Welcome everyone to 2017! The New Year came upon us quickly and we’re already in the midst of the Spring 2017 semester. This New Year brought upon many changes at my home institution and I would imagine that similar exciting changes happened at your own campuses.
SUNYLA has been busy over the past few months. The 2017 Conference Planning Committee is hard at work reviewing proposals, setting the schedule, handling local arrangements, and doing all tasks needed to ensure a great conference in Stony Brook in June. The theme of this year’s conference will be “The Global Library: Diversity through Collections.” Thank you to Jennifer DeVito and the SUNYLA Planning Committee for their hard work in pulling together so many important details to ensure another excellent conference. This year’s SUNYLA Conference will be especially interesting since the newly formed SUNY Libraries Consortium (known as the SLC) will be overlapping with our conference, offering an opportunity for extended collaboration across administrators, faculty, and support staff alike.
Beyond preparations for our Annual Conference, the Midwinter Virtual Conference planning team has also been active in assembling another great assortment of virtual conference sessions. This year’s theme is “Library Hacks: Reuse, Repurpose, and Remix.” Members of this team include: Michelle Eichelberger (Genesee), Rosanne Humes (Nassau), Rebecca Hyams (Maritime), Bill Jones (Geneseo), and Jill Locascio (Optometry). This free conference is available to all regardless of their affiliation with SUNYLA and will offer up to five hundred seats. Recordings of presentations will be available after the conference. More information can be found at:
http://sunyla.org/sunyla-midwinter-2017/Registration for this conference is open at:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/d3dc4e934bde4e10dc2040ba88984b7bAs you may have heard, Mark McBride (former Director at Monroe Community College) has accepted the Library Senior Strategist position for the Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS) and started this position on Thursday, January 19, 2017. I am confident that Mark will help lead SUNY Libraries to new levels of excellence. Mark was (and still is) a strategic facilitator in the transition from SCLD to the newly formed SLC (mentioned above). For your reference, members of the new SLC Board and the Transition Team will include the following individuals:
SLC Board
Patrick Callahan (Chair)
Curtis Kendrick (Doctoral Colleges & University Centers)
Christine Rudecoff (Colleges of Technology)
Evangela Oates (Secretary)
Holly Heller-Ross (University Colleges)
Timothy Arnold (Community Colleges)
Transition Team
Curtis Kendrick, Binghamton (Chair)
Katie Bram, Maritime
Connie Holberg, Jefferson
Randy Gadikian, Fredonia
Karen Gelles, Farmingdale
Brenda Hazard, Hudson Valley
Rosanne Humes, Nassau
Eunkyung Lee, Oneonta
Susan Lieberthal, Suffolk
Charles Lyons, Buffalo
Heath Martin, Stony Brook
Mark McBride, OLIS Rep
Sarah Morehouse, Empire
Rebecca Mugridge, Albany
Joe Petrick, Alfred
Cristina Pope, Upstate Medical
Werner Sbaschnik, Old Westbury
Mark Smith, NYSCC @ Alfred
In the near future, SUNYLA will need to make a decision on how we want to affiliate our organization with SLC and I encourage our membership to pay close attention to the growth and solidification of SLC. It is of utmost importance that our decision is mutually beneficial to both organizations.
As we move closer to our Spring elections, I do urge anyone out there who may be interested in running for SUNYLA office to consider doing so. While serving as the 1st Vice President and as the SUNYLA President, I have had the privilege to learn more about the inner workings of SUNY and SUNYLA, develop relationships with SUNY Directors, and extend my skills in leadership by coordinating SUNYLA events and representing SUNYLA in various arenas. This year we will be holding elections for 1st Vice President/President-Elect, 2nd Vice President/Conference Chair, and Treasurer. Current 1st Vice President, Carrie Fishner, will be overseeing the election this year. If you are considering a run for office please contact her at fishnecj@delhi.edu. More information on the responsibilities of these positions can be found on the SUNYLA website.
One of my main priorities as SUNYLA President is to try to increase SUNY Library involvement with SUNYLA. If you’re not already on a committee, consider joining one! Our committees are involved in various activities and are a great way to get involved and work with other librarians across SUNY. From my own personal experience, I believe that participating on committees and volunteering in library networks (like SUNYLA) are the best way to make new connections, share your expertise, and market yourself. Get out there! If you’re interested in participating, here are some of our committees and their chairs:
• Membership Development: Carol Anne Germain (Albany)
• Professional Development: Kim Myers (Brockport)
• Publications: April Davies (Cobleskill)
• Technology Discussion Group: Jill Locascio (Optometry)
Another way to get involved is to attend our SUNYLA Council meetings. The meetings are open to all SUNYLA members and can be attended both in-person or virtually. The remaining SUNYLA Council meetings are scheduled as followed:
• Friday, March 10, 2017: SUNY Stony Brook
• Wednesday, June 14, 2017: SUNY Stony Brook
I hope that this New Year brings a renewed hope and prosperity to all, and I look forward to working with everyone to find ways to even better serve our membership and our library communities.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Jones (SUNY Geneseo)
