQ3372ioH797uL6OCUH5Zgk4Cqk89NDOkYY/edit?usp=sharing
A printed copy has been circulating for signatures and will be forwarded to the SUNYLA president next week.

[cfishner]

What's been happening at SUNY Delhi:

End of semester Stress Less programming was well received, with visits from our Therapy Dog partners some of the highlights (as usual)! Also enjoyed were making snowman-themed gifts and a tiny art show.

The library's circulation desk received a new look over the Dec/Jan break to make it more accessible for all patrons. We are still working out some logistics, but it looks good and gives the whole area a nice new look!

With the departure of a librarian mid-semester in the fall, Delhi has decided to enter into a contract with SUNY Shared Library Services for systems and e-resources support. We are excited to to work together on this aspect of library support - and this will free up the librarians on campus to focus on student academic support initiatives.

The Resnick Library received money in the SUNY Transformation Funds to expand our current Reserve Textbook program, and have begun to do that this spring. We are excited to see how this will impact student behaviors and retention.

We are looking forward to a busy semester as the campus is in the midst of several administrative searches (including Presidential) and we hope to be able to keep up with our regular programming schedule (perhaps adapted) with our current staffing.

Respectfully,
Carrie Fishner, delegate

[mbeechey]

Happy Friday, all!

Our spring semester begins on Monday, 1/22 and the campus is encouraged that our enrollment is looking better than expected. We are still short on staffing in the library (seems to be a trend everywhere!) with our FYE Librarian position not approved to be posted for applicants, and we are doing all we can to still support students' needs.  This includes continuing our Personal Librarian service and even increasing the number of students each librarian supports within the program. A vacant Senior Library Clerk position has been recently filled.

The library continues to partner with planning for Scholars' Day 2024 which will be held on 4/30; on 5/1 the College will host David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth.

Our third (quiet) floor has received some updated furniture and we are looking forward to eventually getting the rest of the furniture replaced in the fall. Goodbye 1960's! 

Wishing everyone a safe winter and a rewarding spring semester!

[kstanwicks]

I'm attending the SUNY UFS winter plenary today and cannot make today's council meeting, but here is Albany's campus update.

The University at Albany Libraries is the recipient of Insight into Diversity Magazine's inaugural Library Excellence in Access and Diversity Award. More information can be found in our campus news release: https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2024-ualbany-libraries-receive-insight-diversity-magazines-inaugural-library

Director, Division of Academic Success: Jane Kessler retired in December, and is staying on part-time through July. We are recruiting for a new Director with an application deadline of 2/8.

Faculty and staff participated in a two-day emotional intelligence training over the winter intersession. We served as a pilot group for our professional development training staff in Human Resources.

Rachael Haines, our Head of Finance & Administration, provided a workshop on our library budget as we aim to achieve more transparency around budget and management.

Allison Hosier, Head of Information Literacy, hosted a successful panel on the Role of Generative AI in LIS Publishing. Allison pulled together editors from major LIS journals for this well-attended conversation.

The Libraries partnered with ITS to move forward a free printing initiative for students. New printers were deployed to all of our libraries for the start of the spring semester, and all students are able to print for free.

[Rebecca Hewitt]

SUNY Polytechnic is hiring!  Please share these posts far and wide, and consider one yourself 

Student Success Librarian (Tenure Track)
https://sunypoly.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=168829

Library Evening Operations Assistant
https://sunypoly.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=171783