Campus Updates

[cfishner]

Please put your campus updates in this thread. Also, PLEASE include your name and your campus in the report! Thanks

[millerjaACC]

Kay Hafner has joined the SUNY Adirondack Library staff as a part-time reference librarian.

Greer Hamilton is the new library specialist, covering the circulation desk evenings and weekends.

A descendant of Glens Falls founder Abraham Wing has donated a collection of family documents to the SUNY Adirondack Library. Some of the Wing Collection papers date back to 1717. The donation was arranged through Paul McCarty, the historian who coordinates the library's local history collection, the Hill Collection. Paul said that future plans call for the documents to be digitized and made available to the public. Details are available on The Chronicle newspaper's website: Wing Heir Gives Trove to ACC.

Reference and Instruction Librarian Joyce Miller participated in a birding trip to Northern Arizona in June. She wrote an article about the adventure, entitled "Her quest to see California condors in the Grand Canyon," published in the July 21 issue of the The Chronicle newspaper of Glens Falls.

- Joyce Miller
SUNY Adirondack

[maeichelberger]

This will look familiar when you see the Newsletter.  :-)

The Alfred C. O’Connell Library has hired a new part-time circulation clerk, Marisa Covert, replacing previous part-time clerk Amy Westfall, who became our new full-time Sr. Library Clerk.

Librarians Nicki Lerczak and Cindy Hagelberger participated in the college’s bi-annual club fair on Tuesday, September 15, in order to support their New Age Circle Club and Literary Club, respectively.

Librarian Michelle Eichelberger and her co-author Bonnie Imler’s article “How do I send an Email?”: Technology Challenges for First-Year Students in the College Library” has been published in volume 33, issue 3 of Library Hi-Tech. Michelle was also promoted to Associate Professor, effective September 1.

Librarians Michelle Eichelberger, Cindy Francis, Cindy Hagelberger, Nicki Lerczak, are all serving on committees responsible for preparing materials for the college’s upcoming Middle States Commission of Higher Education (MSCHE) Accreditation Self-Study. Library Director Nina Warren is chairing the Standard 1: Mission and Goals committee, and is a member of the Steering Committee.

[matthewbest]

Erie Community College (ECC)

The ECC libraries welcome new part-time College Librarians Justin Cronise, Maria Lowe, and David Odem. Justin joined the ECC North Campus library staff in September 2015. In October 2014, Maria joined the ECC City Campus library staff and David joined the South Campus library staff.

We also welcome new Senior Library Clerks Tina Doud and Karen Bailey. Karen is serving as a circulation clerk at the ECC City Campus. Tina serves as the City Campus cataloging clerk. They joined the staff in September 2015.

In addition to new hires, new department chairs were selected for two of the ECC libraries at the end of the 2015 Spring Semester. Senior College Librarian Matthew Best is the new chair at ECC North Campus. Senior College Librarian Taheera Shaheed-Sonubi is the new chair at ECC South Campus.

The ECC libraries congratulate librarian Professor Katherine Hill on receiving emeritus status during the college's September 2015 Opening Day ceremonies. Katherine retired from her position at the ECC North Campus library in 2014. We wish her continued success and happiness in her retirement.

-Matthew Best
Erie Community College

[Rebecca Hyams]

Maritime

Since my last update we've had a lot of changes in our Library. We had a few staff departures, a bit of hiring, and one staff member from another department transfer into ours.

On the new (or not-so-new) faces front, we hired Jannette D’Esposito as our new Part-time daytime Librarian. Jannette has been a long-time intern and volunteer in our library and we’re pleased to have her officially join our staff. We are also in the process of hiring an additional Part-time librarian to fill another existing part-time vacancy.

Ian August, our campus Instructional Designer, officially moved into the Library department at the end of July. He was previously housed in our Global Business and Transportation (GBAT) department. Ian is currently in the final phases of migrating our faculty from Angel to Blackboard and oversees the LMS platforms for the entire campus.

Apart from all of the staff changes we’ve been super busy undertaking several projects to improve services for the Maritime community. Within a very short window we implemented Springshare’s E-Reserves module, which now allows us to make course readings available digitally. As part of that process we upgraded LibGuides to CMS so we could take advantage of the LTI integration with Blackboard and several other features.

We started a massive weeding of our Government Documents and Periodicals collections, and plan on looking much more closely at several of our other collections over the coming months. We’re also working on reevaluating many of our policies and procedures to make the library more user-focused.

[sclippa]

Eva Sclippa, College of Ceramics at Alfred:

Following up on our news from last time, the Scholes Library is pleased to announce that repairs and renovations after the spring’s basement flood are proceeding. The computer classroom space, which was too small, enclosed, and outdated for our needs, has been transformed into an open workspace. The new space is more flexible in terms of function, and features a wall covered in whiteboard paint, transforming the entire surface into a work area.

Additionally, the Harry Potter’s World event series mentioned in our previous update is in full swing! The series began with an opening reception on September 1st—not coincidentally the first day of school at Hogwarts!—but a smaller group of incoming students got to kick things off early with a Horcrux Scavenger Hunt in August.
 
As part of the Harry Potter’s World exhibit, our Hogwarts U. lecture series has also taken off, with attendance exceeding our room limitations at almost all events! Thus far, our lectures have included a Potions class (“What If Magic Were Real?”), two Herbology lessons (“Counteracting Spells Using Classic Chinese Herbal Formulas” and “Herbology 101: How to Identify Plants”), and a Muggle Studies Lecture exploring the social science and psychology of Harry Potter in the muggle world. Seven more lectures and demonstrations are upcoming, including a live owl demonstration this Thursday, the 24th.

The Harry Potter’s World series isn’t all work and no play, though—students, faculty, staff, and community members have gathered together at a well-attended Harry Potter Trivia Night and a movie showing. Finally, community institutions outside of the university have joined in, including the Box of Books public library and the local farmers market, which hosted a Hogsmeade Market day this past Sunday.

More updates to come as the series progresses!

[jenndevito]

Stony Brook University Libraries is hosting a free symposium to celebrate Open Access Week.
Open Access, Open Data, Open Minds features visionary ideas and  inspirational speakers. It combines the 9th Prelec Lecture on excellence in healthcare informatics with dynamic leaders from influential open access initiatives, and includes panel discussions of the value and meaning of open access and open data for academics, researchers and librarians.

When: Thursday, October 22
Where: Stony Brook University, Wang Center
100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook, NY 11794
Learn More: http://library.stonybrook.edu/oa-prelec-2015/
Register Now! http://library.stonybrook.edu/oa-prelec-2015/registration/

RSVP by Thursday, October 8

New Library Faculty
Kathleen Kasten, Senior Assistant Librarian
Head of Humanities and Social Sciences
Collection Strategy and Management, Subject Specialist for French Language and Literature and Russian Studies

Jamie Saragossi
Health Sciences Collection Development and Outreach Librarian, Health Sciences Library

Publications
Kenefick, C., & DeVito, J. A. (2015). Five realities of hospital library mergers. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 15(3). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15323269.2015.1049093

Lyon JA, Kuntz GM, Edwards ME, Butson LC, Auten B. The Lived Experience and Training Needs of Librarians Serving at the Clinical Point-of-Care. Medical Reference Services Quarterly 2015; 34(3): 311-333. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02763869.2015.1052693

Presentations
Michael B. Huang, Health Sciences Librarian and Coordinator of Global Library Initiatives, was invited to present "Changing Roles of Academic Libraries and Librarians" at Shandong University, Jinan, China, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, China, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College, Jinhua, China in April this year.

Special Collections and University Archives
Learn about the university’s one-of-kind library collections and university history on Special Collections and University Archives’ new Instagram account. Pictured here are crew team members in 1962, rowing in Port Jefferson Harbor. Crew was founded in 1960 at the State University College on Long Island in Oyster Bay, the university’s first campus. Photographs will be added on a regular basis, including historic campus scenes and student life, rare books, manuscripts, and more, so please follow us at https://instagram.com/sbu_specarch.

----
Jennifer DeVito
Stony Brook University Libraries

[hebertm3308]

New hire: As of September 1st, Jessica Ramey has joined our Information Literacy Team. Jessica is recent graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Vacancies and Searches: We still have three librarian vacancies and the continued campus hiring freeze leaves us very short staffed.  The search for a Metadata librarian is on hold while we wait for approval revamp and re-advertise the position. 

Renovations: We suffered again with a summer disrupted by noise dust and confusion.  The payoff was a new instruction class on the 2nd floor,  renovated Reference and research study spaces on the first floor, and a new Center for Creative Instruction (faculty development center).  A new Center for Applied Learning is still under construction in spaces formerly home to our old BI classroom and the old faculty development center.

We aren't sure who our SUNYLA delegate is, so I'm just reporting, cuz I have time today.

Marianne Hebert
SUNY Potsdam

[cmarten]

The Purchase College Library sponsored and hosted a reading/talk by acclaimed writer Lydia Davis, on September 24. Ms. Davis is the author of one novel and seven story collections. Her collection Varieties of Disturbance was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a 2003 MacArthur Genius Fellowship, was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and translations in 1999, and won both an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit medal and the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.

Susanne Markgren, Digital Services Librarian, did a panel session on E-book Collection Development: Formalizing a Policy and Streamlining Acquisitions at the NASIG 30th Annual Conference: Building the Digital Future. Washington, D.C. May 28, 2015.  She also presented Writing and Publishing for the Profession: Finding Your Muse and Fighting Your Resistance as a pre-conference workshop for the 2015 SUNYLA Conference: The Art of Librarianship, at Purchase College, SUNY, on June 3, 2015.

Purchase College Library and Purchase College hosted the 2015 SUNYLA Conference on June 3rd, 4th and 5th.  We wanted to extend our thanks to everyone who helped with planning and execution of the event, sponsored the conference, manned a vendor table, gave a workshop or presentation, moderated a session, presented a poster, or simply attended.  Everyone’s participation contributed to the wonderful success of the conference.   Thanks! 

An open house will be held at the Purchase College Library on September 30th from 4 to 10 pm.  We have extended a special invitation to all first-year students, but will include anyone who wants to participate.  The open house will include seven stations scattered around the Library. Each station will showcase one of the Library's many collections or services. At each station, students will learn about that collection or service and complete a fun, hands-on activity in order to earn a stamp in their ‘passport’. For details, visit the LibGuide here: http://purchase.libguides.com/openhouse

[AprilDavies]

Don LaPlant, our new Instructional Design Librarian, started a couple of weeks ago. Don comes to us from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Katherine Brent was recently granted Continuing Appointment and promoted to Associate Librarian. She will be travelling to Atlanta for the annual Access Services Conference where she will present an examination of the influence of weather on circulation traffic.

April Davies is NOT doing another stint as SUNYLA President, but she is the new chair of the Publications Committee.

SUNY Cobleskill was unanimously chosen to host the 2016 SUNY Undergraduate Research Showcase! An exact date hasn’t been set as yet but SURC 2016 will come to town sometime in April.

We will also be hosting the Nov. 13 SUNYLA Council meeting. You can learn more about what’s happening at Cobleskill in the Library's Fall Newsletter (http://www.cobleskill.edu/library/docs/fall2015.pdf).

[Michelle Bishop]

Since spring 2015, Penfield Library’s strategic plan, the Library of Tomorrow, has been taking shape. Feedback from department chairs, program chairs, staff, and students was used to inform the planning process and is reflected in the final plan. Resulting individual library unit goals are also closely aligned with the SUNY Oswego campus strategic plan. The following themes are the primary focus of the library’s new plan.
•   Enhance information resources and learning technologies, and assist with their use.
•   Improve sharing of, and access to, our unique Special Collections archives, including college history artifacts.
•   Equip students with critical literacies for lifelong learning. 
•   Improve promotion of our resources and services.

Streaming Media

The campus now has access to streaming media through two new library subscriptions to Kanopy Streaming and Docuseek 2. Initial faculty feedback has been positive. To learn more contact Deborah Curry, Coordinator of Collection Development/Acquisitions (deborah.curry@oswego.edu).

Second 3D Printer

The library added a second 3D printer to our technology offerings. The new Flashforge Creator Pro allows printing with two colors. The Flashforge and our original Makerbot Replicator 2 are both available to the campus and wider Oswego community. For more information contact Sharona Ginsberg, Learning Technologies Librarian (sharona.ginsberg@oswego.edu).

Personnel News

Sharona Ginsberg is our new Learning Technologies Librarian. In June, she assumed responsibility for multimedia instruction which includes the library’s 3D printers, multimedia workshops, and more. Sharona is a 2015 Library Journal Mover & Shaker—a recognition she received for establishing an online community which addresses the need for diversity in the Maker movement. Sharona is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Information.

Mike Paxton is Penfield’s new Resource Sharing Librarian. Mike arrived in August bringing prior interlibrary loan experience from his time at Indiana University. Most recently, he also supervised the Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery department at the University of Washington in Seattle. Mike is a graduate of Indiana University’s School of Library and Information Science.

Meghin Roberts joined Penfield Library in August as a part-time reference librarian. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

We also welcomed new Evening Student Manager, Paula Fredette and wished Student Assistant Manager, Carrie Izzo, a happy retirement.

[Karen Ferington]

Mary Beth Morse, Circulation Librarian, was granted tenure and was also promoted to Assistant Professor. She also attended the ACRL Conference in Portland, Oregon.
Jeanne Tuohey, Reference Librarian, is collaborating with area high school librarians in an outreach effort to help ease the transition for students from high school to college. She is also serving on the Faculty Association Board of Directors for our faculty union.
Karen Ferington, Catalog/Media Librarian, served on the World War II 70th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, helped with library resources for the Film Festival, and volunteered for many events held during the semester-long celebration in Spring 2015.
Lillian Passanese, Librarian and Coordinator of the Faculty Resource Center, retired in April 2015.
We are pleased to welcome two new part-time reference librarians, Jennifer Santomauro and Rose Ann Heilemann, to NCCC this fall.
The Buffalo-based architectural firm of Foit-Albert Associates has been selected to design, plan and engineer the college's new Learning Commons. Work should begin in Spring 2016 so it will be a very exciting year.

[rnous]

Albany
Rebecca Nous

New Interim Dean and Director of Libraries
The University at Albany Libraries is pleased to announce that Rebecca L. Mugridge has accepted a two-year appointment as Interim Dean and Director of Libraries.  Ms. Mugridge joined the University at Albany in January 2013, as Associate Director for Technical Services and Library Systems.  She previously held positions at the Pennsylvania State University, Yale University, Robert Morris University, and the University of Pittsburgh.  You can find her welcome to the Libraries at http://library.albany.edu/welcome/

Metaliteracy Badges
Here at the University Libraries we have been developing a Metaliteracy Badging System, and this year we continue to offer digital badges that recognize our students’ mastery of metaliteracy competencies. A digital badge is a hyperlinked credential that signifies an accomplishment or achievement.  Students progress through a series of metacognitive activities that require careful reflection, and these culminate in a top level badge that may be shared on digital resumes or portfolios.   Instructors from a variety of disciplines have been assigning the badging exercises or “quests” to their students, and there are currently 34 sections participating. Visit metaliteracybadges.org to check it out!

Open Access Week Event – October 20, 10 am – 2 pm
The University Libraries will be celebrating Open Access Week with an event in the Science Library’s Standish Room from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20th. 
Speakers for the event will be Dr. P.D. Magnus and Paul Rapp, Esq. Dr. Magnus is a member of the Philosophy faculty at the University at Albany and is also the author of forall x, an open access introductory textbook on formal logic. Rapp is an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law. In addition to his role as an adjunct professor at Albany Law School, Rapp writes about issues related to copyright for his blog, Rapp on This, which is featured on the website of Metroland, a weekly newspaper in the Capital District.
The event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP if you plan to attend (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LIlOQ8KRy8_cOIdvGez4CClHrIkhNjl4235511tzxVw/viewform#start=openform).

[Adam Saunders]

Morrisville State College
Adam Saunders

Library Space

The space at the Morrisville library has been changing as we make improvements and additions to our front entrance and study areas. The front entrance of the library has always been a point of contention among students and faculty, as it did not allow for easy traffic flow through the space. The main issue was that we had a single gate counter which was set up as an exit, which meant traffic had to be funneled through two points in order to get accurate counts. Removal of the gate allowed for traffic to flow with ease while entering or exiting the library. Our people counter was replaced by two ceiling mounted sensors operating through a cloud based system. The response to these changes has been overwhelmingly positive from students and faculty. One concern we had with removing our gate was that it also acted as a security system. Now with the front entrance open there is little we can do to stop materials from walking out. Therefor during the course of the fall semester we will be conducting a study to assess the walking rate of materials. We will be using our Sheila Johnson collection on the first floor as these are some of the higher circulated materials.

In addition to this we shifted some of our back periodicals and removed 700 linear feet of shelving from the first floor to make room for a new group study and computer space. On the second floor in our quiet study zone we have ordered several new Agati POD workstations that will occupy one of our more sun soaked corners of the library and give our students a new option for single study.

Circulation Services

The circulation desk under the guidance of our new Circulation Coordinator Elizabeth Marcella has added charging cables to the list of lending materials. We now provide cables to cover most requested devices including student issued Lenovo YOGA and T430 laptops, Apple devices with Lightning and 30 pin connections, and a mini USB charger for Android phones and other devices. We have also updated the lending policy for our very successful iPad lending program. iPads for this program having been lending as overnight loans, due to the frequency of loans we decided it would be in our best interest to increase the loan period to 1 week.

Library Art Exhibit

The Morrisville library usually always has an art exhibit on display, and the start of the fall semester was no different. Between August 1st and September 20th the library hosted the works of Gerard H. Gaskin's photography. The exhibit titles “Legendary” features striking portraits of African American and Latino members of urban house and ballroom communities. Cast out by their biological parents, these "children" form support networks of makeshift families to redefine their sense of self-worth and their own systems of social rewards. On Thursday, September 10th Mr. Gaskin attended a reception at the library showcasing his works.

Library Marketing

We have been pushing for new methods of marketing library resources in order to reach a greater percentage of the student body. Working with Kelly Gardner Williamson in public relations we have turned to social media and will be posting major library events on the campus Facebook account and have set up a library Instagram account which all librarians have access to. Through the Instagram account we will be posting images of library gallery exhibits, displays, new materials, and random daily and weekly highlights. There have also been new and creative methods of marketing that developed over the summer. Olivia Cronn, our library secretary, has offered to publish a monthly library newsletter to be posted in bathrooms. This fun newsletter contains highlights on library events, new resources, helpful tips and fun facts.

The librarians and library staff also had a bit of fun at the end of the summer during Welcome Weekend as students moved into the dorms. A lemonade stand was set up just outside the library entrance, run by our librarians and staff Angela Rhodes, Laura Ryan, Adam Saunders, Olivia Cronn, and Marilyn Cook. This extremely well received event allowed us to interact with incoming students in a less formal setting while still providing them with information on what the library offers in terms of services and resources. We also provided a large map of the campus for direction questions, samples from our new book shelves, copies of Welcome Weekend schedules, library contact information, and some fruits and cookies provided by public relations.

Blackboard Integration

This summer also consisted of a push for more library integration onto the Blackboard Course Management System. The inclusion of Curriculum Builder, a system adopted across SUNY, while be a means to not only give faculty a simple option of adding articles to their course pages from our databases, but will also play a role in the beginnings of phasing out our current electronic reserve system in favor of Blackboard. Over the course of the summer we also developed a top level library tab on Blackboard, giving students direct access to online library resources on the course management system. There were several modules created for this tab: a general library information module with contact information and hours, an EDS search module with links to an advanced search page and course reserves, a Libguide module with a dropdown menu for all our subject and course guides, an online library chat module, and several other search boxes for Google, a dictionary, and thesaurus. We have also advocated that faculty can take any of the modules and to add them to their own course pages, granting even easier access to library resources.

[Logan Rath]

On July 16, Brockport welcomed its seventh president, Dr. Heidi R. Macpherson. Dr. Macpherson joins Brockport from the University of Wisconsin at LaCross. We have also just recently completed a search for our Online and Hybrid Learning Librarian. Mia Breitkopf will be joining the Drake Memorial Library on October 26th. Retirements over the summer included librarian Greg Toth, and Library Clerk 2 Diane Hoy. This summer, Logan Rath published one article (“Collaborating Around Critical Multiliteracies: A Formula for Success”) and contributed to the edited book, Metaliteracy in Practice (eds. Jacobson and Mackey) with a faculty member in the department of Education and Human Development. Wendy Prince and Pam O’Sullivan were awarded a $3000 grant from the ALA and National Endowment for the Humanities entitled “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.” For this upcoming year, selected projects include beautification improvements on the Main Floor of the library, expanding offerings from our Makerspace.