Campus Updates

[cfishner]

Please respond with the updates from your campus!

Include your name (as the submitter) and the campus name please in the report.

[AprilDavies]

Since last we spoke...

Van Wagenen Library hosted our 3rd trivia night, this one for faculty and staff only since alcohol was being served. My team was victorious but, being a library employee and a good person, I gave my share of the prizes to the non-library faculty on the team.

We’re doing minor renovations to the lower level to make an additional entrance. More on that when it’s done.

Instructional Design Librarian Don LaPlant has developed a series of 3 information literacy tutorials using LibWizard and Guide On The Side for our FFCS classes. The tutorials reach all first year students.

Clever weeding and shifting on the top floor has allowed us to create a new space for quiet, independent study.

SUNY Cobleskill has ‘new’ provost. Sue Zimmerman had been the interim and now she’s got the job for real.

[matthewbest]

Erie Community College (ECC)
Submitter: Matthew Best

The close of 2016 brought extensive staff changes to the ECC libraries. Our most senior librarian retired and seven new librarians started work at ECC to fill existing vacancies.

In December, Professor Jane Ashwill of ECC's North Campus library retired after 24 years of service to the college. While at ECC, Jane's roles included managing the library catalog, serving as Systems Librarian, and acting as the Department Chair at the North Campus library. Additionally, she performed regular duties in reference service, collection development, and instruction. In her retirement, Jane plans to travel, paint, and explore volunteer opportunities. We offer our deepest thanks to Jane and wish her  success in this exciting new chapter of her life.

In November, six new part-time librarians joined the ECC libraries. Linda Deeks and Sharon Moore joined the North Campus library. Jodi Benatovich, and Caitlin Kenney joined the City Campus library. Carrie Owens and Jeremy Lyman joined the South Campus library. These librarians bring a wealth of talent to ECC and offer a rich blend of experience from college, school, public, and special libraries.

In October, Keri Thomas-Whiteside began as a full-time librarian at the City Campus. Keri's new role includes overseeing acquisitions and serials at the City Campus library. Her previous experience as a Trocaire College librarian will serve her well as she assists her colleagues with reference services and library instruction.

[sarahmorehouse]

Nothing to report. Stay tuned. We're busy; we're just not ready to report anything.

[maeichelberger]

You'll see most of our updates in the upcoming newsletter.

New news is that we're hosting an unveiling ceremony today for our new faculty READ posters, soon to be posted here: http://guides.genesee.edu/gcc_authors

Our Middle States review team will be visiting the campus in April. The college is hosting the second annual Scholars Symposium on March 30. The library will be sponsoring our annual Student Poetry Contest soon, and we have several displays and collaborations coming this Spring.

[rnous]

Campus News from University at Albany

Upcoming Events:

Campus Conversations in Standish, Spring 2017
12:35-1:30 pm, Standish Room, Science Library, University at Albany
All are free and open to the public. More information about the Campus Conversations in Standish speaker series can be found at: http://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/campus_conversations/

Wednesday, February 8:  Dr. Victor Asal, "Criminalizing the LGBT Community and the Long Arm of the Religious State"

Wednesday, February 22: Dr. David Hochfelder, "98 Acres in Albany: Telling the Social History of Urban Renewal"
   
Wednesday, March 29: Dr. Lawrence Schell, "Minority Health Disparities: The Case of Native Americans"

Faculty Recognition:

Elaine Lasda Bergman, Subject Librarian for Social Welfare and Reference at the Dewey Graduate Library, was presented with the 2016 UNYSLA (Upstate New York Special Libraries Association) Chapter Member Merit Award at its Fall Meeting in Syracuse on October 21. The UNYSLA Chapter Member Merit Award is conferred annually and was created to recognize individuals for outstanding achievement and service to the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and to the Upstate New York chapter.

The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) named Yu-Hui Chen, PhD, “Member of the Week” for the week of October 24, 2016. Yu-Hui Chen is Subject Librarian for Education and East Asian Studies. The article on Yu-Hui can be found at: http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/12647.

Personnel Announcements:

We welcomed several new members to our staff over the last few months. Giovannine Finn Matheron has been hired as Serials Coordinator. Tyler Norton joins the Libraries as a temporary Marketing Staff Assistant. Bridget Collins has joined Dewey staff as Dewey Graduate Library Administrative Support Assistant. Christina Evola was hired as Lending & Access Services Clerk at the Science Library. Lauren Puzier joined the Libraries as the Dewey Graduate Library Reference and Projects Librarian.

We have had several members of our team take on new challenges as well. Amanda Lowe has been appointed Outreach and Marketing Librarian. Joyce Rambo has been named Library Communications and Marketing Coordinator. Karina Ricker was appointed Reference and Government Information Librarian.

Carol Anderson, Reference Librarian, retired in October.

New Services:

Proactive Reference Chat
Reference and Research Services department launched “proactive chat,” an online reference service that does what many commercial online services do: take the initiative in asking online patrons if they need research assistance. After patrons have been online for 45 seconds using a library resource in which the proactive chat feature has been embedded —the Libraries’ online catalog, for instance—a little dialog box pops up on patrons’ computer screens asking if they want help from a reference librarian. If patrons decline, they will not be asked again during that browser session.

Streamlined Borrowing Policies
Circulation services also launched something new for students this semester: three fixed due dates.  Now, when students borrow circulating books, the books will be due on one of three fixed dates—December 1, May 1, or September 1.

[Rebecca Hyams]

Maritime:

Maybe the better question to ask is "what *isn't* happening?" As usual we've been super busy here and have been making a lot of changes.

The Stephen B. Luce Library has extended its hours, and is now open until midnight every night. This was in response to student demand and is proving to be popular.

Work finished on the most recent phase of the Sailor's Snug Harbor digitization project, which was funded by a METRO grant. A new (and vastly improved) portal was launched to showcase the records and tell the stories of the men who lived there. Special congratulations go out to Jannette D'Esposito (who served as the Project Archivist) and Annie Tummino (who built the portal site). Their work can be viewed at https://snugharborarchivesblog.wordpress.com/

The renovation of the Library's archives is underway. Compact shelving will be installed in the coming weeks and then the moving of materials into the newly-renovated space will start. Once the renovation and move is complete, all of the archives and special collections will be housed in one space that will also include a work/reading area for archival materials.

We're also in the middle of several large simultaneous collection-related projects. The largest is a focusing of our Maritime Heritage Collection which is being helmed by Katie Bram. The goal is to have a comprehensive and focused collection on materials pertaining to the Merchant Marine and shipping industry.

We also recently had a shift in personnel to announce. Veronica Gaffney has been working in our library since November of 2013 in the position of Keyboard Specialist I. We were recently able to offer Veronica a new role as Technical Services Assistant, a position which she officially started earlier this month.

Also, expect to see an announcement soon as we look for Librarians to go on this year's Summer Sea Term. That should be going out in the next few weeks.

[millerjaACC]

SUNY Adirondack Library is in the beginning stages of contributing digitized items from their Wing/Roberts Collection to the New York Heritage website. SUNY Adirondack Library’s Hill Collection received the contents of the Wing/Roberts Collection in August of 2015 from Kit Cornell, a descendant of Abraham Wing, founder of Glens Falls, New York. The collection contains documents, letters, transcripts, photographs and glass plate negatives related to the Wing/Roberts Family of Glens Falls, New York.

[jenndevito]

The Stony Brook University Libraries unveiled a redesigned website that includes intuitive navigation, streamlined menus and an easier user experience. http://library.stonybrook.edu/

Vincent Clark joined the Stony Brook University Libraries as the Director of Development for University Libraries.  In this role, Vincent will work with the Libraries and the University’s Advancement team on development initiatives.

Jennifer A. DeVito has been promoted to Director of Access Services, overseeing all day, evening and overnight public service points, resource sharing and circulation services.

Daniel Kinney, Metadata & Authority Control Librarian,, published the following article:
Kinney, Daniel W., "Stony Brook at the Dawn of the Roaring Twenties: A Hollywood Connection," The Historian 53, no. 2 (Summer 2016), http://www.tvhs.org.

We welcomed Jessica Koos and Gregg Stevens to the Stony Brook University Libraries as Health Sciences Librarians.

The Stony Brook University Libraries have the following positions available:
Biomedical & Translational Research Librarian
Cataloging & Metadata Librarian
Director of Collections & Resources Management
Science Librarian
http://library.stonybrook.edu/about-us/employment/