Campus Updates

[Carleen Huxley]

Delegates, please post your campus updates here.  Click 'reply' in the ribbon underneath this post to start posting your response.

[Karen Ferington]

The Lewis Library at Niagara County Community College has had a few personnel changes for the beginning of the new academic year.  Andrew Aquino, Temporary Circulation Librarian, has completed his one year appointment, but he will continue with us as a part-time Reference Librarian.  We are excited to welcome Mary Beth Morse as our new Circulation Librarian. She comes to us from the library at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora. NY. We plan to re-open the search for an Emerging Technology Librarian very soon. 

[AprilDavies]

Administrative reorganization on campus has led to our Dean now running First Year Programs and the Exploratory Program in addition to the Library and Academic Support. (We're contemplating one of those gps implant things so we can find her. If it's good enough for the pet dog...)

In August, April Davies (me) spent a wonderful, challenging week at Harvard for the 2010 Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians.

We have a new Circ/ILL Clerk, Jeffrey Barnes. Jeff is replacing Brendan Aucoin who has moved on to pursue a Master's degree in English Lit at Univ. of Vermont.

Due to construction, the Library will NOT hold it's annual fall book sale. Speaking of construction... it's crazy here but we finally have a/c and bathrooms.

The Library's fall newsletter is online if you want more Coby info:  http://www.cobleskill.edu/library/fall%202010.pdf

[sarahmorehouse]

Empire State College has hired a new director of the Organization of Integrated Technologies, which is what the Library falls under. His name is David O'Neill and he seems to have a lot of energy and good ideas.

The library is launching our new Information Skills Tutorial, which will replace the somewhat antiquated Information Literacy Study. You can take a look at http://commons.esc.edu/informationskills.

We are also piloting an Online Research Assistance service. Unlike online reference, this is 30 to 60 minutes by appointment, and uses Elluminate's cobrowsing capabilities. We aren't sure if or how it will be used... which is why we're doing it!

We're also trying out ProProfs for a year. This is an online service for making quizzes and educational games, and seems to have good data gathering on the back-end. The big questions are about the level of customer service and privacy/information security issues that would interest the institutional review board if we were to use it for data gathering rather than students' self-testing.

[flintopj]

Oneonta will be hosting The C4D Zone: an Unconference, October 1st.  (Comprehensive Colleges Coordinated Collection Development Project). Register by September 15th at http://tinyurl.com/2by2c55.

Preparations are also under way for Conference on Instructional Technologies (CIT) to be held here in May 2011.

We have started a pilot to test the usage of six Kindles.  We've loaded the BIB records and bound together with them two item records for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  This allows patrons to search for NYT and see that we have the hard-copy and the Kindle copy.  It also allows the patron to see if the Kindle edition has been checked out as both item records bound to a particular Kindle will show checked-out when that Kindle is checked-out.  Nice use of the "bind together" function of ALEPH.

Construction will begin in the next month on our new environmentally controlled archives storage room.  This involves the proper environmental control equipment, construction of walls, and compact shelving installation.  Part of the project also involves the creation of a "digitization center".

We are facing retirements, as everyone most likely is, so far we have been notified of two CSEA retirements within the library staff.

[ccowling]

This summer's SUNYLA meeting was held at Brockport of course, and seemed to go off well by all accounts. Thanks to all who helped put it on or who came and took part! Brockport librarians took an active part on the webinar series this summer, many staff participating, and our own Logan Rath helped out in putting on the series.

Lots going on for the fall, one librarian is taking part in a NYLA discussion re single service points (merging circ & ref etc.), others gearing up for instruction, (which is why I will miss the meeting next week, to teach a class here)the return of students and greatly increased reference traffic and other seasonal tasks. This year we are looking at a trial to the ebrary online book service which should be interesting. (http://www.ebrary.com/corp/)

This is also the college's 175th anniversary this year, thus keeping Mary Jo Gigliotti, librarian and college archivist busy, as well as her new assistant, yours truly, returning to archives work after a number of years away full time in reference land.

We also have a retirement, a long time (30 year plus) acquisitions clerk, a big transition for our tech services area headed by Jennifer Smathers.

[mgwenwald]

SUNY New Paltz – Morgan Gwenwald (Delegate)

Kristy Lee has been hired as the Head of Information Systems at the Senior Assistant Librarian rank, effective August 23, 2010 at the Sojourner Truth Library. Kristy has served as School Library System Librarian for Orange-Ulster BOCES and Sullivan County BOCES.  She has planned and implemented digital multimedia services and supported the Horizon online union catalog there.  Her other experience includes serving as Associate Editor for H.W. Wilson, where she maintained and revised database subject index using AACR2 cataloging rules. 

Two of our reference librarians will be out on maternity leave in the Fall semester.  Colleen Lougen gave birth to Rachel Louise on August 16, 2010.   Heather Whalen Smith is due the week of September 7th.  Stay tuned. 

In the meantime we are happy that Matthew Laudicina has joined us as the Temporary Reference and Instruction Librarian.  Matt will work 30 hours per week for a duration of 13 weeks.  He received his MS in Information Studies from SUNY Albany last May and prior to that served as a student assistant at STL, actively participating in reference services.

[jyaples]

Binghamton has a position open for a Metadata/Catalog Librarian (http://library.binghamton.edu/about/employment/faculty/metadata.html). Applications should be submitted by October 1st. The Library has a mobile web site (http://library2.binghamton.edu/mt/librarynews/archives/2010/07/new_mobile_webs.html). Sandy Card, Head of Cataloging, has taken on the added responsibility of Acting Assistant Director of Technical Services. Nancy Abashian has replaced Carol Clemente as Head of Reader Services. John Meador's title has changed from Director of Libraries to Dean of Libraries.

[grimesb]

Cayan Library has seen many changes this summer.  The reference collection was weeded and is now about fifteen percent of what it was before in size.  The IT Help Desk moved into the library in mid-August after space was created for that department.  The new IT Help Desk was built from the end panels and countertops of some of the reference shelving units.  The staffs have worked well so far in helping each other through the transition.  The next partner to move to the library will be the Learning Center.  We do not yet have a date for that move but it will be before next summer.  No formal planning has taken place yet for the Learning Commons.  We will continue weeding, will move our periodicals, and shift our circulation collection in order to accommodate other departments moving into the library.   Lillian Soja, our longtime lending ILL assistant, will retire in September.  We will receive one half of a clerk to replace her.  That will bring our staff to three librarians and 1.5 clerks.

[mtimmons]

The Monroe Community College LeRoy V. Good Library has been busy over the summer reconfiguring library space to offer more student seating and greater visibility for the collections.  The Damon City Campus Libraries in downtown Rochester has expanded its night and weekend hours.
 
MCC Libraries have been awarded another grant through the New York Council for the Humanities! As previous grant recipients, we were invited to design our own book discussion theme, and we decided upon Exploring Other Cultures through Literature. We will be reading four international novels throughout the Fall 2010 semester. 

[Danharms]

At Memorial Library, we have opened our new Information Resources Support Center, integrating technology help with the circulation desk.  The search for the supervisor of this area is still ongoing.

[BillDrew]

Campus - Enrollment is at record levels.  It is up 10% over last fall.  The college has had to make budget cuts because of the lack of support from the state.

Library Budget - We have been cancelling low use journals and magazines as well as some law resources.  The goal is to make reductions in areas where we do not have any discretionary control over how the money is spent.  The serials budget is one of those areas.

Weeding - One big project over the summer has been weeding of the nursing collection.  The nursing program is up for its five (?) year review and certification this fall.

Copyright Clearance Center - The college has joined the Copyright Clearance Center.

Nooks & Ebooks - The library now has five Nooks from Barnes & Noble.  They will be used to provide Purchase on Demand of some materials and as a pilot for Open Textbook Initiative for selected textbooks.  Use of the Nooks is not required for any course or programs.

Baker Commons - The learning commons continues to be in a state of flux as to location of furniture and computers.  In an experiment to control noise and traffic patterns,  tables and computer stations have been reconfigured and moved around.  At least 10 carols are being brought back into the library and are being wired with power for laptop use.  Several of them will have college laptops secured to them to increase the number of computers available.

[Scott.Richmond]

There have been quite a few changes in personnel at Daniel A. Reed Library at Fredonia in the past year.  Jeremy Linden, Head of Archives and Special Collections, resigned in January of this year in order to take a position as an Environment Preservation Specialist at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Vincent Courtney, Head of Bibliography and Tech Services retired in March of this year.  Sue Wilkes, Head of Circulation, Janet Ferry, Head of Interlibrary Loan as well as Jude Andolsek, Library Clerk 2, will all be retiring at the end of September.  Marianne Eimer, Head of Reference and Instruction, will be retiring at the end of December.  Scott Richmond, who served last year as an Adjunct Reference and Instruction Librarian, has returned for a period of two-years as a Visiting Reference and Instruction Librarian.  In addition, Cindy Yochym has joined the staff as an Adjunct Reference Librarian for the next two years.  Dawn Eckenrode, one of our Reference and Instruction Librarians, has taken on a new role on campus, adding the title of Coordinator of Educational Programs and Outreach within the Professional Development Center.

[kathrynmasten]

At Penfield Library, construction has just begun on a new roof.  Additionally construction of an environmentally controlled storage space in our basement will begin this Fall. 

Two new group study rooms have been added on the first floor.  They contain large flat screen monitors so students can work in groups using multiple laptops. 

We are now using ARES as our e-reserves system. 

As of today retirements at the end of September include two CSEA library staff.  More retirements are expected in December. 

The IDS conference was held at Oswego in August. 

[Carleen Huxley]

Melvil Dewey Library, SUNY JCC:

Our new windows have been installed, finally. We spent most of the summer in the basement of our building while the construction went on. We our still down one librarian but were luckily able to hire back an adjunct librarian (Jackie Young...previously the Media Librarian) to help with reference and instruction coverage.