Campus Updates

[Carleen Huxley]

Post Campus Updates to this thread.

[AprilDavies]

Library construction is paused until summer. They built the new instruction classroom and expanded the instructional technology training room upstairs, we moved the children's collection and did some other rearranging. Next is the other half of the top floor plus the main entrance, circ area, and the public areas on the main floor. All of which means that 99% of the collection will have to be moved out for the summer to accomodate the work. Ack! Other campus construction continues nicely. The new Environmental Science & Technology building (houses the biomass project and other related stuff) is open. The new lab wing on the science building should be done this summer and the new Ag building will get started soon (the design is really cool).

Temple Grandin will be visiting campus in May to speak at the NYS FFA Convention. The College is sponsoring a public event at Albany’s Palace Theatre on May 4. Tickets are $12 (in person at the Palace Theatre’s box office, thru Ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 800-745-3000 (handling fees apply to Ticketmaster and phone purchases).

ESPNU and ESPN2 cameras will be in Cobleskill next month! SUNY Cobleskill is hosting the Northeast Qualifier for the Collegiate and Professional Series of the STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS® lumberjack competition on April 29 & 30. The College will also have a team in competition.

Cobleskill has hired a new Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs-- Deborah Thatcher, formerly provost and dean of faculty at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina.

[grimesb]

Personnel changes continue at the Cayan Library.  Our Circulation clerk will be leaving the library on Friday to take a position in another office on campus.  We have been cleared to hire one clerk to work as the sole clerk in Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Serials.  We will have three librarians and a temporary part-time clerk as of this Friday.

We have begun the planning process for the Learning Commons to be located in Cayan Library.  A committee has been formed and has begun to meet and the consultant has visited twice to help us with our focus and possible physical layout.  We are shifting the circulating collection on the second floor to make room for the print journal collection which is currently on the first floor.  By the end of the semester, we will have removed all but a small Reference collection of books from the first floor to make it ready for the implementation of the Learning Commons.

[mcbridmf]

Buffalo State College

1. We have signed the contract with Serial Solutions and will deploy Summon discover service by the end of the Spring.
2. We have been testing RefWorks on campus and have received excellent feedback from students. We are still supporting Endnote.
3. Maryruth Glogowski has taken a leave of absence for medical reasons and we hope to see her return in the next 30 days.

[jyaples]

Binghamton University

We have 4 new faculty members: Rachel Jafee, Metadata Librarian; Molly O'Brien, Metadata Librarian; Ben Andrus, Reference/Subject Librarian; Anne Larrivee, Reference/Subject Librarian. All of them are new SUNYLA members. Binghamton can't take credit for Ben's membership since he joined when he worked for Broome.

Binghamton is hosting a symposium entitled, Publishing, Promoting and Preserving Scholarship @ SUNY, on April 7th. Learn more about the symposium at: http://library.binghamton.edu/services/scholarly/publishsunyschedule.html

Nancy Zimpher is not going to recommend to the SUNY Board of Trustees either of the 2 Presidential candidates recommended by the Binghamton University Council so Binghamton will have to start another search for a new President.

[newtondt]

Jenica Rogers will be teaching a full-day preconference at ALA with former SUNY librarian Mary Carmen Chimato, now Associate Dean of Libraries at the University of the Pacific, and University of Tennesee at Chattanooga's Colleen Harris at ALA in June.  The precon is called The Tough Stuff, and is focused on building practical management skills for academic librarians.

We have successfully kicked off our website redesign project, and others can follow our progress at http://www.patrickrunfit.com/potsdamlibweb/

Jane Subramanian is compiling and writing a photo history of the College, to be published by Arcadia, with generous support of money and time from several college alumnae.

Working with the campus Computer Services staff Keith Compeau, Building Administrator, and James Hubbard, Technology Coordinator, re-purposed three surplussed 19" flatscreen monitors, usb keyboards and usb mice into laptop docking stations. The cords are simply zip-tied together to help prevent theft and they are at workstations that have power and wireless available. They have been particularly popular with students who are using notebook computers.

[Kadri]

In April, Optometry will be the focus of the collaborative site visit by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education. 

Kohn Library has gained a new staff member, bringing our total to six.  Kim Oliver from the Dean’s Office joined us in January as the Library Outreach and Services Coordinator.  She will assess the needs of College Community members working at remote sites, adjunct faculty, and alumni to provide awareness of library services available to the various groups. 

Construction will start on a Student Life and Learning Center, which will include a Fitness Center.  The demolition takes away the Library’s quiet study areas, only some of which we will get back later.

Finally, our “Bryant Park campus” has closed the skating rink and is starting to seed and sod a new lawn for the spring and summer.  Before you all visit NYC, check http://www.bryantpark.org/ for their activities. 

[Carleen Huxley]

We are still busy with our weeding project, and making plans to replace our bookshelves on the first floor with furniture students can use for studying. There's also some talk about purchasing computers, possibly laptops or maybe ipads, to be used in our library instruction room.   

[tlparadis]

Ed Rivenburgh has officially retired as Director of Milne Library as of December 31, 2010. He has been hired back on a part time basis as Director of the IDS Project. Cyril Oberlander has been appointed Interim Director.

Bonnie Swoger will be on maternity leave until June. She's expecting her second daughter to arrive any time now...

ACRL has selected Kimberly Davies Hoffman and Michelle Costello to receive its 2011 Instruction Section (IS) Innovation award for their work in developing the Library Instruction Leadership Academy (LILAC). The award is given each year in recognition of a project demonstrating “creative, innovative or unique approaches to information literacy instruction or programming.” They will attend ALA Annual in the summer to collect their award.

The Library, CIT, and the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) have instituted a monthly meeting to share information and coordinate instruction/training offerings for Geneseo's faculty.

Milne's Gallery and several rooms throughout the library are currently getting new paint.

[Joanne Spadaro]

The College began construction of office space in the Library to be used while the siding and glazing of the entire Campus Center building is replaced.  The offices will be used temporarily by the administration and library staff while they need to vacate their own offices in order to accomodate the construction.

Our ebrary's Academic Complete collection of about 50,000 academic books in all disciplines is extremely  popular among our patrons.

Antonia DiGregorio, Public Access Services Librarian, recently implemented the Document Delivery component of ILLiad (interlibrary loan).  This service allows Antonia to provide patrons with articles that she scans from the Library's print periodical and microfilm collections and then can send as online documents.   

Curt Friehs (Business Reference Librarian) is working on a book chapter for ALA Editions.  His work focuses on a case study for middle-level managers adapting to change in the midst of library layoffs and a tight budget.  Curt is also presenting a Business Database Workshop specificially designed for non-business majors in March.  This workshop will help students locate business-related information using library databases.  For instance, this will include ways to locate potential employers for a job search, evaluate investment opportunities, and learn possible strategies to contact corporate top brass as a consumer advocate.

The Library's Curriculum Materials Center now has a Facebook page.  To find us on FB, search for "Curriculum Materials Center, SUNY College at Old Westbury". 

   

[kathrynmasten]

We have launched a mobile site http://www.oswego.edu/library/mobile/

Mary Beth Bell retired at the end of December 2010 as Library Director.   She has been hired back on a part-time basis as Library Director.  A Library Director Search Committee has been formed and ads will be out shortly.

During spring semester we are administering the James Madison University Information Literacy Test.

We’re running a pilot project for e-book readers and have purchased 3 kindles and a nook.

Summer construction plans include new roof, elevator and carpeting in the library.

Leah Galka has been hired as a part time reference librarian.  She is a recent graduate of Syracuse University.  We are currently in the process of hiring a full time 1 year temporary Librarian.

[Angela Weiler]

Pauline Shostack has been implementing many gaming activities in Coulter Library from her sabbatical research last year, including a National Gaming Day @ Your Library event which included a team scavenger hunt, mini history scavenger hunt (created by a history professor), board games, video games, and several other small gaming activities.  She presented on gaming topics at the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA) conference in Vancouver, Canada in October, 2010.

Pauline received a President’s Incentive Grant to research mobile technologies in libraries. As a result, during the spring semester she is testing various mobile applications using iPads and iPod Touches, and she developed a mobile version of the Coulter Library website is now available at  http://library.sunyocc.edu/mobile .  Two students from Syracuse University are working with Pauline on related initiatives this semester, and as part of the grant, she will attend the Association of College and Research Libraries Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA, March 30 – April 2.

Frank Doble will be presenting “Rudolf Steiner and ‘Spirit’ in Education” on Monday, April 18th.

Jeff Harr is hosting two volumes of his “Albums That Shook the World” series this semester:  Volume 10: “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes (Friday, April 1st) and Volume 11: “Beggar's Banquet” by The Rolling Stones Friday, May 6th.

Angela Weiler and Rob O’Boyle researched and ordered popular titles for a new collection of students’ recreational reading (“Popular Reading”) and arranged to have them located in one special area,  in response to several requests from students for things to read “for fun”.

Angela Weiler was invited to participate as a panelist at BOCES/Syracuse School Library Systems 13th Annual Fall Conference Panel Discussion:  “Information Literacy:  High School and College Expectations”.  As a result of that panel discussion, Angela was invited to give a workshop for five senior high school classes at a local high school.

[BillDrew]

There have been lots of personnel changes recently. Ruth Mixon is now working for TC3.BIZ.  Ann Sullivan and Steve Massey-Crouch will be retiring at the end of August 2011. 

Three part time adjunct librarians have been hired to assist Barbara Kobritz in library instruction and to work in the Writing Research Center in the Baker Commons.  The center is a joint project  of the library  and the writing tutors.  The new librarians are Karla Block, Fyiane Nsilo-Swai, and Susanna Van Sant.

On March 4, the library went live with the TC3 version (http://bit.ly/tc3search) of IDS Search.  Bill Drew is continueing to work with the IDS Search team to enhance the TC3 version.

Bill Drew has just loaded over 6000 Films on Demand MARC records to the ALEPH catalog. Unfortunately, these records do not have OCLC number in them so they can not be easily matched to OCLC records.  They will not appear in any search done on the new TC3 Library Catalog.  Bill is investigating ways to correct this situation.  You can see them at http://bit.ly/TC3FOD .

Lucy Yang is leading a major reshelving project so that the stacks can be consolidated to provide more usable space. The space will be used to bring in several study carrels.  Many of the carrels will be set up as computer stations using laptops secured to them.

[Danharms]

SUNY Cortland

The NCATE reaccreditation team visited campus early this week and toured the library.  Cortland received a positive exit interview.

Four adjunct librarians have been hired for the spring semester - Ellen Paterson, David Lewis, Lisa Czirr, and Sara Quimby.  They are working on reference, instruction, and collection development.

The lines for Jennifer Kronenbitter and Anita Kuiken have been converted from librarians to professionals.  Anita has become Coordinator of Information Delivery Services, covering interlibrary loan, periodicals, and stack maintenance.

Bibliographer Ellen Paterson retired in December, but is back among the adjuncts.  Her line was to be searched as a Teaching Materials librarian, but that search has been called off.

Roger Cotrofeld arrived this fall to head up the Information Resources Support Center.

Laurie Pepper in Interlibrary Loan has transferred to the college's heating plant.  Her position will be filled at the end of March by Patty LaVigne. 

Linda Davenport has retired from her position in the Information Resources Support Center.  Her line has been transferred to Information Delivery Services, where it is staffed by Deb Powers.  Deb Powers' line in the IRSC has been filled by Lou Ann Simons, from the director's office.  Her line is being searched at this time.

Sue Bush, secretary, will be departing for the office of the Associate Dean of Professional Studies.  Her line will be searched shortly.

Ann Lang is replacing Jen Taft in Periodicals.

Christa Natalie has been hired on part-time in the IRSC.

[Logan Rath]

So much is going on! Most recently, there's been a change in delegates (today). Logan Rath is now the new delegate for SUNYLA, replacing Charlie Cowling.

Brockport is merging its walk-up IT Help Desk and the Reference Desk. We're playing around with furniture and still figuring out the best way to accomplish this.

We are circulating two iPads on a short-term check out with extended-use through a reservation / webform. Circulations have not high, so we might be extending the loan period longer than 2 hours. Logan Rath and Jennifer Little are heading up this project. We have recently offered workshops on Zotero and are exploring the use of Adobe Connect Pro in virtual workshops. Logan Rath is heading up this project. We're also rolling out document imagining through Banner. Pat Maxwell is heading up this project.

In December we had a division wide LITS (Library, Information & Technology Services) gadget expo involving several vendors and a plethora of gadgets. This was organized by Pat Maxwell. We plan on repeating this in Fall 2011.

We will be celebrating Faculty who have published work from 2005-2010 on April 8th in the afternoon.

We have hired a new evening supervisor, Wendy Prince. Our secretary is now Mary McGonigal. Robin Glazier is now with the Dean of the School of The Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. We have also gained a Library Clerk 2, Cheryl McCarty replacing Lin Becker who is now a Secretary I in the Office of Advancement.