Campus Updates

[Carleen Huxley]

Please add your Campus Updates to this thread.

[Rebecca Hyams]

Maritime:
The (relative) quiet of summer is long gone here at Maritime, though we never slowed down even when the students were at sea for the summer.

This summer we said farewell to Joe Williams, who took a job as the Deputy Director of the Greenwich Public Library in Greenwich, CT. Also departing Maritime was part-time Reference Librarian Michael Messina, who took a full-time position at a branch of the New York Public Library. Both were important parts of our team and we were sad to see them go.

On the other hand, we welcomed a new member to our family here. Laurel Angrist served this summer as the Ship’s Librarian for the second half of Summer Sea Term and has now joined us as our newest part-time Reference Librarian.  She shares her time between us and the Gottesman Library at Columbia Teachers College.

Rebecca Hyams gave presentations on website usability at this June’s SUNYLA conference and LDAP settings in ILLiad at the IDS Project conference in July. She was also elected to serve as 1st VP/President Elect of SUNYLA and has just completed the IDS Project Mentor Training Institute as a Technology Mentor.

This summer Katie Bram received a Sylvia Chu Scholarship to attend this year’s SUNYLA conference up in Albany.

In October Greg Murphy will be traveling up to Maine Maritime Academy to give a paper on student research habits at the Maritime Education Summit.

This year marks the 140th Anniversary of Maritime College, so we have events and exhibits scheduled in the library this year showcasing our history from our founding as the New York Nautical School to the present. Our current exhibit (http://www.sunymaritime.edu/stephenblucelibrary/140Anniversary.html) includes archival video footage going back to the early 20th century, photos, and documents.

Elsewhere on campus we welcomed Dr. Michael Alfultis as the 13th President of SUNY Maritime. Construction was also completed on our New Academic Building, which is now home to our Global Business and Trade (GBAT) department.

[mtimmons]

The MCC Libraries have been quite busy this summer upgrading the facilities.  The Learning Commons, located in the Damon City Campus, won a competitive internal grant to redesign two study rooms with the latest in presentation equipment and furniture.  We were awards then entire grant including new Steelcase Node chairs, movable tables and LED dual wall monitors to allow our students to connect, move and work collaboratively. 

At the Brighton Campus, the LeRoy V. Good Library dedicated a Veteran’s Resource Center (VRC) on September 8th.  There are currently 794 military veterans taking classes at MCC  The VRC  features new, ergonomically-designed furniture, a special collection of books, laptop computers with links to veteran-friendly resources and sites, and a bulletin board featuring up-to-date information of interest to veterans.   

Our librarians have also been busy.  Deb Mohr, Assessment Librarian, has been accepted into the ACRL “Assessment: Demonstrating the Educational Value of the Academic Library” immersion program track, to take place this November in Nashville.  This program will study how to approach assessment from a learning-centered perspective as a tool to guide evidence-based classroom, curriculum, and program development. 

Micquel Little, Assistant Director of Library Services, was the pilot librarian to record a new series sponsored by Atlas Systems for their web library titled “Colleague to Colleague”. The title of her talk is “The Future of Academic Libraries and the Role of Resource Sharing.”

We also recently hired part time librarian, Andrea Kingston.  Andrea was previously an intern in the DCC Learning Commons where she concentrated on a massive weeding project.  Andrea will be concentrating on making our migration to LibGuide v.2 a smooth transition.   

[jenndevito]

Stony Brook University Libraries:

We worked throughout the summer on a new website, integrating EDS onto the site and upgrading to LibGuides 2.

We welcomed Ann Gleason who joined the Library staff as the Head of Health Sciences – a new position.

Michael Huang, Health Sciences Librarian, has been appointed the Coordinator of the Office of Global Library Initiatives.  This new position and office will help facilitate and strengthen the work of SBU faculty and students abroad.

Colleen Kenefick, Health Sciences Librarian, retired in August and came back as a part-time instruction librarian for the Health Sciences Library in early September.

The Stony Brook University Libraries are hiring for numerous positions: http://library.stonybrook.edu/about-us/employment/

Constantia Constantinou, Dean of Stony Brook University Libraries was invited to make a keynote speech titled “Research Libraries: Challenge, Collaboration and Opportunity” at the 2nd International Conference on Leadership and Innovative Management in Academic Libraries in the Age of New Technology, co-organized by Tongji University and the American Library Association’s International Relations Office, June 3-6, 2014, Shanghai, China.

"The William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection at Stony Brook University" by librarian Kristen J. Nyitray and Raiford Guins was published in Metropolitan Archivist, v. 20, no. 2, Summer 2014. The collection contributes directly to the study of video games as popular culture and to their historical longevity. It is dedicated to: collecting and preserving the texts, ephemera, and artifacts that document the history and work of early game innovator and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist William A. Higinbotham, who in 1958 invented the first interactive analog computer game, Tennis for Two; and documenting the material culture of electronic screen-based game media.

Members of the Library staff created the first of 3library-themed board game for students.  A related guide was also created: http://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/c.php?g=122803

[Angela Weiler]

Librarian Rob O’Boyle, a mainstay at Coulter Library for over thirty years, has retired, effective in August of 2014. Rob was involved in every aspect of Coulter Library over the years, as well as giving many years of valuable service and representation to the faculty union (OCC  Faculty Association).  He will be missed by all of us here at Coulter.

Onondaga was fortunate enough to be able to hire two new tenure-track librarians starting this fall, one to replace Frank Doble’s retirement from two years ago, and one to fill Rob O’Boyle’s retirement vacancy. Our two new additions are Penelope Klein (Electronic Resources, Public Services, and Archives Librarian) and Fantasia Thorne-Ortiz (Distance Learning and Outreach Librarian). Penelope has been an adjunct at Coulter for the past three years, and Fantasia comes to us from Syracuse University. 

Coulter Library is holding a “Banned Books Bracket Challenge” this fall. It is the brainchild of Lisa Murphy, Library Assistant:  Students filled out brackets for 64 banned books during the first week of classes, and now students are voting for their favorites to determine the winners. Prizes will be awarded. 

[sclippa]

Hello everyone from the College of Ceramics! 

Trevor has now officially started here as our Engineering and Emerging Technologies Librarian, which has been a great help.

This fall term, the Scholes Library has been part of a new Personal Librarians Program developed across the Alfred University campus libraries. Each first year student has been assigned his or her own Personal Librarian to be their go-to person for all their research needs. Librarians have been assigned according to each student’s School/College/Major.  All first year students have received packets explaining the program, along with “trading cards” of their librarian and information about that librarian’s “persona.”
   As part of the program, each participating librarian worked to create one of these fantasy personas, which were then illustrated and featured on trading cards.
   The program has thus far been a definite success, with students actively collecting the cards, coming to meet their librarians at the personal librarians dessert reception, and beginning to contact their librarians with questions.  For more information, see the Alfred University Library News blog post on the topic: http://aulibrarynews.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/whos-your-librarian/

[millerjaACC]

Mark Seabury joined the SUNY Adirondack Library staff this semester, as a part-time reference librarian. He recently graduated from the University at Albany's MSIS program where he concentrated on public policy and information literacy. He received his BA from Saint Michael's College in 2010 while also taking classes at SUNY Adirondack. 

SUNY Adirondack librarians worked on several large projects this summer: setting up EDS, converting to LibGuides version 2, and weeding books in the reference and circulating collections. A new worksheet for Freshman Seminar classes was created that works well with the EDS search boxes. The weeding project created more in-demand study spaces.

SUNY Adirondack is participating in a Common Read program, with the book Spook by Mary Roach. Digital Services Librarian Emily Goodspeed created a LibGuide for students and faculty: http://library.sunyacc.edu/spook.  It links to the English Division's blog and books and videos about topics related to the book.

[sparme]

Fredonia welcomed our new STEM librarian, Marilia Antunez in August. She comes to us from Boise State University where she was a Reference/Instruction Librarian. Prior to Boise State, she worked as the Science and Allied Health Librarian at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She also has a M.A. in Gerontology. 

Several of our librarians teamed up with faculty from campus for a digital humanities project (I did a poster over the summer at SUNYLA about this). The project came about as a result of a series of meetings with Fredonia’s Digital Humanities Renga, formed in September 2013. Here is our project and more information: http://annacliftsmith.omeka.net/

The book, Supporting Digital Humanities for Knowledge Acquisition in Modern Libraries, edited by librarians Sara Parme, Scott Richmond, Katie Sacco, and Kerrie Wilkes, will be published by IGI Global in early 2015.

[verostek]

News from SUNY ESF from Jane Verostek, Associate Librarian

Events and displays

On September 12, 2014 SUNY ESF held the inauguration of our new college president – Quentin Wheeler. All the Moon Library librarians attended the inauguration in their regalia.

On August 27, 2014 Moon Library hosted a table at the SUNY ESF Activity Fair on the SUNY ESF campus. This was an opportunity to be a part of a campus event and meet SUNY ESF faculty, staff and students.

Moon Library is hosting the fall meeting of the Upstate NY Science Librarians. This will be held on the SUNY ESF campus on Friday, October 24th, 2014.  The theme is "Science Education in Higher Education."

This semester Moon Library started a workshop series open to the ESF community of faculty, staff and students. The series is called the Skill Sharpener Series and it has weekly workshops on topics such as: Blackboard, InterLibrary Loan, Citation Managers, Copyright, etc.

Jane Verostek, Associate Librarian organized several displays in Moon Library for the months of September and October. Based on a recent donation and in conjunction with our new president’s inauguration the library has a display of graduation regalia from SUNY ESF Dean Joseph Illick who was dean of SUNY ESF from 1944-1951. And Moon Library is hosting an exhibit that combines writing and art with 17 posters from the Syracuse Poster Project. The Syracuse Poster Project combines local community member haikus with Syracuse University art students who translate the haiku’s words into art. The Syracuse Poster Project has been very successful and is now its 13th year.  To learn more about the Syracuse Poster Project visit http://www.posterproject.org/ and to see and read more about the posters and haikus on exhibit visit http://www.posterproject.org/posters/index.php

Presentations

Jane Verostek, Associate Librarian presented at the SUNYLA Annual Conference in June 2014. Her presentation was called: The “Secret Life” of Online Students: See What Goes on in an Online Information Literacy Class and See – via Blackboard Surveys – What Students Have to Say About Taking Online Library Courses.

Steve Weiter, Director of College Libraries was a co-presenter at the SUNYLA Annual Conference in June 2014 for the presentation called: Open Educational Resources and Open Textbooks and a presenter for the session called: Starting a Bike Library.

Ruth Owens, Assistant Librarian presented at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in August 2014. Her presentation was called: Integrating information literacy and research strategies into sophomore and senior level chemistry courses. 
Ruth Owens, Assistant Librarian and Heidi Webb, Instructional Support Technician  presented at the IDS Project Conference in August 2014. Their presentation was called: Campus Delivery: The nuts and bolts of a “we’ll get if for you” model..
Ruth Owens, Assistant Librarian and Steve Weiter, Director of College Libraries presented at the IDS Project Conference in August 2014. Their presentation was called: The Department of “Getting It!”

[grunerm]

The Macdonald DeWitt Library has undergone a “digital makeover.” Marla Gruner (who started at Ulster as Head of Reference in March) has given the http://www.sunyulster.edu/library page and the Library tab of the college portal a fresh new look. In addition, we have recently subscribed to LibGuides and are happily creating dynamic subject guides and tutorials with a lot of positive feedback from students and faculty. Check out our guides here: http://libguides.sunyulster.edu

We went live with EDS over the summer. A campus-wide naming contest was held and DiscoverDeWitt (after the Macdonald DeWitt Library) was chosen. Two student entrants were each awarded a $20 gift card to Target for their submissions.

Judy Capurso, Information Literacy Coordinator, has redesigned the online portion of the LIB111 Information Literacy Course. The update provides a new look, a gaming aspect, more student discussion, with each module building into the final annotated bibliography project. We are also participating in the LILAC library instruction training program by offering a LIB 111 face to face class for participants to observe. An overview of the program is available at
http://academy.libraryinstruction.org/

The library is taking part in SENYLRC’s initiative to expand access to, and use of National Library of Medicine health information resources by health practitioners in the region. Judy Kuhns and Judy Capurso are being trained in freely available resources in order to train the Veterinary Technology and Nursing students and faculty to better prepare students for the transition to the workplace.

The Reuner Library Writers Series at SUNY Ulster is proud to host Said Sayrahfiezadeh this November. Find out more about him and his writing here: http://libguides.sunyulster.edu/writers_series

We are in the process of increasing our social media presence. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @SUNYUlster_lib and like the Macdonald DeWitt Library on Facebook. We had a successful #SUNYUlsterReads campaign this Fall. Students, faculty and staff posed with the title of their favorite book: https://tagboard.com/SUNYUlsterReads/185707

[AprilDavies]

The Library went live with EDS over the summer. It's too soon to say for sure but the students and faculty seem to be adjusting without too much trouble.

Katie DeRusso is no longer on a visiting line, instead she is our new Instructional Design Librarian. Welcome to the tenure-track, Katie!

Last fall, Student Assistant Megan Trigg (Circulation) won a contest to design a quilt barn square which would be mounted on one of the campus barns as part of the Schoharie County Quilt Barn Trail. It is now finished and up for the world to enjoy, or at least people driving along Rt. 7 in Cobleskill. It really is gorgeous. Check out our FB page for pictures: https://www.facebook.com/pages/SUNY-Cobleskill-Van-Wagenen-Library/152889094752803

Noted children's author and illustrator Jan Brett will launch her 2014 book tour at SUNY Cobleskill on November 28th. The tour is for her new book, The Animals' Santa. She'll be giving a book talk and an illustration demonstration, as well as signing books.

The new Ag building and new dorm opened this fall with a minimum of difficulty. If you're in the area, the new Ag building is especially cool and worth a visit. The firm that designed it is the same one that did the Clinton presidential library.

The search for a new campus president is moving right along. On campus interviews will take place in late October.

[Patrick Patterson]

SUNY Potsdam Updates

The biggest challenge SUNY Potsdam has faced this summer is a 25% budget decrease that has impacted several different things.  With a significant decrease several low use databases and print periodicals have been eliminated.

The week prior to the start of the fall semester the college welcomed Dr. Kristin G. Esterbergas as the 16th president. 

This fall marks our second year using EBSCO's Discovery Service, A to Z, and LinkSource products.  With using the products for the previous year is making the start of this year much less chaotic.  During the summer months we have transitioned to the new version of LibGuides and have integrated virtual reference into the new version.

At the end of July the Information Literacy and Outreach Librarian Beth Andrews left to move back to Minnesota to be close to family and friends.

During August and September the Crumb Library received a partial new roof on its lower section along with new skylights.  Over the past year there were several issues with water leaking into the building and it was decided that the roof should be replaced this year instead of waiting for when it was scheduling in the near future.

[John Schumacher]

Hello.

Potsdam and Maritime and all.

Please let your departing colleagues know that it would be most helpful if they filled out the exit survey http://sunyla.org/forms/exitsurvey.htm

John

[maeichelberger]

Through application to the NY State Council on the Arts, the library received 50 books and journals by contemporary poets and writers at no cost as a recipient of The Al Poulin, Jr. Independent Publishers Development Project. The “Poulin Project” supports independent publishers by introducing their books to new audiences and new potential markets, and allows us to enrich our literature collection and provide materials for the Literary Club and the library’s annual Student Poetry Contest.

After a successful pilot in the Spring, the library is now officially hosting a writing tutor on three nights a week and on Sundays.  Student response has been positive, especially since these times/days fall outside of regular campus tutoring office hours.

GCC librarians reached out to colleagues at our 6 campus centers this summer to update them on various library happenings. From the new Find It! box on the homepage to the virtual bookshelf, library services are available to the entire GCC community not just the folks in Batavia.

The College's Copyright Committee (Chair Nina Warren, Anne Feary, Judie Littlejohn, Carla Guiste, Lauren Paisley, Cindy Francis and Michelle Eichelberger) has created a new resource to help users learn more about copyright.  The committee presented this resource on August 25, at their session "Copyright and Cupcakes, Plagiarism and Pie," at GCC's annual Fall Professional Activity Days.  Thanks to SUNY Purchase for letting us use their copyright model as a template/model.

Instructional Services Librarian Nicki Lerczak, working with a faculty committee, has created a Plagiarism module which consists of a series of five instructional videos and four quizzes.  Students who are caught committing acts of plagiarism will be mandatorily enrolled in a specially created Blackboard course that contains the module and they must successfully pass all of the quizzes.  The module is also available for faculty to place inside their course-space as a learning tool.

Part-time Reference Librarian Justin Cronise has been accepted into the 2014 Library Instruction Leadership Academy (LILAC).  LILAC is now in its third iteration and has gone statewide and virtual.

Library director Nina Warren received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service.  During Nina’s 22 years at GCC she has consistently and successfully taken on additional responsibilities that have earned her accolades including a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship in 1996 as well as the GCC President’s Distinguished Service Award. In 2007, she was selected for the newly revised position of director of Library Services.

Michelle Eichelberger presented the poster “EDS Widgets: Identifying and Meeting Patron Information Needs” at the annual SUNY Librarians Association meeting in Albany.  She also co-presented the poster “Digital Natives Tech Skills: Correlating Student Confidence and Outcomes” at the American Library Association annual meeting in Las Vegas.

[Logan Rath]

A lot has changed at Brockport. First, Kristen Wallis joined the staff as a Clerk 1 in June 2014, and we opened a new academic building on campus http://www.brockport.edu/nab/. Kim Myers, Digital Repository Specialist, was named a 2014 IR All-Star by Digital Commons’ vendor, bepress. Digital Commons IR All-Stars awards spotlight four individuals from the Digital Commons community who have demonstrated a unique, high-impact, and replicable approach to IR success, and have made a meaningful contribution to the scholarly communications community as a whole. http://blog.digitalcommons.bepress.com/2014/08/12/2014-ir-all-star-kim-myers-the-college-at-brockport/. Lastly, a little reorganization is happening with Susan Perry and serials overseeing ILL effective later this fall. Logan Rath will stay with instruction & reference.