Campus Updates

[amlowe]

Please respond with your campus updates here.

[AprilDavies]

Our annual Chili Cook-Off is happening Oct. 3 here at the Library. Stop by and be a taster if you're in the neighborhood. Our big book sale will be going on at the same time so you can do some shopping too!

Serials & Systems Librarian Peter Barvoets was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Librarian.

April Davies, Head of Technical & Public Services, will be doing a poster session on adapting a weighted allocation formula to work for smaller libraries at the upcoming Charleston Conference.

We are in the process of hiring a new Tech. Services clerk and are hoping for an Oct. 1 start date.

[millerjaACC]

The campus wrapped up new building projects with ribbon-cutting celebrations: 

SUNY Adirondack will open its new Culinary Center at in downtown Glens Falls this fall. The site includes a bake shop, a gluten-free restaurant kitchen, 100-person seating for a student-run restaurant, a liquor license and two standard classrooms for lecture-based courses. “The new space will be designed to educate and train the region’s workforce in the thriving local hospitality industry,” said Matt Bolton, instructor of culinary arts. “SUNY Adirondack has been increasing enrollment in our culinary arts program for the past few years, and I feel this move downtown will mean a boom in enrollment. The new building will allow us to grow the program’s enrollment and modify our degree offerings with unique occupational courses.” The ribbon-cutting for the restaurant, “Seasoned,” will be held on Sept. 26.

After almost almost two years of construction and disruption on campus, the entire Adirondack Hall complex is now open. Last fall, the southern end of this annex to the science building was opened. The rest of the Adirondack Hall complex opened this spring and summer. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Sept. 7. The original science building was renovated and now includes a 2,400-square-foot nursing simulation lab, as well as classrooms, labs, study rooms, tutoring spaces and offices.The 26,250-square-foot addition includes nine science laboratories, seven laboratory prep rooms, a greenhouse and aquarium, classrooms and seminar spaces. The Adirondack Regional Workforce Readiness Center, located on the north side in a new 13,250-square-foot addition, will encourage community partnerships and be an epicenter for regional business development and entrepreneurship. The large expandable Northwest Bay Conference Center has been home to several campus events, such as a professional development day for faculty, and a student open house and job fair.

Anne Matusiewicz joined the staff this fall as a part-time librarian. Anne received her M.S.I.S. from SUNY Albany in 2015, an M.A. in Medieval Studies in 2004 and a paralegal certificate in 2006. She also works at Schenectady County Community College's Begley Library. In her free time she volunteers at Crailo State Historic Site, does living history, and enjoys crafting and watching cult movies and British television shows.

[jenndevito]

The Stony Brook University Libraries will hold the 4th annual open access symposium, Values & Ethics in Open Access, on October 26, 2018. The event will feature keynote speaker Heath Joseph, the executive director of SPARC. More information and registration can be found at: http://library.stonybrook.edu/scholarly-communication/open-access-symposium-2018/

On September 14-15, the University Libraries, in partnership with the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, hosted SBUHacks. More than 300 hackers spent time working on projects, playing games, and meeting representatives from sponsor companies such as Major League Hacks, Github, Softheon, Soylent, Google, and Broadridge. More information can be found at sbuhacks.org.

The Southampton campus library hosted a talk by author Helen Harrison on Tuesday, September 11. She talked about her novel, An Accidental Corpse, which is based on events of August 11, 1956 which Jackson Pollock and Edith Metzger died in an automobile accident in East Hampton, NY.  The library’s next talk will be September 25th when author Mary Gabriel discusses her book, Ninth Street Women.

Interim dean announcement
Following the departure of Library Dean Constantia Constantinou, Shafeek Fazal, the Associate Dean for Library Technology, Discovery, and Digital Initiatives, has assumed new duties as Interim Dean of University Libraries, effective 1 August 2018. 

[Jenny Collins]

SUNY Delhi’s library is enjoying great OER success this semester. Working with faculty from an array of academic disciplines, we have implemented OER in a number of courses. Notably, our nursing program is now using an OER textbook for all first year nursing students. With OER in place the nursing department has reported higher test scores and more engaged students, all of whom have access to the textbook. The department plans to expand their use of OER for the next semester. Librarians at the Resnick library continue to meet with faculty and work toward an expanded OER future on campus.

We’re also planning a series of in library events to improve student engagement. Activities are set for Banned Books week, Open Access week and the library will be running Library Con activity for students in October. It has been a busy but rewarding year thus far.

[rnous]

Virtual PAWS (Personalized Assistance With Searching) Pilot Program
The University at Albany Libraries has seen an increase in the number of one-on-one research appointment requests made by students.  This fall, the libraries’ Virtual PAWS Committee (Personalized Assistance With Searching) will be rolling out a soft launch of a pilot program to bring our one-on-one research consultations to our growing number of online and distance students.  We expect the program will help us provide a personal, face-to-face, service through online video conference software, giving our distance students the same opportunity to sit down with a librarian and discuss research strategies. The pilot will help us identify practical strategies and benefits of using video and screen-sharing in reference consultations.  The committee is collaborating with colleges and departments that offer fully online degree programs to reach out to enrolled students. Over the past year, librarians Camille Chesley, Sue Kaczor, Amanda Lowe, and Lauren Puzier have reviewed, recommended and initiated the training for and organization of the program and look forward to reporting on its results.


Can you hear me now? Audio Preservation with George Blood
The University at Albany Libraries has invited George Blood to give a workshop for our regional cultural institutions, scheduled for Thursday October 18, 2018. It will begin with an outline of the inherent vices and deterioration vectors of audio media. After this refresher, the presentation will work with a model RFP (Request for Proposal) and SOW (Statement of Work) to give attendees the information they need to proceed with preservation and digitization of this essential and unique part of our collective memory.

For more information and to register, visit the CDLC website, or click https://www.eventbrite.com/e/can-you-hear-me-now-audio-preservation-with-george-blood-tickets-49306909293.


New and Improved Metaliteracy Badging System
With generous support from Dean Rebecca Mugridge, Kelsey O'Brien and Trudi Jacobson have been working on a revamped version of the Metaliteracy Badging System. Originally created by educators from across the SUNY System, this instructional resource has been implemented with over 2,000 students at UAlbany, and seeks to empower learners to be mindful consumers and creators of information. Students who successfully complete the required components have the opportunity to earn four digital badges that may be shared on an e-portfolio or professional network: Master Evaluator, Digital Citizen, Producer & Collaborator, and Empowered Learner. The multimedia site includes original and openly-resourced content that can be assigned to meet particular course needs. Our ultimate goal is to make the resource open for use by any SUNY institution. We are excited to launch the new and improved site later this fall, which will allow customized learning plans and mapped progress toward the earning of each badge. In the meantime, the content of the site has been archived and may be previewed here: https://sites.google.com/view/metaliteracy/. Please feel free to reach out to Kelsey O'Brien if you're interested in learning more: klobrien@albany.edu.


Personnel News
This summer, the Libraries welcomed a host of new people to our team. Alyssa Panetta joined the Libraries as Web Developer/Designer. Alyssa held this role part time since last summer, but recently transitioned to a full time position. Lauren Puzier, formerly the Library Reference & Projects Librarian at the Dewey Graduate Library, was hired as our new User Experience Librarian. We welcomed Rachael Haines, our new Library Budget Officer. Leah Darcy joined the Innovate, Make, Create Center as the Audio, Video Equipment Lending Assistant. Jason Cromie is the newest member of the Discovery Services team in Technical Services.

[leah]

New Library Staff, Librarian promotions, awards, and innovative tools were in abundance at Milne Library over the past summer.

A warn welcome to our new Head of Collection Management, Alana Nuth. Alana comes to Milne Library with an extensive background in collection development, acquisitions, and electronic resources from her work at University of Vermont Libraries, Burlington, VT.   Alana also worked in electronic resources management as well as reference and instruction. 
_____________________

A warm welcome to our new Scholarly Communications Librarian and liaison to Sciences and Mathematics, Jonathan Grunert. Jon’s background includes experience in the sciences and with instruction at Colorado State University–Pueblo and Virginia Tech. Jon is excited about working with faculty and students in exploring publishing opportunities and promoting research.

____________________________
Congratulations to  Michelle Costello, Education and Community Engagement Librarian; and Brandon West, Head of Research Instruction Services for receiving promotions from Senior Assistant Librarian to Associate Librarian. 
____________________________
Michelle Costello’s ongoing work with Wadsworth Library in the Village of Geneseo earned Milne Library the Pioneer Library System Outstanding Collaboration Award. The Pioneer Library System is a New York State chartered, cooperative public library system serving the forty-two public libraries in Ontario, Wyoming, Wayne and Livingston counties, including Wadsworth Library.  The award will be presented to Michelle on October 10, 2018, at the Pioneer Library System annual meeting. Kudos and congratulations to Michelle Costello for her dedication to collaboration!
____________________________
The IDS Project recently won the 2018 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award.  The Milne Library-borne IDS Project was recognized for innovative contributions to resource sharing at the American Library Association 2018 Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, in June 2018.
____________________________

Milne Library once again helped to prepare AOP's Summer Program students for their academic life by guiding them in a short research project that included a poster session.  This year’s AOP Poster Session was held August 1, 2018.

Students created posters with their research findings on a topic related to the theme of civic engagement and the ideas contained in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Faculty, Staff, and the community were invited to view the posters and chat with the students about their research.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

On September 4, 2018, Milne Library launched the OER search tool, OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search).  OASIS gathers more than 155,000+ records from 52 different sources that have been carefully selected in collaboration with SUNY OER Services.  OASIS was developed with the goal of making the discovery of open content easier.  Some of the features of OASIS include the ability to limit search results by license, type, subject, source, and reviews available.   Users can also suggest new sources to be added to the catalog and/or share items of interest through email.  There is also a search widget that can be embedded in any website.  Currently, there are already 165 institutions across the country using the search widget.

For questions, comments, and/or feedback on OASIS contact Bill Jones (jonesw@geneseo.edu) and Ben Rawlins (rawlins@geneseo.edu).