Campus Updates

[Carleen Huxley]

Delegates, please add your campus updates to this thread.

[millerjaACC]

In celebration of New York State Archives Month, The Hill Collection housed within the Library at SUNY Adirondack held an Open House on Friday, October 19 and Saturday, October 20, 2012.

The Hill Collection was the personal collection of local Fort Edward Historian, William H. Hill. Mr. Hill, born in Fort Edward in 1895, amassed a quantity of local historical information primarily from the Warren, Washington and Saratoga Counties. He was an author of several books on local history. His collection was given to the library by his widow. It is available as a reference library for many out of print local history sources. The collection includes original imprints, letters, diaries, maps, scrapbooks and local history books.

Historian R. Paul McCarty was on-hand both days to host the Open House and answer any questions visitors had about the collection. The Hill Collection is currently open to the public during normal Library hours. For more information about the Hill Collection, please visit http://libguides.sunyacc.edu/hillcollection.

The Hill Committee will fund the faculty compensation for the development of a New York State History course, to be offered for the first time in Spring, 2013.

Reference and Instruction Librarian Joyce Miller is chair of the Sabbatical Subcommittee of the college's Professional Development Committee. The subcommittee is charged with developing sabbatical criteria and a handbook for the college.

Joyce is also active with the college's Wellness Committee,  which recently started a walking contest for employees. Participants received a pedometer to track progress, and prizes are awarded for various distances walked.

Library director Teresa Ronning is on a task force looking at reducing costs of text books for students. She's also working on another task force to review the governance standing committees, and is Chair of the Administrative Affairs Committee looking at printing costs and improving the college web page.
 
Terry is also the Chair of the NYSHEI bylaws committee which will be drafting changes to the bylaws, because membership by SUNY libraries will no longer be a core service. SUNY campus membership in NYSHEI will be decided at the campus level, rather than as a group of 64 campuses.  NYSHEI is considering a partnership with NYLA to consolidate and strengthen advocacy for academic libraries.  Representatives from NYSHEI and NYLA will be meeting over the next six months to discuss this proposed alliance.

Librarians offered several workshops for faculty: Terry conducted faculty and staff workshops this fall on the COS grants and expertise database, which is made available to all SUNY campuses via the SUNY Research Foundation.

Joyce and distance learning coordinator Paul McLean offered workshops on linking to library database articles and videos with Angel. Joyce also offered workshop on the ebrary and Films on Demand databases, as well as the session "Google like a Librarian."

[MEWelsh]

Hi all!

SUNY Delhi is busy getting ready for the end of the semester! We extended our library hours on Fridays and Sundays so we are now open 102.5 hours every week!

Amanda Mitchell, Electronic Resources and Reference Librarian, participates in our Common Hour Committee which hosted a program about the state of the world, the country, and Delhi 100 years ago. This was a well-attended program celebrating our 100th anniversary. A follow-up article was written in our campus newspaper about the history of the library (we started out on the loading dock in the dairy building!).

Collaboration with History faculty has been extremely successful and materials have been ordered to strengthen this component of our circulating collection.

Pam Peters, our director, states that the e-textbook pilot is progressing nicely. More updates to come!

A continuous challenge has been regulating our study rooms. Large groups of students, suspected to belong to unrecognized frats, have been asking for passes to our study spaces (some of which contain parts of our collection) in the evening hours. We are receiving complaints that these groups are too loud and/or they are disrespecting the physical space by leaving their garbage around. Our library staff is currently brainstorming what measures we can employ to ensure that students have access to these spaces while trying to prevent disturbances to the study environment. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

[AprilDavies]

We just finished a 'Pimp our Book Drop' contest. The winning design will replace the tired green paint job, probably over winter break. I'll make sure some pics get sent in for the newsletter.

The landscaping work around the Library is coming along and SHOULD be done by Dec. We hope to have some music events out on our new plaza this spring. On the north side of campus, foundation work is almost done on the new Ag building. This is a big project and isn't due to be finished until 2014.

[verostek]

Moon Library is currently in the process of searching/interviewing/hiring a part time Library Clerk 2 position and also a full time Instructional Support Technician (Library Technician).

On Friday October 5th Moon Library officially opened its’ new quiet study room. Thanks to the donation of an ESF alumni - our old current periodicals room was transformed into a comfortable quiet study room with new lighting and carrels.

Moon Library was just the host location this week on November 12th for the ENY/ACRL Brown Bag session
E-books:  Here today, gone tomorrow?  Moon Librarians Jane Verostek and Steve Weiter attended.

Jane Verostek gave a workshop at the CLRC Central NY Library Resources Council on LibGuides and LibAnswers on Friday October 19th.

Jessica Clemons, Jane Verostek and Moon Library intern Jocelyn Boice attended the Upstate NY Science Librarians at Syracuse University Friday, October 26, 2012. Jane Verostek was one of the presenters – her session was: LibGuides and LibAnswers: Your Answer for Connections with Students and Faculty 24/7.

Jessica  Clemons – Assistant Librarian at Moon Library was accepted into the Emerging Leaders Program. Jessica will be attending ALA and ALA Mid-winter this year in various parts of the U.S. sponsored by these organizations.

Steve Weiter – Director of Moon Library just returned from the Charleston Conference.

Jane Verostek – Associate Librarian at Moon Library just returned from the NYLA Conference. She gave two Pecha Kucha presentations – one on QR Codes and another on LibGuides and LibAnswers.

[KimmySzeto]

Maritime -
Kimmy Szeto, delegate

<<Off the record>>
All classes and events on the Maritime campus were cancelled for the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4 due to the hurricane. The campus, normally a peninsula connected by a man-made causeway, temporarily reverted back to being an island; power was shut down in advance of the storm to mitigate damage. I went in Monday (Oct 29) morning to secure all windows, unplug all electronics, and cover as many book trucks as I could in technical services, which is prone to water leaks. By the time I left the campus in the afternoon, I was walking through thigh-high seawater over the causeway, and elderly residents nearby were being evacuated by boat. For a couple weeks, the campus served as a staging area for FEMA relief and recovering efforts; our training ship became home to about 500 personnel.

We returned the following week and saw no damage in the library, and there was no leaks after all. The fort held up quite well this time. Among the library faculty and staff, 5 experienced power outages, 2 live in a mandatory evacuation zone, 2 had flooded homes, and 1 lost a car. We have all since been able to return home.

All the students are back; library operations are back to normal.

In other news:

<<Back on the record>>
IT added a network printer in the library and promised to supply paper and toners. My guess is that it is an experiment to see what will happen if students are free to print with no limits or restrictions. (Previously we allowed unlimited printing, but students have to pick up their print-outs from the circulation desk, i.e. we can see what they are printing.)

An article written by Acquisitions Library Joseph Williams appeared in the latest issue of the journal Serials Librarian.

The library hosted Italian artist Vittoria Chierici in "Sailing away to paint the sea," a lecture and exhibition of her paintings inspired by her recent journey across the Atlantic onboard a freighter.


<Please ask me for another version of this post if it is going into the print edition of the newsletter. Thanks!>

[hebertm3308]

* In the most recent SUNY Student Opinion Survey (2012), SUNY Potsdam was ranked the highest among comprehensive colleges for food service on campus.

* Shared Services: Potsdam and Canton are planning to create a SUNY Institute for Arts, Sciences, and Technology to to bring faculty and departments together to discuss collaborative curricula.  A Steering Committee is being established to address administrative issues such as how earned credits are recorded on transcripts, how would joint courses be approved, etc. Administrators are hoping that academic collaborations will be initiated by faculty and departments.  In other areas, the joint CFO is working with both campuses to develop single offices for Purchasing and Travel, and for Accounts Payable.  Two new joint Potsdam/Canton positions (50/50) have been filled: Military & Veterans Student Services Coordinator (Patrick Massaro) and an Interlibrary Loan Specialist (Glen Bogardus).

* College Libraries recently hosted an ENY/ACRL Brown Bag Lunch on Ebooks on Oct. 30 (despite the hurricane).  Attendees came from Jefferson CC, Clinton CC, Canton, Clarkson and Potsdam.  Jennifer Whittaker (SUNY Canton) gave a short presentation on Overdrive and Marianne Hebert demoed the WNYLRC EBL Pilot.

* The College Libraries recently hosted a Digital Humanities Bregman Lecture by Dr. Stefan Sinclair of McGill University on the Digital Humanites on.  The title of his talk was: "Entrepreneurial Digital Humanities: Selling Out or Buying In?

[Angela Weiler]

“Read their Portraits, Remember their Names” was held at the Coulter Library on September 14. Volunteers took turns reading portraits about those who lost their lives on 9/11. Readings were from the New York Times, and were based on interviews with family members and friends of those who died.

Angela Weiler organized a Voter Registration Drive at Coulter Library, which ended on October 12.  Over 130 registrations were collected and mailed to the Board of Elections.

The second annual Fall Poetry Reading was held in the Coulter Library living room on Wednesday, October 17 at 11:15 am. Students, faculty, and members of the community read their own poetry as well as the poetry of others. The event was very well-attended.

Jeff Harr presented another installment of his “Albums That Shook the World” series on October 31. The latest installment was “Smile” by the Beach Boys.

On Monday, November 5, Coulter Library celebrated “International Game Day”. Nadia Tressler  positioned games throughout the library for patrons to play.

Pauline Shostack, Nadia Tressler, and Vi Marcy organized a celebration of National Eating Healthy Day on Wednesday, November 7 in the library. They created and gave out samples of healthy snacks to patrons.

On Thursday, November 15 at 2:00 pm Coulter Library will host “Language Arts: Experiencing Each Other” as part of the annual campus celebration of International Education Week. The program was moderated by Professor Annet O’Mara of Onondaga’s English department; students delivered readings and speeches related to their intercultural experiences.

Onondaga's IT department implemented a network printing system ("P-Counter") which went live over the summer. Each student is allotted 250 pages of printing each semester. So far this fall, Coulter Library has already gone through a full year's allotment of paper and toner for the student printer.

[Christine Faraday]

Nassau Community College-
The effects of Hurricane Sandy have left many of our faculty, staff, students and neighbors without homes, power and clean water. In a continued effort to help the community, several governmental agencies are temporarily being housed on campus. This includes the Red Cross Shelter, FEMA and the Small Business Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.

[mcbridmf]

We are gearing up for SUNYLA 2013, which will be held June 12-14.
We opened our new Steelcase Learn Lab classroom this semester. We have had a good reaction from students and the campus. This room has us thinking of ways we could redesign our curriculum.
We just completed our LibQual survey. We had more participants this year than in previous years due to an aggressive marketing campaign.
Eugene Harvey, our new Assessment Librarian, presented at Educause with our Director of Instructional Resources, Melaine Kenyon (MLS) on a furniture assessment he did and was interviewed in Campus Technology.

[mtimmons]

The MCC Libraries is happy to announce that we have hired a part time Principal Library Clerk, John Cohen.  John’s primary responsibility will be to support the library’s administrative office but he will also be able to provide public service.  We have a new intern from Clarion University, Stephanie Territo.  Stephanie has begun an eight month internship at the LeRoy V. Good Library and will be assisting us with some social media projects, creating displays and working with the reference librarians.   

We have a new discovery tool!!  We went with EBSCO’s Discovery Service and will be rolling it out to the MCC Community this spring.  Our training is done and we have high hoped for it.  On another note, we have spent considerable time tweaking our True Serials database access page.  We asked for and received considerable feedback on the page during the first few weeks that it was open.  The college community has been forthcoming with suggestions and, working with the True Serials people, we have been able to make the necessary adjustments.  It has been a great learning process.

 We are winding down the semester and are deep into research paper season. 

[Susanna]

At TC3 we are stepping up our efforts to build our collections "just in time" rather than "just in case."  We are testing out a purchase on demand model - for print books - in which borrowing requests are routed in ILLiad to a queue for purchase instead of borrowing.

Any request for a book published from 2008 to the present is redirected.  If the book is readily available, costs $20 or less we purchase (from bn.com or amazon).  Requests that are for books that are clearly outside the curriculum or are more expensive are routed to the appropriate librarian for review and then are either borrowed or bought.

 

[Antonia]

Old Westbury

There is nothing new to report. We are still in the process of the library renovation. The school was closed from 10/29-11/5 due to the hurricane. The campus is still dealing with damage.
Antonia

[Danharms]

SUNY Cortland Update

Amy Becker-George will be starting soon as our new Instructional Design Support Specialist.

SUNY Cortland is advertising for a professional Systems Librarian position.

Katie Beard in Bibliographic Services, and Loren Leonard in Instruction Technology and Design, have both departed.  We wish them the best!

Gretchen Herrmann is participating in a garage sale based exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We are still soliciting feedback for the reference and instruction plan, with the process set to conclude in December.

[CindyFrancis]

Genesee Community College

The library participated in the college’s celebration of Abraham Lincoln for the month of October. We hosted the national travelling “Abraham Lincoln: A Man for His Time, a Man for All Times” with an Opening and Ribbon cutting on October 1st, a reception, Civil War music and a lecture by Dr. Aaron Wheeler on the 3rd, and a highly successful visit from renowned historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author Eric Foner, on October 10th. The second half of the month began with a talk “What’s So Great About Lincoln” by Derek Maxfield, a facilitated viewing of the movie “Glory” by Dan Hammer and students on the 18th,, and community events with music on the 20th. A Lincoln Discovery contest awards ceremony took place in the library on the 26th. The national travelling exhibit left October 28th for a New Jersey library but unfortunately met up with Sandy on the way.

The library recently installed new table-top power plugs in all of our study tables. The new units provide patrons with convenient and safe means to power their laptops and other devices without having to access the library’s in-floor walker boxes. Since the implementation of the new power units, librarians have seen far fewer incidents of power cords stretched across walkways, creating potential tripping hazards.

Additional Citation Help: ‘Tis the citation season and the we are now offering additional access points for student service by flying specially designed “citation flags” outside the offices of Nicki Lerczak and Cindy Hagelberger when they are available for extended citation help sessions.  Similar flyers are located at the Information Desk and the roving cart to remind students that citation help is readily available.

The library partnered with the Tonwanda Historical Society and the Native American Student Group to create the Ely Parker and the Military Tradition of the Tonawanda Community exhibit which will be on display from November 14th to December 15th in the library. Terry Abrams, Vice President of the Tonawanda Reservation Historical Society, will present a short talk about Ely Parker and the community’s many generations of military service from the War of 1812 and Civil War to present on November 20th.