Dear Members:
By now members have received the news of the cancellation of the fall conference due to a number of extenuating circumstances. During its deliberations, and since the letter went out to members, current board members and past presidents have commented on the short time that the program committee always has to plan a Fall conference right after a mid-May Spring conference.
As I indicated in my letter, I would like to examine a change in the time frame for conference planning for the office of Vice President/Program chair. It would be advantageous for the new Vice President every May to inherit a plan for a Fall conference from the previous Program Chair, and then to fully plan a Spring conference and the shell (theme, date, place, perhaps keynoter) of the upcoming Fall conference.
Our chapter, unlike others, has prided itself on holding two conferences each year, and considers it the primary responsibility to provide affordable one-day conferences within a reasonable distance from our campuses. I remain supportive of planning two conferences a year, as do the other members of the executive council. I ask that members contact me with questions or concerns and join in a discussion of conference planning by sending your thoughts and ideas to me via e-mail at barnello@lemoyne.edu. I will share your responses at that meeting.
The academic libraries in our region offer so many talented (and very busy) librarians. As members of ENY-ACRL please share your expertise and time by considering speaking at the conferences, referring program committee members to potential speakers, serving on the program committee (e-mail Mary Anne Waltz: waltzm@rpi.edu), and even considering being a site for a future conference.
I wish all of you a productive fall semester.
Sincerely,
ENY/ACRL LIBRARIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINATION DEADLINE: February 1, 2005
Help us honor a deserving colleague. Do you know someone who is an outstanding member of the chapter and whose contributions have benefited the chapter and our profession? We are currently seeking nominations for the annual ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year Award. The Librarian of the Year Award is in recognition of an ENY/ACRL member who has exhibited a dedication to fulfilling the ACRL mission and furthering the goals and objectives of ACRL and ENY/ACRL in particular. The award includes a plaque and a $250 honorarium, which will be presented to this year's winner at ENY/ACRL's spring conference in May of 2005.
Previous ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year Award recipients are:
ENY/ACRL covers a wide geographic region and the Nominations Committee relies on suggestions from members for this important award. Please take a few moments to consider nominating a colleague. The nomination form is available on the ENY/ACRL website at http://www.enyacrl.org/loy.htm Completed Nomination forms should be sent to Michael McLane by February 1, 2005.
Looking for a few good people who are willing to work for free, want to work with talented and dedicated librarians from throughout the region, enjoy a good meal at the pre-conference dinner, and are willing to run for one of the following ENY/ACRL Board of Directors positions:
Vice-President/Program Chair/President Elect (3yr. Term) Year One - Oversees the planning process for the fall\and spring conferences, locates host institutions, contacts speakers, prepares publicity, and prepares conference budget. Convenes meetings of the program committee as necessary (generally 3 times per year) to develop conference themes. May represent chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council Meeting at ALA (midwinter and summer). Year Two - Serves as official spokesperson for the chapter and as chair of the Board of Directors. Represents (or designates someone to represent) chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council meetings at ALA midwinter and annual conferences. Year Three - Solicits nominations and conducts elections for chapter Board of Directors, and serves as Chair of the Librarian of the Year Award Selection Committee. May represent chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council Meeting at ALA (midwinter and summer). A benefit of this position is generous support from the chapter for travel to ALA Annual and Midwinter conferences to attend ACRL Chapters' Council meetings.
Communications Chair (2 year term) Responsible for the duties of webmaster for ENY/ACRL, producing the newsletter 3 times per year, and maintaining e-mail announcement or discussion groups for the membership, Board, and Program Committee.
Secretary (2 year term) Responsible for recording proceedings of the Board.
The Board of Directors generally meets three times per year. Board members also play important roles at the fall and spring conferences. All candidates will be asked to submit a brief Candidate's statement, which will be sent to chapter members, along with the ballots, in February of 2004. Terms of office will commence after the spring ENY/ACRL conference in May 2004.
If you are interested in serving on the Board, or if you know someone who might, please contact Mike McLane at mclane@clrc.org. Nominations should be submitted to Mike by January 10, 2005. Ballots are scheduled to be sent out on February 1, 2005.
Mike Poulin has assumed the new position of Digital Resources Librarian at the Colgate University Libraries. Mike comes to Colgate from LeMoyne where he was Librarian for the Sciences and Electronic Resources. Prior to that he was the Systems Librarian at the Ithaca College library, the Maine Maritime Academy, and the University of Rochester. His MLS is from Rutgers and he majored in Biology at the University of Maine, Orono. Mike has a great deal of experience with all aspects of digital resources management, is well versed in information technology, and has many years experience on the reference desk and teaching information literacy to undergraduates.
Mary Jane Walsh, Government Documents Librarian, participated in the GODORT ALA pre-conference "Making the Most of What You've Got: Improving Access to Government Information in Your Online Catalog" as a panelist and as facilitator for a discussion session about government documents in III catalogs. She has been appointed to a two year term as Coordinator of Undergraduate Research, a position that oversees the campus-wide summer research program at Colgate University.
An addition to and renovation of Colgate University's Everett Needham Case Library began in May. The expanded building will house library collections and services in the social sciences and humanities together with personnel and services from Information Technology Services. The design includes an exciting new fifth floor entry level that will feature innovative collaborative learning and teaching spaces, a café, and a new periodicals reading room with spectacular views of Colgate's lower campus and the Chenango Valley. Students will enjoy two state-of-the-art wired classrooms, a variety of seating and study options in both quiet and collaborative study areas, and service areas designed to maximize access to both traditional library materials and online resources. The building also includes a library automated storage and retrieval (LASR) system which is the first of its kind in a small liberal arts college and will provide highly efficient storage to accommodate growing collections. The system will use a robotic crane to deliver materials to the circulation department in response to user requests initiated by the click of a button in the library's online catalog. Construction completion is scheduled for Fall 2006.
Amy Dibble has joined the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Library staff as Assistant Library for Systems effective August 1. Amy recently received her degree from Southern Connecticut State University and has a background in computer science. She has worked as a student and professional at Alfred University and as a programmer in the private sector.
After 25 years of LIB101, Plattsburgh State University has integrated additional technology literacies into our credit bearing general education offerings with two new courses: LIB102 and LIB105. More details are on the library instruction web site at www.plattsburgh.edu/library/instruction
Holly Heller-Ross has published an article, “Reinforcing Information and Technology Literacy: the Plattsburgh Tip Sheet,” in College & Research Libraries News 56(6): 321-325 (2004).
Carla Hendrix was promoted to Librarian effective September 1, 2004.
Dennis Kimmage, Librarian, will retire at the end of 2004 after 28 years at Feinberg Library. Dennis has served as a reference and instruction librarian and was the first Coordinator of Library Instruction when the program was introduced in 1979. He was Head of the Reference Department from 1982-1995, and was Acting Library Director in 1986. We wish him a relaxing and fulfilling (and well-deserved) retirement.
Carla List-Handley led a workshop on "Teaching as Performance" at the University of Louisville on August 4. Approximately 65 departmental and library faculty participated.
Elin O'Hara has been appointed Visiting Assistant Librarian for Reference and Instruction.
Michelle Toth presented "Been There, Doing That: Research on Institutional Information Literacy Initiatives after the Immersion Program," as a poster Session at ALA annual conference, Orlando, FL. June 2004.
After 36 years of service, Doris Robinson has retired. She began at The Evening Division of Russell Sage College on State St. in Albany and moved with the books to the present campus on New Scotland Avenue. Not one to rest for long, she'll return as an adjunct following a trip to Alaska.
Sheldon Wein accepted a position in public services at the New York State Library in July.
The Libraries are pleased to announce that Kelly MacWatters is now our Electronic Resources Librarian. She previously worked at SUNY Cobleskill and at the Huyck preserve and has extensive experience in the sciences as well as information technologies. She received her M.L.S. at the University at Albany.
Eileen Throop joins us as Information Literacy Librarian. She worked at Central Oregon Community College at Bend, and Oregon State University, Cascades Campus. She completed her M.L.S. online at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Regina Torian will be working part-time as a reference librarian and liaison to the Management and Law departments. She received her M.L.S. from Rutgers University, and worked previously for Best Foods, as a corporate librarian and at the University at Albany Libraries.
The Circulation Department welcomes Julie Demers and Nancy Moore, the evening supervisors on the Albany and Troy campuses, respectively.
At the end of Spring term Kingsely Greene officiated over the first annual Student Awards Ceremony, at the Capital District Library Council. Margaret Lanoue co-chaired the event. Students Mera Jones and Jada Walker were recipients of the first awards and were accompanied by their Circulation department supervisors Dianne Roosa and Mary Dirolf.
Catherine Crohan has a new position as Coordinator of Library Instruction. She is responsible for the scheduling of course-related instruction as well as teaching many of the sessions.
Kathryn Johns-Masten has joined the Library's professional staff as the Serials and Web Resources Librarian. She will be responsible for the development and maintenance of the periodicals collection as well as the selection and accession of non-commercial academic Web resources. Kathryn received the LIS degree from SUNY Buffalo in May, 2004, and has previous experience at the University of Rochester science and management libraries.
Andrew Ashton, Systems Librarian, presented "Finding Meaningful Usage Statistics in Your Proxy Server Logs," at Computers in Libraries 2004 in Washington, DC in March. Ashton also presented "ColdFusion and Voyager: Tools for Better Functionality" at Endeavor's EndUser 2004 held in Chicago in April.
Ruth Copans, College and Special Collections Librarian, visited Swarthmore College in February to lecture about an exhibition that she designed. Her talk, "Ubiquitous Cycle: Book Artists Look Back," discussed the relationship between traditional book binding techniques and contemporary book artist interpretations. Copans also spent a week in August at the Garage Annex School in Easthampton MA studying paper engineering techniques and making a book that contained ten moveable and/or three-dimensional mechanisms. The workshop was taught by book artist Julie Chen who established the Flying Fish Press in 1987.
Barbara Norelli, Social Sciences and Instructional Services Librarian, presented "From Dewey to LC and Beyond: the Library Learning Continuum," to the Capital Area School Development Association, 19th Annual Conference held in Latham, NY, on April 2, 2004. Norelli also served as Program Discussion Leader for the ACRL Law & Political Science Section session, "Interactive and Collaborative Curricular Learning Communities," at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando on June 26, 2004.
Fran Apollo received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship at May Commencement. Fran has also accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board of Public Services Quarterly.
Peter Barvoets joined our staff in August as Serials and Automation Librarian. Peter brings to SUNY Cobleskill a wealth of experience gathered from several Capital District libraries. Peter will be the lead person as we migrate to Aleph!
April Davies, along with a member of our Ag Business division, completed the most recent edition of SUNY Cobleskill's Faculty Handbook on Information Literacy. This handbook effort, begun in 2002 by Fran Apollo and Nancy Van Deusen, provides a customized resource to help faculty bring information literacy skills into their curriculum. We currently have handbooks in 3 of our 5 divisions with more editions currently underway.
Alissa Jones joined our staff as Adjunct Reference Librarian in August; she has extensive public library experience and is off to a good start in the academic setting.
April Davies & Nancy Van Deusen recently completed the 8th and final workshop in the Continuous Assessment/Continuous Improvement series that many in the Capital District libraries are participating in. Hats off to them!
Jennifer Nace, a recent graduate from the Syracuse University’s MSLIS program is our new part time temporary visiting assistant librarian. Jennifer provides reference service in the evening as well as assists with our instruction program and other projects.
Kari Zhe-Heimerman, a current graduate student at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies is completing an internship with us this semester. She will be involved in reference, instruction and cataloging projects.
This summer we combined our reference desk with our circulation/reserve desk to create THE Desk. This improvement in service is being well received by our customers. The first person one is likely to meet as they enter the library now is a Librarian seated at a counter eager to help!
Jo Anne Ellis was granted tenure and was promoted to Associate Librarian this summer. Jane Verostek was also granted tenure.
We are hosting the annual meeting of the Upstate New York Science Librarians on Friday October 15, 2004.
Penfield Library is extremely pleased to welcome our new serials librarian, Brian McDonald. Brian comes to SUNY Oswego from the University of Michigan. He's already had the birthday 'initiation' here!
James Nichols and Karen Shockey were promoted to the rank of Associate Librarian. Congratulations all around.
Elizabeth Young has received Continuing Appointment, effective September 1, 2004.
Penfield Library regrets the departure of John Thomas, our former webmaster. John has taken a position at nearby Jefferson Community College in Watertown, which means his commute is now less than 200 miles! We wish John the best of luck in his new position.
Nancy Alzo is on sabbatical from July 1 through December 31 and is exploring various options for providing reference service to develop a new model for reference service at SUNY Potsdam.
Carol Franck has received continuing appointment and promotion to Associate Librarian. She continues as Information Literacy Coordinator.
Marianne Hebert was a presenter on the panel Frameless OPAC How We Did It! at the SUNYLA Annual Conference in Cortland on May 27, 2004.
Frank Moulton has been hired as a visiting librarian for the 2004/2005 academic year.
Jenica Rogers gave a presentation titled Linking Periodical Subscriptions and Learning Outcomes: A Practical Response to the Crisis in Scholarly Communication at the SUNYLA Annual Conference in Cortland on May 27, 2004.
Jane Subramanian received a Grant Writing Initiative Award in May 2004 from SUNY Potsdam's Research and Sponsored Programs. She also gave a short presentation titled Helen Hosmer's Contribution to Our Womanist Tradition at the SUNY Potsdam Women's Studies Brunch on May 8th, and repeated a presentation given previously elsewhere titled Milestones in the History of the Crane School of Music: Julia Crane, Helen Hosmer, and Beyond for SUNY Potsdam's Alumni Weekend in July.
Rebecca Thompson was recipient of SUNY Potsdam's President's Award for Excellence in Professional Service in May 2004 in recognition of her commitment to high standards of service, her contemplative insights and her generosity of spirit.
The Syracuse University community mourns the passing of University Librarian Peter S. Graham. Peter died Aug. 11 at his home in Syracuse after a long battle with lymphoma. He was 65. Details available at http://sunews.syr.edu/fullstory.asp?id=8100402 .
The Library is pleased to welcome new staff member, Paul Bern, Numeric Data Services Librarian (effective March 16) and returning staff member, Kenneth Lavender, through a two-year shared appointment with the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) and the School of Information Studies (effective August 23).
Harriet Sonne de Torrens resigned her position as Head of the Fine Arts Department to accept a teaching opportunity in Toronto, effective September 10.
Acting University Librarian Denise Stephens announced the promotion of Cindy Cost, Director of Library Administrative Services, to the position of Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services effective April 1.
Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Head of Instructional Programs, Robert Cleary, Acquisitions Librarian, and Elizabeth Wallace, Earth Sciences Librarian, have been elected to the University Senate for two-year terms.
Peter Verheyen and Donia Conn, Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) published an article on the Springback Account Book Binding in the most recent issue of The New Bookbinder, published by Designer Bookbinders, UK.
Several SUL staff members were awarded the SU Exemplary Achievement Award for their work as members of the Web Chat Action Team in implementing LibChat, a chat reference service. Comprised of Tasha Cooper, Tom Keays, Donna Sullivan, and Suzanne Preate (Team Leader), the now-disbanded team was nominated for the award by their Project Manager, Elaine Coppola. The Web Chat Action Team was formed to fulfill the goal of extending reference service through innovative service delivery using interactive chat. The LibChat pilot coordinated by this Team ultimately evolved into a formalized service offering.
Abby Kasowitz-Scheer (Instructional Programs) and Alissa Lauzon (Instructional Programs Intern) presented the poster, Research: One Slice at a Time - An Online Information Literacy Tutorial in Progress, at the Eastern New York ACRL Spring 2004 Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY on May 17.
Lesley Pease, Head of the SU Library Maps & Government Information Department, has been appointed for a three-year term as the ALA GODORT (Government Documents Round Table) Web Administrator. The Web Administrator develops the web site, creates, maintains, and archives pages, provides assistance to web page managers, organizes and runs meetings at Midwinter and Annual ALA conferences (as coordinator of the Web Managers Group), and serves as a member of the GODORT Publications Committee.
Michael Pasqualoni, Reference Librarian, has been appointed to a two-year term (2004-2006) on the Emerging Technologies in Instruction Committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Pamela McLaughlin was elected to the Nylink Council as a representative in the independent higher education category. She is serving as chair of Nylink's Strategic Planning committee.
Kelly Barrick Hovendick, Reference Librarian, was re-appointed to the Womens Studies Section Collection Development Committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Susan Berteaux, Head of the Science and Technology Library, attended the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) annual conference in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Susan participated in a panel discussion on Open Access and Serials Preservation.
Kelly Barrick Hovendick, Reference Librarian, and Ruth Dickstein, University of Arizona, co-authored the article "Women's Studies Databases." The article traces the history of and challenges of locating women's studies-related research materials from print indexes to databases today. It can be accessed via the online, by subscription-only version of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 2nd edition (published by Marcell Dekker).
The Storage of Architectural Materials at the Syracuse University Library, by Peter Verheyen, Carolyn Davis, and Debra Olson, has been published in the Book and Paper Group Annual of the American Institute for Conservation. The article introduces the issues surrounding the storage of architectural materials in the SCRCs collections and describes the idea behind and the construction of the tube storage system which was initially developed for the Werner Seligmann Collection. This system has since been expanded to include over 1060 tubes. During the SCRCs closure week, 1 89 units of materials totaling several thousand renderings and plans from the Breuer and Belluschi collections were returned to Hawkins (remote storage) and placed in these tubes as part of a systematic effort to re-house architectural materials to improve preservation and access. The article can also be read at http://libwww.syr.edu/information/spcollections/conservation/Seligmann .
Peter Verheyen, SCRC, was a joint winner of the Harmatan Leather Award for forwarding in the cased binding category of the 2003 competition of the Society of Bookbinders. The work was exhibited in Bath, United Kingdom and at the National Library of Wales. The exhibit and book can be seen by following the Cased Binding link at http://www.societyofbookbinders.com/events/competition/com petition_2003/comp_2003.html .
Harriet Sonne de Torrens, head of the Fine Arts Department, was awarded the 2004 Leonard E. Boyle Dissertation prize by the Canadian Society of Medievalists for her doctoral dissertation in medieval studies, De Fontibus Salvatoris: An Iconographical Analysis of the Childhood of Christ on Scandinavian Baptismal Fonts (University of Copenhagen, 2003).
In early February, librarians at Syracuse University, Tasha Cooper, Nancy Turner, Pam Thomas and Michael Pasqualoni were interviewed by National Public Radio affiliate - radio station WAER-Jazz-88 regarding a Peer to Peer Library Dialog program they helped moderate, entitled: Clash of Library Civilizations: Online Portals Challenge the Catalog.
Presentations/Publications:
Laura Cohen published "Issues in URL Management for Digital Collections" in Information Technology and Libraries, v.23 no.2, June 2004, p 42-49. She also published "The URL Clearinghouse Offers Vendor URLs" in Against the Grain, v.16 no. 3, June 2004, p. 91. In addition, Laura gave a presentation with two colleagues at the ALA Annual Convention in Orlando on "ScratchPad: A Quality Management System for Library Web Sites." This was part of a program that she organized, "Content Management Systems for Library Web Sites," that included a team from Indiana University, Bloomington. During the convention, Laura was elected Co-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Internet Resources Interest Group of LITA. LITA has appointed her to its Web Coordinating Committee and also the editorial board of Information Technology and Libraries.
Cathy Dwyer's article "The U.S. Presidency and National Security Directives: An Overview" was published in volume 29 issue 6 of the Journal of Government Information.
Trudi Jacobson presented at ALA Orlando, as part of the Instruction Section's panel program, "The Price of Success: Affording Information Literacy in an Uncertain Academic Economy." Trudi Jacobson's new book, Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes (co-authored by Lijuan Xu), was published this summer by Neal-Schuman. She also had a chapter, "Meeting Information Literacy Needs in a Research Setting" in the recently published Integrating Information Literacy into the Higher Education Curriculum, edited by Ilene F. Rockman and published by Jossey-Bass. Trudi Jacobson wrote a chapter, "Meeting Information Literacy Needs in a Research Setting" in the recently published Integrating Information Literacy into the Higher Education Curriculum, edited by Ilene F. Rockman and published by Jossey-Bass.
New Hires:
Jennifer Casabonne has been hired as a part-time reference librarian for the coming year. Jen comes to us from the Development Office at the University at Albany, and has also worked as a reference librarian at the East Greenbush Public Library.
Kirsten Kite has been hired to teach one section of UNL 205 during each quarter of the 2004-2005 academic year. Kirsten had been working at the libraries at the Sage Colleges.