Campus Updates

[cfishner]

Please post your campus updates in this thread. Please include both your campus name and your name for the reports.

[millerjaACC]

Library Division Chair Teresa Ronning participated in a roundtable discussion at the annual symposium, "Power in Partnership: A Symposium for High School and College English Teachers." The event was sponsored by the college's English Division on Oct. 23 at SUNY Adirondack's Wilton campus. The panel presentation, "Moving Beyond the Stacks: Librarians and Teachers and a New Collaboration," was attended by more than 60 area high school teachers, school and college librarians. The symposium focused on how to better prepare high school students for college.

SUNY Adirondack received a $9.7 million award from the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grants. This funding will enable the college to build the Adirondack Regional Workforce Readiness Center, a 10,000 square foot addition to two existing buildings. A press release issued by Gov. Cuomo's office said that "plans call for the building to include:
- Business Central, a 'one-stop' solution center to connect businesses with prospective employees, career readiness partners and other resources used to help small business grow
- Healthcare Simulation Labs, a local training center for Nursing and healthcare workers that leverages SUNY Adirondack and SUNY Plattsburgh’s new R.N. to B.S.N. articulation program
- Lyme disease research and testing labs in partnership with the German company InfectoLab
- Expanded and enhanced facilities for the college’s growing Office of Continuing Education and their workforce training and personal enrichment programs.
High-capacity, adaptable conference and training space for college and community functions and events."

Reference and Instruction Librarian Joyce Miller, college president Dr. Kristine Duffy and a group of business faculty attended the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) annual conference in Houston in mid-October. The theme was "Cultivating An Entrepreneurial Culture." Joyce attended in her role as the Business Division's Liaison Librarian. The conference brought together over 400 NACCE members to share entrepreneurial best practices. The conference promoted the concept that entrepreneurial mindsets can be applied not only to business courses and entrepreneurship centers but also to freshman orientation courses and developmental programs. The team attended in preparation for the new workforce readiness center.

- Joyce Miller, SUNY Adirondack

[sclippa]

The Scholes Library at the College of Ceramics is hiring a Public Services and User Experience Librarian! You can read about the position on our blog, among other places:
https://aulibrarynews.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/were-hiring-public-services-and-user-experience-librarian/

This is a 12 month, non-tenure track position, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming a new public services librarian into our number. Review begins on November 16th and continues until the position is filled. Feel free to share this or our HR link: http://alfred.edu/hr/viewpost.cfm?ID=3096

Additionally, Art Librarian Eva Sclippa has been awarded the 2015 Public Relations and Exhibitions Award by the South Central Regional Library Council for the Harry Potter's World event series, which wrapped up this October.

[AprilDavies]

The 2016 SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC), which will be hosted here at Cobleskill on April 15, is seeking proposals: http://blog.cobleskill.edu/SURC/surc_apply.html. Registration will open on Dec. 1. For more information on SURC2016: http://blog.cobleskill.edu/SURC/surc.html.

Cobleskill is also welcoming the SUNYLA Council on Nov. 13. Parking passes and campus maps are available from SUNYLA Secretary Carrie Fishner or from April Davies (me).

The Library is pleased to announce that Cathy Wise, currently of SUNY Oneonta, will be joining our team as Circulation Supervisor starting next week! This will allow Gina Brady to finish moving from Circulation to Tech Services. Gina is replacing Barb Ruland who had the nerve to retire this summer. A search is currently open for a new Library Secretary since Pat Larkin also up and retired last month. Then we can move on to replacing our other Tech Services clerk, the also recently retired Dawn Freisatz.

In other personnel news, Brendan Aucoin has moved from being in charge of Moodle support to being our Circulation Manager. This has allowed Katherine Brent to take over Archives & Special Collections and to add more Systems and Web duties. This in turn allows Peter Barvoets to take on more responsibility for projects such as the Digital Repository.

[Rebecca Hyams]

Maritime:

The Stephen B. Luce Library is currently seeking applications for an Archives and Scholarly Communications Librarian! This is an entirely new position for our library and we're looking forward to having a new member on our team in the coming months. This is a Tenure-Track 12-month appointment. Details about the position and the application are here: https://www.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=65237

The Library recently purchased a campus-wide New York Times license to allow our users to access the Times via their campus email addresses for the year. We've also purchased a handful of devices to loan to faculty that they can use to create content for their online courses, including drawing tablets, webcams, microphones, and an HD camcorder.

The Stephen B. Luce Library was awarded a METRO Digitization Grant to digitize additional materials in our Sailors Snug Harbor archival collection. Part-time Librarian Jannette D'Esposito will also be serving as the project archivist. We also recently received a donation from the Class of 1955 that we will be using to purchase a collaborate workstation for our students.

We've also started a massive weeding and shifting project on our first floor, which houses our Reference and Periodical collections. We're hoping to clear quite a bit of space that can be repurposed to better serve our students.

[Michelle Bishop]

Penfield is moving full steam ahead on our Reference Room renovation. Changes are being made to accommodate the relocation of the Writing Center from the third floor to Reference Room on the first floor of the library. The move is expected to be completed in spring 2016.

Barbara Shaffer, our current Director, has announced her intent to retire in June 2016. The Library is currently accepting applications for Library Director. Details about this position and the online application are available here: https://oswego.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=65533.

Applications are also being accepted for an Online Learning Librarian. Details about this position are available here: https://oswego.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=64205.

[maeichelberger]

Part-time Reference Librarian Justin Cronise has resigned effective early December, and we'll be doing a search to replace him.

Barbara Gordon (AKA Batgirl) made a rare appearance at the library on 10/31, and we have the photo evidence to prove it: http://www.genesee.edu/library/library-news/batgirl-visits-library-1031/

The 2016 A Tale for Three Counties book selection has been announced (http://guides.genesee.edu/tale2016). Librarians Cindy Hagelberger, Michele Asmus, and Library Director Nina Warren are members of the county-wide Tale planning committee.

GCC is planning a student research celebration for the spring, and the library will be supporting the event with a libguide and by hosting research prep workshops.

[grunerm]

Ulster update from Marla Gruner:

This past summer, we said goodbye and good luck to our Technical Services Librarian, Judy Kuhns. She has moved to Florida to be closer to her parents and has recently been offered a position at Valencia Community College. Sadly for the library, her position, 2 part-time librarians and a part-time Student Technology Coordinator were retrenched at the end of the summer. We are worker hard as a much leaner crew to fill the holes left by the retrenchments.

We welcomed Tess Hartman-Cullen to our staff as part-time Associate Librarian in mid-October. Tess came to us from FIT where she was Special Collections Associate. She is a wonderful addition to the library and we are thrilled to have her.

The Reuner Library Writers Series hosted Abigail Thomas and Kim Wozencraft for Real Writing: Truth or Dare on November 10 (More info here: http://libguides.sunyulster.edu/writers_series). The authors drew a large crowd, and the event was very well-received. Our Fall Book Club focused on works by those writers. We had a great discussion about the impact of publishing such personal details of one's life which was one of the topics touched on at Real Writing: Truth or Dare.

At the beginning of the semester, we implemented LibraryH3lp chat and text reference. After a somewhat rocky start (with some missed chats) we have integrated it into our day to day workflow. We are now using Ask Us 24/7 as our back up instead of our primary chat reference.

[Jenny Collins]

SUNY Delhi Campus Update

This Fall SUNY Delhi welcomed a new library director, Virginia (Ginger) Trow and a new full time librarian, Carrie Fishner. Instruction has been a major focus for the fall semester with all librarians on deck teaching in an array of disciplines and formats. The library participated in Banned Books week this year; activities included a film discussion, banned books display and a “guess the banned book” competition. This year the Resnick library is also piloting a personal librarian program, meant to engage our Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) students and to give them extra tools to ensure their educational success on campus. Carrie Fishner is heading up the project.

The Resnick Library was awarded a grant to digitize the collection of student newspapers and continues to work on completing the project. This semester librarian Jenny Collins is working with public history students on a service learning project to index the schools collection of photographs dating back to the 1920s.

Cosmetically the library received a much needed facelift this summer with a new carpet on the main library floor.

[jenndevito]

Stony Brook University Libraries celebrated Open Access Week with a number of events.  There were two screenings of The Internet’s Own Boy, a workshop titled “Getting Published: Preparing your research for publication” held in the Libraries’ Center for Scholarly Communication, and the Open Access Symposium and Antonija Prelec Lecture: Open Data, Open Minds, Open Access which featured speakers Neil Rambo (NYU), Gary Ward (PLoS) and Marguerite Avery (MIT Press) as well as members of the Libraries’ and Stony Brook University community.
http://library.stonybrook.edu/scholarly-communication/oa-prelec-2015/

Stony Brook University Libraries’ has also hosted a number of outreach events including  Create Your Own Zen Garden, an educational display in honor of Native American Heritage Month, and several concerts by SBU student musicians. The Libraries will be holding a Game Day celebration on November 18th.

The Stony Brook University Libraries Colloquium Series kicked off in October.  The event is held on Thursdays and features Stony Brook University Libraries librarians and staff presenting on various topics such as:
Laura Costello, Head of Research & Emerging Technologies, Head of Research & User Engagement, will be presenting Redesigning a Library Space. While working at Teacher's College, construction of a "learning theater" had begun on the fourth floor of the library building. Laura Costello will go over the community engagement process for the redesign as well as the specs and purpose of the new space.
Ann Gleason, Head, Health Sciences Library, will be presenting Marketing the Library to Departments: Many departments are unaware of the range of services offered by the library. This session will cover outreach to departments to present key services and advocate for collaborations with the library. Successful models of outreach from Health Sciences will be used as examples.
Shafeek Fazal: Associate Director, Library Technology, Discovery and Digital Initiatives and Darren Chase: Scholarly Communications Librarian
Open Access & Data Management: In terms of scholarly literature, open access applies to digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What it means to academia and research is that the primary barrier to access, price, is removed from the equation, allowing free access to peer-reviewed, scholarly works, books, and just about any other electronic print material with the designation. Research Data Service provides guidance and support for all aspects of the data lifecycle, from planning data management strategy during the proposal phase through preserving data at the conclusion of a project.
Jamie Saragossi: Health Sciences Collection Development and Outreach Librarian
Health Literacy and Access to Consumer Health Information: This presentation will define health literacy and demonstrate initiatives being taken to provide access to free, high quality health resources and educate the public about the importance of their role in their own health care. An outline of future plans of Stony Brook Health Sciences Library to address health literacy and consumer health-care will also be discussed.

Recruiting continues for a number of positions at the library, including Digital Projects Librarian and Evening & Weekend Manager - Health Sciences Library. http://library.stonybrook.edu/about-us/employment/

[rnous]

Albany
Rebecca Nous

New Mac Lab!

We’re really excited to announce the University Libraries’ new Mac Lab and smart group study rooms.  Nine group study rooms and forty-one iMac computers have been newly-installed on the first floor of the University Library.  This was a collaborative project of the University Libraries and UAlbany’s department of Information Technology Services (ITS). 

Each of the nine new group study rooms is equipped with a whiteboard and a flat screen television monitor. Six are glass-enclosed. Users can beam text and image files, as well as audio and video, from their laptop, tablet or smartphone to the television screen. Sharing the display is not limited to the users in the room; users can share the display with other users located somewhere else in the University Libraries or on campus.

The University Library is the only place on campus where Macs are publicly available to students, faculty and staff, so the lab and smart study rooms have been significant upgrades to the University Libraries’ Information Commons.

Personnel News

Dewey Graduate Library has hired Rebekah Jarvis-Girtler as a part time reference and projects librarian.  If you’d like to learn more about her, you can find her brief biography at: http://library.albany.edu/dewey/jarvis-girtler/bio.  Dick Irving, long time Subject Librarian at the Dewey Graduate Librarian, retired as of June 30, 2015.   Cathy Dwyer has assumed Dick's subject responsibilities (Public Affairs, Criminal Justice, and Government Information).

Scholars Archive & Open Access Event

We held an Open Access Day event on October 20th. Dr. P.D. Magnus, UAlbany professor in Philosophy and Paul Rapp, Esq, an Attorney who specializes in property law were the guest speakers at the event. There was also a brief demo of Scholars Archive, which helped kick off more interest from faculty in the repository. As the Scholars Archive team continues to reach out to departments, word is spreading across campus about Scholars Archive.  We currently have over 6,000 downloads and the number keeps climbing.

StressLessUAlbany

We’re finalizing events for our 3rd stress less programming for finals week.  This semester, we’re hosting therapy dogs, coffee breaks, coloring, puzzle and game spaces, massages, yoga, a primal scream, and showing funny animal videos in the University Libraries.  Stress Less has been very popular with students in the past, so we’re looking forward to another great week of events!  http://libguides.library.albany.edu/StressLessUAlbany #StressLessUAlbany

[Karen Ferington]

Plans for the new Learning Commons are moving along. Nancy Kennedy, Library Director, will be the project manager for all of the library areas. Madison Ackerman will manage the project for the other areas including all of the tutoring, the Writing Center, and the Academic Achievement Center. Plans are for the entire library to vacate the building by the end of spring semester and move to the Student Center Building. As you can imagine, there is a lot of thinking and planning about how this will all happen as we look ahead.

The Middle States team chairman was on campus for several days in November to check in with our campus committee about the Periodic Review Report which was submitted this fall.  Mary Beth Morse, Circulation Librarian, is serving on the campus Middle States Steering Committee and has been very busy with all things related to the Middle States accreditation.

Jennifer Santomauro, Part-time Reference Librarian, has taken a full-time job at Mt. St. Mary's Academy in Buffalo. We wish her well.

[cmarten]

Not much to report from SUNY Purchase. 

The campus has begun the process in learning how to integrate a new Senior Learning Community onto/into our campus.  I, Carrie Marten, have been one of five faculty to be appointed to a task force to assist in figuring that out.  The task force will consist of five faculty, five staff, and five students.

The Library held a very successful open house in the library on September 30, 2015.  We saw over 500 students come through the library that evening and learn about a wide range of services that we offer, from ILL to special collections and more.

[matthewbest]

Erie Community College (ECC)
Delegate: Matthew Best

The ECC North Campus library hosted its annual Banned Books reading on September 29, featuring English Professor Jennifer Campbell's students reading selections from banned and challenged books in honor of Banned Books Week, the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read.

Library Department Chairs Matthew Best (ECC North Campus),  Taheera Shaheed-Sonubi (ECC South Campus), and Kathleen McGriff Powers (City Campus) attended The Fall Meeting of the SUNY Council of Library Directors October 14-16 at the Woodcliff Hotel in Fairport, NY.

On October 20, Librarian Jewel De la Rosa (ECC North Campus) and Librarian Nicole Thomas (ECC South Campus) presented their 1st first ECC Elevate! workshop entitled "Tools for Active Learning" as an in-service event for ECC faculty. The goal of the Elevate! group is to help present to ECC faculty unique ways that technology can be utilized in classrooms to enhance the educational experience.

Jewel De la Rosa is also acting as a Fellow in the SUNY Tools of Engagement Project (TOEP ). TOEP is an on-demand discovery learning professional development model. The goal of TOEP is to encourage faculty and staff across SUNY to explore and reflect upon the use of emerging technology tools to expand tech-infused pedagogy. Jewel is working with ECC's Instructional Designer Jeanne Myer's and Instructor Erik Neilans who are also participating as TOEP Fellows. The three of them presented TOEP informational meetings to ECC faculty throughout November. More information about TOEP can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/sunytoep/

The proposed contract between Faculty Federation of ECC (FFECC) and the college was ratified on November 4 at a special meeting of the FFECC membership. The vote was 245 in favor, 48 opposed. Contract negotiations occurred over the past six years; now we can focus all our energies on moving the institution forward and running the best college possible for our students.

[Adam Saunders]

Morrisville was awarded the Sheila Johnson Grant. The purpose of the grant is to encourage the reading of and inform patrons about the diversity of literature available today. By making these titles available, the Library hoped to encourage reading among our patrons and provide them with a constructive activity for their free time within a diversity focused framework.

Morrisville students got a big surprise during finals in the fall semester when the library invited therapy dogs to campus. This event ran for a couple hours on December the 8th and 10th where students could come into the library classroom and unwind from their studies with some very friendly lap dogs. The therapy dogs were a huge success with lines out the door before they even arrived. Other events in the library included our regular yearly Lee Brown Coye art exhibit during the month of October. This year’s exhibit was titled “Dance Macabre”. Multiple book displays were featured that time of the year including one for Banned Books Week and Halloween horror reads.

At the end of the semester in conjunction with the inauguration of Morrisville’s 8th president a display on the history of Morrisville was set up in our art exhibit. In addition to images and article reproductions; two poems recited during the inauguration ceremony by Alex Arruda and Devon Branca were on display in large format.

The library saw several improvements to study spaces as the semester progressed in the fall. Our first addition was a large enclosed group study with a ten foot dry erase board. It has become one of our most popular study spaces with the whiteboard being heavily utilized for planning group projects and reviewing study materials. In the same area as this study room we are also in the final planning process of adding additional computing space. There will be several divided cubicle like spaces each with its own computer and room to spread out materials. We are slated to have these installed by the end of January. In addition we also purchased several new individual study pods. These modular units each have individual desk space, power plugs, and storage for books and bags. They, just like our new group study, have become extremely popular and many students have inquired if we will be purchasing more.

There were several changes and additions to our reference services towards the end of the fall semester. First we have picked up the Ask Us 24/7 chat service in order to give our students a reference service to use remotely and during afterhours. Many students and faculty were shocked that such a service existed and were enthusiastic knowing that no matter the time of day there was now an option to speak with a librarian for research assistance. We have also started pilot testing two satellite reference services on campus. One of these was located in our CSTEP (Collegiate Science & Technology Entry Program) study hall which is on the first floor of one of the dorms. This study hall that can only be accessed by CSTEP students was our first attempt at bringing reference services to student spaces outside of the library. A second satellite reference location was set up during Sports Study Hall in Crawford Hall. Sports Study Hall is a mandatory study session for student athletes who do not have games scheduled the following day. We will be continuing these satellite reference locations into the spring semester and after assessing usage may add additional locations in the semesters to come.