Below and attached.
--April
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SUNYLA President’s Report
March 15, 2012
My term as president is nearly at an end, just a few more months to go. Part of me will be glad to hand the responsibility off to Rosanne and part of me feels like I’m just getting into the groove. One thing is certain, I’m looking forward to next month’s elections. There’s something about helping to choose the next round of leaders that I just flat out like. I know, I’m weird.
Here are some highlights from the last few months:
• Discussion at the Nov. meeting led to the Council crafting a letter to the SUNY Board of Trustees about the inclusion of librarians on presidential search committees. I am pleased to report that the BoT responded in a timely fashion and indicated that the guidelines are "under review and [our comments] will be given serious consideration during the process." Now we just have to wait and see whether they make the changes we requested and complain loudly if they don’t.
• A related discussion at the Nov. meeting concerned the rank of Distinguished Librarian and it not being included in the call for nominations letter from the SUNY Provost, which led to it not being included at individual campuses. The Council decided to send a letter about this as well. I decided to hold off on until spring so I could catch the tail end of this year’s cycle and the gear up for next year’s. It now looks like we won’t need to send a letter at all and I’ll tell you why. The chair of the University Faculty Senate Programs and Awards Committee emailed me to ask about the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship and the Distinguished Librarian rank. They had concerns about why they weren’t getting many nominations and wondered if the requirements needed to be adjusted. I sent her background on previous discussions within SUNYLA and mentioned the DL rank not being in the letter. The response… "please be assured that the Provost's letter next year WILL mention the DL rank for Librarians. Your comment about the problem is greatly appreciated and the Awards Committee moved quickly to correct that mistake." So you know, I offered to bring their original question to the Council for fresh discussion but they were happy with what I had sent them for now. I left the door open for them to ask again. I’ll forward the email exchange to the Council list rather than posting it here.
• The 2nd draft of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries plan came out and they incorporated several of the ideas we submitted in round 1. The Council found no significant problems with the new draft so I sent them a letter saying how much better it was, thanks for listening to us, etc.
• I attended the NYSHEI Summit on Advocacy for Academic and Research Libraries Dec. 8 in Albany. It was interesting hearing what other library groups are up to, especially the ones outside of SUNY.
• The SUNYConnect Coordinating Committee (SCC) has had a couple of conference calls (Dec.14 & Feb.3) and is having a face-to-face meeting the day before our meeting. There have been discussions of: SUNYConnect policies and MOU; reports from the various task forces; how to position libraries to meet the Chancellor’s goals for shared services and 'systemness'; LAND; etc. Nothing earth-shattering has happened as a result of any of this effort as yet. Holly Heller-Ross (Plattsburgh) has agreed to co-chair with Logan on the continuing education issue. It looks like the SUNYOne pilot will make the jump to actual program as a 'coalition of the willing' rather than a SUNY-wide effort. Preliminary contribution amounts went out for discussion just last week.
Coming attractions:
• SCLD Spring Conference April 18-20 in Cooperstown (+ SCLD-EB/SCC meeting morning of April 18)
• SUNYLA Annual Conference in June!!
Respectfully submitted,
April C. Davies
